Why I don’t believe in manifesting your 2024 goals
I made a post recently on Instagram that I was honestly scared to share, and it ended up being one of my ”best performing posts” in quite some time on the ‘gram.
But more than that, it was one of the most freeing posts I had shared in a long time. I shared what I truly thought about something, a controversial take, and to my surprise, there were so many people that voiced their support of how I felt.
You can watch the video above, but what I shared was my thoughts regarding the concept of manifestation. This seems to be a SUPER popular buzz word or practice (if you want to call it that) not just in the small business world but in our culture in general.
I hesitated to share about my take on this subject at first because, as I shared in my caption, I have many dear friends in this space on Instagram that not only talk about manifestation, but they full believe in its power. I shared my stance on this not with an intent to ostracize anyone, but with the goal to share my heart’s conviction.
Manifestation will not help you reach your goals. It will not grow your small business. It is filled with empty promises. It’s a marketing tactic many coaches use to promise you six figure results. It’s a false god. It’s a void you’ll never fill.
Before you click away, could you just give me a moment to share?
Regardless of what you believe, christian or not, I think many of us believe everything happens for a reason. But we don’t all agree on the source of that. I believe everything happens for a reason because we have a creator that has orchestrated it all, not because I willed it to happen.
To say it bluntly, I think it’s awfully presumptuous to think that we can will things to happen. That we could speak things into existence. That we possess a god-like quality that would allow us to speak and make it come to fruition by our own strength. I love being confident, but are we really this powerful? Do you really believe we’re this capable? Why?
When you look around and see al the destruction, pain, unfulfilled hopes, unrealized dreams, do you still believe in our own strength? Our own power? I sure don’t.
I don’t have to look very far to see my helplessness.
The times where I’ve attempted in my own strivings to take control of a situation, to fix it on my own, to speed up the timeline when I foolishly felt like God wasn’t acting, wasn’t interceding, I failed miserably.
There’s not much else I can say to explain that part other than to say that when you’ve had a personal encounter with God where he so clearly shows you how badly you need him, and then by his grace you DO choose to cling to him, and you experience the peace, comfort and joy that comes with it, even in the midst of chaos, there’s no other way to see this, other than to accept our weakness. And our weakness is a testimony to his strength.
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
So with that foundation laid, here’s why I can’t get down with manifestation:
When you’re trying to grow a small business, it’s difficult to know who to trust or look to for guidance.
I’ve seen courses all about manifesting your small business dreams and tapping into “your own power” to grow your business. And while I think it’s important to have confidence as a small business owner, I think where that confidence comes from is important.
If my small business was entirely up to me, if I was the one in control of my life, if I had the power to make things happen by speaking it, putting it out into the universe and claiming it as my own, I think I would have wrecked my life and my business a long time ago.
I have peace when I go to bed at night in my business even in the midst of big scary decisions because I know the one who’s in control and it sure as heck ain’t me and I praise God for that.
I believe in the God who spoke the world into existence, who in the beginning was the Word. I don’t believe in my power to speak my goals into existence or manifest my dreams. Nor do I want to. There are so many things I have gone after, opportunities I’ve wanted that if I had in fact manifested these opportunities, claimed them as my own and spoke them into existence, I would have felt immediate regret. The Lord has spared me from so many things I thought I wanted.
I’m so grateful to serve a God that says no to things and takes opportunities away from me not because he wants to punish me but because he LOVES me. The doors he would later open for me were well worth the wait.
Some real life examples of this….
Relationships I wanted to work out that didn’t.
Internships I applied for, wanted desperately, and didn’t get.
Full time jobs I applied for after college, and didn’t get.
I graduated college right before covid happened. When I wasn’t getting any job offers, I actually decided maybe I might try to do my business on the side while working as an assistant to a local influencer with a large audience. In the moment, I thought I wanted that position so badly. She ultimately ended up deciding to not hire an assistant, and I was crushed.
I thought this was going to work out. Why did you take this away from me?
At the time, I thought this opportunity would have been a dream. But as time would pass, I soon came to realize what a nightmare that would have been. I didn’t actually want to be in charge of making clothing returns for an influencer after all her try on hauls. I would have been ready to quit within two weeks.
I struggled hard with knowing what would be next. I waited and searched for employment for three months after graduating before finding the next step in my career. I was working as an intern at an advertising agency when I graduated, searching for other full time opportunities.
After graduating, I stayed at the company I interned with where I was told my title was changed to “Communications Management Assistant” but with “intern status”, which meant I was working 9-5, five days a week, doing full-time work but with hourly pay and no benefits. It’s safe to say I got to a point where I wasn’t too concerned with being a model employee there anymore, and I felt free to leave before 5pm on the days when I finished my work early.
I finally got hired onto a corporate marketing team for a recruiting company in March of 2023. I lived to please my boss at this job. I was a little bit of a teacher’s pet in school (depending on the teacher) and this habit followed into adult life. Was it being a teacher’s pet or was it just people pleasing? Probably a little bit of both. But while I was extremely happy with the salary I was offered when I first got hired, I quickly grew impatient when a year passed and no raise came, not even a cost of living raise. And it wasn’t that I was expecting a raise just for showing up to work each day. I expected a raise because I knew I was going above and beyond.
Another year was about to pass, and I still hadn’t received a raise. I quickly began to look at the future feeling like the world was caving on in me. I didn’t see a path to grow at the company in my current position, and I didn’t actually feel like anybody was too concerned with helping me figure out path there was to carve. Which is fine, everybody is worried about themselves anyways, and this is natural in the workplace, I don’t fault anyone for that. The only person that’s looking out for you at work is you and the Lord. The only person that’s going to advocate for you in the boardroom is you. Don’t look to your boss hoping for them to have your back. This was the jaded corporate life lesson I was starting to learn.
Outside of this though, there’s a bigger picture. An advocate I can actually count on. Someone that was interceding on my behalf, and has been interceding for me since the day I was born.
Romans 8:34 says Jesus “is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
1 John 2:1 points us to Jesus as our “advocate with the Father.”
Hebrews 7:25 says that Jesus “always lives to intercede” for us.
It’s WILD to me when I’m reminded that every day I wake up, no matter what battle is set before me, I have someone interceding for me, without fail. And it’s a free invitation to this every day, for everyone.
The raise I was striving for never really came. I think I tried everything I could to get that raise. And when my boss finally decided to address it, I had already been interviewing with another company and had an offer on the table I was ready to accept.
I remember my boss sharing with me what the raise was as she described it as “a nice little bump for the new year”. Y’all, I will literally never forget hearing that. At the time, my business was starting to pick up speed, and this bump was so little, it felt insulting.
It was an immediate no from me, and truthfully, the company I had been interviewing with had offered me something better and it had better benefits, and not just typical benefits, but things like being able to work remotely the majority of the week. It was a no brainer for me, and I was ready to move on.
Looking back, I think the Lord did me a kindness that the raise I wanted never really came, and when it kind of did, it was full of disappointment. Had it happened the way I wanted it to, I’m not sure how long it would have taken for me to get out of this company, and I know I certainly wouldn’t have been able to grow my business alongside this job the way I was able to in the following year.
The next role I took on came with a lot more manageable of a workload. What I was doing before was quite a lot, and whether or not anybody wanted to admit that, the fact that after I left, my previous employer then hired more than one person to fill the role that I was doing entirely on my own, is proof that it was a lot for one person.
This next role came with a lot of flexibility in my schedule, and working from home meant that when I finished all my work for the day, I was waiting by my computer in case anybody needed anything, and there were definitely times when I whipped out my ipad to finish up a couple things for my business here and there during lunch, in between meetings or maybe at 4pm when everybody was wrapping up for the day and there wasn’t much going on with our slack channel.
Once my business started getting in the way of my performance at my full time job though, I knew I couldn’t continue. There were several reasons why I quit my job to go full time with my business. But honestly, even just out of respect for my current employer, I had to quit. It was starting to affect my work performance. My brain was so overloaded I couldn’t remember details, couldn’t stay on top of tasks. It had already been quite some time that my physical and mental health was being affected by my workload, but this was of no fault of my last employer. I’m not saying this company was perfect, but I know they were good people, doing good things and doing their best. It was simply just time for me to move on to the next chapter so I could pursue my business full time.
No matter where I went, no matter what job I took, I ultimately always felt the same way. Some of the companies I worked with were better than others, some bosses were toxic, some were not. But regardless, I was always unhappy. I wanted to create for a living, and I wanted to do things my way, I didn’t want a boss breathing down my neck every day.
Being content in your season is a popular phrase in christian culture. I made it out of that season, but I was never content in it. I wish I could say I had been, but contentment in the midst of a sucky season is still not something I’ve been able to master. I wish I could tell you that I was content with my circumstances and I had a good christian attitude even when I didn’t love what I was doing, but that’s just not true. I tried my best, but I failed a lot. But Christ still had grace and mercy for me.
My goal at this last job was to be there for five years. If I believed in manifestation, this is what I would have “claimed” for my life.
Work here for five years.
Get pregnant at 27 or 28.
Quit my job.
Then go full time with my business.
Could you imagine if manifestation were a real power, and I actually made that happen? If I had actually spoken that and willed it into existence? I would have missed out on so many beautiful blessings the Lord was about to bring my way.
About 10 months in, I saw that my 5-year plan here wasn’t going to be possible. One of the people I really felt like I joined the company for had resigned, and from there, things just went down hill for me. She brought so much joy to my day, as did others at this company. But after this particular person left, doubts creeped in. There had been a lot of turnover, nothing seemed steady and I kept wondering, why. Are other people seeing things I’m not seeing?
With those thoughts aside though, I wanted to push through and be the calm in the storm for everyone. My helper nature kicked in and I honestly just wanted to fix it for people. I wanted to take on more responsibility. I was suited to being a project manager. I really got a lot of enjoyment out of simply helping people manage their days and their responsibilities. I loved being the person that could come in and just make things easier for others.
But I also love to create. I love doing things on my own. I love painting, drawing, sketching. I love making things beautiful. I wasn’t doing any of that in this role.
I remember having to have a life mapping session for four hours and while it was valuable, I went into it heavily guarded and with a jaded attitude. I don’t usually enjoy things like this in a corporate setting. I didn’t like showing my hand to people or having to get deep about goals and things I want, because I feared it would be used against me. This particular employer never would have done anything like that, but my past experiences with other companies still gave me that fear.
During this life mapping session, I also found that the only thing I truly wanted to talk about was my business. But I felt like I couldn’t and it wouldn’t have been appropriate, because this session was really to help us with mapping out our goals for the position we were in at this company, not necessarily so we could map out how we were going to LEAVE this company. I also felt quite a degree of discomfort because I knew whatever my results were, they were going to be reported back to my boss.
It almost felt like going to a therapy session but instead of confidentiality, you know your counselor is going to go report it back to your parents. How willing would you be to actually share?
Part of breaking through from my people pleasing was quitting this job. I almost didn’t do it just because I didn’t want to upset anyone. The reason I didn’t do it sooner was for others. not for myself.
Finally in November of 2024, I worked up the courage to quit. I was planning on waiting until the end of the month or even December, but I remember one Monday, walking in and looking around and I thought to myself “I just can’t.” I felt like the life was being sucked out of me. And again, this was no fault of my employer’s. It just REALLY sucked not doing what I TRULY wanted to do. I just wasn’t where I was supposed to be. Couple that with a client saying something to me and a superior during my final days there in regards to what their goal was for their social media (that we were helping them with) that REALLY grieved my spirit, I was just ready to get out and be done.
Going full time with my business in 2022 was a complete surprise.
I remember saying to my last employer during the interview, “I want this job.” And I was telling the truth, I really did. And while I did get the job, it just wasn’t part of God’s plan for me to stay there for long.
So what’s the point of my long winded story?
If I had had it my way, things never would have happened like this.
If I had it my way, I wouldn’t have gone full time with my business yet.
If I had it my way, my life would look a lot different. It would be wrecked.
God had a better way for me when I looked to things I thought I wanted. He gently corrected me, he saw the greater plan when I didn’t.
Even if you do believe in manifestation, why would you want it? Why would you want to do it? Why would you want to be in control of your life when you’re not even powerful enough to see how badly you’ll wreck it?
If I was in control of my life, it would be in shambles.
I’ll forever take Jesus’ way any day, even when I don’t understand it and even when its hard.
Lastly….the excerpt from my Instagram post.
I have a bunch of goals written up for 2024. I want to pray about them and leave the rest up to God. I’ll do my best to make it happen, celebrate when he opens doors in this new year, and have peace when he closes them.
So that’s why I’m not manifesting anything for my business, because I don’t believe that I’m an all powerful being that can speak my dreams into existence. I believe that God will equip me for what he’s called me to, and guide me when he’s leading me away from things I thought I wanted.
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Hi there, I’m Sophie! I’m a graphic designer specializing in small business branding + illustration, custom squarespace website design, small business marketing and I’m an educator for creative entrepreneurs. I’m so glad you’re here!