How Does "Manifesting Your Dreams" Really Work?

Happy Belated New Year! I am so excited for 2020 and have been doing a lot of planning, dreaming, prioritizing, and learning. Planning your goals for the year and thinking about all the awesome things you want to accomplish can give you the positive mindset and energy boost you need to start moving toward your dreams this year. As you begin to work toward your goals, you’ll quickly find it’s important to consume content that keeps you on track and avoid content that derails your progress. With that in mind, I’d like to point out some misinformation I’ve been seeing on social media when it comes to goal setting.

To ring in the new year, many popular lifestyle vloggers have been sharing their goals for 2020, as well as taking a look back at their accomplishments of 2019. Some will teach you how to make a vision board. Some will teach you how to plan in a bullet journal. And some will teach you how to set goals. If you watch these videos for any length of time, you’ll no doubt hear the word “manifest,” which is the reason I’m writing to you today.

This word is being overused and misused, and it’s causing a lot of confusion about what it actually takes to achieve goals.

What “Manifesting” Is NOT

Anyone who has set a goal and accomplished it will tell you that they put in a lot of hard work to make it happen. And that’s what’s missing from all these messages on social media – work! So many of the goal-setting videos out there on YouTube lead you to believe that all it takes to get something you want is simply writing it down in a journal or pasting a photo of it to your vision board. And then by some kind of magic, the universe will sense your positive vibes and suddenly the things you want will conveniently appear within one calendar year. Here’s the truth: The simple act of deciding what you want will not get you what you want.

So what about the people who did it? They have proof! At the beginning of 2019 they made a vision board and by the end of 2019 they had experienced all the things on it!

Yes, every year, many people are successful in “manifesting” the dreams on their vision boards. But take a closer look at the actual items on their list. Here’s an example of some things you might see: travel to Japan, redecorate apartment, practice yoga and meditation, reach 10,000 subscribers, attend a music festival. Could it be that this vision board is simply a list of things this person has ALREADY planned to do this year? It’s great to have goals and plans for the year. In fact, I encourage you to do so! But I want you to realize that’s all [some of] these vloggers are doing! They don’t have some exclusive connection with the universe. There’s no element of surprise as if this were some sort of experiment to see if vision boarding is the secret to getting anything you want. They’re people just like you. They made a plan and followed through on it.

I invite you to think critically about the content that comes your way because your time is valuable and shouldn’t be spent on false hope and ineffective practices.

What “Manifesting” IS

I’m not crazy about the word “manifesting” because of the connotations we just discussed, but in its correct usage, I’d say manifesting means “making it happen.” No matter what your goal is, making it happen takes the right mindset and the right habits.

Getting in the right mindset can take many different forms including visualizing your goal, creating positive affirmations, listening to a motivational podcast, and even making a vision board! I have personally been listening to a lot of Mel Robbins lately, to stay motivated. Mel is a life coach, author, and television host who I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to make positive change in their life. Link below to her FREE program –Best Decade Ever – about learning how to discover and pursue your dreams.

www.melrobbins.com/bestdecade

And the second part of achieving your goals is taking action! From a distance, we only see the results of goal setting – the family with the perfect house, the #girlboss with free time and designer handbags, the coworker who met his weight loss goal, etc. But what you may not see as you watch others “manifesting” their dreams is all the hard work it takes to get there.

Stating your goals and thinking positively is the FIRST step but not the ONLY step to reaching your goals.

I challenge you to do the work to manifest your dreams. What have you been thinking about for years but not doing? Make a list of action steps. Be specific about what you want to achieve. Reach out to someone and ask questions. Set an alarm to reinforce a new habit. Tell a friend about your dreams. Save the money. Decide to start.

I would love to hear your goals and dreams for 2020! What are you working toward this year? Leave a comment below!