Clear intention + focused attention + effective action.
That is the formula for practical manifestation.
I say practical because the word manifestation is always associated with “woo-woo” concepts and ideas that are nice to think about, but not actually applicable.
But manifestation is not only applicable, it’s the highest-value skill you can develop.
And by using the above formula, you’ll be able to develop your aptitude for using this skill.
Now I realize that this formula, while simple, straightforward, and easy enough to understand, isn’t always easy to implement.
The problem is, it isn’t always easy to implement.
You need a clear intention – but what if you don’t have one?
What if you don’t have a clear vision of the life you want to live? And if you do have a clear vision of the life you want to live, what if you don’t have a clear idea of who you need to be to live it?
You need to focus your attention – but what if you don’t know how or what to focus your attention on?
The age of information is a double-edged sword – you have access to all of the world’s collective knowledge at the tips of your fingers, making education and skill acquisition easier than it’s ever been.
But at the same time, there’s so much information that you can very easily fall into analysis paralysis and decision fatigue, having so many options and paths available to you that you never take a single step onto one because you don’t know which one is the best to follow.
You need to take effective action – but it’s impossible to do without a clear intention or knowing where to apply focused attention.
And if you do have a clear intention and focused attention, what if you don’t know what moves the needle?
What if you don’t have a clear understanding of the high-value, repeatable actions you need to take on a daily basis to progressively and consistently bring the vision you have for yourself and your future to life?
Think of your struggle with these concepts as an invisible barrier.
Each one you struggle with is another layer to the barrier, and the barrier is standing between where you are now and where you want to be.
But with each concept you understand, integrate, and utilize, you remove one layer of the barrier – until, eventually, the road between where you are now and where you want to be becomes unobstructed.
It will still take time and effort to walk, but the path forward will be clear – and you’ll see your circumstances (and yourself) change in real time as you move closer and closer towards your ideal.
You’ll begin to both see and experience the process of change and manifestation unfold.
Luckily, it isn’t as daunting as it sounds – the barrier is easy to break if you approach breaking it correctly.
Finding and setting a clear intention isn’t as hard as you think, maintaining focused attention (and knowing what to turn your attention towards) isn’t as hard as you think, and taking effective action (that directly results in both giving and receiving value) isn’t as hard as you think.
Acknowledging this to yourself is the first step to making the first crack in the barrier and setting practical manifestation into motion.
Developing a clear intention
Intent is seeded by having clarity.
When you have an intimate understanding of…
- What you want to do
- Where you want to go
- Who you want to be
- Why any of it matters
You’ll have a clear intention, and the first factor in the practical manifestation equation.
The most effective way to gain that clarity and develop your intention (I’ve found) is to reverse engineer your ideals.
Start with understanding where you want to go by envisioning your ideal life – this is your what and where:
- What do you have? Why is it important for you to have it?
- Where are you? Why is it important for you to be there?
- What are you doing? Why is it important for you to do?
- Who are you with / what kinds of people are you with? Why is it important for you to be with them?
Once you’ve clearly envisioned your ideal life (environment, circumstances, opportunities, etc) you need to focus on identity.
Most people fail at developing a clear intention because they stop at the first step – everyone knows what they want out of life, hardly anybody ever takes the time to figure out who they need to be to get it.
Define your ideal identity, the version of you who lives your ideal life as a natural consequence of who they are – this is your who:
- How does your ideal version of self see themselves and the world?
- How does your ideal version of self feel on a regular basis? How do they channel their emotional energy, both positive and negative, for their highest good?
- What does your ideal self do on a regular basis? What do they commit themselves to and why?
Finally, you need to close the gap between the two – moving towards your ideal life (what + where) by living as your ideal self (who) by understanding your reasons for doing so – this is your why:
- What are you seeking out from your existence and why does it matter to you? Why do you feel you’re here?
- What do you want to know more about the world and yourself? Why do you care to obtain that knowledge, and why does having it make your life more complete?
- What do you value? Why do you value it, and why do you think it’s important to live a life that both honors and displays those values?
The more you work with these questions, the more you will understand yourself – why you want what you want, why you want to be who you want to be, and why you care about what you care about.
The more you understand yourself, the clearer your intention will become.
Once you have deep clarity around your intention (what, where, who, and why) you’ll have a much easier time figuring out what you need to do and what skills you need to develop to live in alignment with that intention.
And focused attention, channeled into effective action, will be your how.
Cultivating focused attention
Focused attention is the bridge that connects clear intention with effective action.
It’s the means by which you take the essence and vision locked within your internal world (intention) and use it to effect, manipulate, and change the experience of your external world (action).
And the key to cultivating focused attention is in cultivating your ability to access the optimal state of being – flow.
The better you are at getting into flow, the better you’ll be at applying focused attention, and the first step to cultivating flow is expanding your awareness of what it is and how it works.
Awareness precedes understanding, and understanding precedes mastery.
There are 6 primary signals that indicate you’re in the flow state:
- Total concentration – Your awareness is unified and channeled into a single point. There is nothing outside of the task at hand, the object of your focus has your complete and undivided attention.
- The merging of action and awareness – Your sense of “being” and “doing” merge. It’s unclear where you start and where the task at hand ends. In a way, you become the object of your focus, and the object of your focus becomes you.
- A loss of reflective self-consciousness or inner monologue – The voice inside of your head falls silent or only speaks in relation to the object of your focus. The waters of your mind become still. In many ways, flow is a state of active meditation or trance.
- A sense of total control over the situation – Flow makes you feel capable, competent, and powerful. When you’re in it, the concept of mistake or failure tends to fall away. There is only what you’re doing and your ability to do it.
- Time distortion – Minutes will pass like seconds, hours will pass like minutes. Time becomes irrelevant and ceases to exist.
- The work becomes autotelic – The activity you’re engaged in becomes intrinsically rewarding. The expected or desired outcome doesn’t matter as much, and you feel fulfilled by simply engaging the activity so intimately.
Once you begin to practice accessing flow (which you can read more about how to do in this twitter thread) you’ll become more aware of the signals – and once you’ve become more aware of the signals, you’ll be able to start taking advantage of them.
The easiest way to speed up this process is to intimately understand how you engage flow.
You can do this by making note of the 3 stages of flow and in what stages each signal takes place for you:
- Entry – what’s happening within your sensory awareness the moments right before flow begins
- Experience – what’s happening within your sensory awareness while actively in flow
- Exit – what’s happening within your sensory awareness the moments right after flow ends
After every instance of flow (or even just a period of focus) write down or record how it unfolded for you immediately after the “exit” stage.
Make a note of what transpired at each stage – entry, experience, exit – and whether or not you encountered any of the 6 signals associated with flow.
The better you are at cultivating focused attention (flow), the more effective you’ll be at applying effective action.
The better you are at applying effective action, the faster you’ll be able to realize your intention – and thus, practically manifest.
The last piece of the puzzle is knowing what actions to apply.
I go more in-depth into developing intention and cultivating focus inside of the Key of Mind – a guide I created to help you master the powers of thought, clarity, and flow, which you can get here.
Applying effective action
Before you can take effective action, you need to know what actions to take.
To shorten the amount of time it takes you to figure that out, turn your attention to 3 questions:
- What innate gifts or talents do I have? What makes me unique? The only unacceptable answer to this question is “I don’t know” – even if your answer is something like “I’m good at solving puzzles” or “I’m good at understanding people” – those are both more than viable.
- What high-value skills can I develop that will make full use of my innate gifts and talents? What intersection between these two fields (talent and skill) do I need to focus on?
- What nuanced application of my talent + skills will maximize my level of enjoyment, excitement, and sense of fulfillment? How do you make the action you take rewarding and purpose-driven?
For example, I’m good at communicating and connecting with people.
Ever since I was a child I’ve been capable of conveying ideas in a clear and concise way (there’s my innate talent/gift).
That’s why I write and make videos (there are my high-value skills) and why my entire business is centered around education and consultation (there’s my intersection).
And I apply these gifts/skills through the lens of creative entrepreneurship, practical manifestation, and self-actualization because it’s what I myself love to learn about and what I genuinely feel I’m meant to be doing (there’s my nuanced application).
This is, in my opinion, the key to carving a path that is both profitable and purposeful.
You have something within you that is special, something that is unique and powerful.
I truly believe you are a genius, you just need to find what you have an aptitude for and apply it to the correct field.
This can only come from experimentation, and the best way to experiment is to build something valuable.
And while these principles can be applied outside of it, I believe one of the best ways to do this in the world today is to create a personal brand and monetize offers with the leverage it gives you.
Business and entrepreneurship, especially creative entrepreneurship driven by content and offer creation, is one of the greatest forms of alchemy.
Think about it.
Content-based creative entrepreneurship is the process of taking internal energy (mental, emotional, physical) and transforming it into external value (products and services) that enrich the lives of others and the world.
It’s also one of the best vehicles for self-discovery and self-actualization.
Pursuing valuable knowledge, sharpening skills, and applying them to build a business forces you to constantly look inward.
You have to continuously make use of your strengths and be reminded of your weaknesses.
This is a good thing – don’t shy away from it, because it makes you stronger and more self-aware.
The higher your degree of self-awareness, the more capable you tend to be as a person.
Productize yourself – find a way to leverage your uniqueness, and channel that into effective action.
And to help speed up the process, ask yourself the following question:
If I could only take 1-3 actions to bring my vision to life, what would they be?
OR – if you genuinely don’t feel like you know the answer to the above question, ask yourself this question instead:
If I could only explore/learn about 1-3 topics/fields for the rest of my life, what would they be and what skills could I develop that would allow me to apply what I learn studying those topics/fields?
When I answer the first question, it looks like this:
- Content creation (writing + filming)
- Offer creation (product + service)
- Prospecting and closing (consulting)
Everything else I do is to facilitate the effectiveness of these 3 actions, because these 3 actions account for the majority of my results.
When you define your core actions, taking effective action becomes easy.
It serves as a continuous frame of reference that keeps you aligned with the most effective action you can take from day to day.
99% of the actions you take should always do one of two things:
- Involve or improve the core actions you’ve defined directly
- Increase the leverage your core actions provide you
If it isn’t facilitating one of these two things, the action you’re taking is likely ineffective.
Once you’ve defined your core actions, and the supplementary actions that enhance your ability to perform the core actions, there’s one more step to maximizing your effectiveness…
Actually doing the thing you need to do – over and over again.
I know that seems obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many people struggle with this.
Learning how to act effectively can only come from acting imperfectly enough times and over a long enough timeline.
The more you do something, the better you get at doing it.
You get better at getting more out of less time and energy spent, which makes your action… you guessed it, more effective.
Something that really helped me with this was shifting my focus when it came to quality.
I now think more about the quality of my overall body of work than I do about the quality of any individual piece of work.
Don’t get me wrong, I still want every piece of creative work I produce to be good and, more importantly, to be valuable.
But when I catch myself getting too caught up in trying to make it perfect, I ask myself…
“Is this single piece of work already good enough to enhance the quality of my collective body of work?”
If the answer is no, I keep working on it until the answer is yes.
Once the answer is yes, I ship it.
I send it out into the world and trust that the experience I gained will let me make the next piece of work even better with less time and energy.
A masterful painting can be comprised of decent, good, and great brushstrokes, but a single brushstroke, even one made perfectly, can never be a masterful painting.
I go more in-depth into applying effective action in the Key of Time – a guide I created to help you master the powers of structure, learning, and practice, which you can get here.
“Solving” the equation
The thing that makes manifestation practical is effort, trial, and error.
There is no sitting in a corner thinking wishful thoughts to get life-changing results.
And thank God that’s the case – because the sweetest fruit is always the one you earned.
Trust the process, love the process, and stick to this formula.
Little by little, you’ll notice the difference in your life. Until one day, you’ll wake up and realize you’re exactly where you always wanted to be.
Ask yourself how you can apply them over the coming week – don’t look to create massive changes, but small shifts.
What parts of this article can you integrate?
What areas do you most need to focus on?
If this article deeply resonated with you and you want to learn more about how to go from overwhelmed and underpaid to deeply fulfilled and richly rewarded using proven plug-and-play methods for…
- Developing an infinite ideation and content system
- Creating irresistible offers that make money while you sleep
- Building an impactful personal brand you can happily commit your life to
Join the Absolute Abundance Academy waitlist.
Much love and, as always, thank you for reading.
– JCS
