4 Simple Steps to Manifest the Results You Want Next Year
And the one part of your brain that helps to make it happen
Have you ever heard someone talking about how they manifested something in their life and you silently rolled your eyes, or thought, does it really work that way? Just think about what you want and you get it?
If you have spent any amount of time on your personal growth journey, or on Tik-Tok and Instagram, you likely have encountered the elusive and ambiguous practice of manifestation.
Put simply, manifesting means to have an idea or thought in your head that you want to become reality. It’s very easy to think that this concept is just another nonsensical new-age pseudoscientific practice. However, in reality, we are manifesting our lives all of the time.
If you ever had doubts about whether manifestation is for you, you’ll be relieved to know that there is a physiological underpinning to this practice. After reading this article, you’ll understand the part of the brain that is intricately linked to manifestation and how it relates to this abstract concept.
You will also leave with the power to choose how you will use it for yourself. You will walk away understanding that manifestation is not a choice, but an inescapable reality. The beauty in knowing this is that now you’ll have control over what you manifest.
The ability to manifest what you want in your life is alluring. Armed with this tool, you will feel more power and control over the direction that your life is taking. You can also start to get really specific about what you want and become more confident that it will happen.
This confidence will increase the likelihood of success and you will gain positive momentum along the way. Manifestation gained a lot of popularity from books like “The Secret” and “The Law of Attraction,” but if you’ve read those books you may have felt unconvinced by their promises because there wasn’t a lot of concrete science in their explanations.
Your Brain’s Manifestor — The Reticular Activating System
Right between your ears, where your spinal cord enters into your brain, is a part of the brain called the Reticular Activating System, or RAS. This system is a part of our primitive brain, so it evolved way before our consciousness did.
Its primary purpose is to filter through the 11 million bits of information we take in per second and present it back to your consciousness in the form of 40–50 bits of information that we are able to process.
Think about this: your consciousness can only maintain awareness of a maximum of 0.00045% of the information your brain takes in. Put simply, your consciousness is extremely selective of the information it is focused on, so we ought to take precious care of how we filter that information.
After your RAS has filtered the input information, it communicates with your subconscious brain to determine what is relevant and what isn’t. Based on your mental models and past experience, the subconscious communicates the appropriate response back to the RAS and then your conscious mind perceives what is happening.
About ten years ago, when I was working as a strength and conditioning coach, I wanted to be the best I could be. Each day I would ask myself how I could get better and what I needed to focus on to make it happen. I remember learning about posture and how humans are meant to walk. After immersing myself in articles, textbooks, and videos about this fundamental aspect of life, I couldn’t help but notice how everyone around me was walking, including myself.
By combining strong intentions with appropriate actions I was feeding my brain’s filter with instructions. Armed with these instructions, my RAS was filtering the world in front of me to match my mental model of becoming a better coach with the recent knowledge I gained on the topic.
This continued to happen as I would learn different topics and strategies related to better coaching. Over time, my progress was noticeable and recognized by others. Ironically, this progress came with greater ease than in the past. I was unknowingly tapping into my ability to manifest what I wanted in life.
Fast forward years later and with each successive milestone I pass or goal I set, I follow this same process to bring greater success into my life.
Think about a time in your life where this happened to you. You were really interested in a topic and then, before you knew it, you were surrounded by information and evidence about that topic in your day-to-day life. This is your brain manifesting your life according to the instructions you provided.
The 4 Part Manifestation Recipe
Now that you understand the science behind manifesting your reality, here are the four steps you need to put it into practice:
Feed your filter
Use empowering questions and thoughts that feed your subconscious mind what you want. Your mind will use this information to sift through the world around you and bring the results you want into focus.
Be specific. Remember that your mind can only be conscious of 0.00045% of what it takes in from the external world. If you give it generic instructions it will present you with generic results. In my earlier example, I didn’t just tell myself that I wanted to be a great coach. I told myself I wanted to be a coach that understood the fundamentals of posture and movement so I could change the way athletes move. Your filter food will expand and evolve over time. The key is specificity.
Take action!
Go out into the world and expose your mind to different environments. Let it manifest with you. We can think about what we want forever but until action is taken, our minds will simply standby waiting to apply the appropriate filters. After I consumed information about posture and walking, I didn’t just move on to the next topic; I went out into the world and let my RAS manifest that information in my subconscious. The ideas and concepts became real and my skills as a coach grew.
“Action without thought is mindlessness, and thought without action is hypocritical.”
-Ayn Rand
Reflect on your results
Worthwhile results do not happen overnight but are possible for everyone to achieve. Depending on your goals, the more you detach from your expectation of how much time it will take, the more grateful you will be when the results come. Distract yourself from the concept of time by focusing on how you can improve. Instead of asking how long it should take to get to your goal, ask yourself how you can direct your current actions towards your goal. Focus on small, progressive changes, and be grateful for them along the way. Then, move on to step four.
Refine your filter
As you go through your day-to-day life taking action towards what you are manifesting, make your language and goals more specific. Infuse your empowering questions and statements from step one with more powerful language. Over time, you will find the right words for exactly what you want.
Understanding how your brain works helps you use it to your advantage. Now that you understand what the RAS is and how it interacts with your thoughts, you can leverage it for a more effective manifestation of what you want in life.
Conclusion
Integrate the steps above into your daily practices and over time your mind will provide you with more and more evidence of what you want in life. There may still be times when the evidence your mind focuses on isn’t what you really want. I’ve learned that one great way to handle this is to “hug your thoughts,” give a little laugh to the “old” filter and respond with empowering questions or affirmative declarations.
This practice takes deliberate effort and you will go through alternating periods of success and setbacks, but consistency and perseverance will always work in your favor. I have dedicated countless hours to mindset practice and working to undo self-limiting beliefs, and there are still moments of doubt and questioning.
Also, understand that using this tool is not an end in itself. The real world is not like Star Wars, where you can use “the force” to attract material things into your hands on demand. Manifestation is a two-part process, made of thoughts and actions. When both of these are congruent you will see great results and fulfillment in your life.
If you enjoy learning how to leverage subtle shifts in your knowledge for bold changes in your life, let’s connect! You’ll get the perspective of an English major turned Engineer for a healthy balance of science and practical experience.
