Discover how to peel back the layers that keep you stuck with these powerful questions.
Have you ever started writing a manifestation journal, only to abandon the practice because you felt like you were just…writing to write?
You google around, find some manifestation journaling prompts, and start writing about your desires…
Except, after a few minutes or a few days of this, you realize that you’re basically going through the motions.
The words aren’t coming from your heart. You’ve got one eye on the page, and another eye on the clock. And even if you keep up with the practice, it doesn’t feel like much is changing in your life.
What’s going on here? Why aren’t these journal prompts leading to a successful achievement of your long term goals?
Part of the answer is that manifestation is about far more than just journaling. The other part of the answer, though, is that many of the popular journal prompts for manifesting don’t take you deep enough into the heart of what you would truly love to create or attract in your life.
Manifestation is about aligning everything in your life (feeling, thought, and action) with what you most desire.
Therefore, the more your manifestation prompts drive to the core of what that is, the more likely you are to see the results you want.
Below are 7 manifesting prompts that take you past the surface of your day-to-day mind and into the depths of your true, burning desires.
Manifestation Journal Prompt #1: If I had 1 month left to live, what would I give anything to do, see, learn, receive, or experience?
Most of us –– whether we realize it or not –– live as though our time on this planet is endless. If we’re asked whether we believe this, we’ll say that we don’t. “Of course we’re all going to die. Everybody knows that. It’s obvious. What’s the point in dwelling on it?”
Yet as existential psychologist Irvin Yalom says: “The truth is that we ‘know’, but do not know.” We know about death. Intellectually, we know the facts. But on a heartfelt level, very few have realized that their time here is finite.
It’s similar to how, if you ask a wealthy person if they know that they won’t take their money with them when they die, 100% of them will say “yes, I know that.” Yet nearly all of them live as though they will. That’s because this idea lives in their intellect, rather than their awareness.
For this prompt, the goal is to crank your own awareness of inevitable death way up. Close your eyes and vividly imagine that a doctor has told you, in no uncertain terms, that you have 1 month left.
This may not be comfortable at first, but if you can “go there” with your imagination, you avail yourself of a priceless opportunity: the awareness of what means the most to you when there is no longer anything to lose, or any reason to wait.
When your time is almost up, obstacles stop feeling like obstacles. Excuses vanish. Emotions change.
Is there a relationship you would love to repair? An experience that would fill your heart? You may be surprised at which desires surface when you only have a month to go.
Manifestation Journal Prompt #2: If limits simply did not exist, and there was not so much as a second’s length between me desiring something and receiving it, what would I pursue then?
In the same way that feelings of endless time exist deep in our awareness, constraining us in our manifestation practice, so too does the idea of “limits.”
You’ve likely absorbed so many messages from society about why things can’t happen (or what could go wrong, or what needs to happen first, or in a certain order, etc.) that as soon as you start picturing what you would love, the limits overshadow it, suffocating your manifestation before it has any hope of materializing in the physical world.
In fact, beyond the specific limits that you’re aware of feeling held back by, there’s often this pervasive feeling of: “I can’t.”
For this prompt, the aim is to transcend the entire idea of there being any limits at all in your life. Think back to when you were young, and you earnestly believed that dragons could be real, or that you could fly to space just by wanting to.
Allow that capacity of unhindered imagination to return, and write down what you would pursue if limits simply did not exist.
If desiring was synonymous with receiving, and there was nothing to “overcome” in the middle, what would you truly love?
Manifestation Journal Prompt #3: If the approval and support of my parents was an absolute certainty, what would I do then?
Every single one of us has been shaped by the expectations of our parents and the interactions we have had with them.
Sometimes, these expectations are overt. For example, if your young adult dream was majoring in music at college, your parents may have said: “Music? That’s impractical. There’s no money in it. Get a business degree instead.”
Just as often, though, our parents molded us in unspoken ways. An awkward glance, an enthusiasm unmet, a put down of someone we think highly of or look up to.
If we’re not keenly aware of the impact these interactions have had on us, they form an invisible “shell” around what we will even allow ourselves to imagine manifesting.
Now, ultimately, it would be ideal to arrive at a place where the approval of others (even our parents) means nothing.
However, for those just beginning to design their dream life, this may be too great a leap.
Instead, imagine that your parents would unconditionally approve of, and support, what you want to do.
Picture that your mother or father has undergone some kind of dramatic transformation, in which they have nothing to gain or lose from the choices you make in your life. And that, now, their only concern is you feeling fulfilled.
Manifestation Journal Prompt #4: What would a typical Tuesday look like in your dream life, from start to finish?
The beauty of this prompt is in going beyond the grand, sweeping achievements that we often fantasize about.
Mind you: there’s nothing wrong with dreaming of impressive “milestone” successes like earning a million dollars, or becoming famous in your field, or having six-pack abs and so forth.
It’s inspiring and actually wonderful to set goals that are so ambitious –– and yet, there is more to manifesting your dreams than these showcase successes.
Stewart Copeland, drummer of the legendary rock band The Police, put it perfectly:
All the Grammys and the accolades and all of that – they all fade. The money – you get used to it. All the rewards of success in show business are ephemeral. Some of them, such as financial security, are very important. But you don’t feel them. They fade. The accolades, they fade.
Anybody knows that when you get that trophy in school for football or whatever…the first day, it’s sitting there on the shelf, and it’s all shiny, and you walk past and you think “Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe I won that.” And you get a great feeling. A week later, it’s lost a little bit of its sheen. A month later, you gotta really work at it to get that feeling. A year later, you walk past and you don’t even see it.
For this prompt, set aside the grand “finish line” outcome and zoom in to the micro level: a typical Tuesday in your dream life.
Write down what you’re doing, and most importantly, how you’re feeling, from morning to noon to night.
After writing this, you should feel much more firmly rooted in the grainy, everyday reality of what a fulfilling life would actually consist of for you.
Manifestation Journal Prompt #5: What do I know deep down is the right decision for me, that I keep second-guessing because of how others will feel?
Have you ever seen one of those basketball clips where there’s 1 second left on the clock, and the player holding the ball heaves up an impossible-looking shot that SWOOSHES right through the net?
What can be learned from this is that, oftentimes, it’s not the circumstances that make something feel difficult, but the complications we add through our thinking.
The player who hoists up a shot from halfcourt with a second to go has no time to think, and so, his raw instincts take over.
In our lives, it’s not necessarily lots of time on the clock that can cause us to get stuck (although sometimes it can –– see the first prompt in this post.)
What can often trip us up is the second-guessing that we do about how our actions or choices will be received by others.
No sooner do we let our imagination run wild than the storm clouds of other people’s predicted reactions rush in, spoiling the fun!
For this prompt, imagine that other people’s opinions simply do not matter. If your vote was the only one that counted, if you were omniscient and infallible, what feels like the right decision or direction for your life?
When the static-y interference factor of other people’s reactions is removed, the instincts that have been muffled by that can more clearly be heard!
Manifestation Journal Prompt #6: What if I had to 10x whatever is currently my biggest dream or goal?
Our greatest limitation in manifesting our goals (in the long term or the short term) is what we can imagine as possible.
If, right now, the desire you want to manifest is at the level of 1x, but unbeknownst to you, there’s actually a level of 10x for that same desire…
Then you can say all of the positive affirmations that you like –– and you’ll only be positively affirming what you can imagine at the level of 1x.
You can apply every teaching you’ve heard about the Law of Attraction –– and you’ll only be able to attract the “level of 1x” version of your desire.
For ultimate manifestation, a positive mindset isn’t enough. You need to expand your awareness of what you are truly capable of manifesting.
Whatever you currently dream of doing (starting a business, traveling the world, heightening the romance in your relationship) imagine what it would look like to 10x that dream.
Even if you don’t end up making the 10x version of your dream into your new manifestation target, this prompt will expose and eliminate limiting beliefs that are holding you back.
Manifestation Journal Prompt #7: If I were the person I admire most, how would I pursue my dream then?
This prompt is based on The Hotshot Rule, a creation of AG1 (Athletic Greens) CEO Kat Cole:
Four times a year, Cole would go somewhere quiet, think about the state of her company and ask herself: “Let’s say a hotshot takes over my job today. What two or three things would the hotshot look at and say, ‘That’s unacceptable’?”
The power of this prompt is in shifting you out of your own habitual mindset, and into that of someone who you already see as powerful, capable, and successful in the areas that matter to you.
A few examples of journal ideas you could try based on The Hotshot Rule:
- “I’ve been trying to lose 25lbs since 2021 and I’m getting nowhere. What would a personal trainer do?”
- “I want to cook more, but I keep telling myself I’m too busy. If I had 2 kids, what would I do?”
- “I keep beating myself up for being lazy. What would a busy CEO do?”
If there’s a specific person you look up to, even better: channel that person in your journaling!
Sometimes, we don’t need a Lord Of The Rings length treatise on how to change. Just ask yourself what a master would do and listen to the answers that come from your heart. ONE question can bring you startling clarity.
The common thread of all 7 of these manifesting journal prompts is sharpening your vision from so many different angles, that it becomes too clear and powerful NOT to manifest. If you want to go even further in that journey, try our free Building The Vision of Your Dreams meditation today.
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