You’ve probably heard the word “manifest” more than you can count because that concept is probably embedded in a lot of things we consume through the internet, from YouTube videos to Instagram life-inspo advice to blog posts on Pinterest. I’m not going to lie, but manifesting is sometimes construed to be more complicated than it really is through these things because it can be a long-drawn process to getting it right. To “manifest” your dream life simply means to make those dreams appear in your life.
You’ve probably thought of it as just envisioning something and then letting it come to you. While that can be the case, achieving your dreams in life is not going to be that easy and quick because it takes effort, time, and discipline.
“If you can’t stop thinking about it, don’t stop working for it.”
Michael Jordan
I’ve manifested many of my dreams.
Why? Because I’ve used manifesting into my life before I even knew what the heck that was. I’m going to talk about a few examples of what I manifested throughout my years.
You see, if you look back at my older posts I’ve talked about how I was ending college and thought it was time to make a new place my home and it DID happen. In fact, I got specific and I always dreamt of moving to the west coast since I was 7 years old. I wanted to graduate college and was so determined… that happened too. I’ve also been wanting to go to Iceland since 2017 and I finally got to make it happen in 2021. I’ve always wanted to make money on my blog, which happened in late 2020. I’ve always wanted to go to national parks before I even discovered what those are.
I always wanted to heal from some of my heartbreaks and the trauma it left, which I was able to overcome, and really dived into learning to be single while holding out for the right one eventually. I always wanted to own a car when I moved to a new state, and I was able to buy one using the tax refunds I got from my marketing job that I worked in from my old home state and I paid half of that off within a little more than a year.
Now here’s a big one. I always wanted to attract the person I would have loved to be with and that was to be: A smart, independent, authentic, healthy, spiritual person who can love nature and really love themselves and the world around them. And since I never got around to manifesting that yet, I did become this exact person instead. So, in a way, I did. 😉 Sometimes, that’s just how the cookie crumbles.
And you too can manifest them.
I wrote down 10 ways on how you too can manifest your dream life. I feel like I’ve made my own dream life happen because I worked so hard to get here, and I never stopped recognizing what those dreams are. I really just want to inspire so many people through my blog and I know life can be so tough and full of circumstances, but you can still make what seems the “impossible” be possible.
It’s always “easier said than done”, but as you continue to read these steps, you’ll also see how important it is to take inspired action and to take those risks!
1. Get clear about what those dreams are.
What exactly are those dreams? Do you feel like those dreams will change your life for the better? Do you want to risk some investments to put into making a business of your own or do you want to move to a new place? Do you want to pursue a new career or try a new hobby? Did you always want to write and publish a book? Do you want to meet the love of your life or be the kind of person you aspire to be? Whatever it is, WRITE it down. In your journal or on sticky notes on your bulletin cork board (I did this). Make a vision board. Take mental notes of what those dreams are. Go to your Pinterest and make a board and start pinning the components that will go towards that dream.
2. Set specific goals for how to reach your dreams.
Now that you know what those dreams you want to achieve, you’ve got to be specific about them. Do you have to save a certain amount of money to get to that? Do you want to get some of those positive benefits from trying to reach for these dreams? Write down what specific goals need to be reached to have this overall dream and also write down what specific actions must be done.
3. Have an uplifting, positive attitude and excitement towards those dreams.
Your attitude in things really does make a difference in how you feel towards them and that shows to others how serious you are towards something. You need to hype yourself up how exciting it will be to finally make your dreams happen, so start letting the ideas of it make you happy daily.
There’s a difference between “getting your hopes up” and being excited just because it brings positivity to your day; When getting your hopes up, you have high expectations that it will have a high chance or a guarantee of happening, and that can lead to disappointment, but when you’re excited because you’re just working towards a dream, you can become more positive as a person and that positivity will affect everything else in your life to become more positive.
4. Be intentional about your dreams and know what sacrifices need to be made.
By being intentional, you must strive to work towards it through actions. Technically, you won’t get much anywhere without taking moves. Figure out a game plan for what kind of actions you’d need to take. Along with achieving a dream, you may need to make some sacrifices. For example, I always want to travel so I’ve been setting some sacrifices for myself to get to do that.
You may also need to take some or a lot of time by yourself to work on your goals, so that means saying “no” to certain plans or to other opportunities. For example, I get a lot of emails from companies who want to work with me on sponsorships, but I’m super picky about who I work with and I prefer to work for money compensation, and not just get a free product.
5. Check back on what those dreams are and remember your “why”.
When life gets super busy with a lot of responsibilities (work wise, family obligations, other things that need your attention, etc.), we might get distracted and lose focus on what our dream goals were. It’s important to always check back at what those are with what you wrote/created as a vision board.
And remember to always remember your “why” like why are you so focused on making this dream happen one day for you? Why do you feel this is a path towards happiness vs. another path? Why are you doing all these little and big actions? That “why” will be your biggest motivation, especially if you can answer it for yourself.
6. Don’t put a specific time when, where, and how it’ll happen.
This is a very important thing to keep in mind when manifesting for your dream life. Notice that I didn’t say to write your goals with a specific time frame because let’s be real, most of your manifestations might not even happen at the time you hoped for because this has happened to most of mine.
This is a dream you want to achieve, not a marketing goal you have to meet with specific deadlines to get X amount of sales or impressions. (I work in marketing so I wanted to reference that as an example because it’s easy to see setting dream goals as a business equation.)
There could be a chance it could, but it’s much better to not tie a time frame to those goals because it just adds unnecessary pressure (= unnecessary stress). Just trust yourself and the universe that your dreams could happen when the universe feels it’s the right time. You also don’t want to think about how it could happen or how your dreams might present itself because I know for me, as I looked back at how I made some of my manifestations happen, it was nothing like I pictured it to be like. I loved being surprised yet knowing my dreams have been achieved!
7. Understand what your fears and limiting beliefs are and how to combat them.
Your fears and limiting beliefs could bring you down and make you feel pointless in why you’re doing things to go after these dreams. You need to identify what those things are because you can re-evaluate how to cope with those feelings. Sometimes, things go down before they can go up, so it’s okay to sit uncomfortable with those valid feelings, but don’t let it consume you and then allow it for you to not take action anymore. You need to actually dodge what those feelings are because they will hold you back and you don’t want to regret anything. In order to achieve your dreams, you must take a few risks.
8. Feel that you are already living your dreams.
You know that feeling when you know you’ve achieved something so magnificient that you can’t believe it’s real? It’s a beautiful feeling and I know you’d love to have those feelings. So in order to manifest your dream life, you must already feel like it’s happened. And I know you’re probably logical and realistic (I am too) and think this is probably ridiculous to feel like you have your dream life when you feel so far from achieving it, but it’s going to lessen the doubts, the fears, and limiting beliefs.
When you feel like you’re already living your dreams, you are raising your vibration and frequency to be higher too. That will help you meet the right people at the right timing to be closer to meeting those goals because “like attracts like”.
Let’s say you want to meet the love of your life, and you believe that you already have the person (even though you don’t) and by doing so, you keep your home clean and organized so you can envision how your person will want to see your home before they ever come over to visit and how you want to be more financially stable to be able to go on amazing dates with them so you work hard to save. The imaginations/visions can go on, but basically doing these little things of feeling like your dreams were achieved will also help you to become a healthier and reliable person in order to maintain those feelings AND actions.
9. Set boundaries.
As I wrote for #4, I mentioned how you must make some sacrifices sometimes to achieve your dream life. Setting boundaries such as learning to say “no” to certain people and opportunities is okay to do because time is precious! You can also set boundaries by knowing when to speak up to someone who may get in the way of your dreams. For example, you work a 9-5 job and you feel like it’s taken up a lot of your time and causes you a lot of stress and all you want to do is travel somewhere for a bit, but the issue is you don’t get much days off; Therefore, you want to talk to your employer if there are any possibilities to get some days off and let them know why you deserve it.
Setting boundaries is also not letting yourself be underpaid. I’ve told my example of how I am picky with what sponsorship I want to work with because most companies are not willing to pay me for my work in exchange for cash. Therefore, I must turn down these offers because they’re not meeting my needs.
I’ve done it numerous times where I know I’ve been underpaid for so long, and it’s time to step up to the plate and not continue to accept whatever just because it’s something. Hold out for things that are of value and I promise you, your dreams will get closer in achieving.
In addition to this, you need to set boundaries and see who you are hanging out with or how you’re spending your time. In order to get to your dream life, you need to reassess if the people you’re hanging out with actually have some quality values they can bring to your life and not let you down.
You also want to be careful with how that time is spent, for example, if you’re drinking around and partying too much, which I guarantee you most of the time it can be a time waster (lessons learned when I used to drink) and not bring you anything long-term, then quit those things. Plus, who said having a hangover is ever fun? You may just spend more time in your bed recovering from a hangover then getting up and working towards your dreams!
Once you’ve actually done all you can to achieve the beautiful dream life you’ve always wanted, it’s going to feel like such a blessing! I recommend you share about what those dreams are, on social media, in conversations with friends and colleagues and family, or in your own work, whatever that is. I do so on my blog and on social media.
This will help inspire people who are looking to go the same route you did to get to your dreams and help clarify questions of others who want this dream too, and I promise you, it is such a good feeling when you can change the lives of others! For example, I know I change lives by writing guides about my adventures by helping people get out there, solo or with friends/family, and to create lifelong memories through these outdoor and travel adventures.
And once those dreams have been met, you may feel like you want to embark on your next dream after another dream, and you’ll have to cycle back to the steps I wrote here.
Have you taken any of these steps to manifest your dream life? If so, which ones and what was your dream?
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