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Whether it’s landing that dream job, getting that long-awaited salary raise, or getting on the property ladder, we all have goals we’re hoping to achieve this year.
Sure, some of us may have already broken our New Year’s resolutions (Dry January, anyone?), however, there are others who are turning to some slightly unconventional methods to get ahead with both their professional and personal goals this year, and are exploring the theory of ‘speaking them into existence.’
The principle of ‘speaking goals into existence’, otherwise known as ‘manifestation,’ is based on the law of attraction, and is essentially the belief in our ability to attract success in various areas of life through visualisation and positive affirmations.
To find out more about how this can influence us in our professionals and personal lives, we asked employees across the country about their views on manifestation, and if they will discard the traditional New Year’s resolutions in favour of this mindset-changing practice in 2022...
Brits are ‘speaking their goals into existence’ this year
Our survey found that one in ten Brits (10%) strongly believe in manifesting their goals into reality, whilst almost a quarter (24%) say they ‘somewhat’ believe in the practice’ owing to their belief that both positivity and confidence attract success.
Nearly one in five (19%) said that they have been practicing manifestation to achieve their personal goals, while a further one in eight (12%) have used the principles of the law of attraction to achieve career-related aspirations.
It’s no wonder so many have been turning to manifestation to achieve their goals lately: the practice has become wildly popular in the past few years, having become somewhat of a viral sensation on social media (the hashtag #Manifestation currently has 13.3B views on TikTok, with #manifestationtips also boasting 98.3M views). And of course, it certainly helps that stars such as Ariana Grande, Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga have been pretty vocal about ways they used the practice to achieve their goals.
Twitter also did their part by launching their “Tweet it into existence”1 campaign, creating billboards of celebrities “tweeting their goals into existence” years before actually achieving them, like rapper Megan Thee Stallion and One Direction’s Niall Horan.
However, it seems that not everyone is embracing the trend quite yet, with our poll revealing that 16% of Brits are still very sceptical of the trend, and believe their ability to achieve their goals is not related to manifesting or the laws of attraction at all.
Career goals are high on Brits’ priority list
Our data suggests career goals are a huge priority for Brits trying to attract success through positive affirmation this year. In fact, almost one in five (18%) said they will manifest a salary raise in 2022, 12% said they will hope to attract a promotion and a further one in eight are aiming to land their dream job this year.
| Top goals Brits are aiming to manifest in 2022 | % |
|---|---|
| Getting into shape/getting fitter | 19% |
| Getting a salary raise | 18% |
| Travelling the world/travelling more | 12% |
| Getting a promotion at work | 12% |
| Buying a house/flat | 12% |
| Getting my dream job | 12% |
| Making new friends | 12% |
| Moving somewhere new | 12% |
| Winning the lottery | 10% |
| Meeting a long-term partner | 9% |
According to our survey, men were found to be the bigger believers in the power of manifestation, as 11% say they strongly rely on the technique, compared to 9% of their female counterparts.
Over one in five men (22%) admitted they have turned to the powers of the law of attraction to bring them closer to their personal goals, and one in six (15%) to help them with professional objectives, compared to 18% and 9% of women respectively.
How does manifestation work?
Once we discovered the practice has been such an important part for Brits setting their goals for the new year, we decided to ask experts about how the law of attraction actually works, and what people looking to try this for themselves should start from.
To learn more, we spoke to Manifestation Coach Chanelle Fry. This is what she told us:
“Manifestation is the process of turning your desires and goals into reality. It works by using the ‘Law of Attraction’ which states that thoughts become things; because what we think about and focus on becomes real life.
“The Law of Attraction says that everything in this Universe has a different vibration, and to magnetise the things we want, we need to raise our own energy to vibrate at the same level, because ‘like attracts like’.
“Most people know that setting goals is important, however, so often we set these goals at such a surface level that there’s no real connection to those things. The key difference with manifestation is that we explore those goals at a far deeper level, leading us to understand why we desire them. Ultimately, t’s a self-discovery and self-improvement journey in the process.”
Chanelle also gives the following suggestions to those looking to start ‘speaking their goals into existence’ this year.
1. Get super clear on what you want to create
You must have absolute clarity on the things you desire, first and foremost! A great way to do this is with a vision board. Create a physical board with visuals of what you want including images, photos and words that represent those things and how they make you feel.
2. Clear out the old!
Anything that doesn’t align with your new goals, get rid of, to make way for new things coming your way. If you have an office, give it a spring clean! Clear out the car, give your home a de-clutter and sage your home and office with a sage smudge stick, to give it an energetic cleansing!
3. Set your intentions
You have your goals, but what are your intentions? How do you intend to feel/act/work this year? Write a list of the intentions you are setting and spend some time journaling on why they are important to you.
4. Start a daily manifesting ritual
There are many different methods you can use but a simple one is a daily visualisation exercise. Find a quiet space, close your eyes and spend at least 60 seconds focusing on one thing you want to manifest. Create a HD Movie in your mind of you already having that thing! How does it feel? Focus on not only what you see, but what can you taste, smell, touch? This vision should be so clear it’s almost as if it’s real! Repeat this daily and tap into the emotions and energy because those are available to you now. You’ll begin to feel confident these things are going to happen and vibrate at the energy of the things you desire.
5. Take inspired action!
At every opportunity, daily, take aligned actions towards your goals that feel good. Follow your intuition and say yes to the things that light you up.
Through our research, we also aimed to find out more about the ‘science’ behind the practice of manifestation, and the effects positive affirmations can have on our brains and attitudes.
Explaining this, Liz Ritche, Integrative Psychotherapist at St Andrew’s Healthcare told us:
“Visualising goals can help your brain to recognise the resources it will need to help you succeed in reaching them. Through visualisation, we can imagine ourselves doing and achieving exactly what we want.
“The thought of our goal will stimulate the neuro pathway, that will help us to connect to our nervous system, which in turn will connect us to the feelings that are associated with the desired goal.
“It is the mental pictures that we see in our mind's eye that leads to the feelings that we ultimately experience and can create the motivation we need to achieve what we want in our lives and how to make them happen.”
Conclusion
Ultimately, our study has shown many across the country are going to be prioritising their career goals this year, which we widely encourage and are keen to turn to the use of positive affirmations to build their confidence in achieving them.
As a business, we’re passionate about supporting our employees in their professional growth, and whilst some methods can appear a little unorthodox, we believe it’s always worth being encouraging of the positive ways in which workers are building up their confidence levels in their work.
As the saying goes “positivity is infectious,” which means anyone attempting to harness positivity in order to better their own life, is more likely to help contribute to maintaining an optimistic attitude in the workplace and help the wider business in return.
