5 Steps to Manifest Your Dream Life

What is manifestation? At its simplest, manifestation is the act of becoming conscious of something by repeatedly focusing on it, which can ultimately lead to materializing it in reality. This sounds simple, but in order to manifest your dreams, you need to know the right techniques and strategies. This section will teach you how to do that.

Make sure to check out our podcast episode on manifestation today.

EPISODE 3 - Manifestation-You Gotta Do The Work

Step #1 – Believe

First things first. Since manifestation requires the ability to focus on, and believe in, your intentions—you first need to believe in yourself! You will not be able to manifest your dreams if you are going through life with doubt and behaviors of self-sabotage. This is very important since manifesting is about letting yourself explore the world of possibilities. So, if you are doubting your current life that you can see, touch, and feel every day, how are you really going to believe in all the possibilities that you can’t experience with your senses? Before moving on to the next steps, commit to getting out of your own way, pushing through any doubt and self-sabotage, and learning to believe in yourself.

Struggling to believe in manifestation? Check out the below sites for some rationale behind manifesting.

Manifestation: The Real Deal (Psychology Today)

Manifestation: Definition, Meaning, and How to Do It (Berkeley Well-Being Institute)

Step #2 – Visualize

A common mistake that people make when trying to manifest is that they visualize what they are trying to do, and also focus their conscious mind on how they are going to attain that goal. So what’s wrong with that? Well, remember the world of possibilities we mentioned in step #1? The problem is that when you focus on the process of attaining your goal and try to figure out the answer, your world of possibilities are being severely limited by your conscious mind. This makes sense if we think about it, since if we could figure out how to attain what we are trying to manifest, we would probably already have it right?

So how should we visualize in order to manifest? The key is that you need to visualize yourself already having what you are trying to manifest! And when you do this, it’s key to try to engage as many senses and details as possible in your visualization to increase the realism for your brain (touch, smells, etc.). This works because your brain is uncomfortable when your thoughts are not aligned with your reality, so your brain will subconsciously change you in order to make your physical reality match the reality you are visualizing.

Step #3 – Act As-If

Related to step #2, visualization, this next step is about acting in a certain focused way and pretending that you already have what you are trying to manifest. This can be very powerful and can help you develop a deeper belief in what you’re trying to manifest. This is because the more time and effort we put into pretending like something is true, the more likely our brains are to actually believe that thing is true, which can then manifest into reality.

An example from our experience is regarding our dream to live a mobile life around the world as digital nomads. The first step for us was to move our jobs remote, but this was difficult for my profession and it was hard to see how it would happen. So what did we do? We acted as if I already had the remote job and fully set up our home for remote work. I’m talking a desk setup for me… all the works. I wasn’t sure at first, but ultimately acting as if we already lived like this kept my conscious and subconscious minds focused on our goal, and a year later I made the move toward our dream.

Step #4 – Release Indecision & Doubt

So now you’ve worked to believe in yourself, visualize your goal, and have made changes in your life to act as if you already have what you’re trying to manifest. It might seem like the “hard part” is finished, but as you put forth effort and don’t see results immediately, it is common to start feeling demotivated and give up on the process. The final step, therefore, is to release any doubts and uncertainty that will prevent you from having the staying power necessary to really bring your vision into reality.

Step #5 – Create a Plan for Action

While the big, traditional, manifestation steps have been covered in steps 1-4, here at Create New Patterns we are strong believers in the power of plans of action. Why is that? Well, it’s really easy for us all to slip into an ambiguous phase of working toward something that tends to linger forever without coming into reality.

The basic steps for this plan include:

Define your desired outcome or goal.
Write down how you will measure success.
What tough decisions or changes are you willing to do to reach this goal
When will you take actions that are clear to you?

So in our mobile example above, our plan looked like this:

Live a mobile life traveling around the world.
Dalila and I will both be working 100% remote in a foreign country.
Willing to: quit my job, get rid of possessions, take a pay cut.
Will resign from my job in December 2021 and start searching for remote work.

Remember, in the end a plan for action means you are committing to improving your life—but it doesn't happen overnight. It takes time, dedication, and patience. But the journey is so worth it!

Curious about manifestation? Make sure to check out our episode Manifestation: You Gotta do the Work today.