What is Manifestation? Explained for Beginners
Boy, has the interest in manifesting just skyrocketed. There’s a lot of you that are confusing wishing for something with manifesting, okay? They’re the opposite ends of the spectrum. When you hope for things, when you wish for things, you are handing the power to somebody else or to outside forces. You are literally giving away your power because hoping and wishing just inherently assumes that somebody else is somehow going to come in and solve the problem. We all know that that’s not happening. The thing that’s super important for you to get as a major takeaway from this post..
The Manifestation Boom
Do you know that there has been a 700% increase in Google searches for manifestation and manifesting techniques just this year alone? So if you’re brand new to manifesting, you are in the right place because I’m going to unpack the basics for you. I’m going to help you understand this and, more importantly, I’m going to empower you to put this to use in your life to help you get what you want.
And if you’ve been trying to manifest for a while now and it’s not working, this is also an exceptionally awesome post for you to read because it is probably going to reveal some of the mistakes you’ve been making.
So let’s just jump into it. Here’s what we’re going to cover in this post: First of all, I’m going to give you a definition for manifesting that’s going to clear a lot of stuff up. Next, I’m going to talk about what it is for real based on science, what it can help you do, and what it isn’t—how manifesting is very different than dreaming, hoping, wishing, and wanting. Okay? Then, what we’re going to do is we’re going to talk about why this is a skill that you need.
I’m going to tell you a story about how some of the top-performing athletes in the world at the highest level—Olympic levels—are using the science of manifestation to get what they want when it comes to performing at their top level.
You’re going to feel so excited, so empowered, because you’re going to know what manifesting is, you’re going to understand why you need it, and you are also going to be equipped to get started using it.
Defining Manifesting: It’s Not Just Thinking Thoughts
All right, so let’s start with the definition of manifesting. What the heck is manifesting, Well, let me tell you what manifesting isn’t, okay? Manifesting is not thinking thoughts and then hoping that they come true. Thoughts become things only when your thoughts inspire you to take the actions to get those things. That’s where manifesting comes in. Manifesting is preparing your mind, body, and spirit to help you take the actions to get those things.
That’s right, I’m going to say that again. Manifesting is like training for getting what you want. Manifesting is socializing your mind, preparing your mind, rehearsing your mind to help you take the steps before you take the steps so that you can get what you want.
When you use manifesting properly, what you do is you remove the obstacles of self-doubt, of resistance, of being cautious, of focusing on tiny minutia, of feeling blank and overwhelmed. You remove all that crap, and you retrain your mind, and you retrain your nervous system, and you retrain your spirit to help you get the things that you want in life. And when you manifest properly, what it does is it inspires you to take the actions that lead you to what you want.
Now that sounds like a lot of like, “Okay,what does that actually mean?” What it means is this: Manifesting is going to help you see, feel, and act your way toward the things that you want. That’s what it does. It’s so freaking cool.
Wishing vs. Manifesting: The Core Difference
Now let me tell you the difference between manifesting according to science and wishing, wanting, hoping, dreaming. Let’s focus on sort of wishing. There’s a lot of you that are confusing wishing for something with manifesting, okay? They’re the opposite ends of the spectrum. And so before I kind of explain the two, let me just give you an example so that we can use the example to compare and to contrast, okay?
One big goal and dream that a lot of people have is financial freedom. The ability to take your kids to Disney World, the ability to buy what you want, the ability to put enough money away so that you don’t have to worry about money, the ability to buy the things that you need to go on the trips that you want. Financial freedom is something that you deserve in your life. It’s something that you can do the work to achieve in your life.
And so let’s talk about the goal of financial freedom and the difference between wishing for financial freedom and hoping and dreaming about it versus manifesting and doing the work to go get it.
We were talking about financial freedom, which is a goal that so many people have, right? And what’s the difference between you wanting and wishing for financial freedom and you manifesting it and using manifestation and the science of it to help you get it?
The big difference between wishing for something and using manifesting to help you do the work to go get it is that when you wish that you were financially free… have you ever noticed that the second that you wish for something like, “You know, I wish I would win the lottery,” you’re also present at the same time to the fact that you’re lacking money right now? Like, wishing that you would win the lottery, it doesn’t bring up all of these sort of like empowering feelings. What it does is it reminds you that you’re so broke that you need to win the lottery.
And that’s very different than manifesting. Manifesting is declaring what you want: “I am committed to creating financial freedom in my life.” And then once you declare what you want, manifesting is about the actions and empowering yourself to go get it.
And there’s a really big difference between focusing on you know, and wishing for something which only reminds you that you’re lacking it. You know, “Oh, I wish I would meet somebody”—that just makes you feel more alone. “I wish I could get in shape”—that just makes you feel more out of shape. “I wish I could win the lottery”—that just makes you feel poorer. “I wish I didn’t have to work for this jerk”—that just makes you feel more stuck.
Do you feel how wishing for something amplifies what you don’t like? Versus: “I’m going to manifest and work for more money in my life.” “I am committed to being in a loving relationship and I’m going to manifest and make it happen.” “I deserve to have a career that I love and I’m going to use manifesting to help me get it.” “I want to be in incredible shape. I want to do a handstand in yoga. I want to heal my trauma, and I’m going to use manifesting to help me achieve those things.”
That’s a big difference. Wishing and hoping makes you present to what you don’t have. Manifesting makes you present and feeling empowered about what you want and your ability to go get it.
Locating Your Internal Power
And that highlights the second big difference. When you hope for things, when you wish for things, you are handing the power to somebody else or to outside forces. You are literally giving away your power because hoping and wishing just inherently assumes that somebody else is somehow going to come in and solve the problem. We all know that that’s not happening.
Manifesting, on the other hand, locates and amplifies the power inside of you to do the work to get those things, to do the work to change your life. And it’s important that you locate the power inside of you because you’re the one that’s responsible for your dreams and you’re also the person that’s in the best position to make those dreams a reality. Because you have the ability to change the way that you think. You have the ability to change the actions that you take every single day. And when you change the actions that you take and you change the way that you think, you change your entire life.
And manifesting is a tool that will help you train your brain and train your nervous system and train your mind, body, and spirit to help you achieve the things that you want. The thing that’s super important for you to get as a major takeaway from this post is that thoughts alone won’t achieve the things that you desire. But if you manifest properly, it will inspire you to take action, and action is what will create the results that you deserve and that you want in your life. That’s as simply as I can put it.
The Science of Mental Preparation in Elite Athletes
I want to explain a little bit about the science. I promised you that I was going to quickly tell you a little bit about how some of the world’s most successful athletes are using the science of manifestation in order to win at the Olympics, in order to come back after an injury. You know, the U.S. Olympic team—there’s a big article in the New York Times about this—they hire sports psychologists precisely for mental training.
And what these sports psychologists are doing—there are five of them alone that work with the U.S. snowboarding and ski team—and what they do is they are doing the mental training with athletes before the Olympics to help them prepare to show up at the Olympics and absolutely crush it. And you’re going to do the same thing. You are going to use manifestation to mentally prepare before and while you’re doing the work to achieve your goals and dreams, because when you mentally prepare, you remove all of the obstacles like self-doubt and nerves and anxiety and imposter syndrome and fear that are currently stopping you from taking action.
And so how do you mentally prepare? Well, let me talk to you about the ski team because they do this super cool process that is basically what you do when you manifest. The sports psychologist would sit down with one of the gold medal-winning skiers and snowboarders, particularly after injury. Because if you think about it, somebody that’s been injured during competition, even after they’ve had surgery and they’ve recovered, they‘re going to be nervous about competing again.
And you may feel the same way about going for what you want. You may have faced a bunch of setbacks. You may have faced a bunch of disappointments. You may have faced a bunch of rejection, and so you’re nervous about putting yourself out there. That’s okay. Feeling nervous is normal, but you’re not going to let it stop you. We’re going to use manifestation to train your mind, body, and spirit to be able to do the work. We’re going to rehearse what you need to do in your mind and your body and your spirit so that when it comes time to do it, you feel like you’ve actually already done it, which removes your nerves. It’s so cool.
Putting Yourself at the Scene
So back to the U.S. ski and snowboarding team. The sports psychologists would sit with the athletes and, you know, let’s just say, you know that crazy snowboarding thing where they go off a jump and they do 50 million like hoops and loops and tricks and whatever? That’s like a 10-second jump in the air. And so what the sports psychologist does is they have the snowboarder or the skier describe in detail not the jump, but point A, point B, point C, point D, point E, point F all the way to Z.
“Okay, I‘m getting off the chair lift and I’ve got my snowboard tucked under my right arm, and I’m walking up to the place where everybody’s getting ready. I hear the crunch, crunch, crunch of the snow, and I feel the breeze.” Do you notice I’ve got my eyes closed? I’ve got my eyes closed because I have made manifesting a habit. I do it every single morning. And when I start to manifest, I do something that I used to do as a trial lawyer, and that is put someone at the scene.
Really good trial lawyers are able to put a jury right at a scene right where it happened with such detail that you can smell the cup of coffee on the counter, you can hear the cars passing outside, you can see the bright orange sweater that somebody’s wearing right in your mind. You have the ability with your imagination to put yourself right at the scene. And that’s exactly what these sports psychologists are coaching Olympic athletes to do.
As you’re standing there and the wind is blowing and your hat is on and they’re calling your name, now you’re clipping in, now you’re feeling the excitement in your stomach, now you’re feeling yourself push off, and you feel the momentum kick in and the gravity pull down and the speed increasing, and you feel the liftoff. And you literally mentally rehearse visually and in your body feeling it. And what you’re doing is you are preparing your body to be able to do it.
Here’s a cool fact about your brain: Your brain can’t distinguish between real experiences that you’ve lived and the detailed experiences that you have imagined and felt through manifesting. So we are using your vision, we are using your ability to picture yourself there and feel yourself there as a way to prepare yourself to be there. And as you’re seeing yourself doing all the work, I want you to feel this sense of pride and excitement in order to really imprint the step-by-step by step-by-step training in your mind, body, and spirit.
Finding the Needle in a Haystack
All right, well look, I’m no Olympic athlete, but I am a gold medalist when it comes to the science of manifestation. I used manifesting as a way to help me keep doing the work to find my dream house outside of Boston. This is the story of how I used manifesting to do the work to find a needle in a haystack, which was an antique farmhouse outside.
I luckily, didn’t just learn “thoughts become things.” I learned this “see it, feel it, and you’ll believe it” form of manifesting that you’re learning right now. And here’s what I would do: I would every single day… I knew what I wanted more than anything. I wanted to find an antique farmhouse with a big front porch. I wanted it to be in our budget. I wanted it to have some land. I wanted to get a fixer-upper. I just had this like “This Old House” kind of vision in my mind, right?
And I would sit there and I would think about and I going to open houses. And I would think about seeing house after house. And I would feel the pressure of going to all these open houses and us not finding anything. I could feel myself starting to get discouraged, and then I would feel and see myself that We are really good people, and we have the kind of luck that something magical is going to happen. We are going to find that needle in the haystack, I just know it. If we just keep going to open houses, if we just keep putting it out there that we’re looking for an old farmhouse, a fixer-upper with a big porch on a nice piece of property, we will find it.”
What this kind of manifesting does—where you see yourself pushing through the resignation, you feel yourself believing, you feel yourself doing the work to find that needle in the haystack, to beat the odds, to have something magical happen—is that you start to believe that it’s going to happen. Through manifesting, I literally convinced myself that we would, in fact, find a needle in a haystack.
That I didn’t even need to worry about all the houses that we couldn’t afford that we were seeing. I didn’t even need to worry about the number of places that we would look at that were out of our range. I didn’t even have to worry about how long it was going to take because I knew, because I was aligning myself with what I wanted through proper manifestation, that it would happen. I wasn’t worried about the timeline. I just assumed that if we kept at it, and we kept holding on for that needle in the haystack, amazing old farmhouse, that one day somehow magically the stars would align, we would be in the right place, and we would be rewarded because we had done the work and we had held out hope and we had kept on going. And why do we do those things? Because I had been training myself, preparing myself to do all those things.
Spotting the Opportunity Through the Mess
And I’ll tell you what happened. About a year into looking, in one of the nicest towns outside of Boston, Massachusetts, we got word that there was a ransacked old farmhouse that may be coming on the market. So we drove out that weekend, and we pulled up in front of the house. And I got to tell you, the grass at this house on the front yard was like waist-high. Nobody had mowed this lawn in I don’t know how many years. It looked like a field, for crying out loud, instead of a front lawn.
The paint was all chipped, the house was this like ugly blue color, most of the windows were broken, the only living beings inside the house were the family of raccoons who had taken up residence inside the chimney. The kitchen was so hideous, there was AstroTurf—indoor/outdoor grass—as the flooring in this house.
Now, if I hadn’t been manifesting, if I hadn’t been training my mind, body, and spirit to see, feel, and believe that i would find this needle in a haystack, I would have turned the second we pulled up in front of this thing and said, “Are you kidding me? This dump? First of all, we won’t be able to afford it. Secondly, this dump… what, have we lost it? It’s not even on the market. Some developer is going to swoop in here in this neighborhood and pay three times what we can. There is no way we are going to get this.” That’s what would have happened if I hadn’t been manifesting, because the biggest obstacle to what you want is always your own self-doubt, your own excuses, your own fears, and your own stories.
Because I had been manifesting what it looked like and felt like to align my body and spirit with getting what I want, I stayed open that this could be that needle in the haystack. We got out of the car, we met with the owner. It turns out the house wasn’t on the market yet. The family was figuring out what to do because the man who had owned it had just died incapacitated in a nursing home. None of the adult kids wanted the house, and what did they want for the house more than anything? This dilapidated old farmhouse that they had all grown up in, they wanted a young couple who was starting a family to raise their family in it.
Well, the long and the short of it is that ugly old farmhouse with the broken windows and the raccoons inside and the indoor/outdoor grass turf for carpeting in the kitchen was that needle in the haystack. Chris and I bought it from the family before it ever came on the market, and we spent the first two years, honest to god, indoor camping inside of it. We didn’t have a kitchen; we had a Coleman two-burner camping stove. We did most of the renovations ourselves, which meant bringing the knob-and-tube wiring up to code, slapping on a coat of paint, and bringing everything up to a point where it would be safe.
And we have lived in this farmhouse and raised our family in it for the past 24 years. There is no way that I would have even gotten out of the car without having been manifesting for eight months prior to finding that farmhouse with the big wrapped porch on a great piece of property right outside of Boston. It was seeing it, feeling it in my mind, body, and spirit that made my mind believe that it was possible. And when you believe that something is possible, you will do the work and you will stay open to all of the amazing possibilities that come into your life to make it happen. And here we are, almost 25 years later, sitting here filming in that very house.
Take Action and Avoid the Pitfalls
So there you have it. I promised you that this would be a that would be perfect if you’re brand new to manifesting, or if you’ve been manifesting for a while but it hasn’t been working. I hope that now that you know the real definition and the real purpose of manifesting—when you manifest using science and you manifest as a way to train and prepare your mind, body, and spirit to do the work to help you get what you want—I hope you now feel empowered and inspired to stop wishing and hoping for the things that you want in life and that you use manifesting to prepare yourself and inspire yourself to go take the action to make them a reality.