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REJUVENATION FORUM>
WHY DO INTENTIONS TAKE SO LONG TO MANIFEST?
March 18, 2007
WHY DO INTENTIONS TAKE SO LONG TO MANIFEST?
by Steve Pavlina
Edited by Larissa Gough
When you hold an intention to create something new in your
life, such as a career change, a new relationship, or
better health, at first you may see no results at all. But
as you continue to hold the intention, eventually it does
begin to manifest, sometimes almost miraculously.
Synchronicities occur whereby new people and circumstances
come into your life to make your intention first possible,
then probable, and finally real.
But sometimes this process doesn’t seem to work. You hold
an intention and get no measurable results. Other times
the process works so slowly that you can’t be sure it’s
having any effect.
Why do intentions take so long to manifest (or not at all)?
Here are some common issues that can delay or derail your
efforts at manifesting:
1. You fail to hold the intention
Think of intentions like electromagnetic waves that flow
out into the universe, as if you’re transmitting a radio
signal. The universe receives your thoughts and reflects
them back to you via the physical universe. The more
thought and emotion you put into your intention, the
stronger the wave you’re sending out, and the stronger will
be the bounce-back reflection. Failing to hold an
intention means you don’t put enough energy behind it. The
reflection (i.e. the manifestation) may be so weak you
can’t even detect it.
Perhaps the #1 reason people fail to hold an intention is a
lack of persistence. Physical matter is really just
energy, but it’s a very dense form of energy. It takes
time for our thoughts to manifest in the physical realm.
On other planes of existence, such as the astral realms
your thoughts can manifest instantly. But in the physical
universe, reality is more solid, yet it’s still powered by
intention-manifestation. It just takes more energy to get
things moving, so initially it may seem like they aren’t
moving at all. It isn’t unusual to hold an intention
religiously for a week or longer and see no apparent
results. Then suddenly the floodgates open, and the
manifestation comes pouring through.
If you put enough energy into your intentions, they may
continue working behind the scenes even if you forget about
them. Yesterday I found an old list of my intentions from
2003. I’d held these intentions for several weeks
straight, then put them aside and forgot about them. To my
delight I found that about 70% of those intentions had
already manifested. I was amazed because I remember these
intentions were a big stretch for me at the time I set
them. One intention on that list was to create a massive
personal development web site with hundreds of articles
(voila!). Another intention was to move to Las Vegas (I’m
here!).
And another was to build a network of great local friends
(I have amazing friends!). And still another intention was
to create abundant freedom in my life (after finishing this
article, I’m off to play 24 holes of golf at Sunset Park
with a friend… not a bad way to spend a Monday morning).
Another 20% of those intentions are currently in the
process of manifesting — they’ve moved from
possible-but-unlikely in 2003 to probable in 2006. And the
final 10% were intentions I dropped because I no longer
wanted them. Reviewing this list really blew me away.
If you want your intentions to manifest more readily, I
suggest developing the daily habit of holding your
intentions using the 30- DAY TRIAL METHOD. Currently I
practice holding my intentions at least twice a day,
usually during meditation. Whenever you find yourself
waiting somewhere with nothing to do, mentally focus your
thoughts on what you want to create in your life. Imagine
your greatest desires becoming real.
2. You put no energy behind the intention
When it comes to intentions, emotion equals energy. If you
aren’t really passionate about an intention, it’s like
turning on a flashlight with no batteries. Don’t pick
intentions just because you feel like you should want them
or because everyone else seems to value them. Be honest
with yourself about what you really want. The most powerful
intentions are those that will help you manifest JOY.
3. You hold a fuzzy intention
The best intentions are clear and focused. Be specific.
If you want money, specify the exact amount. General
intentions have very little power. Make your intentions
like lasers instead of candle flames, and you’ll see them
manifest much more quickly.
4. You inadvertently cancel the intention
Every thought is an intention. One of the greatest
challenges with intention-manifestation is that you must
drop all thoughts that conflict with your desired
intention. You cannot hold thoughts like, “I hate being
depressed,” while intending to be happy. “I hate being
depressed” is an intention to remain depressed.
If you want to use intention-manifestation successfully,
you must stop acknowledging (focusing attention on) what
you don’t want. To acknowledge (give attention to) what
you don’t want is to intend it, which means you will simply
perpetuate its ongoing manifestation. I’m not suggesting
that you live in denial — quite the opposite in fact.
Remove your intention from what you don’t want, and shift
it over to what you do what. You should be more concerned
with living in denial of your dreams. Depressed people
live in denial of joy. Broke people live in denial of
abundance. People in unhappy relationships live in denial
of love. Acknowledge the reality you want to create more
than the one you wish to leave behind.
Imagine driving a car: If you look where you’ve been (in
the rear-view mirror), you’ll crash. To drive successfully
you must look where you want to go. Looking at the road
ahead doesn’t mean you’re in denial of where you are. You
can still see where you are via your peripheral vision.
Live your life the same way. If you like where you are
right now, get out and look around all you want. Enjoy it.
But if you find yourself in a bad neighborhood you’d
prefer to pass through quickly, just observe it
peripherally while staying focused on the road ahead.
Don’t set up camp in a place you don’t want to be.
5. Your intention conflicts with your beliefs
This would be like holding the intention to become a
billionaire when your thoughts are overloaded with limiting
beliefs about why that would be impossible for you. If you
try to hold an intention that conflicts with your dominant
beliefs, that intention will simply fizzle and die. If you
put out strong intentions where you don’t have many
conflicting beliefs, those intentions will tend to manifest
rapidly.
Even though you may not be able to tackle your dominant
beliefs head-on, you can still work around the edges of
them. Set intentions which are just a little beyond your
comfort zone but which will make a real difference in your
life when they manifest.
When applying intention-manifestation, be patient with
yourself. When you slip, don’t fall. If you catch yourself
succumbing to mental laziness, fuzziness, or negative
thinking, simply turn your attention back to what you want.
With practice you’ll build mental discipline, and you’ll
find it easier to stay focused on your desires without so
much internal resistance. And then you’ll find your
intentions manifesting much more smoothly and effortlessly.
30 DAYS TO SUCCESS
by Steve Pavlina
A powerful personal growth tool is the 30-day trial. This
is a concept I borrowed from the shareware industry, where
you can download a trial version of a piece of software and
try it out risk-free for 30 days before you’re required to
buy the full version. It’s also a great way to develop new
habits, and best of all -- it’s simple.
Let’s say you want to start a new habit like an exercise
program or quit a bad habit like smoking. We all know that
getting started and sticking with the new habit for a few
weeks is the hard part. Once you’ve overcome inertia, it’s
much easier to keep going.
Yet we often psyche ourselves out of getting started by
mentally thinking about the change as something permanent —
before we’ve even begun. It seems too overwhelming to think
about making a big change and sticking with it every day
for the rest of your life when you’re still habituated to
doing the opposite. The more you think about the change as
something permanent, the more you stay put.
But what if you thought about making the change only
temporarily — say for 30 days — and then you’re free to go
back to your old habits? That doesn’t seem so hard anymore.
Exercise daily for just 30 days, then quit. Maintain a
neatly organized desk for 30 days, then slack off. Read for
an hour a day for 30 days, then go back to watching TV.
Could you do it? It still requires a bit of discipline and
commitment, but not nearly so much as making a permanent
change. Any perceived deprivation is only temporary. You
can count down the days to freedom. And for at least 30
days, you’ll gain some benefit. It’s not so bad. You can
handle it. It’s only one month out of your life.
Now if you actually complete a 30-day trial, what’s going
to happen?
1. First, you’ll go far enough to establish it as a habit,
and it will be easier to maintain than it was to begin it.
2. Secondly, you’ll break the addiction of your old habit
during this time.
3. Thirdly, you’ll have 30 days of success behind you,
which will give you greater confidence that you can
continue.
4. And fourthly, you’ll gain 30 days worth of results,
which will give you practical feedback on what you can
expect if you continue, putting you in a better place to
make informed long-term decisions.
Therefore, once you hit the end of the 30-day trial, your
ability to make the habit permanent is vastly increased.
But even if you aren’t ready to make it permanent, you can
opt to extend your trial period to 60 or 90 days. The
longer you go with the “trial period”, the easier it will
be to lock in the new habit for life.
Another benefit of this approach is that you can use it to
test new habits where you really aren’t sure if you’d even
want to continue for life. Maybe you’d like to try a new
diet, but you don’t know if you’d find it too restrictive.
In that case, do a 30-day trial and then re-evaluate.
There’s no shame in stopping if you know the new habit
doesn’t suit you. It’s like trying a piece of shareware for
30 days and then uninstalling it if it doesn’t suit your
needs.
This 30-day method seems to work best for daily habits.
Daily habits are much easier to establish.
Here are some other ideas for applying 30-day trials:
• Meet someone new every day. Start up a conversation with
a stranger.
• Go out every evening. Go somewhere different each time,
and do something fun — this will be a memorable month.
• Spend 30 minutes cleaning up and organizing your home or
office every day. That’s 15 hours total.
• List something new to sell on eBay every day. Purge some
of that clutter.
• Give up cigarettes, soda, junk food, coffee, or other
unhealthy addictions.
• Call a different family member, friend, or business
contact every day.
• Read for an hour a day on a subject that interests you.
• Meditate every day.
• Learn a new vocabulary word every day.
• Go for a long walk every day.
Again, don’t think that you need to continue any of these
habits beyond 30 days. Think of the benefits you’ll gain
from those 30 days alone. You can re-assess after the trial
period. You’re certain to grow just from the experience,
even if it’s temporary.
The power of this approach lies in its simplicity. Even
though doing a certain activity every single day may be
less efficient than following a more complicated schedule —
weight training is a good example because adequate rest is
a key component — you’ll often be more likely to stick with
the daily habit. When you commit to doing something every
single day without exception, you can’t rationalize or
justify missing a day, nor can you promise to make it up
later by reshuffling your schedule. Give trials a try.
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