How to Manifest Money: A Creative Generalist's Guide to Abundance Mindset

Most advice on how to manifest money reads like a lottery ticket with extra steps. Stare at a number on a vision board, repeat that you are a "money magnet," and wait for the universe to wire it over. That's not what happens when manifesting money actually works, and it's not what I practice.

I'm Murielle Marie, and manifestation has been part of how I've built my life and my businesses for years, money included, long before "manifest money" became a search trend. So here's how to manifest money in a way that holds up: by pairing a real inner shift, the abundance mindset, with the belief work and the action that make it land. If you're a creative generalist with more ideas than income streams, and a slightly complicated relationship with money because of it, this one's for you. It builds on my broader guide to how to manifest anything, narrowed down to the one outcome people ask me about most.

What Does It Mean to Manifest Money?

Manifesting money means deliberately shifting your inner relationship with money, your beliefs, your felt sense of what's possible, and your focus, so that your choices and actions start to pull toward more of it instead of quietly working against it. It is not wishing. It is not sitting still and hoping.

And to be clear about where I stand, because I know the science-minded version of this topic usually strips the magic right out of it: I do believe manifestation is magic. I've manifested the life I'm living now, money and all. What I'm giving you here is the practical half of a practice that, for me, is both real and magic at the same time. The two aren't in competition. The inner work and the mystery run on the same track, and money responds to both.

The reason the mindset piece matters so much is that most of your money behavior isn't a conscious decision in the moment. It’s the result of beliefs you absorbed early, often before you could question them, about whether money is safe, whether there's enough, whether people like you get to have it. Manifesting money starts by updating that often unconscious layer, the same way you'd update old software (yes, I do love tech analogies 😄), so your day-to-day money choices stop being governed by an outdated operating system.

Does Manifesting Money Actually Work? Here's What the Research Says

Parts of it hold up under research, and it's worth knowing which parts so you build your practice on the pieces that work.

Start with your money beliefs, because they aren't just a "vibe." Harvard economist Sendhil Mullainathan and behavioral scientist Eldar Shafir showed that a scarcity mindset imposes a real "bandwidth tax": when your attention is captured by not-enough, you have measurably less mental bandwidth left for planning, self-control, and good long-term decisions. In their studies, the same people scored worse on cognitive tests when money was tight than when it wasn't. That's the mechanism underneath the woo. An abundance mindset frees up the very mental resources a scarcity mindset consumes, which is why the inner shift must come before the money strategy can even work.

Then there's the part where you get specific and write it down. Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at Dominican University of California, ran a study of 267 people and found that those who wrote their goals down were 42% more likely to achieve them than those who only thought about them, and the effect was stronger still for people who committed to specific actions and reported on them. A number in your head is a wish. The same number on paper, tied to an action plan, is where manifesting money stops being abstract and starts having something to aim at.

Put those two findings together, and the honest version of manifesting money looks like this: clear the scarcity beliefs that are taxing your bandwidth, get specific and write down the outcome, and stay connected to action. The belief work is real and worth doing. The plan and the movement are what let it show up.

Why Manifesting Money Usually Falls Apart

When someone tells me manifesting money "doesn't work" for them, it's almost always one of these, and none of them means the practice is broken.

The first is an inherited money story running underneath the wanting. You can consciously want more money and still have a belief you never chose, that wanting more is greedy, that money changes people, that it's safer to stay small. Those beliefs usually came from somewhere: a parent, a childhood, a culture. If the outcome you're programming quietly contradicts a story you absorbed at seven, the old story tends to win. This is the same trap I've written about with inherited dreams, just pointed at your bank account.

The second is manifesting from a felt state of lack. If you spend five minutes feeling into abundance and then twenty-three hours refreshing your balance in a low-grade panic, the panic is the state your nervous system actually spends the day in. Money manifestation asks you to hold the felt sense of enough, not to perform calm for five minutes and grip the rest of the time.

The Feeling of the Wish Fulfilled

The third step is not only to be in a state of lack but also to lack faith in the outcome. To counter this block, I practice what Neville Goddard so poignantly put: “Persistent imagination, centered in the feeling of the wish fulfilled, is the secret of all successful operations.”

In other words, you have to believe - and have faith - that the money is coming without questioning it, which is by far the most difficult thing to do, especially when money is tight. 

One way I have found to help me get over losing faith and falling into fear over money, something that happens quite a bit when you're investing in the business ideas that you are building, is to center on my heart and feel love and gratitude for what I already have. When I feel stressed out about things, or when financial pressures get too much, I breathe into my heart and summon that glowing feeling, that I purposefully attach to a positive mantra about the money or success that I know for sure is coming. It may feel a bit mechanical at first, but over time this practice helps to change the underlying beliefs - and fears - I have about money and rewires my brain and nervous system to allow for new, positive beliefs about what I am capable of achieving and what I deserve.

One such mantra that I love to use (and that I write out in my journal every morning as I am doing my morning pages) is this famous manifestation affirmation from 1925, "Infinite Spirit, open the way for my great abundance. I am an irresistible magnet for all that belongs to me by Divine Right," from spiritual teacher Florence Scovel Shinn, another one of my favorite manifestation old masters. Her book “Your Word is Your Wand” focuses on using spoken words to program the mind and manifest prosperity. Try it, you’ll see.

The fourth step is skipping the action half entirely. Feeling and faith are not the finish line. The felt state clears the inner block; it (unfortunately 🤓) doesn't send the invoice, pitch the client, or raise your rate for you.

My Own Money Practice

For a long time, I carried a very stubborn belief about money, that it had to hurt to be real. If it came easily, some part of me didn't quite trust it, or didn't feel I'd earned the right to keep it. So I did exactly what that belief tells you to do. I over-worked. I white-knuckled every launch. I treated exhaustion as proof that I was serious, and I quietly assumed the money would only ever match the amount of suffering I'd poured in to get it.

Frustratingly, a belief like that doesn't just wear you out; it actively blocks the thing you're chasing. I was so busy grinding for money that I was holding on to it too tightly, and squeezing it like a lemon is the opposite of the state that actually lets money in.

The shift, when it finally came, didn't look like working harder. It looked like doing less of the busy, hustling part. I started holding the feeling that there was already enough, that I was allowed the frictionless path, that money could move toward me without me bleeding for it first. Then I let go of the how. I handed that bit over to the universe with faith that it would work itself out.

What I can tell you, without dressing it up, is that money then showed up in ways I hadn't planned and couldn't have engineered if I'd tried. Not from the thing I'd been straining at. From directions I wasn't even looking in, like the friend who offered to gift me some money right when my business needed it to grow, or the investor who called me out of the blue to tell me they wanted to double down on their investment. And every time, I had that slightly disoriented, is-this-actually-allowed feeling in my body, the old nervous system still half-waiting for the catch. There wasn't one. The money didn't arrive because I'd finally suffered enough for it. It arrived once I stopped believing suffering was the price of entry.

And yes, I do think there's magic in that. I'm not going to tidy it into pure psychology, because that isn't what it feels like from the inside and it isn't what I believe. Something larger tends to meet you the moment you stop stressing out and holding too much. The practical half is real too, though, and that's the half you can practice on purpose.

Which, for me, looks like this: mantras and frequency music each morning to reprogram the money beliefs running underneath everything else, feeling into the abundance as already true, unwavering faith in the Universe, saying thank you for it, and then letting go of exactly how and when it arrives, while still taking the next obvious action in front of me. Letting go of the "how" is not the same as doing nothing. I follow Neville Goddard's teachings here, and his short bookFeeling Is the Secret lays out the felt-state idea most clearly.

How to Manifest Money: A Step-by-Step Practice

This is the practice I'd hand you if you asked me how to manifest money, not "more abundance" in the abstract, but an actual number.

1. Name the real number, and write it down. Not "more money." The specific figure, tied to a specific window: this income by this month, this rate on the next project, this amount saved by year's end. Writing it down is where the 42% lives.

2. Find the money belief in the way, and say it out loud. What do you actually believe about having that much? "It's greedy." "It won't last." "People like me don't." You can't reprogram a belief you won't name.

3. Reprogram it. Write the opposite belief as a mantra on a flashcard and read it daily in the felt state, ideally with right-brain frequency music, so it reaches the unconscious layer rather than remaining a nice idea in your conscious mind.

4. Feel the abundance as already true, in your body. A few minutes daily in the felt sense of already having it, not "I hope," but the settled, it's-here version.

5. Have unwavering faith that it will happen, no matter what. Whenever you feel doubt, focus on the belief that success is your birthright and that the Universe always delivers.

6. Take the next visible money action. Send the pitch, raise the rate, list the offer, have the conversation, start the second venture (hey, you’re a generalist after all!). One concrete step, right now, not the whole plan.

7. Say thank you, and let go of the how. Drop the grip on the exact mechanism and timeline. Keep showing up for the parts you can act on, and trust the rest.

How to Manifest Money Fast (Even When You're Broke)

Speed comes from specificity and from clearing resistance, not from wanting it harder. If you're trying to manifest money fast, the fastest lever is usually to narrow the ask; "this specific 500 by Friday" gives your actions something concrete to aim at in a way "a lot more money, soon" never will.

Manifesting money when you're broke is its own case, because that's exactly when the scarcity bandwidth tax is highest, and your mind has the least room to see options. So, when money is tight, the move is to deliberately widen your focus back out: name one small, believable next amount rather than a rescue-sized number, because a believable target is one your nervous system won't immediately reject. Then look for money that's already near you. This is where the tactical piece of my 5 ways to manifest more money post pairs well with the mindset work here: things you can sell, skills you can trade, an invoice you haven't chased. Abundance, when money is tight, starts with a decision to look for what's already there rather than only what's missing.

How to Manifest Money as a Multi-Passionate Creative

If you're a creative generalist (a polymath, multipotentialite or multihyphenate), manifesting money has one extra wrinkle: you don't have one income stream to feel into, you have four half-built ones. And the usual advice, "focus on one thing," has always felt like a cage.

Here's what I tell the creatives I coach: combine, don't choose, but manifest one income stream at a time. A portfolio career can absolutely include several ways to make money; that's the whole point of building your work life around earning income while living your purpose rather than picking one lane and abandoning the rest. What you can't do is hold the felt state of five different "already true" income outcomes in the same five minutes and expect any of them to land with real focus. Pick the stream with the most charge and the most nearness right now. Manifest that one fully. 

The others don't disappear; they take their turn. 

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Common Questions About How to Manifest Money

How do you manifest money fast?

Get specific and narrow the ask. A precise, believable target ("this exact amount by this date") gives your actions something concrete to aim at, which moves faster than a big, vague wish for "more money soon." Then clear the belief that says you can't have it, and take one visible money action immediately rather than waiting for the whole plan to feel ready.

Does manifesting money actually work?

The parts backed by research do. Updating a scarcity mindset frees up real mental bandwidth for better money decisions, and writing a specific goal down makes you 42% more likely to reach it. What doesn't work on its own is visualizing a number and waiting. Manifesting money works when the inner shift stays connected to a plan and to action.

How do you manifest money when you're broke?

Start smaller and more believable than the rescue-sized number, because when money is tight, your mind has less bandwidth to see options, and it will reject a target that feels impossible. Name one small next amount, look for money that's already near you (something to sell, a skill to trade, an unpaid invoice to chase), and take that action while holding the felt sense of enough rather than the panic of not-enough.

What is an abundance mindset, and why does it matter for money?

An abundance mindset is the felt belief that there is enough, and that more is available to you, rather than the constant background sense that money is scarce and running out. It matters because a scarcity mindset measurably taxes your mental bandwidth, leaving less for planning and good decisions, so shifting to an abundance mindset is what makes practical money work possible in the first place.

Do you have to believe in the universe to manifest money?

No. You can run a working money-manifestation practice purely on the "personal power" side, updating your own beliefs, focus, and actions, without any belief in an outside force. Personally, I land on both: I do the inner and outer work, and I also believe something larger is responding. You don't need to share that for the practice to work. I just do.

Ready to build a creative career that actually pays?

Manifesting money works best when it isn't a solo project. Most creative generalists I meet aren't short on ideas or ambition, they're carrying old money beliefs and a pile of half-built income streams with no one to help them see the pattern. That's the exact knot coaching is built to untangle.

Book a free 20-minute coaching clarity call, and let's talk about your specific situation, your money mindset, your income streams, and what's actually in the way. No pressure and no sales pitch, just a real conversation about whether coaching is right for you.

Book your free session

Or if you're not ready for a call yet, grab the free Big Dreamers Manifesta and get specific about the number you're actually manifesting instead of staying vague about "more."

How to Manifest: A Practical Guide for Multi-Passionate Creatives

Manifestation has a marketing problem. Vision boards, glitter affirmations, and the idea that thinking happy thoughts will deposit your dream life on your doorstep while you sit on the couch. None of that is what's actually happening when manifesting works, and none of it is what I practice. Except for the happy thoughts, that is. But there's another reason for that. Read on, and you'll find out.

I'm Murielle Marie, and manifestation has been part of how I build my life and my businesses for years, long before it became a wellness-industry punchline. So here's how to manifest something real: not by sitting back and waiting, but by combining a specific inner practice with real movement in the world. If you're multi-passionate and have a hard time trusting that any of your thoughts and ideas will actually turn into things, this is for you.

What Does It Actually Mean to Manifest Something?

Manifesting means deliberately shaping your inner state, your beliefs, your feelings, your focus, so it lines up with what you want instead of working against it. It is not magical thinking. It is also not the same as wishing.

One of the main components of manifesting is therefore the rewiring of your unconscious mind. Since 95% of our thoughts are unconscious and our thoughts drive our actions, 95% of what we do is based on unconscious beliefs. One of the ways I practice this is with my "morning mantra cards," which I read while feeling into them while listening to specific brainwave-enhancing music. Here is the playlist I currently use on Spotify.

Manifesting is what happens when you stop arguing with your own desires and start acting like they're already allowed to exist. That argument is almost never a conscious one. You can want something with your whole conscious mind, be sure you're not self-sabotaging, and still be carrying a stack of unconscious beliefs underneath that desire that argue the opposite: that you're not safe taking the risk, that success like that isn't for people like you, that wanting this much is asking for too much. Because so much of what you do runs on that unconscious layer, those contradicting beliefs tend to win by default. Most people don't fail to manifest because the universe said no. They fail because the unconscious belief underneath the wanting never got updated, and an outdated belief will keep overriding a conscious desire every time.

Does Manifesting Actually Work? Here's What the Research Says

Some of it holds up. Some of it doesn't, and it's worth knowing which parts before you build a practice around it.

A 2025 study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin developed a scale to measure manifestation belief across two dimensions: Personal Power (the belief that your thoughts directly shape outcomes) and Cosmic Collaboration (the belief that something outside you, the universe, a higher force, is responding to your intentions). More on where I personally land on that second one in the FAQ below. The researchers found that strong manifestation beliefs made people feel more confident and positive about their chances of success, but those beliefs had no measurable effect on their actual, objective success. Believing harder doesn't change the outcome on its own, because the belief that matters here isn't the conscious kind. Until you reprogram the unconscious beliefs underneath it, they keep outvoting whatever you're consciously trying to believe.

Separately, NYU psychology professor Gabriele Oettingen has spent two decades studying what drives outcomes, and her findings run counter to the popular version of manifesting in an interesting way. People who vividly imagine themselves already having achieved a goal, with no thought for the obstacles between here and there, actually exert less effort toward that goal afterward. Their brain treats the daydream as close enough to done. What works instead is what she calls mental contrasting: picture the outcome, then picture the specific obstacle in your way, then make a plan for it. That combination, not the visualization alone, is what predicts follow-through.

Put those two findings together, and you get a useful, less mystical version of manifesting: clearing the inner noise that blocks you is real and worth doing, but it has to stay connected to a plan and to action. The noise worth clearing usually isn't conscious noise either. Research on self-affirmation backs this up from a different angle: when people work directly on the underlying beliefs driving their behavior, not just their conscious intentions, their actual performance improves, not just how confident they feel. Feeling is not the finish line.

My Own Manifestation Practice (No Vision Board Required)

I follow the teachings of Neville Goddard and others, and, as I mentioned above, the version I practice every morning is simple. Mantras and frequency music to settle my nervous system and reprogram the beliefs running underneath everything else I do that day. I'm looking for joy and for the frictionless path, the version of getting there that doesn't require me to suffer first to earn it.

I feel into what I want as though I already have it. Not "I hope this happens," but the felt sense that it's true right now. I say thank you for it. And then, this is the part most people skip: I let go of any attachment to how it arrives. Goddard's own teaching on this is worth reading directly in Feeling Is the Secret; his point is that the subconscious responds to the state you hold while imagining, not the literal words you use.

Letting go of the how is not the same as doing nothing. I still take the next obvious action in front of me. I just stop trying to control the exact mechanism and timeline by which the outcome shows up, because that's the part of manifesting that turns into anxious gripping instead of clarity, and what often causes clients to stop trying. Spoiler alert: a few tries won't get you there; you have to keep going, especially when all you hear are crickets.

How Do You Manifest Something? A Step-by-Step Practice

This is the practice I'd hand you if you asked me how to manifest something specific, not just a vague better life.

1. Get specific about what you actually want. Not "more success," but the actual thing: the client, the income number, the move, the finished project. Vague desires produce vague results. If you haven't put it on paper yet, [writing your dream down is usually where the specificity finally clicks.

2. Feel it as already true, for real, in your body. Spend a few minutes daily in the felt state of already having it. This is the part that overlaps with Oettingen's outcome visualization, and it works best paired with what comes next.

3. Reprogram your unconscious mind. List all your fears and limiting beliefs that are blocking your vision from manifesting. Then write down mantras that affirm the opposite on flashcards, and read them a few times a day with right-brain-frequency music so they actually reach your unconscious mind.

4. Name the obstacle, then make a plan for it. This is the step most manifestation content leaves out entirely, and it's the one the research says actually predicts whether you follow through.

5. Take the next small action. Not the whole plan. The next visible step, right here, right now.

6. Let go of the exact path and the timeline. Instead, say thank you often and deliberately. You don't need to control how it arrives or when, just keep showing up for the parts you can actually act on.

How to Manifest Your Dream Life When You Have More Than One Dream

If you're a multi-passionate creative (or a creative generalist, as I like to say), this is usually where manifestation advice falls apart for you. Most of it assumes you have one dream life to script, one outcome to feel into. You might have four (or five, or six, like me 😅).

Here's what I tell the creatives I coach: manifest one thing at a time, not one thing forever. You can absolutely run multiple businesses, build multiple creative outlets, and hold multiple identities. If money itself is one of the dreams in the mix, I've written a focused practice just for that that you can run alongside this one. You just can't hold the felt state of five different "already true" outcomes in the same five minutes and expect any of them to land with real focus. Pick the one with the most charge for you right now. Manifest that one fully. The others are still allowed to exist, and you can even work on them alongside the main focus; they just wait their turn in the practice, not in your actual life.

"But I've Tried Manifesting, and Nothing Happened"

Usually, one of three things is going on.

1. You visualized the outcome without ever naming the obstacle or making a plan, which the research above says is the exact gap that kills follow-through.

2. Or you held the felt state for five minutes and then spent the rest of the day arguing with yourself about why it's unrealistic, which cancels out the practice before it has a chance to work.

3. Or the outcome you scripted wasn't actually yours; it was borrowed from what you thought you should want, and your nervous system knew the difference even when your mind didn't.

None of those means manifesting doesn't work for you. They mean the practice needs the action half, not just the feeling half. And you have to be willing to let go, trust, and have faith in the process.

To say it in the words of Neville Goddard, what you need is: "Persistent imagination, centered in the feeling of the wish fulfilled, is the secret of all successful operations."

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Common Questions About How to Manifest

How to manifest something?

Get specific about what you want, spend time daily in the felt state of already having it, name the real obstacle between you and it, make a plan to address that obstacle, and take the next visible action. The feeling clears the inner block. The plan and the action are what actually move the outcome.

How do you manifest something fast?

Speed comes from specificity, not intensity. The faster path is to name exactly what you want and remove your own resistance to it, rather than manifesting harder. Vague, oversized wishes ("a better life") take longer to land than precise ones ("this specific client by this date") because there's nothing concrete for your actions to aim at.

How to manifest your dream life?

Treat it as one dream at a time rather than as a single combined dream. Pick the outcome with the most charge for you right now, run the full practice on it, and let the rest of your dream life take its turn. Trying to manifest everything at once is usually what makes multi-passionate people feel like manifesting "doesn't work" for them specifically.

Do you have to believe in "the universe" for manifestation to work?

No. The Cosmic Collaboration's belief that something outside you responds to your intentions is one path some people take, but it isn't required. The Personal Power side, the belief that your own focused thought and feeling shape your behavior and choices, is enough on its own to build a working practice. Use whichever framing actually feels true to you.

Personally, I land on both. The science on Cosmic Collaboration isn't there yet, and I'm not going to pretend it is. But my own life keeps showing me I'm not doing this alone, that I'm tapping into something larger than my own effort, call it the universe, a greater field, the realm of consciousness itself. You don't need to believe that for the practice to work. I just do.

Ready to manifest this for real, not just feel it?

You've got the felt-sense part down. The harder part is the obstacle you haven't named yet, the one quietly keeping the plan from forming. That's usually where manifesting alone hits its ceiling.

A free 20-minute coaching clarity call is where we name that obstacle together and build the next real step toward the thing you're manifesting. No pressure, no sales pitch, just a conversation that moves you from feeling it to building it.

Book your free session

Or if you're not ready for a call yet, grab the free Big Dreams Manifesta to get specific about what you're actually manifesting instead of staying vague.

The Paralysis of Perfectionism: Why "Good Enough" is Actually Perfect

Many people find themselves stuck, unable to move forward in their personal or professional lives. I know because I see a lot of them in my coaching practice. They feel held back not by a lack of ability or opportunity, but by an internal struggle: perfectionism. While seemingly a virtue and a very helpful quality to achieve your goals, the quest for perfection and flawlessness often becomes an obstacle to your goal, leading to procrastination, self-doubt, and, ultimately, getting and staying stuck.

After a decade of supporting creative generalists and entrepreneurs to get unstuck, I know how perfectionism impacts our drive and productivity. So before even trying once again to "just do the thing," look inward. Are you setting yourself up for failure by creating unrealistic expectations? Are you holding yourself back through negative and destructive inner chatter? If that is the case, trying harder won't make you finally move forward. Instead, you must shift your mindset and mentally recalibrate: you must transform how you see perfection and understand it's an illusion created by fear to keep you safe.

What is Perfectionism, Really?

Perfectionism is often misunderstood as simply striving for excellence or having high standards. However, again, after doing this work for a decade, I can tell you it goes way beyond that. At its core, perfectionism is an all-or-nothing approach to life. It's the belief that anything less than perfect is unacceptable and dangerous. This mindset is paralyzing, as it sets an unattainable standard - a mountain, as I often tell my clients, that we expect to climb in one step!

The High Cost of Chasing Perfection

Perfectionism may manifest differently in different people, but it always comes with a heavy cost:

• Procrastination: The fear of not meeting impossibly high standards leads to delaying tasks. First, you create the mountain in your mind. Then, you procrastinate because it's too big of a task to climb it all at once.

• Analysis Paralysis: Relentless overthinking and analysis prevent taking action. You're always thinking, trying to figure out how to reach the top of the mountain, but never actually taking the first step.

• Self-Sabotage: The inner critic undermines confidence, fostering a belief that you are simply not good enough. If you were, you'd be on that mountain top already!

• Lack of Creativity: The pressure to create something perfect will damage your capacity for innovation and experimentation. Instead of figuring out how to make it to the top, you'll be stuck in a rut, coming up with underwhelming ideas, not knowing how to begin.

• Burnout: Always creating mountains for yourself, aka unattainable goals, leads to exhaustion and a loss of passion. How could you not get tired, always giving yourself impossibly high climbing levels?

These are only a few of the many negative effects or causes of perfectionism. One that is particularly powerful in keeping us stuck is what we say to ourselves. Let's take a closer look at that inner voice and how it keeps us from achieving our goals.

The Inner Critic's Sabotage

A common theme among my clients is the destructive voice of the inner critic. This voice whispers nothing but doubts, focuses on flaws, and convinces us that our efforts will invariably fail. Some examples of how this inner critic keeps us stuck include:

• "No one will buy that; don't waste your time."

• "This has been done before. It’s not original."

• "There is nothing special about this."

• "I don’t deserve that because I am not good enough."

• "I will fail, lose money, and everyone will hate me."

• "Making it is hard, and I will suffer."

One of my clients described his inner critic as saying, "Look, the mountain is beautiful but too high for you to climb it." Another client's inner voice was even more brutal, declaring, "You’re not going to be good at expressing your ideas...nothing you do will ever matter." This relentless negativity chips away at self-worth and destroys the courage to pursue a life worth living.

The Antidote: Embracing "Good Enough"

The key to breaking free from the paralysis of perfectionism lies in embracing the concept of "good enough." This doesn't mean settling for mediocrity. Instead, it's about recognizing that striving for excellence is valuable, but demanding perfection is self-defeating. "Good enough" acknowledges that limitations exist - of course they do! But it allows you to progress, learn, and grow without the crippling weight of impossible expectations (and imaginary mountains to climb).

Here are some strategies to help shift your perfectionist mindset to one that embraces "good enough:"

• Challenge the Inner Critic: Actively question the negative thoughts and beliefs that cause your perfectionism. Are these thoughts realistic and helpful? Are they really true? Or are they based on fear and unrealistic expectations?

• Set Realistic Goals: Break down large tasks into smaller, manageable steps. Make them so small that you can't even make a mountain out of them anymore. Celebrate small victories along the way to build momentum and confidence.

• Focus on Progress, Not Perfection: Shift the focus from the end result (the top of the mountain) to the process of learning and growing (climbing your way up slowly). Accept that mistakes are part of the journey and valuable growth opportunities.

• Practice Self-Compassion: Treat yourself with the same kindness and understanding you would offer a friend. If you wouldn't wish this pressure on someone else, don't put it on yourself.

• Embrace Imperfection: Actively look for opportunities to be imperfect. Share your work even if it's not flawless, leave things unfinished (by your standards), and let others see the process rather than the result. It will be freeing, I promise!

• Set Time Limits: Instead of striving for endless improvement, set a realistic deadline and commit to finishing the task within that timeframe (hello, I see you; I know it's hard!). This prevents projects from dragging on indefinitely and allows you to move forward.

• Celebrate "Done": Acknowledge and celebrate the completion of a task, regardless of whether it meets every expectation. With your high standards, things will never be "done," so you might as well just let them be what they are.

• Redefine Success: Change your definition of success from doing everything perfectly and at the highest level to your personal growth journey, finding meaning in your work, and focusing on your well-being first.

Some Case Studies in "Good Enough"

• The Entrepreneur: Savannah started and stopped many entrepreneurial projects because they "didn’t quite feel right." After having her daughter, she realized she was working on interesting things, but they "didn’t truly come from my heart." She found her purpose by shifting her focus to postpartum care and wellness and coaching for new mothers.

• The Creative: Connie feels she has "the soul of an artist, even if I don’t have the skill (yet)." Rather than waiting until she has the perfect skills, Connie can embrace her creativity by experimenting, learning, and sharing her work. By cultivating a growth mindset, she knows growth comes through practice, not innate talent.

• The Career Changer: Kathryn wants personalized, results-oriented help with a career transition. By making the most of her existing skills and experience, she can create a solid plan that focuses on progress today rather than an unattainable ideal in the future.

Conclusion

As I have witnessed in my life and through working with many gifted and talented people, you think being perfect will be gratifying, but it only causes frustration and stagnation: you get stuck and stay stuck.

By aiming for "good enough" instead, you can free yourself from unattainable expectations, move closer to your innate potential, and experience the joy of progress, creativity, and meaningful achievement instead of the pain of never reaching the top of the mountain. You can Get Unstuck!

Take the first step toward progress and Getting Unstuck

Perfectionism can keep you trapped in a cycle of frustration and inaction. Constantly striving for an unattainable goal leads to self-doubt, procrastination, and a sense of failure, preventing you from reaching your goals and experiencing true fulfillment.

Are you ready to break free from the chains of perfectionism and start achieving your goals? Are you ready to finally get unstuck? Take the first step now - sign up for a free coaching session with me today!

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Are you perpetually learning and never doing - aka hiding in the learning stage?

Have you ever gone on vacation and not actually been on vacation? Do you know what I mean? 

As entrepreneurs, it can be really easy to fall into a trap of taking a holiday and instead of relaxing on the beach or fully immersing yourself in the culture around you, your mind wanders back to work and before you know it you’re spending your free time reading up on work documents, doom scrolling social media, and hyperfixating on what you are forgetting. 

What’s the point of taking a holiday then? 

Yes, maybe sometimes we come back feeling a little more relaxed, but not really. More often than not we come back completely neutral, if not a tad more frazzled because of how much time we “took off.” 

That’s got to change. And not only on holidays! We have to start putting boundaries around our holidays - and our time - and sticking to them. We have to recognize that these boundaries are important to our mental health, our stamina, and even our work because a burned out entrepreneur is not a healthy, productive entrepreneur. If we are constantly pressuring ourselves to get in extra work, we are more than likely going to jump ship for something new a minute later (#creativegeneralist). But to stay focused on our current goal, we have to take time to be off the clock and truly relax. 

Say it with me: vacations are for relaxing, not for overproduction.

Another common trait we share as creative entrepreneurs is falling into the trap of perpetually learning and never actually doing. I’ve had countless clients say they have to learn something new before they can do XYZ. When that happens, you know what most of us end up doing? That’s right: working while we are on holiday or having a day off. Which is frustrating, overwhelming, and can easily lead to burnout. 

I had a client that always thought she had to do one more thing before she could get the first thing done. One time she messaged me saying she would be getting an Instagram post up ASAP. I knew it was a big step for her. But then I waited and the post never showed up. I messaged her asking what happened and she told me she decided it would be better as a blog post but before she could write the blog post, she had to update her website. She gave herself more work instead of just posting an graphic and caption! 

She was hiding in the learning stage. 

I think that’s true for all of us: when something is particularly scary or big, we hide in the learning stage so we don’t have to actually do the thing. When I did improv, it was so much fun to learn theories and techniques, but actually getting on stage to practice my “yes, ands” was terrifying. I was much more comfortable learning - about improv, myself, my classmates, etc. - than I was actually doing a show. 

When we remain in the learning stage of a project, we get to sit in our comfort zone. No one can expect anything from us because hey, “we’re still learning!”. But once we decide to go for it - and do the thing - suddenly there are expectations, restrictions, and requirements for the quality of our work. This can be terrifying. Especially for the new entrepreneur or creative generalist who is just deciding to step out on their own and do what they’ve been dreaming of their whole lives.

So, how do we get to the doing part? How do we learn what we need to learn and then get unstuck and get going?

1. Stop yourself. When you’re learning something, give yourself a deadline for when you have to be done. By September 1st, I will be done learning about cybersecurity tools and start putting them into my websites. Giving yourself a deadline is a great way to force yourself out of the learning stage and into the doing stage.

2. Give yourself guidelines. Learning new things can be intoxicating and addicting, but you can prevent yourself from always staying in the learning stage by giving yourself explicit guidelines for your research. For example, if you’re trying to learn about car engines, you probably will need to know about other parts of a car, but you should limit your research to just the car. Don’t start looking at the history of the automobile, how GMC started, and why Ford was fired from his jobs (yes, I see you!). Stick to the research you need to do and then move on when it’s done.

3. Keep a log. Having a research log where you write down what you’ve done and how much time you’ve spent doing it can really help you see the amount of time you’ve spent learning. It will also remind you that to get the thing done on your timeline, you have to move on and start doing.

4. Set clear goals. If there’s something you want to do - whether in work or life - having clear goals about what it is and what research needs to be done will help it come to fruition faster.

5. Trust yourself. Yes, getting stuck perpetually learning can be disastrous and an amazing way to procrastinate forever, but sometimes the best thing you can do is trust yourself. Why are you still learning? What are you trying to accomplish by continuing to research? There might be something that your gut is telling you that your mind can’t understand and the only way to get to the doing stage is to complete the learning stage. By trusting yourself, you’re giving yourself permission to learn for as long as you need because you know that you will start the doing stage when the time is right. And that’s okay too. 

Being a perpetual learner can completely hinder your ability to get unstuck and get work done or achieve the things in your life that you want. By creating boundaries for yourself and your learning, you can stop when you need to and shift into doing. That being said, its also important to remember that sometimes the doing can’t happen till your gut feels content with the learning. So trust yourself. You’ve got this!

Want to take a break?

"Taking a break" doesn't always mean you have to spend a fortune traveling the world. It can be as simple as shutting down your laptop for an extended period and immersing yourself in activities that truly fulfill you.

But if the mere thought of taking a break leaves you anxious, you’re fears are over – I'm here to assist! My creative and entrepreneurial clients come from all walks of life and all corners of the world. And all of them need support in finding the right work-life balance. Together, we'll help you get out of procrastination and “always learning mode”, so you can finally take action - and enjoy your holidays!

Schedule your free session!

Are you suffering from generalist syndrome?

There’s this pervasive character trait for generalists - always wanting to know more, never feeling like you know enough, but letting that desire to learn get you stuck, preventing you from doing the things you want. 

I call it generalist syndrome. Do you have it?

It’s pretty common, nevertheless, it’s incredibly detrimental to our work and life goals. I had a client once who was setting up an event for artists. She seemed to be stuck and I asked her what piece of her work was making her uncomfortable. She told me she wanted to find a new way to get people to gather and work together. She wanted to create a new type of community setting. But instead of doing it, she was focused on the learning part. She wanted to go take a course, become fully knowledgeable in this area, and only then have the event where she would “roll out the brand new meeting style”. 

I asked her if there was an easier way to get what she wanted. This client was confused and stuck to her idea that this was the only way. But then I pointed out that there was actually a shortcut - one that would get the event back on track and allow her to create something new without having to go back to school to do it – she could talk to an expert (aka, a specialist, a creative generalists arch nemesis - just kidding!). 

As generalists, we’re always focusing on learning. And that’s an amazing superpower we have! But we learn so many different things that we forget their are people out there who specialize in specific areas and they’re usually more than happy to let us pick their brains. For my client, the clear shortcut was to set up a coffee chat with someone who already specialized in the type of event she wanted to learn to create. Rather than go to school or take a course, she could pick the specialist’s brain and get her event off the ground! 

That idea you’re currently munching over, the one you’ve been thinking about for a while now? You do not need to learn anything first in order to make it happen. In fact, one might argue that being an entrepreneur is all about learning on the fly. It’s like that famous saying - being an entrepreneur is like jumping off a cliff and assembling a parachute on the way down. We have to think on our toes. There isn’t always going to be a class to take or a course to finish before our brilliant business ideas become successfulr. Sometimes - most of the time - you have to just jump and figure out shortcuts to get that parachute made so you can fly even higher. 

But how do you jump? How do you put aside your generalist syndrome and embrace the shortcuts specialist can offer? Here are three steps I follow every day to shift my focus from learning to networking and doing:

1. Don’t think, just jump. When we get stuck thinking about how much more we have to learn about a subject, or where we can learn the material, we get stuck. It’s like the college student who can’t decide what major they want to follow. They like writing about different characters, but they misinterpret that as wanting to learn the same material as their characters. Instead of just reading research about those positions, they decide to jump from Biology to Anthropology to Chemistry and Physics to English Literature majors. If they had just sat back and realized they wanted to write about a biologist, anthropologist, and astrophysicist, they could have saved themselves a lot of time and effort. Being in business or going after the life we want is similar. Just go after the end goal and don’t worry about all the things you have to learn first. I promise you will learn them on the way and save yourself a ton of time and effort in the long run.

2. Try and fail. “Fail” is the four letter word that evokes fear in most entrepreneurs, but really, there’s nothing quite like failure to teach you what you should be doing instead. The key to getting unstuck and going after what you want out of life is accepting that failure can happen and, if it does, you will be okay - probably better than okay. There is no shortage of businesses that have thrived because of failure. So, don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid to never start. Instead of perpetually learning, take a step back, a deep breath, and just start. 

3. Track your goals. Having clear goals for your work and life can be super helpful in moving your through the learning to doing pipeline. For example, if your goal is to start a copywriting business out of your kitchen so you can spend more time with your kids, you don’t have to take copywriting classes. You don’t have to learn anything before you start. You can, instead, just start looking for work and building your website. Sure, you may have to learn a little bit as you go on, but you don’t have to learn everything before you get your first client. In fact, the best entrepreneurs tend to start working in a business before they even have a chance to create it. When you have clear goals and expectations, you’ll be better motivated to stay on task and get to the doing stage.

Letting the need to learn rule our lives can only negatively impact us, holding us back from the great things we are trying to accomplish. Instead of staying stuck in the learning stage, let go of the fear of doing, track your goals, and make the leap. You never know what successes wait for you on the other side of the cliff.

Ready to jump?

Working together, I will help you build a personalized parachute filled with expert knowledge and a plan of attack for your business’s next steps.

Having a preplanned parachute is overrated. The best part of being an entrepreneur is thinking on your feet.

Schedule your free session!

How to Make Your Biggest, Most Unrealistic Dreams Come True

It's easy to think about all the little things you want to have or accomplish in life, but it's much harder to dream big and think about all the things you could achieve if you genuinely felt like you had no limits. To make matters even more challenging, once you've got the hang of dreaming bigger, it can still be hard to figure out how to make those dreams happen.

Our dreams are what make life worth living. They can be as big or small as you want them to be, but the bigger you allow yourself to dream, the more those dreams will carry you forward on your journey. If we dream big enough and act upon those dreams consistently, those dreams do come true! I know, believe me because I see it happen every day in my coaching practice.

In this article, we'll talk about how you can dream bigger and make your biggest, most unrealistic dreams come true! Because you know what? You can!

How to Stop Being Afraid to Dream Big

The first step to dream bigger is learning not to be afraid of your dreams. What's the worst that can happen? You fail; you learn something new and try again! There are no limits on what you're capable of if you dream big enough!

The first step to overcoming the fear of what's possible for you in your life is to admit you have the dream. You have to stop brushing it off as something "you could never do" or that "will never happen. Whenever a client dismisses their dream like that, my question to them is this: "What proof do you have that this could never happen or that you could never do it if you don't try?"

We tend to make other people or the world responsible for not achieving our dreams, but in most cases, those big dreams don't even get a chance to get out of the starting blocks because we throw them out before we reach the running track.

So take a moment now to think about some big, beautiful, seemingly unrealistic dream or goal you have for yourself. Got it? Good! Now let's talk about how to make that dream a reality.

How to Make Your Biggest, Most Unrealistic Dreams Come True

Once you're ready to accept your big dreams for what they are and are no longer pushing them away, the next step is to figure out how to make them happen.

Here's an easy 5-step plan to follow to get you started:

1. Make a list of your biggest dreams.
   Don't censor yourself, instead of push yourself to dream even bigger. Imagine you'd like to leave your 9-to-5 job and start your own business. How big would you like that business to be? How free would you like to be with it? What would it look like if this business could be exactly as you want it? Those are the dreams we're looking for. There will be plenty of time to be realistic later.

2. Pick a dream and give it 30 days of undivided attention.
   If you only have one dream, you're good for this step. If you have more, and they're all screaming for your attention, pick one - for now - and devote 30 days to it. I know this can be scary for creatives and entrepreneurs, especially those with many ideas lying around, but we're not saying drop everything forever. Just pick one idea (the one that speaks to you the most right now) and give it four weeks of your time. After that, you're free to drop it, pick another or keep going.

3. Start with the end in mind and create a plan.
   What small step can you take every day for the next 30 days to bring you closer to this dream? I'm not saying reach it, but get closer to it because a big part of achieving unrealistic dreams is to be very realistic about the time you have and the effort needed to achieve them. You can only sustainably achieve big dreams because, yes, it's a marathon and not a sprint.

4. For the next 30 days, spend at least 10 minutes working on your dream.
   One small step each day for 30 days is all it takes to make unrealistic dreams feel more attainable. Please don't take my word for it (who am I, I've only been doing this work for almost eight years with 100s of clients :) ); try it for yourself. You'll see.

5. Keep moving forward, and don't stop dreaming bigger.
   Even if it takes some time for your dreams to become a reality, keep dreaming big and never give up – every time you take a step, every time you believe you can do it, you'll get closer to achieving your dreams!

If you want to make your biggest and most unrealistic dreams come true, start by believing in them. Get the ball rolling on achieving them by taking small steps towards making your dream a reality, and don't give up when things get tough. Conditions are constantly changing, so be flexible with yourself as well! It's not that hard to turn any fantasy into reality if you're willing to put in the work. What is one of your biggest or most seemingly impossible goals? Do you believe it can happen? Why or why not? Let me know!

You have big dreams but you don't know how to make them a reality?

I'm here to guide you through the process of achieving your goals and living a life that's fulfilling, exciting, and successful. When it comes down to it, my clients tell me they want a life that is truly meaningful and rewarding - both personally and professionally - because ultimately this is what helps us feel fulfilled as human beings (and isn't this why we're all here?).

And when we feel fulfilled, everything else falls into place much easier. So let's do this together! Let's start working towards creating the kind of life where fulfillment comes naturally instead of being forced upon us by circumstance alone...

Schedule your free session!

5 easy steps to set successful goals for yourself

Happy New Year! I absolutely love those three words, don’t you? They come bearing the gift of opportunity, and the promise of 365 days to create whatever your heart desires. A clean slate for you to play with, reinvent yourself, achieve your wildest dreams.

I’ve always had big dreams, and goals but it’s only in the last few years that I’ve become really intentional about achieving them. Every year I find that I’m perfecting my goal-setting techniques, rituals, and habits. And every year, I’m achieving more of what I want. So much so, that I created a goal-setting course called Dream Bigger that you can join here.

This program guides you through the process of dreaming big, and setting fulfilling goals for yourself, all the way to creating an actionable – and achievable – plan!

The amazing results that students have achieved using the program, and reflecting on my own successes, proves to me that nothing is impossible!

What really matters is not what your goals are, but how you set them.

So here’s 5 easy steps to set successful goals for yourself!

#1 Reflect and learn

If you don’t know what you’re doing wrong or right, you will never be able to use that knowledge to grow. So the first step when setting successful goals for yourself is to reflect on your successes and failures of the year that has passed. What goals did you achieve? What went well? What didn’t? And from that to distill some lessons learned that will help you to move forward faster in the new year, or to avoid the mistakes you made last year.

#2 Write, and dream big!

Planning your goals for the new year is like doing a gigantic brain dump. You want to get everything you want to accomplish, and achieve over the next 12 months out of your head and onto paper. The important thing here is to be as complete as possible and not to censor yourself. You have a permission slip to dream big. At this stage you don’t want to make your life dream realistic, you want make it really fantastic!

#3 Cut, cut, cut

If you’re familiar with the 80/20 principle you know that according to that principle 20 percent of what we do in life (and business) accounts for 80 percent of the results we achieve. Applied to goal-setting this means that less is definitely more! So review the list you’ve created for yourself in step 2, and identify the goals or actions that you either don’t really want to go for, or that will not bring in the returns you’re going for. Make sure to feel into your goals when you do this exercise, and to dismiss anything that doesn’t feel right for you. Ask yourself questions such as: How do I want to feel this year? Is this goal helping me do that? Do I really want this? What desire lies behind this goal or action? Is this the best way to achieve it?

#4 Organize

Once you know the goals you’re going to work towards this year, it’s time to get organized and structure your goals by creating a plan for yourself. You can do this in any number of ways, with Nathalie McNiel’s 5x5 quadrant for instance, or by organizing your goals per quarter, month, week, or even day. Whatever system you’re using, make sure you’ve got a clear overview of what it is you’re trying to achieve, create visual cues for yourself (hang your plan onto the refrigerator, on the wall in your office, in the bathroom…) to be reminder of your goals daily, cultivate action-oriented habits, and use planning tools to help you work on your goals throughout the year.

#5 Schedule, and keep yourself accountable

And finally… schedule. What gets scheduled, gets done. Have weekly check-ins to review your goals, and plan ahead. Put all your action steps in your calendar, and set deadlines for yourself. Don’t be afraid to keep yourself accountable, because that’s precisely what you need to reach your goals. And if going at it alone is too difficult, find yourself an accountability partner. Have regular check-ins with her, say what you’re working on, what you’ll do by when, and stick to it. The results you’ll achieve will be nothing short of a miracle, I promise you!