How To Manifest Your Dreams

Manifestation is an extremely useful tool that anyone can use to achieve their dreams, it’s really easy, works every time and yet barely any of us use it with any real conviction. Manifestation is the process of taking the thoughts and dreams from inside your head and turning them into the physical reality which you find yourself in. I’m going to show you how I used this to achieve one of my dreams and how you can use it to achieve yours too.

I wrote previously about why I moved to New Zealand on a whim, but obviously, this was an extremely condensed version of events and didn’t tell the whole story – that would be impossible and nobody would read it to the end.

What I didn’t include (and what this whole journey wouldn’t have been possible without) was how I manifested my new reality and how I stayed focused on achieving the goal of relocating to New Zealand – here’s how I did it.

The Goal

I set my goal which was to move from Manchester, England to Auckland, New Zealand. I only had one goal and this was very important as multiple goals can sometimes conflict and negatively affect your decision-making process.

The Deadline

I set a deadline by ordering a visa which expired at a certain date, having a cut-off point can light a fire under your backside – and it certainly helps if it isn’t a deadline which you yourself can put back for any reason.

The Vision

This is the key, you need to be able to visualise exactly what you want, or in my case where I wanted to be. This vision is something you need to see multiple times every day and be ingrained in your brain, so your subconscious (and the universe) can work on making it happen.

For me, I Google searched some images of Auckland, found one I thought looked beautiful and set it as my desktop background picture. This meant I saw this image every day, I told myself that one day I would see that view for real – and I wouldn’t remove the image from my desktop until it had become reality. Here’s the exact image I used.

Making Decisions

Now comes the fun part, every decision you make from here must take you closer to your goal – it takes discipline but this is how to manifest your dreams. I’ll give you some examples:

Q: Do you want to renew your tenancy agreement and keep living with your best friend in Manchester?

Usual decision: Yes! Of course, Manchester is awesome and living with your best friend rules – plus you’ve been beating him pretty bad on FIFA so that’s a nice bonus.

Goal-aligned decision: No. You’re going to need money for a plane ticket, accommodation, food etc. when you get to NZ and you could save a heap of cash by moving home with your mum.

Q: There’s a girl you really like, what do you do?

Usual decision: Date her and if it goes well stay in the area.

Goal-aligned decision: Be honest by telling her you’re moving to NZ no matter what happens and give her a chance to opt-out (but hope it somehow works out).

Q: Should you stay on as an American Football coach for a second season?

Usual decision: Yes! You really enjoyed the first season and after the huge learning curve you went through, you know you’ll do so much better this time.

Goal-aligned decision: No. The season is long and it takes a LOT of your time, plus you might have to leave before the season is over which could have a negative impact on the team.

Q: Are you going out for drinks this weekend?

Usual decision: Yes of course, drinks are fun and it’s been a hard week at work.

Goal-aligned decision: No, you should really save some money for moving to NZ.

These were all decisions that I faced, and every time I chose the goal-aligned decision which always took me one step closer to what I really wanted. Much of the time the key to getting what you want isn’t what you say yes to, it’s what you say no to. As you can see a lot of my decision-making process was turning down opportunities that seemed obvious to take – but in reality would only have taken me further away from my main goal.

If I’d told myself I’d move to New Zealand “one day” and had continued making my usual decisions, then I definitely would not be where I am today. Every time you make a decision it can either take you closer to your dream or further away from it – the trick is to align all of your decisions towards the same end goal, not to make a bunch of random decisions which pull you in different directions.

Here are a few other examples of questions you may face for different goals:

Goal: Lose Weight/Get Six-Pack

Questions:

Should I eat this cake?
Can I be bothered going to the gym this morning?
Should I go out for beers?

Goal: Get Promotion/Start New Business

Questions:

Should I spend my money on a holiday or a course/books?
Should I spend the next hour on Facebook or XYZ project?
Should I watch TV or read a book this evening?

It seems pretty obvious what the answers should be for these questions doesn’t it? So why is it we so often do the opposite of what we know we should do? Because by itself the decision can seem small, it doesn’t seem to matter in the grand scheme of things and we get the instant gratification that comes with making the easy decision.

What if you have more difficult questions to answer, what if your dream is to start your own business but you get offered a $100k+ corporate job? Or what if you really want to travel the world and you have the opportunity to get a mortgage and “get a foot on the property ladder”?

The easy answer isn’t always the one which serves you best, and neither is the most obvious. If you have a true vision and make your decisions goal-aligned then you can change the pattern of your life and manifest your dreams of an unbelievable new reality for yourself.

The Result

On my personal journey, I had made all my goal-aligned decisions and arrived in New Zealand, landing in Auckland at approx 1am one night and heading straight to bed after finding the hostel where I was staying. The next morning I woke up to palm trees, beautiful sunshine and an amazing sense of adventure and wonder. On my first day in Auckland I hiked up Mount Eden and took the following photo.

I can’t even begin to describe to you how incredible it felt to be stood there, seeing in real life the scene I’d been looking at on my laptop every day for the best part of a year. All of my sacrifices and the decisions I’d made had been worth it for that moment, I was literally living the dream.