15 Jun Prosperity Series #2: Understanding “Manifesting”

This week let’s look at clarifying what “manifesting” is and what it means in our journey to becoming financially successful.

Although some of what I’m about to tell you may seem tedious or overly conceptual, I encourage you nevertheless to read to the end.  There may be some gems here that will make your reading worthwhile.

Let’s first look at a simple and helpful definition of success. Many of you have read this in my past blogs.

Success is doing what you said you’d do consistently,  with clarity, focus, ease, and grace. 

Clarity means being clear about what’s important or has heart and meaning. 

Focus means learning to focus on what you want, what you love, and what you’re clear is essential to you, without distraction.

Ease means taking small, sweet steps toward what’s important to you.   Many of us have raced ahead in life, thinking that the faster we go, and the harder we work, the more reward we’ll receive. And then we’re too exhausted to enjoy what we have accomplished.

Grace occurs when you see the blessings that are there, waiting for you, that you don’t need to earn or work for. The gateway to grace is gratitude.

Action is the essential component of success.

Returning to manifesting, the definition of manifest includes “to display, show, exhibit, and express.”  During the early 20th century, metaphysicians adopted the word manifest to include meditation upon the desired result to obtain it. Somewhere along the way, the action component was set aside.  

Wallace Wattles noted this omission of action in his early 20th-century book, The Science of Getting Rich. Since then, many famous motivational leaders have cited this book as a highly influential work. 

In Chapter 11 of his book, entitled “Acting in a Certain Way,” Wattles writes: “Thought is the creative power or the impelling force, which causes the Creative Power to act. Thinking in a certain way will bring riches to you. But you must not rely upon thought alone, paying no attention to personal action. That is the rock upon which many otherwise scientific metaphysical thinkers meet shipwreck;  the failure to connect thought with personal action.”

We need to understand the original thinking behind the principle of manifestation. Early metaphysical thinkers knew you had to do something to become successful. Prayer and meditation brought you closer to the Creative Power of the universe, but this had to be followed by action in physical reality.

Returning to the definition of success we started with, we can then look at a definition of being financially successful:

Being financially successful is doing what you said you would do consistently, with money, with clarity, focus, ease, and grace. By this definition, simply having more money doesn’t mean you’re financially successful. 

Many wealthy people are not fulfilled if they’re not applying clarity, focus, ease, and grace to their relationship with money. The more money they have, the more worried they are about how they might lose it. They work so hard for it that at the end of the day, they’re too exhausted to enjoy what they’ve struggled to have. 

On the other hand, people who are financially successful by the above definition may have less money, but they’re enjoying life. They take vacations with loved ones and save for that car, boat, or whatever they desire.

And most importantly, they are grateful for what they have. In addition, they see that they are the architects of their own life experiences.

This personal power paradigm aligns with a  theory developed in 1954 by psychologist Julian Rotter called Internal vs. External Locus of Control. People with Internal Locus of Control know they can create their desired life. People with External Locus of Control think they have no personal power. They experience themselves as the victims of fate.

In other words,

• People with an Internal Locus of Control would say, “ I happen to life!” and
• Those with an External Locus of Control might think, “Life happens to me.”

Wallace Wattles also asks:  “Why do we want to have money? Why do we want to be rich?” Well, one reason is that we want to be able to use that energy to enjoy ourselves, to create lives for ourselves and the people that we love, and to be able to dance and sing in life as well as to contribute that energy to the causes that warm our hearts and nourish our spirits.

So, in bringing this to a conclusion, what would it be like for us to use the word manifesting in the following ways:

• I manifest (or create) the life I love through my personal action.
• I manifest (or demonstrate) what it is to live with clarity, focus, ease, and grace.
• I manifest (or create) a sweet life by noting events in my life for which to be grateful.

The above statements put the word manifesting as an action in physical reality. We have control over it, as in Internal Locus of Control.

Many people have found the following process useful in experiencing  their personal power:

1. Write the above three statements on a card.
2. Put this card where you can easily focus your brain’s attention.
3. Look at this card at least three times a day for the next week.

You could either journal the results of this practice or discuss it with a friend. These three steps will support you in putting what you see into action!

Until next week,