Struggling With Manifestation – Why Can’t I Manifest Anything?

Why is a manifestation not working for me? This is a question I asked myself for many years.

Maybe you’re a complete beginner and have never attempted manifestation before, or maybe you’ve known about manifestation for a while but are struggling to get any real results.

If you’re anything like I was, you have been struggling with manifesting for a long time and you’re at the point where you’ve seriously started questioning whether it’s even real.

In short: If you cannot manifest ANYTHING AT ALL, it’s because you, in some way or another, BELIEVE that it does not work either for you specifically or for anyone.

In this article, I will give some advice on how you can get the ball rolling and successfully begin manifesting on a consistent basis. It is basically a list of different things that have helped me get manifestation working.

It doesn’t matter whether you are completely new to the concept of manifestation or if you’ve failed at it for years. The first hurdle is always the hardest. Once you get some real practical experience with manifesting, your ability to do it will skyrocket. You will be able to manifest bigger desires at a faster pace.

What is Manifesting?

If you’re here, you probably already know what manifesting is. If you’re completely new to it, I recommend you read my article all about manifesting for beginners.

Regardless, I want to give a quick definition of what manifesting is, just so were on the same page.

Manifesting is the spiritual belief that we, as individuals, can use the power of our minds to manifest ideas into tangible results. In most belief systems that support manifesting, the fundamental nature of reality is consciousness, and this is what allows for a purely mental ideal to cause the occurrence of “real” things. People use the power of manifestation for the purpose of improving the circumstances in their lives.

When You Can’t Seem to Manifest Anything

We often hear about how manifesting is supposed to be easy. If you’re like I was, this goes against direct experience. You’re probably struggling to manifest even the simplest thing.

This is extremely frustrating. But I want to tell you that there is a way in which you can learn to manifest on a consistent basis.

Just because you have failed up until this point doesn’t mean it has to be this way forever. If you’re willing to put in the work, which we will look at later, you can learn how to do it.

You Are Not The Only One

Understand that you are not the only one who can’t manifest. In fact, the vast majority of people believe in manifesting but NEVER actually learn to DO it themselves.

It is only a very small percentage of the population that actually believes manifesting is real. And the percentage of those who both believe and also put in the work is extremely small. Most people only listen to it as a comforting idea but never really attempt it in practice.

So, the fact that you’re struggling with manifesting is not something exclusive to you. The problem comes from not putting in the mental work.

Why Do We Struggle With Manifesting In the First Place

If you cannot manifest at all

If you cannot manifest anything at all, it’s because your belief system does not allow it. Since our beliefs manifest, you actually manifest your own inability to manifest.

Here’s an example. If you believe that you will always be “stuck in life” or that “life is always be the same,” then you cannot manifest. Why? Because being able to manifest would mean that you can change things, and this would be incompatible with the belief that you are stuck. I chose this example because it is the main thing that kept me stuck for a long time. Reinforcing the idea that I was stuck and there was no way out kept me shackled.

Other reasons

There are three other big reasons why people struggle with manifesting. This is more if you can manifest one thing but not another, like being able to manifest money but not love.

Reason 1: Limiting beliefs

We all have limiting beliefs, and some are stronger in different aspects of life. For example, you may usually be able to get good results in most areas of your life, but when it comes to love, you struggle. When you focus on it, things just seem to get worse!

Here, you need to work on your limiting beliefs. First and foremost, try and become aware of them. This allows you to separate yourself from it. Then begin to question the validity of your belief, and then choose to begin developing a new belief by shifting your habitual thinking.

I have a full article on limiting beliefs discussing how to get rid of them. Limiting beliefs is the biggest culprit in manifesting.

Reason 2: Not Putting In The Work

Not putting in the work means that you don’t spend enough time going into meditation and imagining your desire. Most people only do this on the odd occasion when they feel like doing it. Since this very likely won’t produce results of any significance, they get discouraged and give up on manifesting.

But, learning something takes practice. Manifesting is a skill that needs development. Constantly going into meditation takes discipline, and you need to be willing to go through a lot of trial and error before you can become good at manifesting.

Reason 3: Being Too Attached To A Desire

Being TOO attached to a specific desire is another reason why people keep struggling. This is not to say that you can’t manifest something you’re very emotionally attached to, but if you don’t have a lot of experience with manifesting, it is going to be a lot harder.

The reason a lot of people get into manifestation in the first place is that they have a REALLY strong desire or need for something. For example, let’s say you’re in desperate need of money. You decide to try and manifest more money to make life easier. Since you REALLY NEED the money, you will very likely fall into doubt and worry, which works inverse to the desire. You will ask yourself, “what if this doesn’t work,” “why am I not getting money,” “am I doing it wrong,” and so on. Doubt and worry plant seeds of an opposite kind, stunting the growth of the desire.

Reason 4: Doing It Incorrectly/Doing The Wrong Thing

A lot of people also spend time doing the wrong thing when manifesting. Often they do this unknowingly. For example, a lot of people spend too much time on youtube, subreddits, and reading books about manifesting. While this can be helpful, it doesn’t really do anthing. The only thing that will give you results is doing the mental work, i.e going into meditation and imagining your desire.

Compare this to losing weight, for example. Sure, it may help reading about different diets, finding the best workouts, listening to experts, and so on, but the only thing that will help you lose weight is doing the workouts and being on a diet.

So, we’ve discussed why you may struggle with manifesting. Let’s now look at how you go about changing it so you can get the manifestation ball rolling.

You’re Manifesting All The Time

It can be really helpful to recognize that you already are manifesting the things, events, circumstances, etc. that are appearing in your life. This means that you can, by observing what is currently going on within, begin to see how your inner activity influences the outer world.

Try and become more aware of what you think and feel throughout the day. Observe your mind. You will slowly begin to see how your inner activity affects things to a greater extent than you may have thought.

Doing this, even if your outer world is largely negative, will give you faith in manifestation. You will begin to understand how you have always manifested, you just haven’t learned how to direct it consciously.

Starting Small – Understanding That It Is A Skill

As said before, if you want to develop your ability to manifest, you need to practice manifestation as if it was just another skill. You need to have a lot of successful manifestations under your belt so you KNOW it is real and so you have the experience to do it faster and for greater desires.

But how do we get the ball rolling? How do we actually get those first initial manifestations that are going to give us the necessary faith and experience?

I recommend you start with manifesting small things instead of big desires. I know it’s tempting to go after something you really want, and while this definitely can work, I have found that it’s a lot easier when you work on something small.

Try and manifest something that wouldn’t be a big deal if it showed up. It could be things such as seeing a pink car or seeing a blue feather.

When these things manifest you may feel that they are merely coincidences, but a part of your mind will begin believing, or at least open up to, the fact that it was a manifestation.

The “List Method” for Manifestating Small Things

By doing the List Method, as many call it, you can do a lot of small manifestations really quickly, and without a lot of effort. This is how:

All items on the list don’t need to manifest. After a few days, or maybe even every day, write a new list of items. You can keep some of the same items as before, or add completely new ones. Don’t throw out your old lists.

All you need to do is write the manifestation down. If you want, you can briefly imagine the accomplishment of each item on the list. E.g. if the item on the list is, “I see a green-haired man” you could, in imagination, see a green-haired man walking down the street.

Also, you should have items on the list that both could be attributed to coincidence (that could potentially happen without you manifesting it) and items that would be very unlikely to happen (that could only be a result of you manifesting them). If an item that is unlikely to happen by coincidence actually manifests it will be a lot more convincing for you.

If you struggle with manifesting anything at all, write items on your list that could easily happen by coincidence, instead of things that have a low chance of happening.

Being a “Doer of the word, and not a hearer only”

The absolute BIGGEST reason why most people struggle with manifestation is that they do NOT put in the work.

Neville Goddard (a manifestation teacher back in the mid-1900s) often emphasized the phrase:

“Be doers of the word, not hearers only.”

The Power of Awareness, 1952, Neville Goddard

In other words, the important thing is not how many books you’ve read, or how many questions you can intelligently answer about the ins and outs of manifestation, the important thing is the practical aspect; your actual ability to manifest. To make use manifestation as something real rather than a mere mental concept.

Spend your time going into meditation and imagine your desire. You may fail a thousand times, but it is the only way to get results.

Again, compare it with any other skill. If you want to learn the guitar, for example, you need to practice with a guitar. Sure, studying how to play guitar has its benefits, but the true results come from you playing the guitar yourself.

It’s the same with manifesting. You simply just have to put in the work. Yes, there is a benefit in getting an intellectual understanding surrounding the philosophy around manifesting, but a lot of time we fool ourselves by thinking that reading and learning are the best use of our time.

Do Not Avoid Failure

This ties in with the former point about putting in the (mental) work.

Failure in manifesting means that you fail at manifesting the desired outcome. A big part of the reason why we don’t put in the work comes from when new are scared it won’t work. We say, “If I give it my all and it doesn’t work, what do I do then?”

But the truth is, manifestation will most likely NOT seem to work at all in the beginning. And you definitely won’t be able to constantly produce results with it.

The key is to accept failure as something good. Failure is the guide, a necessary part of the process. It reveals to you what works and what doesn’t. Your mind will automatically adjust.

As an example, let’s say you’re trying the List Method (mentioned in an earlier section), but you don’t successfully manifest any of the items on the list. Then what do you do? Simply keep experimenting with it until it begins working. You need to persist.

Do things a little differently. Try and go even deeper into meditation before you imagine the goal. Try doing it more frequently every day. Make sure that it is effortless (I talk more about effortlessness in this article) and that you are letting the subconscious mind manifest the desire. More on these two things later. The point is you need to keep testing and tweaking.

You gotta be prepared to fail. Embrace it as a necessary part of the journey. Be prepared to fail and know that it is a necessary part of it all.

Being Consistent

When manifesting a specific desire, I and many others find that it’s more effective doing the imaginal work (For example, going into meditation and visualizing your desire) on a consistent basis, rather than only doing it on the odd occasion.

Generally speaking, if you’re struggling with manifestation, you should go into meditation and imagine your desire at least once a day or more. If you’re doing something like the List Method (which we looked at before), you should still do it every day, only that you will imagine different goals every time.

When you imagine your desire you “water the seed.” You give it more growing power, which culminates over time. The desire grows stronger and stronger on the inner plane until it eventually manifests as visible results.

Earlier we talked about how experimenting and practicing manifestation for yourself is more important than reading or studying it. So, being consistent will over a relatively short period of time put you miles ahead of where you would else have been.

Let’s say we have two people. One imagines every day, and the other only does it a few times a week (e.g. an average of 3 times a week). Over the next couple of months, this is how many imaginal sessions each person has.

Month	Sessions Every Day	Sessions A few Times (3 times) a Week
month 1	28 sessions in total	7 sessions in total
month 2	56 sessions in total	14 sessions in total
month 3	84 sessions in total	21 sessions in total
month 4	112 sessions in total	28 sessions in total
month 5	130 sessions in total	35 sessions in total
month 6	158 sessions in total	42 sessions in total
month 7	186 sessions in total	49 sessions in total
month 8	214 sessions in total	56 sessions in total

While this may not be a perfectly accurate illustration you can still see how doing imaginal sets every day gives you a lot more practical experience with manifesting than doing it infrequently. Hence, your ability to manifest will improve a lot faster.

Having too much of a time gap between imaginal sessions is not only slower but less effective than imagining on a consistent basis. When you are consistent you build momentum. It’s easier to keep the ball rolling once you get it in motion. It’s a lot harder having to push the ball from a stationary position every time.

One thing to remember is this: you should NEVER sacrifice the quality of each session for the quantity. It’s better to have a few good sessions as opposed to a hundred shallow ones.

Using A Good Manifesting Technique

Most people do things such as visualization, affirmations, scripting, vision boards, etc., when manifesting something. These are all different manifesting techniques.

A great way to get started with manifesting is to follow a good manifesting technique. It is true that the techniques themselves don’t hold the power, but they are still effective tools for using the power.

To manifest something, you need to impress the idea on the subconscious mind. The purpose of a technique is to help you do this. Once an idea is impressed, the infinite power and intelligence inherent in the subconscious mind will automatically begin manifesting the desire.

Impressing the subconscious mind is more easily done when you go into a deep state of consciousness like you would in meditation.

Choose a technique that allows you to go into a deep state of consciousness. Generally speaking, The deeper state of consciousness you’re in the more connected you are with the subconscious mind.

I highly recommend you use the “SATS Technique” by Neville Goddard. The “SATS technique” works by constructing a mental scene taking place AFTER the accomplishment of your desire.

Then you go into a deep state of consciousness and imagine that you ARE in that scene. You have to think, feel, and view the world from that scene. It should be almost as if it were actually happing in the “real” world. You can read my article explaining the SATS technique in full detail here.

You Don’t Need To Fully Believe In Manifesting

People often talk about faith in manifesting. The more faith you have the greater your ability to be will manifest.

While this may true, it is near impossible to suddenly believe in something so extraordinary as manifesting, when you have never even seen it happen.

Yes, faith is important, but you don’t need to ever delude yourself or constantly try and censor opposite opinions. This is a mistake a lot of people make. Censoring oneself from opposite opinions always comes from a place of fear. If manifestation is really true, then what does it matter if someone else doesn’t believe it? There is no reason not to question your own logic or to avoid opposite opinions.

Just keep an open mind about manifesting. Try manifesting with the intent of testing it. As long as you have an open mind and you keep at it, you will eventually get results that convince you that this is all real.

Meditation

A very important thing, for me at least, that will help you be able to manifest going into meditation, without imagining your desire.

When we meditate we seem to get more in touch with the inner power. We can then use this inner power for the manifestation of whatever we desire.

Any form of meditation is better than nothing, but I recommend you do a silence meditation (also called an “I Am” meditation). Let go of your mind and of let of thoughts. Simply just BE, and let go of your thoughts. This reconnects you with the unconditioned awareness (the “I AM”), which is the true self and the power we are looking for.

You obviously need the power before you can use it. When we let go of concepts and let ourselves BE the beingness/awareness that we are, we open the floodgates of the inner power. I can’t really explain exactly how this works, but I know from experience that meditation is very important for gaining the ability to manifest.

Looking for “Movement” (Signs and Synchronicities)

By “movement” I mean the same thing as signs or synchronicities. These types of things will let you know if you’re doing it correctly. They can even be AS convincing as the manifestation of the end desire itself.

When we manifest something it is very common that we begin to see events that in some way relate to our desire, but is not the end goal itself. This is called a sign or a synchronisity. It is an event that indicates that your desire has been impressed on the subconscious mind.

For example, let’s say you’re trying to manifest a boyfriend/girlfriend. You do an imaginal act for the purpose of impressing this idea on the subconscious mind. The next day a random man/woman comes up to you and talks to you. Even if you never meet this person again, this would very likely be a sign that you’re on the right track. The man/woman coming up to you is in this case a byproduct of you imagining your desire. It seems to have a connection with your desire but is not the desire itself.

Keep an eye out for these types of events, no matter how small they may be. If they appear, it means that your desire is in the process of manifesting (if you keep going, that is).

Do not RELY on Movements

Even though movement in the outer world is a good thing, it is dangerous to expect them to happen every time. It is not always the case that you will ever see any movements. You should therefore not get discouraged if you don’t see any. Things could be going on far beyond your field of view.

Relying on movements means that you rely on the without rather than the within. let things play out on their own, and focus on controlling your own imagination.

Opposite Manifestations Are Good

A lot of people get discouraged if something opposite to their desired outcome happens. But if you think about it, opposite manifestations are actually just a sign that SOMETHING has happened in the subconscious mind. It is therefore evidence for the fact that the power lies with you.

I wrote an article on opposite manifestations and what they mean. I highly recommend you read it.

Letting Go

Another mistake that can ruin your manifestation is not letting things happen on their own. We need to let the outer world take care of itself. Actually, we cannot control the events themselves. That would be like trying to change the reflection of a mirror. The only thing we can change is the cause. By changing the cause (which is the state of consciousness within), the outer world must be changed automatically.

According to the concept of manifesting, the fundamental nature of reality is an unbounded, infinite consciousness, often referred to as the subconscious mind. The physical world is nothing but a projection of the subconscious mind. So, to change the physical world, we need to change the ideas in the subconscious mind.

The only power we have as individuals is in choosing what we want to impress on the subconscious mind. The manifestation of the idea is done by the power of the subconscious mind. Let the circumstances take care of themselves. Do not try and force the circumstances to be something they are not.

The Takeaway

We have looked at a few things that, hopefully, enable you to get over the struggle of not being able to manifest.

The most important thing is to do it yourself. No amount of reading or studying, though beneficial, will give you real results. Just keep experimenting with manifesting. Practice going into meditation, and using your imagination.

Even if you fail a hundred times, you will, before you know it, reach the point where you have had many successful manifestations in your locker and are you are able to manifest both big and small things consistently and easily.

I hope you find this article helpful. Thanks for reading!