How to Manifest Success: Abundance vs. Scarcity Mindset

There’s more to manifestation than some trust fund hippie on social media telling you to think positively.

I’ve grown to hate the word “manifestation.” It’s become such a regurgitated buzzword that it’s lost most of its meaning outside of niche content creators that have a tenuous grasp on reality. What’s sad is that the concept of manifesting the reality you want actually works. Though it’s a shame few people know how to talk about it in a way that isn’t cringe.

Instead, let’s focus on the duality of abundance and scarcity and how our mindset shapes our reality. If you’ve ever competed in anything — whether sports, art submissions, chess tournaments, you name it — you know you need to keep your eye on the prize. If you don’t believe in yourself, the competition needlessly becomes ten times harder as you set up all these mental barriers between you and victory.

This duality is simple to understand yet difficult to master:

It’s that last bit about subconscious and conscious intention that either speeds up or stops your progress. After all, if you haven’t convinced yourself of your own capabilities nor can you visualize your victory, you’re allowing internal resistance to fester. This is true of anything you want to do, from making a delicious breakfast to building a business or brand worth millions, from living a happy life surrounded by people who love you to creating awesome things you feel called to breathe into existence.

In this article, we’ll examine what manifestation is and debunk the nonsense surrounding it, explore the abundance vs. scarcity dichotomy, and how to develop a mindset that attracts success to make your life easier.

Manifestation for Dummies

I know, I know. Seeing that word can be as difficult for you to read as it is for me to write. It’s hard not to think about the “mental health” gurus on TikTok and Instagram who have the benefit of a trust fund set aside by their c-suite father who works at Raytheon whenever you see mAniFesTatiOn.

So let’s forget about them for now and start fresh. You don’t even need to burn sage, though feel free in case you feel the term really needs to be cleansed of that energy.

The Oxford Dictionary defines manifestation as “an event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something, especially a theory of an abstract concept.” A secondary definition includes “a version or incarnation of something or someone.” In other words, you’re bringing an abstraction (wealth, power, happiness, success) into reality.

There’s a lot of overlap with manifestation and magic — even magick with a k if you’re familiar with esoteric literature. With definitions like those above, you can see that bringing about those abstract concepts into physical incarnations must require spells and witchcraft. But there are other practical steps that the “if you believe, you will receive” gurus miss.

Manifestation follows this process:

• Identify what you want.

• Explore why you want it and why it’s important to you.

• Strategize a course between where you are and how to get what you want.

• Believe in yourself and your capabilities to get what you want.

• Begin the journey and consistently apply yourself to getting to that destination.

Because manifestation requires strong belief and willpower, reinforcing that faith is important. Some of these methods include vision boards, meditation and prayer, tarot, mantras and self-hypnosis, and reworking habits. What matters here is that you find anything that helps you focus and visualize the end result, feeling what it’s like to have it so you recognize it when you’re getting close to achieving what you want.

What’s interesting is that if you look at any interview of anyone successful in history, from businesspeople to athletes, from artists to scientists, they all credit some version of visualization and acting on that as what propelled them to that success. This is true of anyone in your life that seems to be breezing by, especially if they’ve turned themselves around from depressed and stuck to optimistic and ambitious.

Sure, there are plenty of factors at play including luck and privilege. But that doesn’t take away the power of belief in oneself or consistency in the pursuit of positive change. If you’re not motivated to obtain something, do you truly even want it? And if you truly want something, how will you obtain it if you’re not motivated to get it?

Abundance vs. Scarcity

One major component that underpins manifestation is understanding the relationship between abundance and scarcity thinking. These mindsets might also be called loci of control. There are two kinds of loci:

• External locus: “the world affects me”; nothing is ever your fault because you have no control over anything in your life. Life happens to you and you’re just keeping your head above water. If you were meant to be successful, it’d happen. Otherwise, it’s always some external force holding you back.

• Internal locus: “I affect the world”; while you have no direct control over life and its events, you recognize the power in controlling your reactions and emotional responses. You accept responsibility and accountability for your actions. If you’re not as successful as you want to be, you know it’s within your power to find success.

Which locus of control would you prefer?

If you chose the external locus, that one manifests itself in scarcity. The world doesn’t have enough and you’re only given crumbs. The internal locus, however, manifests itself in abundance. If there’s not enough pie, you make more pie.

For instance, if you want more money, a scarcity mindset acts from greed and undue entitlement — a willingness to steal and manipulate others because you believe yourself deserving of other people’s money, getting without giving anything in return. But an abundance mindset focuses on creation and production. What can you offer in exchange to another person for their money of equal or greater value?

If you’re like me and struggle with people-pleasing habits, be mindful of how you form your own abundance mindset. There’s nothing wrong with retaining energy for yourself, but there’s a difference between hoarding it because of greed or sociopathy and holding onto some for self-care.

How to Manifest Success and Happiness Correctly

Now, the fun part: what do you do to make manifestation happen? Some of you might find these answers underwhelming because they seem so easy. While using these techniques is easy on its own, the difficulty lies in doing them consistently for days, weeks, months, even years. For this to be effective — as with any life change — you need to incorporate them into your daily lifestyle.

It’s not just a one-and-done kinda thing; from here on out, you need to act and believe in a way that carries you to your goal.

These are some of my personal favorites:

• Practice gratitude: if all you think about is what’s going wrong in your life, that’s all you’ll see. Instead, spend time each morning or before bed journaling about 3-5 things or people you’re grateful for. Even if it’s something as mundane as having a bed to lay in, your health, or your ability to think, write, and dream, there is always something to be grateful for. The more you practice this, the easier it is to find the good in life — and take it from the guy who struggled with chronic depression for most of us his existence, a month or two of this helped tremendously.

• Be mindful of how you spend your time and energy: treat your mind like a garden, picking out toxic weeds and replacing them with productive thoughts that better serve you. Similarly, don’t give away your time and energy to freely to people who suck as much as they can from you. Find ways to plug those gaps to retain your energy better and reinvest it into activities and people that mutually enrich your life.

• Cultivate confidence and belief in yourself: whether it’s a mantra you say to start or end your day or a sticky note on your desk or mirror to remind you that you’re enough, find some ways to silence negative self-talk and build confidence. The endorphins and dopamine from working out or successfully completing a project can also help you realize that you’re more capable than you initially thought.

• Find time to be screenless: technology has been both a wonderful boon and an unending curse. If you have a habit of doomscrolling, replace it with something a little more wholesome. Go for a walk, especially if you have trails running through nature. Take up some creative hobby like painting or woodworking. Anything to get you away from a computer, phone, or TV screen for a little bit each day and ground yourself in reality and allowing yourself to savor whatever you’re doing.