While the Law of Abundance was a lesser-known phenomenon in the 19th century, the idea quickly gained traction in the early 20th century. Thought leaders built upon their ancestor’s foundations to provide you, here today, a rich educational library on how you can manifest abundance and achieve your dreams.
How Does Manifestation Work?
Manifestation is the process in which a person creates their desired outcome using the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction is the philosophy in which a person’s beliefs physically manifest in their life.
To use a hypothetical example, let’s say that Taylor has always wanted to become an actress. She’s been acting since she was young, and she’s skilled at the craft. However, she’s not getting the roles she wants in movies or plays. She keeps auditioning, but the casting directors always tell her no. They always pick someone other than Taylor.
Taylor takes the rejection personally. She believes her failures are her fault, that she’s not attractive enough or talented enough for the roles, even though she is both of those things. She continues auditioning, but when she goes into the auditions, she doesn’t believe can get it and anticipates rejection before it appears.
What Taylor’s doing is manifesting failure before she even walks into the audition. Taylor thinks lowly of herself, and, most damningly, she doesn’t think she’s going to get the parts she wants.
Taylor’s thoughts and behaviors are translated to the universe as “Don’t give me the parts I want. Don’t make me successful. Don’t make me happy.” And the universe listens. Taylor doesn’t get random strokes of luck that other people would get — the universe isn’t that generous.
And so Taylor is stuck in the loop of her own creation. Her thoughts keep her trapped, creating a negative space where she perpetuates her low self-confidence and failures. Her beliefs are the reason she didn’t succeed, and it’s exactly her beliefs that can pull her out of that mess.
Taylor learns about the Law of Attraction. She reads up on it, and figures out that it actually works when done properly. She learns about autosuggestion and repetitive affirmations. She realizes how messy she’s kept her internal mind.
She figures there’s no point in holding herself back. She’s going to change her thoughts and wait for the momentum to shift from manifesting her failure to manifesting abundant success.
Taylor tells herself she’s attractive, talented, and going to get the roles. To facilitate her success, she goes to acting classes and reads up on acting methods. She becomes better, which boosts her self-confidence and bolsters her belief that, yes, she really can land those roles that once felt too out of reach.
Taylor’s demeanor changes. Her energy changes. She’s not predicting her defeat but anticipating her wins. Sure enough, she gets them. It’s not the first audition that landed her the role, or the second or the third. But the fourth one she gets, after giving the universe enough time to adjust to her newly altered energy. And it’s the one to launch her into the spotlight.
Manifesting Outcomes
In both cases, Taylor manifested her dreams. The only difference was how beneficial those outcomes were to Taylor. Before learning about the Law of Attraction, Taylor unconsciously desired to fail. Failure was familiar to her. She was used to getting rejected from roles, so she unwittingly worked to secure more failures.
Getting a role would have shifted her habit system. She got the role, so she couldn’t continue her routine of crying and feeling sad about herself after each role, which is what she usually did after rejection. It was like brushing her teeth — the habit is so ingrained that Taylor does it without thinking, and any disruption to the habit would have felt uncomfortably jarring, so Taylor unconsciously avoided disruption at all cost.
Until she realized her self-sabotaging behavior and changed her thinking. Instead, she set up a habit system that led to success rather than failure. She manifested her real desires of becoming a well-known actress rather than continuing her desires to stay in the same routine she’s always been in.
The woman in this example isn’t the only one who used the Law of Attraction to their advantage. People before Taylor have been using, and teaching, manifestation to achieve their dreams, so it would be beneficial to you to learn from the pros too.
Has the Law of Attraction Worked in the Past?
Napoleon Hill was one of the most successful Western authors to espouse the Law of Attraction for practical use. In 1937, he wrote the vastly popular book Think and Grow Rich, which helped millions of people accomplish their dreams through the Law of Attraction.
Hill observed vastly successful people like Andrew Carnegie to see how they achieved their dreams.
If you want to learn more about that, Earl Nightingale recorded a condensed version of the book that’s under an hour. We’ve attached it here, but we’ve attached our SparkNotes below.
Desire
At its core, the Law of Attraction to help you manifest abundance relies on desire. “The universe desires you to have everything you want,” according to Hill, but do you have desires at all?
Millennials are the first generation to overwhelmingly work for a purpose, not for a paycheck, but even then, many young people experience purposelessness. If you don’t desire a certain life, you cannot manifest it into existence.
So, of course, desiring abundance is crucial for manifesting abundance. But it doesn’t just stop there.
You may tell yourself that you do, in fact, want wealth. Of course, you want your business to succeed. Of course, you want the universe to give you $1,000 in cash. You just doubt if you can get it.
That doubt suffocates your desire and hinders your manifestation of abundance. Stop casting doubt on yourself. Start desiring a future and visualizing what it would be like to have it.
Faith
Why would you desire wealth if you didn’t think, to some degree, that you could achieve it? You must have faith that you can achieve your abundance. Otherwise, you’ll stand in your way for an outcome that seems implausible to you (and only you.)
“Faith is the state of mind which may be induced by affirmation or repeated instructions to the unconscious mind through the principle of conscious autosuggestion,” Hill writes. You can create your faith by telling yourself something is possible.
For example, you say, “I can create abundance for myself if I work toward it. I can achieve my dreams of wealth.” As long as you insist that the possibility is there, you maintain your faith in manifesting abundance and open up the path to obtaining what you want.
A Break Down of the Others
You should listen to the Nightingale reading yourself, but he essentially says that through autosuggestion, or repeating something until you believe it, you create mental habits that better facilitate your success.
By desiring an outcome, then having faith then you can reach it, then telling yourself that success is possible, planning how to achieve that goal, and working toward that outcome, you will create success.
Essentially, Hill gives you the steps to create a system for yourself. To think about it differently, the digestive system in your body has everything designed with a simple outcome in mind — put energy into your body and get out the waste. Your mouth, esophagus, stomach, and intestines all support that goal.
And so you need to cultivate the desire, faith, action, and determination to achieve your outcome as well — nourishing your life with abundance.
Abundance doesn’t happen randomly, though. It starts from within and projects outwards, so you need to create the best mental space to set off the chain of success for abundance to enter your life.
Get in the Right Mindset
Your mind is the first domino in the line of dominoes. With the momentum your mind creates, the rest follows suit naturally in a linear progression. Therefore, the right mindset is crucial to properly manifest abundance.
In short, the proper mindset is that of high self-confidence that you can do what you set your mind to. Yes, it’s a cliche, but it’s true. You must believe 100% that you can achieve the abundance you desire before we continue to the actionable tips you can do to manifest abundance.
Let’s elaborate with an analogy. You live in a hometown you don’t like and want to move elsewhere. You hop in the car, but find the tank is empty.
The car’s not going to start unless you have a full gas tank. What’s the fuel for this particular vehicle, though? As a metaphor, it’s the belief that you are in control of your life and can manifest the reality you desire. That’s what gets the car started.
But, as with any car, it’s not going to reach a fast speed at once. No, a car must gain momentum after successive pushes on the gas pedal. Each push of the gas pedal is every day you work toward your goal — and pushing toward that goal with a full tank of gas.
After a while, though, you run out of gas. You push on the pedal, but the car fails to speed up. The tank is empty, and momentum can carry you a few hundred feet, but the car will ultimately stop.
The car stopping is akin to when you lose your self-confidence in your ability to manifest. Perhaps you have ignorant people in your life who regularly hurt you. Maybe you got impatient and stopped believing that you can manifest your destiny.
No matter the case, you’re stuck in a vehicle that has all the power to take you to wherever you want to go, but you won’t put in the fuel to get there.
That metaphor describes the Law of Attraction and manifestation. When you give yourself fuel, you can go anywhere you want. The system of actions needed to keep the car running — your faith, your organized plan, your persistence — facilitates your travel.
But your thoughts are the fuel. Remember that every time you doubt yourself, or you think you’re too stupid, lazy, or unworthy to manifest abundance. You permit or obstruct your momentum. You become your only roadblock.
Ready to stop becoming a roadblock? Ready to begin your future and achieve success?
Wonderful. Let’s get started.
Habits to Help You Manifest Abundance
Think of the Law of Attraction as Nutrition
A runner who eats like crap — eating burgers and french fries and greasy, heavy food, is not going to run as fast as a runner who eats a properly balanced diet. Eating healthy nourishes the body, and consuming healthy thoughts not only nourishes the mind but feeds the universe too.
The universe rarely bites the hand that feeds it.
Think nourishing thoughts only. Think thoughts that only help you grow and build your confidence. Don’t tear yourself down or think that success isn’t possible. Thinking thoughts like those would be like drinking a spoon full of vinegar. It not only tastes bad going down, but it’s going to make you sick after a while.
And the universe isn’t going to like your vinegar breath. It will stay far away from you and be more reluctant to help you manifest your desires.
Instead, thinking nourishing and positive thoughts are like eating droplets of honey every time. They’re sweet and full of energy. They invigorate your muscles and propel you toward your goals. And the universe attracted to the sweet smell coming off you is more likely to give you gifts in return.
It’s like you nourish yourself before you nourish the universe, where you ultimately get back what you receive. The Law of Attraction is based on the amount of nutritious positive thoughts you think, so get in the habit of injecting as much of those thoughts in your day as possible.
Don’t Get Jealous of Other People’s Success
While you’re doing the best you can to achieve your goals, other people are striving toward that goal too. And those people will be obtaining their desires too, especially if they’re practicing the Law of Attraction and manifesting their success themselves.
It’s easy to feel envious of another person’s success. You’re putting in the effort to achieve your dreams, why aren’t you achieving them as fast as they are? You’re thinking positive thoughts, where are your positive rewards?
It’s that type of thinking that discourages the universe greatly. It’s not a one-for-one transaction, where you literally get a penny for your thoughts that goes into a piggy bank, saving up until you can bribe the universe for your success.
No, you have to be patient, kind, and happy for the people achieving their dreams. You must spread the positivity you feel for yourself to other people. By congratulating people for their success, you bolster the possibility for your own.
Avoid Consuming Counter-Productive Media
On the one hand, you should strive to understand what’s going on with the political, cultural, economic, and environmental affairs of your world. But, many media outlets focus on the negative news which is designed to cause anger and fear, as those types of stories are the most clickable and thus the most profitable.
But you have your tank of fuel to worry about. You can’t put gasoline and arsenic in the tank to make it work, but that’s exactly what the anxiety-producing media you consume does. Granted, a lot is wrong with the world, and you deserve to know about it, but don’t let the bad news of the world dye your perspective.
It adversely affects your mental health, which hinders your progress in manifesting abundance. Perhaps consider taking news highlights and only dive deeper into stories that truly affect you.
Practice Gratitude Every Day
It’s easy to focus on what you don’t have. The wealth you want. The toned, slim body you desire.
But when you focus on what you don’t have, you fail to realize what you do have. No matter how bleak or upsetting your circumstances are, there’s always something to be thankful about. Just the mere fact you’re alive is a miracle enough, so start there and work your way up.
There are a million things you could want. New desires are manufactured every day, so there’s an infinite reason you could be happy. But when you change your perspective and become grateful for what you have, you see a million reasons to be happy with the life you have.
Thinking gratefully is an easy way to introduce more positivity into your life. When you’re thankful for your circumstances, you tell the universe that you’ll be thankful for the gifts it gives you too. If you’re not thankful, why should the universe bother giving you anything new at all?
Show the universe you’re a thankful person and that you’ll appreciate more of the gifts it gives you. When you do that, you open the door for more positive outcomes to walk through.
Want Less
It’s a simple matter of economics. The more you want, the more you’ll have to work to be able to afford it, or the more you’ll have to save up to spend on the heightened price tag.
A Lamborghini is a nice car, but do you need it? Chances are you don’t — a functional car would work better than a Lamborghini. Additionally, one car works better than a dozen cars in your garage. You just need one high-quality car to get you where you need to go, nothing fancy.
The one high-quality car is a lot more achievable than the Lamborghini or the dozen lesser-fancy cars. When you apply the same principle to your wants, you focus your time and attention on manifesting one really good outcome rather than an unachievable one or a dozen mediocre ones.
Wanting less can be the key to manifesting quicker and achieving more abundance in the long run.
A great way to practice wanting less, and thus translate it into your manifestations, is to introduce minimalism into your life. Minimalism has the stereotype of involving living in an empty apartment with only one set of clothes and barely any other possessions in the world.
While some people certainly live that way, it’s not what minimalism is about. Minimalism entails having what you need and curbing your appetite for wants, especially material goods.
You don’t need a fancy car, the latest phone, six pairs of expensive shoes, and a closet full of clothes when you barely wear half of them. You could get by with a lot less, such as owning only four pairs of shoes and a handful of shirts, pants, and other accessories. The phone you have works just fine, as does the car, television, furniture, and home you own.
Minimalism realigns your desires to what’s actually important — chasing growth and fortifying your memories with enriching experiences. What’s better — spending $1,000 on a new phone or going on vacation to Europe for a week? What will you remember more in 30 years? That’s what we thought.
Realign your desires and cull what isn’t crucial to your happiness. We can want a lot of things, but the universe is frugal with its abundance. It won’t give you everything you want, so you have to choose what you’re going to fight for the most.
Rise Above Your Limits
Ali Stroker’s life changed forever when she was two years old. She and her family got into a car crash that paralyzed stroker from the chest down. According to an interview with the New York Times, Stroker doesn’t remember walking, though she did remember her first wheelchair, which was red.
Stroker’s love for theater flourished even though she used a wheelchair. When she was seven, she starred in the neighborhood children’s production of Annie and fell in love with the stage. The only problem, though, was that the stage didn’t love her. Broadway had never seen a single wheelchair-using performer in all its years, but that didn’t stop Stroker.
She worked hard. She took singing and acting lessons. She got better — so much better that she landed the role in Spring Awakening, making her the first performer needing a wheelchair in Broadway history.
When she accepted her to Tony for her role in the Broadway revival of Oklahoma!, she said that she felt like she was born to be in a wheelchair. Her success can inspire other disabled performers to reach their dreams, just like she did. She even thinks that everything that happened in her life was meant to be.
It’s that mentality that got Stroker her success. She could have thought that the accident was supposed to be but that she doesn’t deserve her success. No other disabled performer deserved it, so it would have been very easy to think so as well. But Stroker persisted.
She wanted to be on Broadway, and she didn’t let anything, not even rejections, stop her. She manifested her success, which you can see on Broadway today.
No matter what circumstances you were given in life, whether it’s paralysis, a disease, an inopportune homelife, there’s always a way to think more positively about it. We don’t mean to be patronizing — you can mourn and feel angry and sad as much as you like, but those emotions won’t lead to success. Only positive thoughts can do that, which is why you need to get in the habit of rising above your limitations and striving for your dreams anyway. Ali Stroker did, so why can’t you?
Believe It’s Already Yours
Let’s say you’re an entrepreneur. You have an idea for a business, and you believe you can achieve high profits as long as you continue working towards it.
One of the things you can do today to help you manifest abundance is to believe you’ve already achieved your goals. On some free space in your laptop, tape a picture of the office you’ll have when you’re a successful CEO. Make your computer background the image of success you’d like to achieve.
Jim Carrey did the same thing. When he was still a struggling actor, Carrey wrote himself a check for $10 million and kept it in his wallet. He would then see that check he wrote himself every day and remind himself what he’s working towards. Landing the roles. Achieving success, and getting a real check worth that much.
Remind yourself of the desires you wish to see. When you believe your success is already yours, you work harder to make it a reality.
Manifesting Abundance Takes Time
But hard work, dedication, and belief that you can achieve your dream is the recipe needed to manifest success. Don’t expect instant results, even though quick turnaround has happened to other people. Be patient, be loving and kind to yourself, and set up the systems necessary to obtain growth. The universe is watching and waiting to reward you for all your effort, so don’t let it down.