What Do Writing and Manifesting Have in Common?
For most authors knowing the ending is a crucial part of writing a story. Even if it starts as a sketchy bare-bones idea in your mind, you know how it begins and how it ends. That’s the backbone of the story, the protagonist’s quest. Also called the hero’s journey.
Some books even have predictable styles of ending. Romance readers want a happily even after or at least a happy for now, called HEA and HFN, in the biz. In a thriller or mystery, the reader expects the story to climax with the protagonist unmasking the culprit. If a writer does not know the ending of his or her story, it can become a meandering walk around with no real goal.
Applied to Mindset
In matters of mindset and manifesting results, the similarities are surprising. If we don’t know ultimately where we’re going, what the destination is, how do we set course?
Certainly there are far-down-the-road destinations and there are stops along the way. But imagine just taking off without any idea of where you want to arrive? But wait a minute, Rosie, what about a road trip, you know, where you’re headed wherever?
That would be your goal: to take a trip with no fixed destination in mind. You have to plan even this, even if it’s minimal, like putting gas in the car. You’ll decide when you are leaving and, maybe, when you are returning. You may want to bring a few things. It can be loosely planned, or tightened up, but there’s a mindset and an objective. Like a good story, it has twists and turns, but it unfalteringly arrives at the destination, aka the objective. No objective, the idea remains…an idea. It’s like having a book idea, but never putting a word on a page.
Going…Nowhere
I was really surprised awhile back when a friend of ours came to dinner. We’re about the same age, nearly the end of our careers and weighing our options. We talked about second careers, travel, moving, self-employment, pastimes or hobbies we enjoyed but never had time to fully explore. At one point my husband asked, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” “I don’t know.”
You shouldn’t not know. You can say I don’t know exactly, as in, ‘I don’t know where I’ll be living but it won’t be here (that was me), or it’s surely going to be here, or I want to move to Indonesia and lead a laptop lifestyle. It could be, ‘I expect I’ll have left my job by then, gotten my own business off the ground.’ But whatever it is, we need some idea of where we’re going to end up. Because, like our road trip, how do we plan and equip ourselves to get there?
The Objective Is the Start
Just like a writer, you start by knowing the ending. I took a project management course years ago. The first step we were taught was to clarify the objective–the end product–with the person entrusting you with the project. What exactly did they want? What were you going for?
Know how you want it to finish. In terms of mindset and achieving your objective (making manifest), that clear intention sets your mind. You can read more on clear intentions and how important they are here. Knowing that ending will get you there.
Photo by Mitchell Trotter on Unsplash