Why You Struggle to Manifest Your Big Desires
Is it really as easy to manifest a big desire as a small one?
First, let’s turn to the meaning of big desire. What is a big desire? We all intuitively know that a text message, a free cup of coffee, or seeing our dream car from afar don’t qualify as one. But where do small end and big start when it comes to desires?
For some, manifesting ten thousand dollars is a huge deal. For others, ten thousand dollars is pocket money. Similarly, for a man who is 5’7”, growing five more inches will mean a lot more than for a guy who is already 6’2” tall.
We must keep in mind that no success story exists in a vacuum. Every manifestation is inherently linked to a person, a human being. Focusing only on a specific manifestation – without looking into the person who is manifesting – could be misleading and detrimental to your own manifestation journey.
For example, suppose you read a success story about someone who just won a million dollars by visualizing for a week. You happily acknowledge that one must not necessarily work for money and decide to manifest the same. So you start visualizing. A week passes by. Then two. Three. Four. Five. And your one million dollars still hasn’t hit your bank account. You are growing impatient.
Ultimately, after visualizing for two months without any tangible results, you succumb to defeat. Now, you question others’ success stories. Even worse, you question if imagination does create reality. All because you couldn’t manifest a million dollars in a similar fashion as the person who posted the success story. But could you have done it in the first place?
The manifesting community often stresses that your circumstances don’t matter and anyone can manifest anything. This sentiment, however, is only a half-truth. Your circumstances do matter when it comes to your manifesting speed and efficiency.
Why? Because your current circumstances are in fact the crystallized version of your current beliefs. Your external, physical reality always mirrors back to you the beliefs you hold onto internally. And in that sense, your current circumstances – aka your current beliefs – do make a difference in the matter of realizing your specific desires. Especially when you are dealing with the big, important ones.
For instance, it is easy to manifest winning a million dollars for someone who has never been in debt, who has always been provided for, and who has already won some money – or some other material thing – in his life. That person already has beneficial, supporting beliefs regarding wealth and security.
Thus, he has little to no evidence stored in his belief system that would oppose the attainment of this desire. In other words, he has no pre-existing beliefs getting in the way of the feeling of naturalness when it comes to receiving a large amount of money in a fortunate manner.
Conversely, it is no coincidence that you cannot instantly manifest a million dollars, if you have never experienced financial security, you have always struggled with money, and you have never won anything before. No matter how much you want to deny it, your previous life experiences reveal that you have unfavorable beliefs concerning money and prosperity. And all the opposing beliefs currently engraved in your subconscious will make it difficult for you to reach the feeling of naturalness regarding such a huge amount of money.
Of course, that does not mean you should give up on the million dollars. But you do need to realize and come to terms with the fact that in order to manifest this desire, your subconscious will also have to re-write your unfavorable beliefs regarding money. And in most cases, this re-writing – or re-wiring – does take time.
In light of the above, when it comes to desires, the adjective ‘big’ should not refer to size but rather to the impact on one’s life. Did the realization transform the manifesting person’s life or it did not have such a dramatic effect?
Going back to the examples given in the beginning, receiving an extra ten thousand dollars will not change Jeff Bezos’ life. Heck, he probably would not even notice it! But what if the ten thousand dollars was manifested by someone who owes two months’ rent? The same amount of money no longer seems insignificant, does it?
Therefore, let’s rephrase our initial question as to
“whether manifesting life-transforming desires is just as easy as manifesting
the ones that don’t fundamentally change our lives?”
In short, the answer is a resounding no. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise if you ever spent some time on a forum dealing with manifesting. The posts reporting trivial successes always outnumber the ones with meaningful victories. And that’s no coincidence.
Realizing insignificant stuff is easy for three reasons: (1) you don’t need to change your belief system; (2) you don’t need to be persistent and (3) you don’t need to be consistent. Now, let’s discuss these reasons one by one.
Reason #1: Realizing a small desire doesn’t require you to change your belief system.
How many times have you manifested a phone call from a loved one after a fleeting thought? A hundred? A thousand? And how many times have you manifested a lottery jackpot? It surely crossed your mind at least once!
For most of us, it is normal to receive a phone call from someone we know. But winning the lottery? That’s uncharted territory. So what stops the mind from manifesting a jackpot or other life-changing desires?
Three words: opposing preexisting beliefs.
As discussed earlier, we do not manifest in a vacuum. By the time we learn about conscious manifesting, we have already assumed hundreds of different things about ourselves and the world around us. These old assumptions had ample time to get cemented in our minds, and thus, in our reality. In essence, these old assumptions graduated from being mere thoughts to core beliefs running our lives. The problem? Our earlier assumptions – aka our beliefs – often clash with our new, preferred assumptions.
For example, having believed that money is hard to get for years will make manifesting a lottery jackpot an uphill battle. (But not an impossible one! Everything can be overcome by patience and consistency.) Because how can I get easy money, if money is difficult to obtain? Obviously, the mind needs to choose between these two opposing beliefs. And it does choose. The same way all the time. It will go with the most dominant one. It will go with the one you fed it with the most.
Now, when it comes to small desires, there is no “clash of beliefs” in people’s minds. Again, under small desires, we understand desires that do not transform one’s life. Something that is small for person A could be huge for person B, and vice versa. Let’s see how this plays out in real life.
Adam is a 17-year-old. He is already 6’3” but he wants to be 6’6” tall. In the last two years, his family members often commented on his height and started referring to him as the giant one. Adam also towers over all his classmates.
Bob is 28 years old. He is only 5’4” and was often bullied as Bobby the Shortie. He also blames his height. for his unsuccessful love life and his inability to secure lead roles as an actor. His dream is to be at least 6’2” tall.
Who do you think will manifest his desired height faster? Adam, who already thinks of himself as someone tall, or Bob, whose whole identity revolves around his short height? The obvious answer is Adam. But somehow this is not obvious to everyone. Therein lies the biggest problem of the manifesting community.
Too many are selling the lie that notwithstanding your current circumstances you can manifest anything instantly. Now, if that was true, ask yourself why not all the manifesting gurus live in their dream mansion, drive their dream car, have a killer body, an amazing love life, and a successful career besides selling manifesting courses? Why they cannot manifest these five simple items in 5 days? Or in 5 weeks? Or even in 5 months? Most of them are in the manifesting business for a lot longer…But that is a topic for another day.
Let’s go back to Bob and Adam.
Based on his current circumstances, Adam has already formed the belief that he is a tall guy. This belief was strengthened every time a family member commented on his height, and every time he talked to his shorter classmates. As we can see, his desire is basically to go from tall to taller.
Bob, on the other hand, formed the belief that he is the short one. His belief was reinforced by his bullies. To make things worse, he derived additional beliefs from his short height. He believes that he cannot have a great relationship because he is short.
He also believes that he cannot land a lead acting role because – newsflash – he is short. Plus, he bought into the belief that guys stop growing after the age of 21. His mind is literally consumed by thoughts of his inadequate height and his desire is to go from short to tall. Now that is what we call a tall order!
Clearly, Adam can manifest his desire quickly and easily by taking advantage of his pre-existing belief of being tall. Conversely, Bob will have a harder time with this desire as his mind needs a lot more convincing, and a serious re-wiring regarding his height and general thoughts on growing.
As Matthew 25:29 says, “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”
Reason #2: Realizing a small desire doesn’t require you to be persistent.
According to the dictionary, being persistent means continuing firmly or obstinately in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.
As discussed, in the world of manifesting, your opposition comes in the form of preexisting beliefs. If you do not have any opposing preexisting beliefs concerning your desires, your job is easy. That is when visualizing once or twice is enough. That is when jotting your desire down in a journal a couple of times is more than sufficient. That is when fleeting thoughts manifest.
Unfortunately, for most people, this only covers the trivia of life. Texts, calls, butterflies, cups of coffee, insignificant amounts of money, etc. And while manifesting trivia could be fun, it is nowhere near as fulfilling as manifesting a life-changing desire.
Reason #3: Realizing a small desire doesn’t require you to be consistent.
Being consistent means acting in the same way over time. In the case of small desires, there is no need for too much consistency because they manifest instantly or relatively quickly. Why? Because there is no opposition to fight with, no preexisting beliefs to overwrite.
Conversely, big desires always involve one or more opposing preexisting beliefs. That is exactly why we deem them big and that is also why they seem longer to manifest. It is no coincidence that Neville recommends repeating the same scene or sentence over and over again and sticking to it until it manifests.
In summary, manifesting a big – life-transforming – desire is nowhere near as easy as manifesting a small one. You need to be patient, you need to be persistent, and you need to be consistent.
Another key takeaway is that one cannot train for manifesting big desires by manifesting small ones. They do not require the same manifesting skill set. While manifesting trivia is a fun way to remind yourself of your power, it is not sufficient to master patience, persistence, and consistency to realize your biggest desires.