“Intention is the starting point of every dream” — Deepak Chopra

I will never forget the look of admiration and determination my youngest daughter had when she saw her big sister step up to the stage to be her class Valedictorian half-a-decade-ago. I, of course, was the beaming Mom in the first row with tears pouring down from pride.

My little one leaned over to me and said, “I will be Valedictorian too just like my sister.”

What I found interesting was the choice of words my little one used.

“I will be” were the words used — not “I want or would like.” To manifest anything in life, one must make a declared intention out loud with such confidence that the Universe can hear you.

What is the power of intention, or what some people call the law of attraction?

It is the magnetic power that occurs when you combine a clear intention with an elevated emotion that sets into motion the ability to manifest your thoughts, dreams, and beliefs. Many of us have used this power to attract the things we desire in life, but often we do it unconsciously.

We think of something, a desire or a dream pops into our minds and we obsess over it. We believe in it so wholeheartedly that we don’t see the obstacles. But it happens without us really understanding the mechanics or the intricacies of the power we just utilized.

So what does the story of my daughter have to do with the power of intention and manifestation?

EVERYTHING!

You may have heard people say, “You become what you think about,”

This expression is nearly true.  The part that is missing is that not only do you become what you think and believe on a consistent basis, but you also attract what you believe yourself worthy of having.

There are seven, time-proven steps you can do to tap into a higher power. What is call a higher power is often referred to as a Field that is alive and pulsating where all our dreams and desires already exist.

It’s up to you to communicate to that Field, to will your thoughts and dreams into reality. Nothing can be desired that does not already belong to us and nothing belonging in our hearts can exist without first existing in the Field.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Step 1– Becoming clear about what you want!

Be clear about what you want. Do you believe this is possible for you to achieve and do you feel you deserve it?

Noticed my words, I used the word ‘feel’ rather than ‘think’ because there is a big difference. Let me explain. Suppose your desired-thought is like a car. A car (thought) without gas cannot run and without running what good is a car?

The same is true of a thought.  So to make your thought work, to give it life, your thought needs to be fueled with energy. The energy for your thought is like fuel for a car. The elevated emotion you feel in your body about your dream, creates a feeling and that feeling is what gives your thought the energy to manifest. The feeling is the gas!

I’ll say this again.

Your feeling is the gas.

Without feeling the elevated emotion in your body, the thought of that dream will remain just a thought just like a car without gas remains just an object.

Belief and feeling are very similar and they work hand in hand to fuel your dreams. Believing your dream is possible and feeling that you are deserving of it are critical components of the law of manifestation.  For example, you may have a thought that winning the lottery would be nice, but you feel or believe that it will not really happen to you so you don’t buy the ticket. Do you think this will help you win the lottery?

The Quantum Field that we are all part of, reacts to what we feel inside.  This brings us to the second step.

Step 2–Believing you are Worthy of Receiving your Dream.

The Universe gives you what you think you are worthy of receiving.  If you think you want something, but you really don’t believe you can have it, what do you think is going to happen?

When I asked my little one if she believed she could be Valedictorian, she said, “Yes I believe in my heart that I am a great Valedictorian and that I deserve it.  I deserve to be Valedictorian because I believe in myself.”

Wow! Enough said.  My daughter was not only clear as to what her dream was, but she also believed that she had in her, the qualities to achieve her dream and better yet, she believed herself worthy of getting it.

Step 3 —Make an action plan.

The next step is to create a road map. How do you create a road map?

Ask yourself, what needs to happen for you to achieve your dream?

Write it down.

In the case of my daughter, she said, “I need to make my wishes and intention known amongst the people who have an influence over this. I would need to increase my marks and I  need to show leadership and involvement in all areas of the school.”

Most people often wish for things, but that is all they do —wish.  It’s like the lottery point and not buying the ticket. An intention without an action plan becomes nothing but daydreaming. Every dream needs to be accompanied by action that moves you in the direction of your dream.

We may not be able to make something happen right away, but you can welcome it and stay open to the frequency and energy of your dream. When you do that, the Universe goes to work to find the means.  So while the conditions for your dream to happen may not all be there at the moment, you can be the magnet that attracts them.

This goes for anything that you wish for. The facts and conditions may tell you that you can’t go after your dreams —you don’t have enough money to start that business, you can’t quit your job because you have dependents, you don’t have the talent, you don’t have the smarts … etc.

People often discount a different source of power. As Mary Morrissey said, “People like Steve Jobs, Einstein and Edison and any other inventor that changed the world know that the mind they created their dream in has the means to bring it to reality that the facts and conditions don’t yet know about.”

If you are serious about manifesting your dreams you can’t get paralyzed by what your current conditions dictate. So how do you begin? By asking yourself what you can do today with what you have now to move you in the direction of your dream while remaining in the frequency of positivity.

My daughter decided that she could communicate her intention to the principal and her teachers right at the start of the school year and ask for advice as to what she needed to do to achieve her dream. This is important because, although my daughter was not fully aware, in communicating her intention to her teachers, she was actually making a declaration to the Field where all possibilities reside.

When you declare out loud your intention, you set in motion the emotions and feelings that fuel your thoughts with enough energy power that pulls the tools necessary to accomplish your desires.

It’s like magic — your brain starts to work and begins to pull from its power reservoir and tries to match the frequency that is being put out in that desire. In other words, it will find the means to match the desired object. It will find the HOW! As Einstein said, “… Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality.”

Did my daughter have all the conditions when she conceived of her dream? Of course not.  But she did what she could with what she had in the moment and took a leap of faith that each step would take her one step closer to achieving her dream.

Now my daughter had a clear idea of the things, values and qualities she needed to exhibit and have in place for her to achieve her goal.  She felt that with this information and knowledge she now had a road map to follow.

You’re now ready for the next step.

Step 4 —Embodying and Becoming your Desire.

The minute you make a commitment to yourself to achieve your dream, you must become your desire. This means you let it take life inside of you. You must feel a sense of purpose and responsibility. In the case of my daughter, she began to act in a manner that matched the qualities of a Valedictorian even though she had no guarantee that she would be chosen.

You cannot wait for something outside of yourself to change what you must feel inside. For example, you don’t wait to work extra hard until you get that promotion you want. You don’t wait to feel abundant until your wealth has arrived. You don’t wait to embrace living until you feel healed. You don’t wait to be declared Valedictorian to suddenly become an A-student.

My daughter didn’t wait to be named Valedictorian to exhibit leadership and team spirit.  Instead, my daughter volunteered, became a House Head representative and carried herself as if she already was the person she wanted to become.

I asked my daughter to bring her cell phone to a school field trip in case of an emergency and she told me it was not allowed.  I told her she could keep in her bag at all times and only use it if there was an emergency. She responded that she couldn’t because she needed to be an example and if she was caught having it, it wouldn’t look good for her Valedictorian aspirations.

So it is clear that my little one assumed the role in her essence before the event even manifested and although she did not have all the conditions at the moment in place, she truly believed that it was possible for her to achieve her goal. She was able to connect and be excited about a future event here and now. She trusted that a greater power was at work organizing her creation to manifest.

If you want to manifest, you must become ‘your desire’ long before this one manifest.  You need to set clear action-goals and self-check points on a consistent basis to track your progress. For example, my daughter set a goal for each term to achieve nothing lower than an -A.  When her first term report card came in, she didn’t hit her goal in music.  Instead of getting discouraged, she once more went to her teacher and asked for extra help and made the adjustments necessary.

Instead of coming home after school to relax, she locked herself in her room and didn’t come out until her work was done.  She knew she had to bring her music mark up and she rehearsed her clarinet. And when my little one was done practicing on her clarinet, she practiced more because this is what a Valedictorian does.

That is what you need to do.  You need to be relentless and unapologetic about your goals.

Step 5–Mentally Rehearsing and Feeling you Already Have your Dream

The brain thinks in pictures, not words. The more detail your picture is, the better. As I mentioned earlier, creating the feeling is essential because the Field communicates and mirrors back to you what you feel inside and the best way to create the energy necessary is through your heart. I love the way Gregg Braden says it, “What we choose to experience in our lives, we must first feel in our heart.”

The heart is the strongest electrical and a magnetic generator there is and it creates a wave that communicates with the divine. So I advise that you spend time with your eyes closed, and to put your hand on your heart and imagine as detailed as possible what would it feel like if your dream had already happened.

Scientists now confirm that the brain doesn’t know the difference of an event that is being produced by thought alone or an event that is happening for real outside of the body. But for that to occur, the mental picture needs to feel real. So you need to engage as many of your senses as possible. Visualize already having your dream accomplished.

For example, I would ask my daughter to imagine with as much detail as possible what she was wearing, what time a day it was when she gets called into the office, the words told to her and the emotions she felt when she is told she has been chosen. “Are you smiling, are you jumping up and down with joy, what are the emotions you’re feeling, joy, pride, excitement, are your hands cold or sweaty? Can you see yourself up on the stage being called to get your plaque? Can you see us in the audience? Can you see my tears of joy and pride?

The purpose of the exercise is for you to learn to truly connect to a future event that your body and mind can experience in the present moment just as real as if the event was actually happening. When you can feel in your body and heart that you already have it, you become a magnet for miracles. This mental rehearsing of feeling and creating your dream should be done as often as you can while you lie in bed for three minutes to create the blueprint of your dream.

Step 6–Giving Gratitude as if it Has Already Happened.

The sixth step is to give thanks for the future you are creating in your mind as if the event has already happened. The minute you give gratitude for something, it tells the Field that the event has happened and this one acts as a mirror that reflects back to you what you feel in the moment.  So the act of giving thanks for already having that which you don’t have, pulls it from the Quantum Field where all the possibilities exist in energy form and you now, as the observer and creator, can manifest them into physical matter.

Every time you give thanks in advance, your energy goes into a high frequency because you are focusing on abundance, love, appreciation rather than lack. When you do this, it is important not just to ‘want’ or ‘ask’ for something because the Field is a literal mirror and the minute you ‘ask’ or you say you ‘want’ something, it communicates to the Field that you don’t have it. Instead of giving life to your dream, you give power to the lack and what the Field mirrors back to you, is more lack!

So it was important for my daughter to truly believe that her dream was already on its way to her because it had already happened in the Field and all she needed was to will it to manifestation through her hard work, her ability to stay in the frequency of her dream and to truly feel the gratitude for the process she was undertaking. I would always say to her, “Believe that is already yours and say thank you in advance.”

Step 7– Surrendering the Outcome

The last step is a difficult one for all of us. I have learned that as important as it is to plan and strive for your dreams, it is equally important to relinquish the attachment to the outcome and trust that everything that is happening, is happening for your highest and greatest good.

A week before the school would make a decision, my baby asked me in bed, “Mommy, if I don’t get Valedictorian, are you going to be disappointed in me?”

I looked at her and reassured her that I could never be disappointed in her.” Valedictorian or not, I am already so so proud of you and no matter what happens, YOU ARE MY VALEDICTORIAN!”

When you have done all you can with what you have and you have exhausted all your options, you must understand that you have done your part and that the rest, is now up to the Universe.

Self evaluate yourself by asking, “Have I done all I could to move closer to my dream?”

“Have I stayed in the frequency of my dream?”

Have I visualized and felt with every emotion what it would be like to have my dream already manifested?

“Have I given gratitude in advance”?

If you have answered “Yes” to all those questions, then, you have done your part. Now you have to let go and trust that what is yours will flow to you and worrying will not help.  It will only pull you away from the high vibration you have been working so hard to stay on.  What will be, will be and all you can do now is wait and be happy for what you have accomplished regardless of the outcome.”

If you don’t achieve your dream in spite of all your efforts and steps, then understand that the Universe knows best what is meant for you and something better will come.

My advice to you is not to lose sight of all the things you have accomplished as a byproduct of your efforts.  My daughter transformed herself into a leader, into an “A” student and learned to have the courage to go after dreams. I reminded my daughter that these things will stay with her for the rest of life and be useful for her in the future. So the way I saw it, she had already won and the Valedictorian would be nothing but gravy.

My little one nodded her head in agreement.  I could see my daughter was deep in thought when she said, “I will be sad if I am not Valedictorian, but I will be happy if one of my other two friends win because they also deserve to be Valedictorians.”

“How beautiful.” I thought to myself. “My work is done here.” My little girl understood the true meaning of being grateful and the grace of acceptance by her unselfish act of being happy for one her friends in the event she did not get it.

How does the story end?

On June 13, 2019, my beautiful manifester addressed her class as their Valedictorian and my little girl’s dream indeed came true. So there I was, once more, in the front row.  I was the Mom beaming with pride and tears in her eyes as my little girl honored for the last time the place that had been her home away from home for most of her life.

The recognition my daughter received was a true testament of her efforts, but the true measure of my daughter’s success did not come in any of the awards she received.  The true measure of this beautiful girl’s success was in her having the courage to not only dream, but in loving her dream enough to will it into existence.

It is my hope that the steps my Emma followed will be useful for you and remember that nothing is impossible to a willing heart.

With Gratitude,