Manifesting Your Dream Career
WHAT IS MANIFESTING?
Manifesting is the conscious use of your awareness to intentionally create the life that you desire. Do you want community? Connection? To be rich and famous? To be able to never work? A farm? The options of what individuals want in this life are endless and unique. If you are reading this you most likely are wanting to manifest your dream career in possibly creativity and entrepreneurship. But regardless of what you desire, just know these strategies work for anything, at least realistic in our world (probably not being able to live forever or poof up a magical unicorn into the physical realm.) in psychology, manifesting is the act of turning an idea into reality using thought practices. We all have neural pathways in our brains that allow us to manipulate with the act of consistent thought patterns, but we will dive more into what that really means later on. Everyone is capable of manifesting their dream life.
examples of Limiting beleifs we tend to hold onto that prevent manifestation:
I am not talented enough and not worthy of success
A lot of times we find ourselves experiencing “imposter syndrome” which is the feeling of not belonging or feel as if we didn’t deserve our success. We almost feel like a phony or fraud despite success and achievements. This is very common luckily, we as humans all live in our little areas in our brains that no one can see but you, meaning vis versa we do not know what is going on in others minds making us feel outside. after being 14 episodes deep into my podcast and bringing other creatives on to connect with, I’ve noticed a trend, no matter how talented and successful they are, they too experience imposter syndrome. This has been sad and comforting to see. We are all in this together, but we do need to learn to drop this belief because it is only limiting you.
There are a lot of possible causes that lead to this feeling, however its quite a popular phenomenon. Growing up with overprotective and controlling parents or parents that provide low amount of support is a leading factor. Social anxiety and personality may also lead to a feeling of not belonging, sometimes it takes talking with others to see you are not alone and receive the validation along with it, although, true validation come from within your soul. These are just some examples, but the answers you need will come to you with shadow work.
I don’t have the time nor resources
If you want it bad enough you will find time and resources can start small. Sacrifices are often made whether in time or recourses. We only have limited amount of time in a day, in a week, in a year and so on. so this is where prioritizing your time becomes important. Take the time to figure out how you are spending your time. How much time do you scroll through social media or watching tv or allowing your cat to distract you. Maybe you are working two jobs and going to school, maybe you are a parent. These are all good things to look into. Limit screen time, set a timer when allowing pets or people at home distract you. Maybe your sleep schedule needs an adjustment that would enable you to take a short amount of time each day to bring practice and set your intentions. This will look different for whatever your intention is, but for example, as an artist, waking up early to paint or sketch and set your days intention that will push you closer to your dream for a certain amount of time before work or children waking up or whatever the situation. Time is shiftable, doing little things like utilizing delivery services to save time, if money is no issue, hire people to do certain things, setting timers, keeping a planner , meditation, oils, herbs etc. to increase mental focus and agility.
For resources, depending on your dream, start small. For me as a painter, I started off with 70 cent paints and $1 canvases, you can even use paper or wood that you find around. Sometimes resource limits tend to encourage and fuel creativity. Go outside and collect as much cool stuff you can find and see what you can do with that. If you are someone who needs graphic design or music production or animation or whatever software, use free versions at first. If you need a computer, utilize your local libraries public computers. There are usually a lot of ways to start with not much.
I am not improving
This takes time!!!!!!!! I cant stress that enough. no matter your dream, this is a journey to that life. patience is key. You cannot become Picasso over night, mastering any craft take years to decades to lifetimes, you are here because you are in this for the long haul. Just like how through childhood through puberty, you don’t notice the change really until you compare photos or try clothes on, and that’s because you are with yourself every step of the way, changing little by little. By doing the work, you will without doubt improve. Keep documentation of your work, journal, take pictures and videos all that you can look back and compare yourself now, this is a great way to show you your evolution to give you back some motivation.
There are so many limiting beliefs we hold that keep us from being able to manifest, these are just a few examples. Affirmations, meditation, journaling are all great ways to overcome any challenging limiting beliefs you are holding on to.
other factors restricting manifestation.
Physical exercise: in order for our bodies and minds to function properly, we need to move our bodies. Movement and physical excursion increases blood flow to all areas of the body leaving you more energetic and uplifted. My personal favorite way to exercise is by dancing! This doesn’t mean you need to go to the gym 5 days a week and have hard core work outs, but find more ways through out your day to move your body. Get friends together and play sports, go on bike rides, go on hikes, go out dancing, yoga, there are so many ways to move your body, experiment and find the way you prefer and do that as often as you can!
Healthy and mindful eating: I’ve been told so many times that we are what we eat and that couldn’t be closer to the truth. eating clean, Natural foods will help you feel better in many aspects of your life. Eat with intention is what I always tell myself, and yes, pleasure is sometimes the intention. Look into how your food was made, where did it come from? Is it ethically sourced? Were these animals treated humane? These are all things to keep in mind when selecting food to eat. You want to feed yourself with positive energy.
Mindful Eating: we tend to trap ourselves in these unproductive thought loops. In this we are creating negative habits. Our brains have the ability to be molded the way we want (which is a huge part of manifesting) the brain is a muscle and we need to work it out by thinking more positive thoughts no matter how difficult and fake it feels at first. Eventually new pathways are molded to make these positive, productive thoughts natural as the negative thoughts once were. Practice just thinking very literally of what you are doing. Doing the dishes? Well practice only focusing on washing the dishes instead of letting your mind go. Painting? Focus on the strokes, the feelings from the colors, etc. Put yourself soly into that painting. Walking on the sidewalk? This might be getting repetitive but, focus on your feet, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, until you are at your destination. Meditation is also an incredible way to increase mindfulness.
how to manifest:
Decide what it is you want. This can be difficult but journaling is a powerful tool to discover what you want. Organize your life into words, lists, charts, whatever you need. Jot down how certain things make you feel. Also just get out there, do anything that calls you and soon you will discover what you want in life.
Keep learning and expanding your mind. Like I was saying, your brain is a muscle and learning is a great work out. You can learn by reading, watching you-tube, podcasts, or even just practicing what you know by conversing with someone else.
Doing everything from earlier (physical exercise, mindful eating and mindful thinking)
Affirmations and visualizations. Saying positive affirmations like “I attract abundance” and “I give and gravitate love” or “I am improving in all aspects of my life” are powerful mental reinforcements. Speaking in the future also helps you feel as if you do belong and helps prevent imposter syndrome as well as visualizing yourself living your dream life. As an example, anytime I go to a gallery or art museum, I picture my art up there, sometimes I will picture myself stepping out onto a balcony attached to my studio overlooking the mountains (I don’t actually have that but want that) this is a powerful way to help motivate and inspire you and keep yourself reminded of why you are doing this.
Being grateful for what you do have: spend time each day to remind yourself what your are grateful for. Your parents? Grandparents? Best friend? Partner? Your pet? The sun? Trees? Oxygen? Science? Sports? Food? Give thanks to all those things. remember how lucky you are to have what you have, keep yourself humble. through this, positive energy spreads throughout the universe.
Celebrate your success. no matter how small of an achievement give yourself rewards and or celebrate. Hard work should be celebrated, have rituals after finishing something, accomplishing a goal, learning something new, selling something, not indulging in an intrusive thought, choosing the more natural option, whatever it is, celebrate, you deserve it. Replenish your soul by giving yourself a pat on the back. always be proud of yourself just for doing it.
Launch into action. before getting started, make a game plan you know that you can stick to. do research on how others have accomplished what you want, don’t be scared to seek advice. Figure out what you can do daily, weekly, etc. to achieve your goals and do that. remember that if you “fail” you didn’t, you learned a new way of not doing something, which is just important as the latter. Also I would keep track of what your doing and how you feel in a journal to help make trial and error decisions. Also bringing everything we previously talked about like physical exercise, meditation, mindful eating, visualizations, etc. into your daily life, where can those things fit into your normal day? I also recommend keeping a planner, paper or digital to keep track your to dos, goals, tasks, etc. In to stay organized and on top of what you need to be doing. When figuring these things out remember to listen to your body, sometimes you just need to relax or sometimes your body will allow you to work for hours with no distraction, it is okay to ride that, listen to your body and it will tell you what it needs.
Don’t waiver. doubt is a big killer. relax, trust the process, trust that this will take as long as it needs. Trust and patience are key here. Again, meditation, mindfulness, affirmations, visualizations and journaling are all powerful tools to prevent doubt.
I want to clarify that I am not speaking from the perspective of already having manifested my dream life, but just like you, on the journey of manifesting my dream career as full time visual artist creating other worldly atmospheres for people to explore their minds. At least that is the ultimate career dream, I do dream of much more on the way there, and I know that I will see that day with manifesting as well as you can. On my podcast, “The artist sandbox” which you can find in the podcast section of my website or on Spotify, I had a conversation with Erin Daugherty aka The Spiritual Sunflower gave extraordinary advise on this subject. She has given me a lot of insight on embodying true love and gratitude.