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Who doesn’t want to achieve a successful career?

You know, the one where you’re acknowledged for your work, sent on leadership development programs and the salary increments and annual bonuses make all working those 80-hour work weeks, loss of work life balance worth it because you are a success?

It’s another thing that after a point, the Law of Diminishing Returns sets in.

The monetary compensation, business class travel and staying in plush 5-star hotels is not attractive enough because the rest of your life is in complete shambles.

Your boss dangles the carrot of a fast track to a top leadership role but you the work horse don’t want a juicy bite or worse start wondering about your next step.

So, am I telling you to drop it all? Not in the least.

What I am telling you is to go after what would really define career success for you and not what is the cultural norm in the corporate world. Use the power of visualization to make it happen.

Manifesting that dream job or career requires a new way of thinking

Before you think I’m going to tell you to chant mantras and affirmations to manifest that dream job or career, the one where all your criterion of a happy work life balance appear overnight, let’s pause to think about it.

Manifestation is somewhat of a buzzword in society today. Everyone seems to be talking about it, writing about it, practicing it, or trying to implement, but what is it?

It’s the idea that what you put out into the universe, whether actions, words, or energy, will come back to you eventually.

A good example is provided by Katherine Hurst in her book The Secret Law of Attraction where she looks at applying for jobs but never being called in for interviews and asks the reader to consider their mindset around the time this event was happening.

Did the reader believe they could achieve their goal? Even if they believed it, was there an underlying sense of fear? Or even a stronger, more forceful voice in their head saying that disaster was going to strike?

When we want something, our limiting beliefs come out of the woodwork to produce frightening thoughts and images representing our failure. The resulting negativity only attracts more negativity; this is the Law of Attraction working in precisely the way you don’t want it to work.

In order to be on the receiving end of good things we need to be thinking and doing good things.

So how does manifestation benefit us and how do we incorporate it into our lives, especially when it comes to one’s career?

Here’s the big reveal.

Manifestation is already at work in our lives, but most of us are unaware of this fact. Thus, many of us are manifesting negative things and outcomes simply because our thoughts and actions are more negative than positive.

For manifestation to work more in our favor we have to be intentional about changing our thoughts and subsequently aligning our actions so that we can begin to manifest good in our lives.

Back in time when I was studying for my Chartered Accountancy qualification in London, I discovered a book by Kaz, a British psychic that talked of magic and many other interesting topics around divination and fortune telling.

It belonged to a friend who had bought it in a book shop sale for 50 pence but didn’t like it too much so when she saw my curiosity, she gifted it to me on the spot.

I still remember the opening pages – the book will find its way to the right reader.

There was a small chapter on manifestation with an exercise that is similar to the one I am going to share below.

At the time, I was about to take the first level examinations which were very competitive and of course as a young student I was nervous. Passing the exams would take me one step closer to realizing a dream I had since my school days.

I was burning the midnight oil, doing well in the training center tests but needed that extra bit of magic – the mindset that I could achieve anything I put my heart to.

Knowing I was putting in the work, I thought, why not give a shot to the simple exercise?

So every morning I would look at myself in the mirror and greet the person who had passed the exams with awesome marks. I’d do it every time I passed the mirror and do the complete exercise right up to the day the results were published.

Guess what?

I had clear passes in all my papers and had cleared Level One!

Okay, now for the exercise!

Visualize

The first step of manifestation is visualizing what you want for yourself. Whether it’s good health, success, or love, you have to first get clear about what you want. Then you can begin visualizing what your life would be like with that thing in it.

Visualization moves you from simply desiring something to actively assessing how having that thing will impact your life. Many people use vision boards as a tangible way to practice this concept.

By consistently seeing the things you want in life and the impact those things will have on your life, you increase your level of expectation.

Believe

Once you have a vision of what you want and how your life would improve as a result, you have to believe that it can happen. It’s one thing to want something, it’s another thing to fully expect that something can come into your life (Bernstein, G. 2016, December 13, The Five Principles For Manifesting Your Desires).

More than that, one should consider moving from a thought process that believes it can happen, into a thought process that believes it will in fact happen for you. It is with this confidence that you can then attract those things you desire.

Operate

A final key to manifesting the things you want in life is to operate as though those things have/will happen. You might be able to visualize and believe, but it can be a challenge for people to operate as though the thing they want will actually happen.

More often than not, people do visualize and believe, yet they still make decisions that demonstrate they have doubt. Operating as though the thing has happened or will happen demonstrates a level of confidence that is more likely to attract what you want in your life.

Through the principles of manifestation you can attract a host of positives for the mind, body, and spirit. Active practice of manifestation can be linked to improved mental & physical health, positive friend & romantic relationships, and even success & financial prosperity.

You can read about the exact steps I take in my blog post How to benefit from Creative Visualization when you need to resolve a crisis.

Because manifestation is primarily about shifting of the mindset and aligning of actions and behaviors to match that more positive mindset, there is truly no limit to what you can manifest.

So develop a practical way to incorporate manifestation in your daily life and see what good comes unto you.

Now that we’ve covered the mindset part with an exercise that is really worth trying out, let’s look for some more practical methods to apply visualization.

Keeping Your Eyes Open for Opportunities

In my exam result story and the one I share in my Creative Visualization post, there is a slight difference.

In one case, I got exactly what I wanted while in the other, I got even more than I had wanted which was good of course.

When we need to attract something into our life using the visualization process, what we desire, or need might not come in the ways that we expect.

Unfortunately, visualization isn’t always as straight-forward as it can seem. We will never just wake up one day to find what we want is there in the manner we want it.

The way that visualization works is through the law of attraction; which allows the things we need in order to realize our goals to reach us.

Mantras and affirmations are good practices to support our visualization efforts but we still need to be active and may need to keep our eyes open for opportunities.

If you want to be more visible in the workplace and get juicy assignments, it’s not going to come out of nowhere.

We still need to look out for the opportunities that are presented to us in our lives to help us to create the situations that we most desire.

Some of these situations are going to take some action, and if we are not proactive then we may miss the chance that the universe has sent us to seize the thing we have been visualizing and we will miss out on all of it.

There are a few very important things to keep in mind when using visualization to achieve your goals.

First of all, are you doing everything in your power to make sure that you will see an opportunity when it comes to you?

Are you talking to the people who will support your vision for yourself, or are you staying stuck in toxic relationships that will not help you achieve your goals?

Getting to know colleagues in different departments keeps you in the loop of developments within your organization. You never know who might know of an opening which is a match for your skills or where you would perform better.

If the company intranet advertises positions within the company, you are perfectly placed to apply and even be considered.

Another thing to consider is whether or not you are open to new opportunities.

If you tell yourself that everything in your life is stuck and will never change, you are already challenging the visualization process.

If you partly believe that things can’t change and then an opportunity comes knocking, you might not even notice that it is a new opportunity for you that could help you get to the place where you want to be! Don’t let that happen to you.

Overall, make sure that you keep your mind open to the possibilities that are surrounding you.

It can be difficult to look away from your routine and see things that may be opening up to you that never have before. The most important thing you can do for yourself is to remember that your visualization practices will come back to you in ways you may not expect. So stay alert!

Visualization works. But it is up to us to do the work that needs to be done to get there.

Remember, we alone are the masters of our destiny. It is our choice whether or not we seize a new opportunity that can change our lives or let it pass us by.

Evaluating the Tools in Place to Ensure Your Success

The road to success is never linear and definitely not your career path. As you reach each level of progression, there will be new challenges, new duties, new responsibilities and the need to acquire new skills.

So being good at your job as an Executive in your team and sound technical skills will definitely get you noticed. But if you’re eyeing a Team Leader role or becoming a Manager, you need to upgrade your people and other soft skills to manage rather than execute the work.

You also need to identify your unique strengths and skills that set you apart from the rest of your competitors.

In the bigger scheme of things, everything you want in life has a pathway to get there. Everyone has the potential to go after what it is they want the most and to become the embodiment of success that they visualize.

The trick to this is to make sure that you are staying true to yourself and allowing the law of attraction to come to you and allow you to reap its blessings.

But you must never become complacent. Nobody who wants something remarkable is going to accomplish it by sitting at home all day long waiting for a miracle to occur.

Visualization works, but only if you are taking the steps you need to take in order to allow it to work and manifest in your life.

That means keeping an eye open for all of the things that you already have at your disposal to help you to achieve your goals.

Many of us overlook the resources that we have in our lives already that can help us succeed. We may not think about how our own work ethic may come into play, or think much about how the people we know may help us to network and make our way up the ladder.

But these are things that are important for us to think about if we are going to manifest the greatest solution to our problems and rise above the life we found ourselves handed.

To carve our destinies, we need to keep an open mind and keep a sharp eye out for the tools and opportunities that are present around us.

Visualization helps us to train our brains to spot these opportunities so that we know what we should pursue in order to make our goals into a reality.

If we aren’t actively seeking out the things in our lives that we already have access to that can help us to move along our paths, then we are becoming complacent in our realities. Basically, telling ourselves, and the universe at large, that we are content with staying where we are. And so that’s exactly what we do.

But we don’t have to stay stuck. Stop and really think about the things in your life that can help you to gain more opportunities.

Do you have internet access?

Can you seek out free resources that will help you to do your work better or more efficiently?

Do you know of family or friends in a field where you could somehow connect with them and get your feet off the ground to start a new aspect of your project?

What do you already know, and what are you good at? How can you begin to use these skills to your advantage?

There is nothing wrong with asking for help sometimes, and it is important for us to see where we can make connections to get the ball rolling. Nobody is powerless, so open your eyes to the tools at your disposal today!

Final words to give you that extra little boost to go for career success

Visualization is a powerful tool to help you achieve career progression provided it is used properly. You must not go down the complacency route.

In a nutshell, here’s how I would approach it

1. Write down a list of your skills and abilities. Research those jobs and positions where these skills would be useful but also narrow down your choices to those which you would enjoy most. This will help make your visualization practice more effective.
2. Imagine already having that promotion or dream job using the technique I outline above. Bring all your 5 senses into the visualization using the steps in my blog post on Creative Visualization. This will make your brain think the scenario is real. When you start to falter, think about the bigger why behind your goal and the difference it will make to your life.
3. Act as if you have that desired promotion or dream job. The change in body language and thoughts will help attract your desired outcome.
4. Keep up the positive reinforcement with sticky notes that affirm you have it or create a Vision Board to remind you what you want to achieve.
5. Take actual steps toward obtaining your dream position or job. For example, if you know you want to reach the next level of your department chart, check if there is a lack of skills required and fill that deficiency. Ask your Manager to send you on the relevant courses or invest in improving your skills yourself. Attend seminars related to your field to meet managers and business owners who can hire you. Network with professionals who can show you how to get the position you’re after.

The world really is your oyster but you have to put in the work to get it. Are you ready?