If you’re like me, being a full-time artist was never an “if,” but a “when.”

You always knew that you wanted to cast spells and create art for your career, but (like me, and like all of us) struggled to figure out the “how.”

Manifestation is like planting a seed for your dreams and watching it grow into reality. It’s about using the power of your thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and actions to create the life you desire.

At its root, to truly manifest your dreams, you’re putting in the energy and intention behind both the “why” and the “how” to achieve your creative dreams. It’s helping you become a powerful magnet to attract more and more aspirations you want in your life.

Contrary to what many people think, manifestation comes in both energy and action. So let’s dive right into a manual for manifesting your dream life (or, at least mine):

How to Manifest Your Dreams to Become a Full-Time Creative

1. Get Grounded In the Niche/Brand/Genre of YOU

Just like a tree needs strong roots to grow, your creative career needs a solid foundation.

And that foundation? Starts with YOU! You might hear here, there and everywhere that you need to “pick a niche.” Or maybe you’re asked, “What’s your genre?” like it’s your job.

While these have a time and a place to focus marketing efforts, pigeonholing yourself like this when you’re figuring out who you are does nothing to help you embrace what you love to do.

So I say? Forget about them — at least at the beginning of your manifestation and art-pursuing journey. And instead, get grounded through what makes you unique.

Let’s say you want to start a social media account for your Etsy shop. Here’s a crazy thought no social media expert will tell you — post what you’re feeling called to post. Maybe post about your life for a little bit, then post just about your art. Make reels, try carousels, and play around with different Lightroom presets or editing styles.

(This is why I tell people to be a little more subdued when you start a project — you don’t want the pressure of everyone watching you when you’re experimenting. Experimenting with your 0 or 20 followers. I promise it won’t make a difference.)

Through this experimentation and freedom, you’ll eventually start seeing patterns in what you create. You’ll start becoming aware of what makes you excited to post and what doesn’t make you excited to post.

You’re not focusing on followers, engagement, or feed aesthetics right now. You’re focusing on you. You’re focusing on recognizing what makes you happy and manifesting more of that by not putting restrictions on your niche.

This will energetically tell yourself (and the universe) that you can take up space exactly as you are.

2. Create 1-Month and 3-Month Goals

Many people think the way to manifest your dreams is to practice visualizations and affirmations. And it is! The problem is, that they stop at actually taking inspired action, which is a huge part of manifestation.

Now that you’ve given yourself permission to experiment and take messy, imperfect action (which all art is, anyway 🎨), it’s time to create some general goals.

I don’t recommend goals over around 3 months, because they’re just so hard to visualize. Instead, set goals that are a little more urgent (and actually doable), which I like to be 1-month and 3-month goals.

I like having these 1-month and 3-month goals with no more than 2-3 goals each. These should be written down and placed as your phone background so you see it every single day!

These goals can include:

• Create a portfolio
• Create your Etsy shop
• Launch your website
• Sign up for dance classes
• Make $3,000 a month freelancing

These goals may seem distant at first, but by breaking them down into smaller, actionable steps, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you can make progress.

For example, if your goal on your lock screen is to create a portfolio, you can create mini goals throughout the week to help you get there, i.e.:

Week #1: Throw all your past projects into a folder called “Portfolio”
Week #2: Browse through projects and pick your favorite ones
Week #3: Find a portfolio template on Canva and organize your projects through there
Week #4: Send to 3 friends, get feedback, make tweaks

This is how to manifest your dreams through taking inspired action — you’re working towards a goal, and breaking it down to make it happen.

You’ll notice that this is something a lot of people already do, they just might not know they’re manifesting. They might think the term is a little woo-woo for them, and that’s okay. We know the truth. 😉

3. Allow Yourself to Believe in the Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction states that your thoughts and feelings, act like magnets, attracting experiences that match their frequency.

This goes for negative thoughts, too. For example, if you’re thinking of “getting out of debt,” you’ll be attracting more debt. Instead, the idea is to think of “having more financial abundance,” so instead of attracting ‘debt,’ you’re attracting ‘abundance.’

The Law of Attraction reminds me that what I’m focusing on is what I’ll get more of.

One way I’d recommend you use the Law of Attraction to manifest your dreams is through affirmations and visualizations.

Affirmations are positive statements that you repeat to yourself, such as “I am a talented artist” or “I am worthy of success.” You can create your own affirmations or find artist affirmations to repeat every day.

Visualization is another powerful technique, where you create a vivid mental picture of yourself living your dream life as a full-time creative.

While it’s called visuals, you should actually be activating your senses. In this dream moment, what do you…

• See?
• Hear?
• Taste?
• Feel?
• Smell?

Both of these practices send a powerful message to the universe to manifest your dreams and program your subconscious mind for even your most “lofty” artist goals. It’s all possible.

4. Surround Yourself With Words, Images, and People That Attract Your Dream Life

This sings the same tune as the Law of Attraction.

Think of your dream life as a puzzle, and the pieces of that puzzle are the words you hear, the images you see, and the people you surround yourself with.

The way to manifest your dream life isn’t just about thinking about what your future looks like, but seeing how you can shift your present reality into something that reflects more of what you want.

(The whole “dress for the job you want, not the one you have” adage.)

• Vision boards are a popular tool for manifesting dreams. They are essentially collages of images, quotes, and affirmations that represent your ideal life. Having these around your home will physically surround yourself with images of what you want your future to look like. The key for this is to actually have it in places you see a lot, i.e. your home office, closet door, inside of your bathroom door, etc.
• Words also have incredible power. Surround yourself with positive affirmations that uplift and empower you. Write them down, say them out loud, or even turn them into beautiful artwork to hang on your walls. These positive words will seep into your subconscious mind and help you cultivate a mindset of abundance and possibility.
• The people around you will define what your future will be. I love the phrase that you are the 6 people you surround yourself most with. If you did a friendship audit right now, what would that mean for you?
• Your home will define your future. If you choose to live with disarray, then you’re sending energy out into the universe that you only want more disarray. If you put intention into the way your home looks and feels, then the universe will see that you want more intention for your life.

5. Take Inspired Action Through Simple Systems

Imagine you’re building a sandcastle. You’ve got the perfect vision in your mind, but it won’t appear magically. You need to gather your tools (shovels, buckets, maybe some fun molds), get your hands dirty, and start shaping that sand.

The same goes for your creative dreams. Manifestation requires more than just positive thoughts; it demands inspired action!

A huge part of how to manifest your dream life (that many people forget) is creating a simple system that works for you. Think of it as your own personal treasure map to success.

Here are some ways I’ve created systems to help me manifest my dreams:

• I time block in Google Calendar. This helps give me an end goal for when I’m done with certain work and visualize my day a little better. For example, I might set up a content writing session for 3 hours, and then website editing for 2 hours.
• I use Asana to organize all of my tasks. Whenever there’s a task I need to do, I’ll put it on my Asana board. Since I’ve downloaded Asana onto my computer, I’m able to bring up the tasks easily through my top navigation and can brain dump anything I need to do into it without the fear that I’ll forget it.
• I (try to) follow Tim Ferris’s 2 tasks a day rule. Tim Ferris says that instead of listing down pointless tasks, to create just 2 key tasks per day to do. That’s it.

You can experiment with and change systems until you find ones that fit your creative lifestyle. Some people thrive with detailed schedules, while others prefer a more relaxed approach.

The most important thing is to take consistent action, even if it’s just small steps each day. And hey, your systems might change over time, and that’s okay, too. Mine sure have — they’ve just grown with my dreams!

Follow My YouTube for Energy & Creativity Tips!

I love sharing my creative process and give you regular doses of inspiration, tips and resources on YouTube! Being an artist can feel lonely — so manifest your dream with me. 💫