Sometimes our manifestations can feel like an endless chore of trying to feel the right way and think about the right things. I know it can get somewhat discouraging after a while.
However, the law of attraction requires decisiveness. I’ve already discussed the necessity for persistence in the law of attraction, and this is really an extension of that idea.
But, are you boldly deciding what reality you are moving towards, or are you allowing your external reality to dictate your inner state?
When you decide on your goals, are you making it a sure thing, or are you worrying about whether it is possible?
This makes a huge difference in the process of manifestation. It’s something I’ve been realizing over the last month or so thanks to my work with the gods, and I wanted to share it here.
You Have the Right to Decide
I know often I talk about surrender and acceptance. Yes, these ideas have a part in manifesting, but not when deciding on your goals.
It takes a balance of surrender and deliberate choice, passivity and activity. It is yin and yang. They seem like a contradiction, but it is not the case.
When you are deciding on your goal, you don’t want to be passive. Passivity at this point will only result in stagnancy. You command the flow of energy into your physical reality.
Christine and I will often have this discussion about dinner. I’ll say, “So what do you want for dinner?” And she’ll say, “I don’t know, what do you want?” I’ll say, “I don’t know, what do you want?” And so on and so forth. Eventually, someone has to decide, or we’ll both be stuck in this cycle indefinitely. 😛
Your reality is somewhat like this. Have you ever seen someone with no direction in life? They don’t know what to do, so they waste away. Maybe they watch TV all day, or spend the day playing games, day after day after day. Even if they go to work, it is really to no end, and they have the feeling of spinning their wheels.
It’s because they haven’t really made a deliberate choice about what they want in life, so they’ll just take whatever life dishes up.
It is at this point that you have to use your natural ability to choose. This is your right. You get to decide where your life leads.
I find that many religious people have trouble with this part. They think that everything should be up to “God’s will”. But, this is your life. The gods aren’t going to care about what choices you make for yourself.
Trust the Universe to Deliver
Now, this is where surrender comes in.
You’ve made your choice. You aren’t going to waver on it.
However, it is not your job to make it happen. If action is required, then you’ll be inspired to take that action. But, once your choice is made, then the Universe fills in the picture, so to speak.
You simply don’t have the knowledge of the big picture to be able to make all the countless components work together to bring you your goal. Fortunately, you don’t need to. It’s not your job.
Recently I started differentiating between what’s my job, and the Universe’s job. My job is simple: decide on my goal, feel good about it, connect with the Divine to keep centered, and do what excites me in life.
The rest is the Universe’s job. How it’s going to work out, whether it will work out (the answer is yes), what if this or that unwanted thing happens, etc. That’s all not my concern. It’s the Universe’s concern.
So, you see, I am actively holding the vision of what I want, but then passively allowing the Universe to do everything else.
- Will that money come through your job, a side business, a gift, a random check in the mail, or something else? Doesn’t matter: not your job.
- How will you come up with the money to cover the electric bill? Doesn’t matter: not your job.
- How will you find the right job for you? Doesn’t matter: not your job.
- Where will you find your perfect partner? Doesn’t matter: not your job.
- Where are you going to find clients for your new business? Doesn’t matter: not your job.
The Universe will take care of all of the details.
It’s like if you go out to a restaurant. Your job is to decide what you want for dinner, and communicate your desire to the waiter.
It is not your job to cook the food, refill your drink, deliver your meal, etc. You simply put in the order, and enjoy the result.
Where we get tangled up is that we try to do the Universe’s job for it. We are active where we should be passive, and passive where we should be active.
An Exception to the Rule
I will mention one possibility.
Sometimes, the Universe knows what you want better than you do. This is why the law of attraction responds to the essence of your desire, not the words with which you communicate it.
So you might be manifesting what seems like the perfect job. But, the Universe knows that if you were to get that particular job, you’d actually be overstressed, and you wouldn’t even enjoy your work due to unforeseen circumstances.
Your underlying desires to (1) not be overstressed, and (2) enjoy your work, override your explicit desire to have this particular job.
It’s just that you believed that this job represented those things, but it actually does not. You had no way of knowing that, but the Universe does.
So, while you should hold the vision of your desire, you should also recognize when the Universe is actually trying to give you something even better.
In fact, for this very reason, it can be acceptable to have a more general goal. A goal like “more easy, effortless abundance” is perfectly fine, while a goal like “I want to receive $20,000 more per year by getting a promotion to X position” might be a tad too specific.
It all really depends on your circumstances. If you want to start with the second goal, and see how the Universe responds, that is also fine.
In other words, it requires flexibility.
However, this does not mean to not deliberately choose your goal. It means to choose your goal and see if something better comes along. That’s humbly admitting you might not know it all right now, not passively accepting anything that comes your way. You still have the right to say “yes” or “no” to the experiences that life brings you.
Don’t Allow Life to Dictate Your Inner Vision
The most important part of all of this is that you must hold fast to your inner vision. You must be filtering reality according to this inner vision, and never allowing outside circumstances to make you waver.
If your goal is to make $50,000 per year, then you must hold to that vision. Everything that happens which supports that vision, you acknowledge and celebrate with positive emotions. Everything that doesn’t match that vision, you simply ignore and do not react to it.
When you allow resistance to make you react emotionally, you are saying, “I’m not so sure if my inner vision will actually happen.” You are swaying away from that inner vision.
Remember, above all, that you have the right to choose whatever you wish to choose, and, if held to steadfastly, those choices will become reality.
So let’s say you’d like to find a job. Perhaps you’ve sent out 50 resumes, and received 50 rejections.
Doesn’t that mean that it’s going to be hard to find a job? No, that’s the Universe’s concern, not yours. Don’t you think that the Universe knows exactly the job that is a match to you, and is currently sorting out all the active components to make it happen?
So you have this bit of data: 50 applications and 50 rejections.
Now, does that piece of data fit into the “supports my vision” pile, or the “does not support my vision” pile?
Probably the latter. So how do you react? Well, you don’t. You totally ignore it.
Now, let’s say you get an interview, but it’s to a job that isn’t ideal.
Great, now we have two pieces of data:
- Got an interview
- Job not ideal
The first data point fits under the “supports my vision” category, so you celebrate the fact that you got an interview. That’s excellent progress!
But, the second data point fits under “does not support my vision”, and so we just push that aside.
You’re filtering reality according to your vision. You’re not allowing reality to dictate your vision for you.
So, pretty soon, you get another interview, and it’s a closer match, so you go through the same process. And after not too long, you get the perfect job.
All because you stuck to your vision, and you filtered reality according to that vision.
Filtering Reality According to Your Vision
So, how do you filter reality?
Of course, with your focus, and with your emotions.
Focus on the parts of reality that support your vision. Do not react to the parts that don’t support it.
Your emotions have two roles:
- As a guide to your current focus
- As a magnet to more experiences like your current focus
So, when you are focusing on something that doesn’t support your vision, your emotions respond by not feeling so good.
Where we get into trouble is by wallowing in those negative emotions. We obsess about that unwanted circumstance, and so that emotional guidance just grows more and more urgent.
But, besides a sign of your current focus, your emotions are also a magnet. They draw more experiences to you that are similar to that emotion. In The Art of Reality Creation, I called emotions a 2nd level manifestation.
The more you keep up that focus, the more it grows into more and more experiences like it.
So, to successfully filter your reality, you notice when you’re focused on something that doesn’t support your vision, and then you shift your focus. You hold true to that inner vision.
This is what I mean by “deciding on your path”. You decide on your vision, then walk that path through your moment-by-moment focus, until the Universe delivers.
Then, you decide on a new path, and rinse and repeat.
That’s manifestation. That’s holding the balance between deliberate choice and radical acceptance. That’s being the deliberate creator of your life.
so, to summarize, you:
- Choose your goal
- Hold that goal as your inner vision no matter what
- Filter your reality by focusing on that which supports your inner vision, and ignoring that which does not
- Allow the Universe to do all the rest
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How About You?
Now it’s your turn. Are you holding to your inner vision, or do you allow external circumstances to get in the way? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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Very beautifully and simply explained! I’d just want to say that new readers to your blog might think that by “ignoring” you mean pushing it away, pushing emotions away. That’s what I thought before I heard your explanation. Instead of ignoring, it’s more like allowing, but not reacting to it, right?
I’ve been doing very well lately. I’m able to connect to “Divine” frequently, for me it is the love inside of us and around us. I see a lot of things have improved, including myself, my relationship with people, and the outer reality. There are still “bad” experiences and physical pain, but I handle it much better now.
Also, I’ve recently realized that this apartment actually was the perfect manifestation for me. Before finding it, I would intend to find a perfect apartment for me. When I found it, there were some problems, like no internet. Now I have awesome internet, and some other problems got resolved. I am very satisfied!! Some things come up now and then, but I allow it and align with what I’d prefer. Every day I spontaneously get appreciative of the apartment, people around me, and so many other things.
I’ve realized that 2 of my main problems have been lack of focus and lack of self-love. Self-love is growing each day, as I connect with the Divine, and feel it in me, and around me.
As for focus, it’s been scattered for years, because I got so used to multitasking and speeding up everywhere, as a means to cover the loneliness and a lot of pain. There’s no more need for that now, and now I’m using certain techniques to strengthen my focus. It’s going pretty well, I think.
I’m also watching a show now that has drama and sad moments, but I don’t resonate with those feelings. I can enjoy the show without being affected. I think this a huge improvement.
Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me and others, Brandon! I don’t know how you’ve managed to handle all the bitching and complaining lol.
Hey Z,
You’re right. There’s a very fine balance between ignoring it, and repressing it. Ignoring means to absolutely not react to it emotionally. Repressing means that you’re reacting to it, but pushing that to the back of your mind where it can fester.
It really sounds like you’re doing a great job! I’m so happy to hear it. 😀 It’s definitely been a journey, but I’m glad that things are working out, truly.
Sometimes I think being an artist would be good, but TU isn’t going to support me with that. You have to be top 0.01% to pay your bills.
Hi CJ,
How about trying to apply the principles I discussed above? I will help:
You want to be an artist. Good. That’s your inner vision you must hold to.
Now, you say only the top 0.1% make it. Is that your job to worry about? Does that support your vision or not?
I don’t think it does, so it goes in the ignore pile. Now go try to find evidence of that which supports your vision.
Very beautifully and simply explained! I’d just want to say that new readers to your blog might think that by “ignoring” you mean pushing it away, pushing emotions away. That’s what I thought before I heard your explanation. Instead of ignoring, it’s more like allowing, but not reacting to it, right?
I’ve been doing very well lately. I’m able to connect to “Divine” frequently, for me it is the love inside of us and around us. I see a lot of things have improved, including myself, my relationship with people, and the outer reality. There are still “bad” experiences and physical pain, but I handle it much better now.
Also, I’ve recently realized that this apartment actually was the perfect manifestation for me. Before finding it, I would intend to find a perfect apartment for me. When I found it, there were some problems, like no internet. Now I have awesome internet, and some other problems got resolved. I am very satisfied!! Some things come up now and then, but I allow it and align with what I’d prefer. Every day I spontaneously get appreciative of the apartment, people around me, and so many other things.
I’ve realized that 2 of my main problems have been lack of focus and lack of self-love. Self-love is growing each day, as I connect with the Divine, and feel it in me, and around me.
As for focus, it’s been scattered for years, because I got so used to multitasking and speeding up everywhere, as a means to cover the loneliness and a lot of pain. There’s no more need for that now, and now I’m using certain techniques to strengthen my focus. It’s going pretty well, I think.
I’m also watching a show now that has drama and sad moments, but I don’t resonate with those feelings. I can enjoy the show without being affected. I think this a huge improvement.
Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me and others, Brandon! I don’t know how you’ve managed to handle all the bitching and complaining lol.
Hey Z,
You’re right. There’s a very fine balance between ignoring it, and repressing it. Ignoring means to absolutely not react to it emotionally. Repressing means that you’re reacting to it, but pushing that to the back of your mind where it can fester.
It really sounds like you’re doing a great job! I’m so happy to hear it. 😀 It’s definitely been a journey, but I’m glad that things are working out, truly.
Sometimes I think being an artist would be good, but TU isn’t going to support me with that. You have to be top 0.01% to pay your bills.
Hi CJ,
How about trying to apply the principles I discussed above? I will help:
You want to be an artist. Good. That’s your inner vision you must hold to.
Now, you say only the top 0.1% make it. Is that your job to worry about? Does that support your vision or not?
I don’t think it does, so it goes in the ignore pile. Now go try to find evidence of that which supports your vision.
Wonderful post Brandon! The most difficult part is to understand what’s your job and what’s universe’s. You answered it very well. Thank you so much for giving ways to look things differently. It takes practice to trust that whatever you want is possible and will come in reality one day.
Idea of filtering reality sounds perfect. It will surely help me to understand differences between wanted and unwanted emotions more clearly. Especially which one are particularly supporting my intention. Thank you for great post. Happy Halloween ????????????.
Hi Rhea,
Thanks so much. Yeah it takes time to trust, and we have to try to stick to what is our job, and stay out of the Universe’s job. That’s the easiest way to stay in a positive state.
Happy Halloween, and happy Samhain. ???? ????
Yes, this was a wonderful post for sure, Brandon. One of the best I’ve read for my own understanding. So clear and practical. I’ve been getting signs from within and without for quite some time that I need to get more focused as i keep deciding on a goal and then changing my mind. This is showing me what’s really going on and today, when the veil between the spiritual and physical is thinnest, is the perfect day to decide. And your suggestion of a more general goal helped a lot too. You always seem to come up with the perfect blog at the perfect time!
Thanks so much, Frann. I’m so happy it was helpful. 🙂
Yes, I agree today’s a perfect day to come up with your goal. Start general, then add details as it feels comfortable to you. I think that’s the best way for now.
Wonderful post Brandon! The most difficult part is to understand what’s your job and what’s universe’s. You answered it very well. Thank you so much for giving ways to look things differently. It takes practice to trust that whatever you want is possible and will come in reality one day.
Idea of filtering reality sounds perfect. It will surely help me to understand differences between wanted and unwanted emotions more clearly. Especially which one are particularly supporting my intention. Thank you for great post. Happy Halloween ????????????.
Hi Rhea,
Thanks so much. Yeah it takes time to trust, and we have to try to stick to what is our job, and stay out of the Universe’s job. That’s the easiest way to stay in a positive state.
Happy Halloween, and happy Samhain. ???? ????
Yes, this was a wonderful post for sure, Brandon. One of the best I’ve read for my own understanding. So clear and practical. I’ve been getting signs from within and without for quite some time that I need to get more focused as i keep deciding on a goal and then changing my mind. This is showing me what’s really going on and today, when the veil between the spiritual and physical is thinnest, is the perfect day to decide. And your suggestion of a more general goal helped a lot too. You always seem to come up with the perfect blog at the perfect time!
Thanks so much, Frann. I’m so happy it was helpful. 🙂
Yes, I agree today’s a perfect day to come up with your goal. Start general, then add details as it feels comfortable to you. I think that’s the best way for now.
Fabulous post! I feel like I understand the process much more clearly now. You have a gift for explaining these ideas in down-to-earth terms. For example, the way you explained the “got a job interview for a not-so-great job” example was VERY helpful. Celebrate the part you like, and ignore the part that doesn’t seem to match what you want!
Where do you see releasing resistance as fitting in with all this? Is it something we should actively pursue, or something to let happen passively? Maybe it happens automatically when you ignore what doesn’t fit your vision? In that case, is it better to let it go at its own pace, or is it beneficial to release resistance faster?
Hi Lisa,
Thanks so much for your comment. 🙂
If you’re truly able to ignore what doesn’t support your vision, then you are very quickly releasing resistance.
Chances are, it won’t be the easiest thing to do. That’s where the resistance comes in. Resistance is basically that which is in your reality, which does not support your inner vision. If there weren’t resistance, then your reality would be totally aligned with your vision, and there would be no doubt at all.
that’s why it’s a journey. It’s a journey of letting go of the unwanted and moving towards the wanted, day-by-day.
So if you can do that easily, there’s nothing else to do, really. But if it’s hard, then that’s where the resistance release techniques come in.
I hope that makes sense. 🙂
That is very helpful. So, if I’m understanding it right, then resistance is another form of inappropriate “activeness.” You’re actively clinging to the unwanted instead of letting it go. The solution is to be more passive (just let the unwanted slide on by without giving it too much attention), if possible. But sometimes (or perhaps most of the time) we’re rather fixated on the unwanted, and it’s tough to just ignore without repressing some negative emotion. In those times, it’s better to actively pursue releasing resistance with special techniques. (The techniques aren’t usually very “active” in the sense of taking a lot of time or effort, but they do take focus, and you may have to plan out ahead which ones to use and practice. So in that sense they are us being active rather than us being passive.) Does that sound right?
Right. Most releasing techniques are pretty passive to begin with, emphasizing surrender and acceptance. I’ve found it’s really a matter of letting go of resistance in degrees. You generally can’t do it all at once, so you do it little-by-little until it is gone. So in a sense that’s active, but it’s moving more and more towards surrender and letting go.
Fabulous post! I feel like I understand the process much more clearly now. You have a gift for explaining these ideas in down-to-earth terms. For example, the way you explained the “got a job interview for a not-so-great job” example was VERY helpful. Celebrate the part you like, and ignore the part that doesn’t seem to match what you want!
Where do you see releasing resistance as fitting in with all this? Is it something we should actively pursue, or something to let happen passively? Maybe it happens automatically when you ignore what doesn’t fit your vision? In that case, is it better to let it go at its own pace, or is it beneficial to release resistance faster?
Hi Lisa,
Thanks so much for your comment. 🙂
If you’re truly able to ignore what doesn’t support your vision, then you are very quickly releasing resistance.
Chances are, it won’t be the easiest thing to do. That’s where the resistance comes in. Resistance is basically that which is in your reality, which does not support your inner vision. If there weren’t resistance, then your reality would be totally aligned with your vision, and there would be no doubt at all.
that’s why it’s a journey. It’s a journey of letting go of the unwanted and moving towards the wanted, day-by-day.
So if you can do that easily, there’s nothing else to do, really. But if it’s hard, then that’s where the resistance release techniques come in.
I hope that makes sense. 🙂
That is very helpful. So, if I’m understanding it right, then resistance is another form of inappropriate “activeness.” You’re actively clinging to the unwanted instead of letting it go. The solution is to be more passive (just let the unwanted slide on by without giving it too much attention), if possible. But sometimes (or perhaps most of the time) we’re rather fixated on the unwanted, and it’s tough to just ignore without repressing some negative emotion. In those times, it’s better to actively pursue releasing resistance with special techniques. (The techniques aren’t usually very “active” in the sense of taking a lot of time or effort, but they do take focus, and you may have to plan out ahead which ones to use and practice. So in that sense they are us being active rather than us being passive.) Does that sound right?
Right. Most releasing techniques are pretty passive to begin with, emphasizing surrender and acceptance. I’ve found it’s really a matter of letting go of resistance in degrees. You generally can’t do it all at once, so you do it little-by-little until it is gone. So in a sense that’s active, but it’s moving more and more towards surrender and letting go.