Manifest Destiny's Child

Manifesting .VS. Achieving

This morning as I got ready, I listened to Leena Norm’s newest video, Lies About Manifesting You’re Told In Your Twenties, and it cemented something that I had already lightly suspected. Manifesting is only worth as much as you are. We can put designer bags that we see in every magazine on vision boards, but we will only actually obtain them if you work hard, make enough money, establish the right connection with a store, and luck into being offered one. *Cough Cough* looking at you, Hermes.?

It’s a sick mix of drive and luck–something that throughout years we’ve chalked up to different things; prayer, wishes, goal-setting, and manifestation. Just because you write something down or say it three times before you go to sleep, the chances of it happening are not increased–however, the act of focusing your attention and energy on that thing does help increase it. Confusing, no? Not really, when you think about it. It’s all in the follow through. Writing something down once and forgetting about it won’t help you channel your intentions towards it, but actively looking at where it’s written down and thinking about it daily will imbed it in your mind, and if something is in your mind’s eye, you automatically guide yourself towards it.

If you want to start scheduling more meetings, you need to work towards that. Write down how many you want to schedule, and then do the numbers. Out of how many people that you reach out to, how many even want to talk to you? Out of that, how many will actually get on your calendar? It’s a numbers game once you set the intention–how many times you’ll need to do something, how long it’ll take, and how much trial and error there is along the way. The manifestation comes with you making sure that you’re focused on the outcome. Those emails sitting unsent in your mailbox won't make any impact on your outcome--only the ones that are sent will.

Leena’s video routed me to Ali Abdaal’s theory on maximizing the surface area of your luck–something that I had never had the words for, but subscribe to wholeheartedly. The sum of it is that if you never give yourself the opportunities to run into various chances and changes, how on earth will you ever run into them? You have to put yourself into as many new places and situations as you can–combined with purposeful placements to align with your goals, that’s how you manifest luck in your life. The more new things you learn, the more likely you are to find a hobby you’ll fall in love with. The more places you go to solo and conversations you strike up with strangers, the more likely you are to find an unlikely friend.

You can’t just sit in your room daydreaming about the life you could be living, writing down lists of your hypothetical goals. You have to put those goals in your pocket, get some cash from the ATM, and get out there. I've always frequented events solo--from the time I got my licence I'd take myself to concerts, and more recently I've started to play patron to the Burlesque scene of Philly. People are always shocked to learn I've gone out alone, afraid that they'd be bored or scared on their own. To that I say, I'm going to my first ever dance class tomorrow night. Alone. I'll be entertained enough by myself, and I'll learn something new along the way. Who knows where it'll take me!