A manifestation list is a list of affirmations that you keep to hand and refer to as often as you need in order to manifest your dreams, goals and desires. In many ways, it’s like a vision board without the pictures, although it’s generally used for shorter-term targets. However, while a vision board might cover everything from your soulmate to your dream house, a manifestation list errs towards things that you’d be happy to manifest today if you could.
They directly address one of the most essential aspects of manifestation: consistency. There’s never anything wrong with repeating affirmations. The universe won’t get bored because it has heard it all before. Quite the opposite, in fact. Repetition reinforces just how much you believe in a given affirmation and makes it more likely to arrive quickly and precisely as you’d planned it.
In This Article
So, What Is a Manifestation List and Why Would You Want One?
A manifestation list takes the form of any other list. From chores to groceries, it incorporates short sentences that can touch on as many different aspects of your life as you see fit.
Rather than doing the washing up and picking up bread, however, a manifestation list specifically incorporates affirmations. These are short sentences that exude gratitude, confidence and positivity. If you haven’t written one before, you can take a look at my recipe for writing a great affirmation, and once you’re comfortable with that outline, you can get to work on making your manifestation list happen.
How to Create a Manifestation List
A manifestation list shouldn’t require all that much work. With that said, it’s a great idea to frontload your efforts. Spend extra time, to begin with, and then make changes as you go, and you’ll see results faster than you might have expected.
Consider it like making a list of your five favourite movies. You’d start with the one that immediately sprang to mind. For me, that would probably be the most recent Spider-Man movie at the time of writing – although that might be recency bias! That’s one of the five checked off immediately, but then I’d have to think about the other four. Another Spider-Man movie will inevitably arrive in the future, which might knock one of my current choices off. That’s fine – I’d just delete fifth place from the list and shift everything below the new pick down a spot.
Manifestation lists work in much the same way, although you’re certainly not limited to only five at a time. You can work on manifesting as many things as you like at the same time – focusing on five different things doesn’t make each individual affirmation a fifth as powerful as it would be if you focused solely on one.
There are just a few steps to follow to get your manifestation underway:
1. Get Your Manifesting Toolkit Together
The first step sounds like a serious one, but your manifestation toolkit doesn’t have to be complex. While you’ll find manifestation kits on Amazon and Etsy, they’re almost always overkill. There’s nothing at all wrong with them, and they may well work for you. However, you definitely shouldn’t view them as a barrier between you and getting started.
Your toolkit can be a pencil and paper. It could be a blank Word document. In my case, it’s usually the Notes app on my phone. Essentially, your manifestation toolkit is everything you need to jot something down when it comes to you, and you don’t need to overcomplicate things.
2. Clear Out Any Distractions
As with most things involved with manifesting, you need some peace and quiet if your manifestation list is to be a success. Screaming kids at home, colleagues on the phone at the office and the radio in the car are all examples of things that could sabotage your list. In addition, listing your manifestation goals requires quite a bit of concentration, as the goal is to go from a blank page to a somewhat comprehensive list of your dreams and desires.
If you’re starting a manifestation list from scratch, try to find quiet time. Distractions will lead to compromise or targeting things that don’t matter all that much to you. You need to be willing (and able) to dig deep to discover what you really want to manifest. If you find yourself adding to the list for the sake of it and just to fill space, it might be worth coming back to it later.
3. Turn Off Your Filter and Brainstorm
The manifestation list you produce is yours and yours alone. You’ve probably read before how it’s a lot easier to manifest for yourself than to manifest for others, whether good or bad, and this is one of those times in life when it’s all about you. So focus on your dreams, goals and aspirations, and don’t let negativity get in the way.
You might want a million in the bank. There may well be a part of you that can’t foresee how that might ever happen. Don’t let it affect your thinking – the universe can envision it, and it’ll find a way, even if it takes time. Never worry about dreaming big. After all, while affirmations should be realistic, anything that’s not downright impossible is achievable. Besides, a million in the bank is pretty small fry. You couldn’t manifest $50 trillion in the bank because there’s only an estimated $40 trillion in the world. However, that also means that there are 50 million batches of a million dollars to go around – why couldn’t one be yours?
Don’t dwell on what could or couldn’t happen. There’s usually a way to justify just about any dream or desire. Maintain an open mind and, in the first instance, jot down anything you can think of. You can always trim it down later.
Also, remember that manifesting doesn’t only mean something new. If you’re content and happy with something and would like it to stay that way, it still stands every chance of making the cut.
4. Create Your Official Manifestation List
Think of the brainstorming session as the warmup. It’s now time to create the official list. This is the list of affirmations you’ll focus on bringing into your reality.
The universe thrives on abundance, and there’s more than enough of just about everything to go around. However, one thing you cannot manifest more of is hours in a day. So the chances are you can’t spend entire weekends meditating and focusing on your manifestations. Personally, I find success with less than five minutes a day in total. I do that by prioritizing.
Only you can decide what makes the cut, but don’t throw away your brainstorm chart just yet. Set it aside, as you can always use it again later. After all, the whole point of manifesting something is to receive it. Once it comes, the affirmation has done its job; you can clear that one off and pick another to take its place in your routine.
The ‘finalized’ manifestation list then forms part of your manifestation routine. For example, you might speak your affirmations each morning, or you could use your list as the basis for the 5×55 or 369 manifestation methods.
There’s an unlimited number of ways to manifest using your list as a basis, spanning thinking, speaking, writing, meditating and many more. But, crucially, you have to do something with the list, and if you can do so in a structured, perhaps even habitual manner, you’ll find fantastic success.
Manifestation List Examples
While a manifestation list should always be personal to you, there’s no harm in learning – and even copying – from others. Desires tend to fall into a handful of broader categories that apply to a large number of people. As long as the affirmation itself resonates with you and your life, there’s no harm at all in drawing inspiration from elsewhere.
This sample manifestation list uses the guided manifestation list below, which is excellent for brainstorming as it covers vital elements of our lives and gets us thinking about specific things.
One of the great things about manifestation lists is that they’re equally powerful no matter where you write them and how you format them. If they get you into the right headspace to make things happen by harnessing the power of the universe, they’re as valid as any other. The example below uses the notes app, my trusty partner when manifesting or affirming just about anything.
What Can You Use a Manifestation List For?
Manifestation lists can cover every facet of your life. From work and school to family and friends, you can use a manifestation list to focus your efforts and energies on anything that you feel might improve your being or take you to the next level.
If you have very specific goals across everything that makes you happy, you can usually condense all of your manifestation goals down into one list. After all, the great thing about lists is that they can be as long as you like. For example, it could involve three highly specific affirmations to work in conjunction with the 369 method, or it might cover dozens of different aspects of your life.
The main limiting factor, as with most things, is time. If your list gets too long, will you be able to find the time to say, write or think your affirmations according to a specific schedule?
Suppose some tasks are harder than others and require more frequent attention, or you have multiple manifestations that fall into a specific category. In that case, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from having numerous manifestation lists.
A Manifestation List for Work
Your manifestation list for work can be used to map out your career or tackle something that you believe needs to change. Essentially, you can shape your work life through manifestation.
You might want to drop down to four days a week, in which case you’d add, “I’m grateful to work only four days each week”.
You may have done all you can in your current role, and it’s time to move on. You could put “I’m delighted to work in a role that suits my skills and experience and to be paid accordingly” on your manifestation list.
As with any topic, take a pain point or something you’d like to improve, phrase it as an affirmation using the recipe above, and do what you can to make it happen while the universe’s energies provide backup!
A Manifestation List for Love
Love is one of the more complex aspects of manifestation, although lists can help, just as they can with anything else. The main difficulty is that it can be hard to be specific. Many people don’t fully understand what they want from love until they have it, making guiding the future potentially more tricky than it may seem.
Nevertheless, while specificness is good, it’s not a hard, fast rule. Something as simple as “I’m so thankful to have met my dream partner” is all the universe needs to get to work. Fortunately for people that put such things on their manifestation lists, the universe doesn’t tend to get things wrong!
You can expand the list to cover anything you want from love, from the number of guests at your wedding to where you go on your honeymoon. Do keep in mind, however, that you cannot usually manifest for others, and certainly not without their permission and often their active participation. Of course, this applies to love as much as to anything else, so manifesting a specific person in a romantic context may fall into the ‘unrealistic’ category.
A Daily Manifestation List
It’s also possible to treat your manifestation list like a to-do list, albeit in a manner that the tasks on the list are already complete. For example, if you’re perennially late for work, something as simple as “I will get to work on time” can help. Then again, morning manifestation may not be the best idea if you struggle to get somewhere on time! In that case, you might want to consider a daily manifestation list for the following day!
Nevertheless, while the universe doesn’t provide delivery dates, if something is relatively easy and could arrive virtually instantly, there’s nothing at all wrong with short-term manifestation lists.
Your Manifestation List Templates
Manifestation lists are simple yet powerful tools, but some people need more than a blank page to take action. It’s with that in mind that I’ve put together a couple of templates you can use to get things underway.
A Blank Manifestation List for Your Toolkit
This empty manifestation list simply makes your list look pleasant and provides plenty of space to fill in whatever matters most to you.
A Guided Manifestation List
This guided manifestation list takes the blank equivalent and fills in two instances each of some of the most common goal categories among people. It’s great for your official manifestation list, but it can also come in handy for your brainstorming session too.
Using These Manifestation List Templates
To use these manifestation list templates, simply save them to your phone or computer. You can print them, as I did in one of the examples above, or you can change them using whatever software you’re accustomed to. Of course, Word and other document processors aren’t ideal if you want to retain the look and feel, but you can drop the blank images into Canva (which I used to create them), Photoshop or Photopea to customize them however you see fit.
Your Manifestation List – In Summary
Manifestation lists are quick and easy, but they’re just as powerful for manifesting as any other method. Remember, it’s not about what or when you write, but the feelings attached to your affirmations when you write or speak them or when you have them in your mind.
You can put these lists anywhere, and they cover both the brainstorming and manifesting stages of helping you reach your goals. They’re flexible, fun, and, most importantly, they work!
