When manifesting your dream life, is it better to know exactly where you want to go, or to surrender to the universe and go with the flow?

You may have heard thought leaders talk about one way being better than the other. But I actually think it could go both ways. Manifesting your dream life is going to look different for everyone and there are benefits to having a clear cut vision as well as being open to different possibilities and surrendering to opportunities that pop up.

Manifesting with Clarity

Let’s first consider the value of having a clear vision of where you want to go.

There is SO much evidence for the importance of having a crystal clear vision in place to define what you want in order to go in that direction.

Here’s what Oprah has to say about it:

When you know exactly what you want, you can easily notice clues and opportunities that can act as stepping stones to take you closer to that outcome.

This is actually a big part of how manifestation works on a neurological level!

THE RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM

When you focus on what you want to manifest, a part of your brain known as the reticular activating system (RAS for short) starts to cue your attention to all kinds of things that are related to that goal of yours. This makes you an open channel for opportunities to appear and for you to respond to, making it possible for you to more rapidly realize your manifestation!

That’s why a lot of manifestation teachers and coaches will encourage you to visualize whatever you want to manifest in great detail to bring it to you. The more you visualize, the more you focus your attention on that thing, and that will certainly activate the reticular activating system to open your attention to the things that can help you reach your goals.

When you have a crystal clear goal your RAS starts to work for you automatically. Thanks to your neurological wiring, there is a definite advantage to knowing exactly what you want and having a clear goal or vision.

MANIFESTING BY GOING WITH THE FLOW

On the other hand, you might find yourself with less clarity and more of a general feeling or idea of what you want. If this is the case for you, you don’t necessarily have that crystalline vision of your desired future. Instead, maybe you find yourself going with the flow.

That’s ok too!

FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITY

Lots of people talk about the value of following your curiosity. You don’t have to have a clear path laid out in front of you to get to a destination. You can just take it one step at a time, following the next closest thing that sparks your interest.

Writers like Austin Kleon and Paul Millerd have shared this sentiment in books like Show Your Work and The Pathless Path (respectively), where they encourage you to go in the direction of what feels good to you because it truly pays off! If you keep moving toward what lights you up, you’ll keep continue to find more opportunities to grow and expand in that direction.

If you find yourself spending so much time trying to figure out what you want but can’t come up with anything that feels right, try taking action to figure it out. As you try something out, you’ll quickly figure out whether you like it or not. Then you can course correct based on how you feel about it!

BIAS TOWARDS ACTION IS REWARDED

The Universe favors action. The path becomes clear along the way, through the doing.

This is true whether you are going with the flow or if you already know where you want to go. Either way, the path will appear as long as you keep staying in tune with your inner self and taking aligned action.

You can manifest things rapidly when you have focus and clarity, but you can still manifest without it – and actually, you are!

You are constantly manifesting the reality around you by the way you move through the world. Your thoughts, actions, emotions, and words largely shape the reality around you. Changing even one of these things will yield tremendous results.

So while clarity can be helpful, you don’t need clarity to manifest. There are other ways to create a reality that you desire, or even a reality greater than your wildest dreams.

FEELINGS CAN GUIDE YOU TOWARD YOUR PATH

Stay open and pay attention to your inner and outer worlds to for signs, inspiration and opportunities to come to you.

Use your feelings as a navigation compass when you’re not sure of something.

Learn to read your feelings and use your emotions as a guide. Feelings are actually there to give you information.

Your feelings are an amazingly useful tool to guide your closer to your manifestation because you will feel lit up every time you get close to your path. As you keep following what feels good, you’ll naturally start to route yourself onto the very path to your manifestation.

Follow your feelings and keep taking action that is aligned with what feels good. These are positive signs from within, pulling you toward your path.

USE YOUR FEELINGS FOR MANIFESTATION

Feelings can also be a powerful tool for manifestation. This is another way that you can use general feelings instead of crystal clear visualizations to get to your desired outcomes.

It turns out that all of us are different types of manifestors. Some of us will do better by visualizing, while others will do better by following their intuitive feelings, while others will need to carefully consider multiples options to reveal their path, and so on.

On framework I find helpful for understanding the kind of manifestor I am is the Human Design approach. If you’re not familiar with Human Design, it’s basically an integration of the I Ching, astrology, the enneagram, Myers-Briggs personality test, the chakra system, genetics, and some other wisdom traditions and fields of study to produce a detailed analysis of how you operate in the world. It’s based on the date, time, and location of your birth.

There are tons of Human Design resources available on the Internet that you can check out. I like using the Jovian Archive calculator because it’s free and easy for me to interpret.

By my Human Design, I am a non-specific manifesting generator, which means that I actually manifest better when I focus on the embodying the feelings I will experience when my manifestation becomes actualized, more than if I were to focus on visualization the specific details of my desired outcome.

Let’s use the example of making money. For me to effectively manifest more money, I would want to focus on feeling financially abundant, stable and secure, rather than focusing on the image of my bank statement reading a certain number.

If you’re interested in learning more about these distinctions in how we manifest, I highly recommend listening to Manifestation Babe podcast episode # 218 where Kathrin Zenkina talks about how she uses Human Design to manifest.

CONCLUSION

So to recap, what we talked about today was:

• The virtue of manifesting with crystal clear vision: You know exactly where you are going and can harness the innate power of the reticular activating system to identify that which will lead to your manifestation
• The virtue of manifesting by following your feelings and surrendering to the universe: You can follow your curiosity and use your feelings as a navigation system to identify the breadcrumbs of opportunity that will lead you to the path to your manifestation
• Everyone manifests in their own way: Some people will manifest more effectively by honing in on specific details and mapping our that clear vision; others will manifest more effectively by embodying the feelings of their manifestations coming true

What do you think about these different styles of manifesting: following a clear vision vs. going with the flow?

Do you have any experiences of manifesting with one style or the other? Do you have any tips or advice to share?

Let us know in the comments 💗

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