Manifrustration?

You've watched the Secret.

You've read Seth.

You've listened to Abraham.

You've been hypnotized, released, reiki'd, channelled, seminared, quantumed, NLPd and ascended to the point of exhaustion.

You've got affirmations taped to everything and if you are stuck in line for five minutes, you close your eyes and picture your perfect life. You're festooned with magic jewelry, your desk has more crystals and geodes than the geology departments of some small universities and your bookshelves look like the shipping facility at Hay House. You could shingle your roof with the amount of CDs and DVDs you've bought on the subject (and you might as well!)

And you've had successes - you've manifested parking spots, pennies on the ground and blue feathers galore.

And yet - the big stuff, the big changes - they never seem to happen. You see a lot of driftwood, a lot of cars in the next door neighbor's driveway, but it never seems to come to you.

Here are two possibilities:

1. You haven't yet found the right tools to make the changes you want to make, or


2. You don't really want to change.

If it's 2 - that's great! Maybe your life doesn't suck as much as you assume it does. Maybe there would be a real downside for you if you suddenly had Paris Hilton's money or Bill Gates' business empire. Maybe there's something to be said for your own un-mega non-spectacular home, family, car and job that's delicate, precious and worth more to you than the things that society and the mass media have convinced you that you ought to want instead.

Maybe you're afraid that, given the monkey's paw, your wishes would all have horrible consequences that you can't possibly forsee, but you just know they're lurking over the horizon. After all, it's in all the stories. No wish is ever fulfilled without a Terrible Price.

The genie bottle is always Pandora's box, isn't it? At least in the fictional world. Thank goodness that 1 is also true- you don't have that magic wishing dust! Phew! Crisis averted! Yeah, you almost ruined your life, but no worries, there's no way you could make your wishes come true anyway.

And as long as that's true, you'll always be protected from the possibility of making a Bad Wish and changing everything. And we all know that change always leads to disaster.

So... great! Don't read any further. Go back to wishing for something that can make your wishes come true, and if there's any possibility that that could actually happen, make sure to completely forget about it as soon as you figure it out. It's too much power for any one human being to have.

Do not take a look at this deceptively named little system! (and if you do go read about it, for heavens' sake, don't take me up on the offer to get $20 off if you pay by credit card or this other link that gives you $20 off if you pay by PayPal. After all, there's a money-back guarantee, so you might be tempted to try the system, you know, to show good faith before you go get your money back, and it might work for you, and then where would you be?)

Don't take the chance that you might have actually found a system that works, because then you might change something! And who are you to change your life? Hmmm? How can you possibly know what you want, and even if you do, how can you trust yourself to know that it's something you should want?

Better go back to wishing for more wishes, rather than actually using a wish...

Wishin', and Hopin', and Thinkin', and Prayin'

Sorry if I've earwormed you! But believe it or not, this cute and somewhat silly song has an important message about what works and what doesn't that applies to manifestation and cosmic ordering.

Though the song is about romance, the principle applies in a wider sense as well.

And it is this: wishing, hoping, thinking, praying, planning and dreaming do not work. If you only do these things, you will not get that thing you are wishing, hoping, thinking, praying, planning and dreaming of.

The song goes on to recommend holding, kissing, squeezing, and loving. For many of your manifesting projects, these actions may not be the, um, most appropriate.

But the idea is the same. You have to stop wishing, hoping, thinking, praying, planning and dreaming, and "just do it!"

Wait a minute - am I now telling you to go slog through some torturous, suffer-making action?

Well, not really - at least, not the sort of unhelpful action you are used to business gurus telling you to go do. I don't mean you have to ton on the cold calls or do tedious detailed goal-setting or any of the myriad of Actions That Don't Work. I also don't advise you to literally follow all the advice in the song exactly. For instance, "You gotta show him that you care just for him / Do the things that he likes to do / Wear your hair just for him" - oh please!

Metaphorically, though, it works. The advice is to become the person that the "him" in the song will want. In the more expanded view of your whole life, though, you need to become the person who has the life you intend.

Note I don't say "the life you want", "the life you wish for", or "your dream life."

For instance, say you want a glass of water. If you just want it, you will never get it. But you don't just wish for a glass of water, you go get it. You don't pray you will get up and get it, you just go do it.

It's a simplistic example, but the steps are essentially the same. When you want a glass of water, first you decide you will get it. You set your intent. You go to where drinking glasses are and you get one. You take it to where the water is and you get the water. You drink the water.

Without the decision, you will just sit there. Without the intent, you may wander into the kitchen, forget the water and eat a cookie instead. Without the appropriate action, you will never actually drink the water. But once you've made the decision and set your intent, the appropriate action becomes obvious, or at least fairly clear.

Even if you ask someone else to get it, you still have to decide to ask that person, and then actually do the asking.

You may be alone in a friend's house - still, you can make a good guess as to where there are glasses and where you can get water.

You might be outside in a strange town. Still, with a little research, you can find a place to get water; a street vendor, a store, maybe a park with a drinking fountain. You might have to ask someone for help or directions, but if you're intent on getting that water you will find a way.

But if you just stand there on the street corner wishing, will you get it? Not likely.

Changing your life, of course, is a bigger and more complicated task, but the principle is the same. You have to decide what that next phase of your life will be, then start living it. Once you decide, really decide, and really intend that new life path, the next actions will be a lot more obvious.

Wishing, hoping, thinking, and praying won't get you there. Deciding, intending, commanding and being... will.