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The Paradox of Manifesting What You Desire

By Greg Martin

Through the power of belief and affirmation people have recovered from diseases, solved scientific
problems, even acquired material items they found attractive and just wanted to have. How seductive, the
ability to produce results with affirmations and faith. How alluring this is to people who worship agendas
and bottom-lines. Just think happy thoughts and it happens magically. So they try it with the hope of
producing certain results. The results don't come. That's because they want the results. When people want
something it means they doubt they can have it. Because they believe it's possible not to get the thing they
want, they don't. So the way to manifest the things you want are to not want them.

Huh?

It's a paradox. Well, not exactly a paradox but a nack, a state of mind. A very difficult one to achieve, a very
subtle one, because you can't fool yourself and because society has conditioned us to be workaholics.
Goals do have relevance, yes. You must work to get a paycheck to buy food. Yet the more you focus on
goals the harder they are to obtain. It's called The Law of Reverse Effort. The harder you try, the more the
process becomes a tedious chore to be endured. It's certainly possible to plug away at something you
hate, or something you loved until the drudgery of product-oriented thinking made you hate it, and
accomplish your goals. But mentally, emotionally and physically it becomes an uphill battle. Your motivation
becomes negative motivation. "I have to get this done or I'll get fired" or "I have to study or I'll fail the
course."

So you can't just try to develop the ability to enjoy the process of creation with the sneaky intention tucked
away in the back of your mind of producing results. That's like trying to become financially independent by
becoming a millionaire. Millionaires are not financially independent. Take away their millions and see how
independent they are. Money does not make you independent of money. Results do not make you
independent of results.

The quickest way to bring about results is to love the process and not care about results. That doesn't mean
you don't have goals. That means you no longer think of them as goals but as choices. If you are absolutely
certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that you will achieve a certain result, it is no longer a goal. It is a
choice. When the cashier at a donut shop asks what you want in your coffee, is choosing two cream and
one sugar more difficult than saying one cream and no sugar? They are choices. You don't put effort into
them. The outcome is not in doubt. There is no emotional investment in the outcome. It is a choice. That
doesn't mean you don't look forward to particular results. Why else would you choose them? You look
forward to your coffee. That doesn't mean you snatch it and gulp it down. It is yours to consume at your
leisure.

Would God give us a desire to create, yet not give us the ability to do so? Would He allow our ability to
publish a book for the world to read, or write a song for the world to dance to, be determined by arbitrary
circumstances like having the right connections, being in the right place or having the right credentials? We
are made in the image of God with the powers of creation at our disposal. We exist because God believes

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we do. Our external circumstances exist because we BELIEVE they do. That is the key word. Believe, don't
desire.

The mind has to be rewired. This is a slow process requiring patience and practice. Do you see the bottom
of the lake, or the reflection of the sky off the water? Which way does your perspective shift?

Is your mind screaming at the clock to move faster while you sit at your work-place, or do you happily
contemplate the weekend?
Are you in a hurry to get somewhere, or are you enjoying the walk?
Are you waiting for the commercials to end, or enjoying the blissful laziness of couch-potatoism?
Do you feel guilty for not finishing the meal you paid for, or did you enjoy your fill and not worry about
what was left over?

It's the little things. Every one of them is a chance to rewire. It is a chance to exercise a muscle you never
knew you had. The stronger it gets, the larger leaps of faith you can make because results will matter less
and less. The results you choose will come more easily until you stop calling them results and realize them
for what they are. Choices. Creations. Reaching this point could take time (depending on how much time
you believe it will take, mind you). To avoid discouragement along the way it will be helpful too consider it a
process rather than a goal. Here's an interesting way to enjoy this process.

At every point in your life in which you obtain a new kind of freedom, or experience something new and
wonderful it's a thrill. It's a rush. I remember becoming free from the religion I grew up in. I finally developed
the courage to question the doctrine I'd been taught all my life. Even questioning it was blasphemy! I grew
up in a world where everything was pre-planned by a God who would destroy me in Armageddon if I didn't
obey Him. His rules and commandments filled the entire scope of my life. Showing interest in something
besides God was a distraction at best, and frowned upon.

When I moved out on my own I stopped going to church. Staying away from the influence of my religion
allowed me to shed my sense of guilt for questioning it's doctrine. Before having done this there was
nothing new under the sun. Everything of relevance in the whole universe existed firmly between the covers
of the Bible. Life was about commandments to be solemnly followed.

Expanding my perspective was a rush. Adopting new ideas on spirituality, studying psychic phenomena
and various other "New Age" topics brought in a whole world I never knew existed. Suddenly it was
possible to be clairvoyant, astral travel, telepathically communicate with each other. Who knew what kind of
strange new ways of seeing the world existed out there? There was a whole universe outside the laws of
Newtonian physics and biblical scripture.

In like manner, think of this process as an expansion of your perspective. Think about what a thrill it is to
know what nobody else knows and think like nobody else thinks. You walk up the street at your own leisurely
pace while people rush past you in a hurry to get to work. Or in a hurry to get to the grocery store so they
can get their shopping done and over with. But YOU are enjoying the present. It is all you need. People
drive up and down the street in a desperate hurry to get things done. Meanwhile you are a world unto
yourself in the chaos of humanity. You have stepped outside the loop and look at it from without, smiling and
shaking your head at the people chasing their tails. You feel the silent pride of not being intimidated or
racked by any kind of anxiety. You are a rock.

In this way you can love the process of learning to love the process. This removes your attachment to the
result of being able to manifest into your reality the external circumstances you choose. Which will allow you
to do just that.

I am a 24 year-old Utopianist, anarchist, spiritualist, eccentric computer nerd and nature lover. I grew
up as a Jehovah's Witness but could never accept the idea of living by a doctrine. Followers of God
existed before religion. Nobody taught them a doctrine. They got to know God in their own ways. I do
the same.

Probably the writings that have inspired me the most are those of Sylvia Browne and Neale Donald

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Walsch with his Conversations with God. But most of all I look for my own answers. Learn to trust
your own answers to life. If there's one thing you should glean from any spiritual text, any self-help book,
any type of writing or any spoken word by someone giving you advice, is a question. Where do the
people who give the answers get the answers?

I love speaking about life, about God, about spirituality, even about religion because it has become so
intimately associated with spirituality. Anyone who wants to write me is welcome to do so at here.

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