"At the beginning of the year, I set a goal of landing a new job. I liked my current job well enough, but I had been feeling somewhat disengaged and I knew I wanted to pivot my skill set into a different industry. I had a list of what I was looking for: a remote position in the tech industry in content or editorial, a team to lead that was supportive and hardworking, and creative freedom to try new things, all with a lovely six-figure salary to match. Should be an easy find, right?
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In fact, when I first wrote out that list of criteria in my brand-new planner under the “Goals” section (a yearly ritual I highly recommend), I literally laughed out loud when I read it back to myself. It was a far cry from where I was starting from in more ways than one. Furthermore, I had absolutely no idea how I was going to make it happen. I spent the rest of the day stressing out about the fact that I had set a completely unrealistic goal and was already doomed to fail.
The universe happened to be looking out for me the next day though, and my friend invited me to join her in a 21-day manifesting challenge that Gabby Bernstein was hosting. I’ve always been very open-minded when it comes to things in the spiritual and wellness world, so I signed up and logged onto the platform for Day 1. I had always heard a lot about manifesting your dream life, but this was the first time I was going to actively try to create something I wanted and I was a bit nervous about looking like a fool if it didn’t work. However, the course walked me through a series of steps and mental exercises that felt more like fun than work. There were some key steps I learned to successful manifesting that are important to keep in mind as you work toward attracting your goals.
Get Crystal Clear on What You Want
The first step of the challenge was about getting crystal clear on what I wanted to manifest so I’d know when an opportunity presented itself to help me achieve my goal. This was fairly easy for me, as I already knew what I wanted, but writing it down and then creating a vision board around it forced me to really narrow down what I wanted and keep it top of mind. I printed out one copy of my vision board (#oldschool) and put it above my home office desk, and then I made a digital copy to set as my phone background so I could see it every time I picked up my phone (which we all know is way too often).
Spend Time Visualizing
The next step of the course was all about visualizing. As a self-proclaimed chronic daydreamer, this was the fun part for me. For 21 days, I spent 10 minutes each morning and night thinking about how finding the perfect role would make me feel once I had accomplished it. I learned how important it was to focus and identify the emotions I was experiencing while visualizing, as this helps your mind get used to those feelings and rewires your brain to seek out more opportunities to give you those feelings. While it might sound a bit “woo woo,” there is a lot of science to back up visualizing and positive brain modification, something that kept me going even when I wasn’t yet seeing results.
Let Go of the “How”
Now, this was easily the hardest part of the process. After the first week, the course finally addressed the question I was wrestling with from the minute I set my goal: “But how will this happen?” When we set a lofty goal that is a far stretch from where we are presently, our minds immediately go to how we can (or can’t) accomplish our goals, looking for tangible next steps to help us feel in control.
Whether you are trying to manifest a new role like I was or are looking to find the perfect partner or achieve any other goal, it can be incredibly difficult to just “trust” that it will happen when the time is right. The course advised that anytime I found myself stressing about how my goal would happen, I should focus on a few positive affirmations to reframe my thinking. Some of the ones that I loved were “I have complete faith that everything I desire is coming to me at the right time” and “If not this, something better.” That last one was especially helpful when I found myself worrying about missed opportunities (like roles I applied to that I thought would be perfect for me yet never got a call back for).
Sometimes, letting go of the “how” will mean leaning into a part of yourself that feels slightly illogical. “I think the key to life is just having certainty that whatever is going to work out is going to work out,” media personality and expert manifester Naz Perez said on The Everygirl Podcast. “Trust that the universe is going to take you where you’re supposed to go, and have certainty beyond logic.” As challenging as it was for me, being certain beyond logic that I would find the right career path is what ultimately made my manifestation work.
Take Aligned Action
Toward the end of the course, I was feeling positive and hopeful but also couldn’t get rid of this nagging feeling that my dream role wasn’t just going to come knocking on my front door—I needed to do something to make it happen. I was worried that manifesting meant just sitting back and meditating, but for the final seven days, I learned about the importance of taking aligned action, something my Type-A self was thrilled to hear.
Aligned action is essentially taking the necessary steps to achieve something while also maintaining the positive, relaxed mindset that comes from knowing that you will find the right opportunity when it’s ready for you. Easier said than done, I know. For me, this looked like continuing to practice my affirmations daily, spending time visualizing, and reviewing my vision board often while also networking, touching up my LinkedIn and resume, and applying to jobs that seemed like the right fit. Instead of doing these things with an energy of “Why the heck won’t anyone call me back?!” (my previous default mentality), I shifted my thinking to be along the lines of “OK, that one clearly wasn’t the best fit for me, but I’m confident something better will come along soon.”
Changing my thinking gave me more motivation to keep going and also prevented the stress of hunting for a new role from impacting my personal life or the job I already had. “Make a decision and line up with it,” Naz Perez said on The Everygirl Podcast. “It’s the doubt and the worrying and the not starting that will keep you stuck.” When you’re feeling anxious in the midst of the manifestation process, remember that it is always possible to take action—in fact, taking that aligned action will almost always yield results.
The End Result
Despite my friend achieving her manifesting goal of finding her perfect home within days of finishing the course, my dream role did not perfectly appear in the month of January. It also didn’t appear in February or March, either. I had given myself the entire year to achieve this goal so I wasn’t super stressed about it, but I did begin to wonder if I had gone off track with my manifesting. I certainly had doubts that I would ever find the right thing, especially when it seemed impossible at times (a job with a good salary and work-life balance? A myth for sure).
I kept pushing forward and decided to share my job hunt with a friend after we got on the topic of manifesting. A few weeks later, she reached out to put me in touch with someone she knew at a company I was interested in for a coffee chat. Lo and behold, after meeting with this connection twice, she shared with me that she was about to resign from her role in content for another opportunity and asked if I’d be interested in applying to replace her. I went for it (equipped with my revised resume and interview prep work that I had done as part of my aligned action!), and three weeks later, I was the proud owner of an offer letter with ample vacation time, a larger salary than I had dared to dream of when I set my audacious goal, and the opportunity to work from home as often as I wanted. All that, and I had jumped into an industry I had been dying to get into for years. To say that I was thrilled would be an understatement.
If you’re skeptical about manifesting, I totally get it. I was always unclear about how manifesting and ambition paired together, but learning about it in depth helped me realize that manifesting is about an outlook, not just an outcome. By being crystal clear on what I wanted, spending time focusing on it every day, and taking action from a place of trust and confidence over desperation, I was able to attract the perfect role for me in a way I otherwise wouldn’t have. I’ll definitely be using my newfound manifesting toolkit to help me attract other goals in the future, and I encourage you to give it a try!
