“Mum, how do you make sure you’re always on track to achieve your goals and manifest your dreams?” 

That’s what my 7 year old daughter asked me last week, in my dream. 

I have to admit, it’s a great question! Especially for a 7 year old. And that’s the first thing I said to her, in my dream: “Great question darling!”

And then, I took a moment before I answered.

I said “You know what? I don’t think I focus on goals that much anymore. Here’s what I do instead…”

And then I basically laid out for her my 5 point plan for manifesting a life of abundance that continues to exceed my wildest dreams. 

Yeah, I did that in my dream. This is so meta, LOL! 

I also find it funny that I can’t stop doing abundance and manifestation coaching even when I’m asleep. 

Anyway, I think it’s a pretty cool 5 point plan … 

Here’s what I told her:

1. Gratitude. First and foremost, I practice looking at  my life through the lens of gratitude. At the end of every year I do a review of the previous year, and I identify as many things as I can that I’m grateful for. Even the things that were challenging or painful when I went through them – I look for ways to have gratitude for the lessons I learned, or the way my heart was opened up and deepened in its capacity for empathy and compassion. I’ve written about this process before.
   
   I don’t just wait until the end of the year though! I practice gratitude as much as possible, every day. It makes an incredible difference. Trust me when I say: Gratitude is the doorway to Abundance.
   
2. Ask. Next, I ask for what I want to experience in my life as it unfolds moving forward. I focus on how I want to FEEL and who I want to BE. I don’t focus that much on what I want to HAVE, because when I’m feeling and being the way that I want to feel and be, the having part pretty much takes care of itself.
   
   When I AM enough, I always have enough. When I’m abundant on the inside, my life is full of abundance on the outside too.
3. Surrender. I surrender the how. I don’t know in advance exactly how I’m going to get to the feeling / being state that I want to experience… I just know that if I ask and then surrender, I will get there.
   
   I surrender the working out of the ‘how’ details to my Higher Power. Because I know that my Higher Power is much better equipped to work those details out than I am. I trust that if I let it, my Higher Power will delight and surprise me, and deliver a reality and experience that is actually way beyond anything I could’ve dreamed up myself. I’ve written about this before too!
   
4. Release. Along the way, as I am called to grow and evolve and expand outside of my comfort zone, I will be asked to let some things go. Mainly, my resistance. My anxiety and fear about that which lies beyond my past experiences.
   
   I literally don’t know how amazing things can get. I don’t know how much my capacity for joy and wisdom can expand, and I don’t know what kind of growth is going to be asked of me to get to that next level of awareness.
   
   It can be an uncomfortable process, and sometimes I want to shrink back and embrace the devil I know instead of releasing into the divine unknown. But, I do know this: I can’t both grow and stay the same.
   
   I may need to release some of my old ways of thinking, feeling and being so that I can step into a newer and more expanded way of experiencing life.
5. Focus. Rather than building lots of dream castles in the sky, and living my life for some future ‘goal’ reality that isn’t here, isn’t now…  I try to keep my focus on today as much as possible.
   
   I prioritize habits over goals. I focus on keeping myself well and healthy mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I focus on staying awake in my life.
   
   I try to keep my eyes, ears, heart and mind open… so that I can see the amazing opportunities that my Higher Power is always sending my way. I try to read the signs, listen for the prompts, and trust my intuition.
   
   If I get too distracted by obsessing about the future, I can miss the opportunity sitting right in front of me here and now.

That’s it.

Now, I’m not anti-goals. Don’t get me wrong …

Sometimes I make plans. Sometimes I work towards things in a methodical way. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. 

All I’m saying is to leave some space around your goals. 

I try not to white-knuckle my goals. I try to remain open to unimagined possibilities. I try to remain flexible about how it’s all going to play out. Because I don’t know what’s really possible. My experience is limited, but my possibilities are not.

Divine Possibility is way bigger and way better than anything my puny imagination can cook up. The Divine Play is so much more layered, meaningful, exciting, surprising, delightful, nuanced and heart-wrenchingly beautiful than any story I could ever write on my own. 

So, I leave space for things to unfold in unexpected ways. 

Hey, I’m perfectly imperfect just like everyone else. I succumb to fear and anxiety frequently. This process is a practice, and I bring my beginner’s mind to it. 

I’m intentional, but I’m not dogmatic or self-righteous. I don’t always get it right. There’s so much I still don’t know. And that’s really exciting… even when sometimes it’s also a bit daunting.

In summary, my answer to my daughter’s question about how I manifest my dreams boils down to this: I don’t manifest my dreams. I let the Universe do its magic to manifest experiences which are beyond my dreams.

Because, why on Earth would I limit myself to only the dreams that I can conceive of? Why would I confine myself to the limit of my own imagination?

My secret sauce is to tap into the feeling states that I want to experience, and to trust the Universe to make that manifest in the most divinely perfect way. I allow the Universe to work out the details, to guide me to new experiences that exceed my wildest dreams. 

And it does. All. The. Time.

As always, if this post was helpful for you then leave a comment, or send me an email at theteam@theabundancecode.com. I’d love to hear from you!

To YOUR Abundance,

Julie Ann Cairns

P.S. My daughter’s not 7 years old anymore. She’s 17 and she’s awesome. And, it was wonderful to be reminded of her 7 year old adorable cuteness again, in my dream. Grateful!

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