In my coaching world, we occasionally talk about “manifesting.”

What do you want to manifest in your life? What do you want to bring into your life?

After I came back from the 4-day intensive that was part of my Master Coach Training with Martha Beck, I received an email from Martha asking me what I intended to manifest in my life in the next few months.

I had two words for her: A baby!

This was in July, 2008, after trying to have a baby for 8 years. We even considered IVF but, in the words of one physician: “We couldn’t give you enough drugs to make this happen!”

I was at peace with where I was (which took a lot of work) and, I wanted a baby. I had no idea how to make it happen, so I let go of the how and just believed.

At the beginning of March, 2009, I found out I was pregnant. I delivered my son in October, 2009.

I’ve been thinking about manifesting lately due to my son. He’s an active 2-year-old now, and he manifests like crazy!

We’ll be driving down the street and he’ll say, “I’m gonna see a car-carrier.”

In true parent fashion, I start to pave the way for disappointment: “Well, Joe, this isn’t a busy street, so we probably won’t see a car-carrier today. Maybe tomorrow if we go on the highway.”

Then a car-carrier trundles by carrying new pick-up trucks.

“Look at that!” he says.

“Yeah,” I say, “look at that.”

This happens all the time when I’m with my son.

So I’ve started practicing manifesting myself. I believe in it, I just haven’t been focused on it—until I started following his example.

Lately I’ve found amazing parking spaces where none should be; I’ve gotten meals that should have been awful and turned out to be so good I can’t believe my luck; I’ve seen spectacular birds and animals—all because I asked (in a particular way.)

Martha Beck talks a lot about manifesting in her new book, Finding Your Way In A Wild New World. My son manifests so easily because he asks for something, then completely lets go of it. He hasn’t yet learned to create a story for every single thing that happens to him.

For me, it’s a little more work. Here are the steps:

  1. I notice what I want, even if it’s a really small thing,
  2. I say what I want.
  3. I say, “thank you.”
  4. I drop into Wordlessness (I get out of my verbal mind.)

Here’s how (from Finding Your Way In A Wild New World):

Hold your hands in front of you (eyes closed) and focus on the sensation of the blood flowing through your hands. Then feel the blood flowing through your whole body. Focus on that sensation as long as you can.

That’s it.

The more time I spend doing this, the more I seem to manifest.

What do you want to manifest in your life?