Remember This Most Important Factor When Manifesting

When you're making your vision board, meditating, journaling, or talking to your therapist—what are the main things you're trying to attract and change? Financial abundance? Greater confidence? Having better relationships (romantic or platonic)? Whatever you're trying to achieve, I think the most important thing to remember when manifesting is: how are you going to give back?

So often I hear about and see vision boards on Pinterest or YouTube about houses, cars, bags, and shoes we want, without much description on what we want to give back to others. Sure, it's nice to have nice things (and it's absolutely ok to want and have nice things), but don't let that be the only thing that drives you; it'll lead to a dead end once you receive it, and will leave you feeling empty and chasing after more. What we all need to focus on is what our long-term goals will do for our loved ones, community, church—whatever or whoever you want to give back to.

I'll give you an example. For me, I know I want to have financial freedom through a successful and meaningful career. When I'm thinking about the money I'll make through this career, my main focus is how my financial freedom will benefit my family. I want to buy my parents their own homes, cars, and pay off their student loans; I want to set up college funds for my little sisters and nephews; I want to give my siblings their own places to live and whatever money they need to help make their careers and ambitions thrive. I'm constantly thinking of what I want to give them, and asking them every now and then something like: "If I had $250,000, what would be the first 3 things you'd want me to give you?" Then I write down their answers and read over them every week to remind me why I want to be financially abundant.

How you want to give is totally up to you and varies from person to person. You could be like me and want to give to your family, or maybe you want to give back to your community and renovate the local parks; donate to a local homeless shelter; or build a new library. Maybe you want to do something nationwide that will benefit children, the elderly, low-income families, etc. Maybe you want to start a charity that helps find homes for abandoned/injured animals; provides scholarships for at-risk teens; or builds wells for clean water in poor countries. Whatever you want to give back, make it really mean something to you and your values.

And don't be hard on yourself for wanting things for yourself, too! Like I said, it's ok to want to treat yourself when manifesting; of course take into account how you want to benefit from what you manifested. And it doesn't have to be material either; you could want to be more spiritual and want to be more present in the world; maybe you want to travel more because you never got to as a child and want to experience new cultures; or maybe you want to get some work done to fix a physical feature that impedes your confidence level—it's completely up to you. But always remember the crucial factor of giving back.

Good luck in your manifestation journey; believe that everything you want is here for you, and it will come to you sooner than you realize.