Are You Manifesting Your Dreams Yet!?
Who out there has seen Harry Potter? In the first movie Harry encounters the Mirror of Erised, an enchanted mirror that shows whoever is looking in it their very deepest desires – it shows them what their life would look like if all of their dreams were to come true! Headmaster Dumbledore hid the mirror because people would waste their lives away wishing and dreaming about the life they wanted to live and forget to go out there and actually live it.
I have a point, your Honor! I promise.
We all have hopes and dreams for our lives, but I think that we often get held back from reaching our full potential because we are too abstract about what we want. We create this image in our mind of what we want life to be like, but don’t have a clear pathway for getting there.
So, today, I want to talk about manifestation. How to envision the life of your dreams, but more importantly, how to go out there and snatch it!
Step one: Decide what you want your life to feel like and what will get you there
Instead of thinking about the material things that you want in life, start by thinking about how you want to wake up and feel every day. Oftentimes the things that we think will make us happy don’t actually make a huge difference in the quality of our life. The expensive car, big house, and stacked bank account sound wonderful, but they won’t mean much if you don’t feel really fulfilled on the inside!
So, the first step in manifesting what you want out of life is to decide on the things, people, and experiences that you need in your life to get to your ultimate destination. When you look at it this way the car, house, and money will be the results of your manifestation – just bonuses that you’ve picked up along the way to the life of your dreams.
Make sure you’re picturing exactly what you want and not focusing on what you don’t want. If you’re constantly telling the universe that you don’t want to stress about money, you don’t want to work at the same job, or you don’t want to have a bad relationship, you’re inadvertently spreading negativity and welcoming more of it into your life!
Instead, manifest enough money to live comfortably, a new job, and a healthy relationship. Keeping those positive end goals in mind will help you get out of that negative feedback loop that you may feel stuck in.
Step two: Create a vision board
Manifesting is all about visualizing your goals as reality. Creating a vision board is an excellent (and fun) way to do that! I am really in awe when I look back on everything that I manifested last year.
Here are 3 simple steps for creating your vision board:
Be very clear and specific about what you want to manifest. Common vision board themes are health, wealth, faith, family, love, and career.
Search Pinterest and Google Images for images that represent the aspects of each specific goal that you are ready to welcome into your life.
Upload the images to PicCollage (or something similar) and boom! You’ve got your vision board!
I like to save my vision board as the background on my phone and computer so I can check in with it every day. It’s also a great idea to share your vision board with an accountability partner so they can help keep you on track. You know what they say, “Nothing works unless you do!”
Step three: Set goals and make a plan
One you have a clear picture of what you want your life to feel like, you can start making a plan for getting there. Having goals is on your horizon is a wonderful practice, but unfortunately, they’re nearly unattainable without a real plan.
In other words, don’t get stuck in “daydream mode” where you’re picturing the life you want to live without making any action to get there. “It does not do to dwell on dreams, Harry, and forget to live,” is what Dumbledore told Harry Potter when he stumbled upon the Mirror of Erised.
After you’ve created your vision board, break up different parts of your vision into clear-cut SMART goals:
Specific – Decide exactly what you want. If you want a new job, what kind of new job do you want?
Measurable – Have methods of tracking your success
Achievable – I’m all about visions of grandeur, but we have to make sure the goals you want to achieve are realistic
Relevant – Is now the right time and place to start working toward a certain goal?
Time-sensitive – Give your goals a time frame. This will help you start working on them NOW instead of “someday”
Step Four: Manifest
Arrange your goals in order of importance and focus on ONE step of that goal at a time. Picture yourself taking that step, ask the universe for what you need, and really let it fill you up. Don’t allow any doubt or negative thoughts creep in. Speak the accomplishment of the step into existence! You might just find that the universe listens to people who step into their divine power.
What manifesting really comes down to is what you believe can or cannot happen. We can choose to believe that some people are luckier than others, or we can choose to believe that we have the power to make our own luck.
Laser-beam focus on your goals and speaking them into existence isn’t exactly magic (although it may feel like it is once it starts to work!), it’s just harnessing everything that you already have inside of you and making it work for you.
We all have the same 24-hours in a day. Me, you, Oprah… all of us! We can either spend hours of our days wishing and hoping for the life that we want to live, or we can demand it from the universe and ourselves.
Here’s one more quote before I send you off to manifest the life of your dreams:
"You are responsible for your life. If you're sitting around waiting on somebody to save you, to fix you, to even help you, you are wasting your time. Only you have the power to move your life forward." -Oprah