The Truth About “Manifesting”

Can I share something with you that really bothers me? In the spiritual and self-help world, there’s a lot of talk about “manifesting.” And maybe you’ve fallen for the trap. Maybe you’ve found yourself trying some positive thinking or making a vision board. Perhaps you’ve signed up for the hypnosis or meditation courses that will allow you to reprogram subconscious negative beliefs, in the hopes that this will make you more magnetic and help you attract the life you want. 

This idea of manifesting is misleading you. The problem with “manifesting” is that people begin to believe that doing this kind of inner work is enough to replace action, when it’s not. 

If you think you can create a vision board and continue to burn out at your nine-to-five while you aim to “manifest” your dream life, you’re wrong. It doesn’t work like that. I’ve seen friends and clients fall for the trap and feel like if their dream house hasn’t magically appeared by now, they must have some unresolved issue deep down inside they haven’t look at. No one likes to talk about the in-between steps to get to our dreams, the messy prototypes and the awkward phases. Too many people like to buy into the idea that our dreams can land in our laps fully formed if we do the inner work and that there is some secret code to it being effortless.

So what’s the truth?

You have to take action. A lot of it. You have to create the circumstances for your luck. You have to exert real effort and grit on the physical plane. You must also develop the tactical skills, accountability, and mentorship that help you manifest the life you want. You need a combination of all these things, it’s not just inner work.

If you want to talk about manifesting, there’s no other place to look than in the world of design. Designers literally take ideas and translate them into products, services, events, you name it. Design thinking gives us a method for taking action, which is why I’m so passionate about supporting my clients, especially those with good girl mentality, in learning the process of prototyping and testing, and engaging with the world in order to find their creative purpose .

At the end of the day, we need to broaden the conversation of manifestation. Life is not simply magically “manifested,” it’s designed through a combination of re-patterning subconscious, negative beliefs (shadow work) and taking skillful, deliberate action in the direction you want. If anyone is selling you the idea that one of these two elements is enough to get you where you want to go, please do me a favor, and beware. You really need both.

OK, so real talk. Are you doing both the inner and outer work or have you found yourself favoring one over the other? I’m super curious so please reply and let me know. I want to hear from you! Let’s connect.