Hiya Visionary,
Recently, we talked about dreams (aka passions, visions, desires). I walked you through how to manifest what matters most to you. Lots of folks flipped for this blog, if you didnβt read it you can check it out here.
Today Iβm sharing a real-life example of how dream planning works. And while I have many personal experiences with bringing my dreams to reality, Iβm excited to share someone elseβs story. She means the world to me, is a huge part of my life and I think anyone can relate to her journeyβat least the beginning of itβthe action part is up to you, dear one.
Itβs better if she tells it herselfβ¦ take it away Corinne!
Thanks, KC!
Eight years ago, I realized Iβd been living someone elseβs life. My first step to figuring out my own path was to quit my job and head to an ashram for a month. I spent the following year freelance writing and teaching yoga, but something still didnβt feel right about my career path. Something was missing.
I want to pause here and say that making these changes wasnβt easy. I left behind a dependable job with benefits. I took on a large chunk of financial debt to take a hiatus from working and pay for yoga training. I had student loans and a mortgage to pay. And almost everyone in my life thought I was insane (I was the responsible one, not someone who would go on an Eat-Pray-Love journey). But the alternative for me was a life of boredom and regret. So, I chose to take a chance and have faith instead.
Now that doesnβt mean you need to walk away from your full-time job like I did. You can certainly work on your dreams in your spare time. Sara Blakely is a perfect example of that. She built her dream business, Spanx, while selling fax machines by day and working on her idea by night! The point is that when what you do doesnβt align with who you want to be, there are other options out there for you.
OK, letβs get back to what happened next. One night, I returned home from teaching yoga and caught the end of Krisβ documentary film, Crazy Sexy Cancer on TLC. Instantly, a light turned on inside me. I resonated with her message so much that I turned to my husband and said, βIβm going to work for that woman someday.β Kris and her mission were my missing piece.
What follows are the main keys to my manifesting success: my vision board, affirmations and taking action.
Creating my vision board
Over the next few weeks, I scoured the internet for everything Kris had written, bought a juicer, gave my diet a plant-based makeover, and started thinking more about prevention, animal welfare and self-care. I also became an avid follower of Krisβ blog and started posting comments and interacting with her community. Lots of people were talking about vision boards at the time, so I decided to give one a try.
I tore through magazines with scissors in one hand and a glue stick in the other. I pulled out every image that would help me piece together my hopes for the future and pasted them on a piece of poster boardβa garden, Oprah, a yoga mat, the home of my dreams. And you know who was in the center of that vision board? Kris, of course. I posted the vision board where Iβd see it everyday so that the imagery would stay fresh in my mind.
Saying affirmations
I also began reciting daily affirmations. Each day I would say βI am happy and grateful to invest in my personal health on a daily basis and that I have a career in wellness working for Kris Carr.β I said this in the car, on my meditation cushion, in the shower, before I went to bed and any other time I had the chance to focus for a few seconds on my dream.
Taking action
I had also started a blog and would often write about the many ways Kris had inspired me. One day I checked on a post only to find that Kris had commented! I jumped around the room, yelled downstairs to my husband, printed out the comment and stuck it on my vision board. βMaybe this really works,β I thought.
As soon as Krisβ online community launched, I started thinking about ways that Krisβ mission could grow. Finally, I decided to send her a message and tell her about my ideas. I pressed send and waited. Minutes later, she messaged me back telling me to call her. I couldnβt believe it! Before I could get nervous, I dialed her number. We hit it off over the phone and a few days later she asked me to meet her in NYC to brainstorm in person.
The whole time I had no idea where this adventure would take me. I was flying by the seat of my pants with zero insurance that things would work out, but I knew that it felt right in my heart. Over the next few months, I got to know Kris and her husband Brian. We turned out to be a pretty rockinβ team. I started as a volunteer and over the past eight years Iβve grown in ways I never imagined possible. Today, rather than sitting in a cubicle wondering if things could be different, Iβm the Vice President of Crazy Sexy Wellness (Krisβ business) and still pinching myself.
Small steps can lead to very big things.
And lastly, thanks, Kris and Brian. For taking me along on this crazy, wonderful, fulfilling, business-building ride. Back to you, KC!β
Is she incredible or what? Corinne is like a sister, mother, daughter, family to me and Iβm blessed that she manifested her way into my life. The truth is, I was manifesting her too.
Your turn: Share your manifesting storyβthey are SO inspiring. And if you donβt have one, start manifesting your dreams today by daring to declare one thing you want in the comments below. Let the manifesting begin!
Peace & vision boards,
What an inspiring story – love it! π
Hi Corinne and Kris,
Your synchronistic experience is inspiring and I appreciate you sharing it.
Yet, I remain terrified to begin such an adventure because I can’t get a clear picture of what I really want!
I am a teacher, which used to be an awesome gig, but as I age, parents parent less, and the reverence of an honorable profession decreases day by day, I have lost my connection and commitment to being an educator.
So I ask myself, now what? I am also a licensed nutritionist but again, feel like my voice is only a whisper because so many people are in denial that they are, in fact, the only person in control of their own health and wellness, not the dr. prescribing the meds which will only mask any symptoms and cover the doc’s own bottom.
Nevertheless, I am at the beginning stages of attempting to “do the work” of finding my right path and appreciate any encouraging success stories. Thanks for yours, somehow I’m sure it is serendipitous and will bring me just what I need to continue my journey. I’m off now to read the section on myths and finding one’s purpose…
Juice on,
Robin
So beautiful story. I will make my own visiΓ³n board today!!!! Thank you for sharing ???
Kris – So glad I found you! I’ve been a healthy eater for the most part since living on my own but it’s been a journey. My website is below and if you have a quick second to read the “about” page, you’ll understand quickly that things railroad your great health – jobs changing, divorce, moving, etc.. But for the most part I’m lucky to be healthy. My partner, though, recently ended up in the hospital twice in one week and basically, he works too much (70+ hours a week), sleeps too little and the doctor said he was burning both ends and the bottom fell out. So naturally I’m on a quest to FIND ANSWERS!!! (that was a booming Morgan Freeman like voice, obviously) I was getting the newsletters and (of course) signed up for the wellness seminar where I’ve “seen” you and today it was a lot of you. Thank you for that, by the way. For being real and vulnerable. It’s the most difficult part of my writing for over 4 years now.
On another front, I’ve been on a quest (off and on for a couple of years) to find my passion and do my thing and be happy, etc… I love vision boards and use them. But still sometimes there’s that STUCK point. I know I love to write (writing a book currently), I know I love public speaking (did lots of it at my last job but it still wasn’t entirely for ME), I love health and fitness and coaching but it’s tough to figure out the who, what, where, when and how of life. And make money so I don’t have to work at someone else’s dream. So there (Whew!). I’d love any input and look forward to following you!! (I hope that sounds just a tad creepy, stalker-ish because that’s what following someone feels like, but in a good happy way!)
Oh this is such a great story! I love hearing about meetings like this that were meant to be.
I totally believe that we can make our dreams come true. I do not know EXACTLY what forces conspire to set us on our path but I do know that they exist because I’ve seen them work their magic before my very eyes.
Life is all about priorities and knowing what to place in the top few spots is a key ingredient to living in alignment with your values. Mine top 3 are Love, Adventure and Creativity. In my 20’s I decided to follow Adventure first, and moved to the west coast mountains where I could be outside exploring every day. Although I had a super fun life, Love and Creativity were not quite where I wanted them to be, so I started dreaming about what my ideal life would look like. I didn’t know that this was called manifesting at the time, but I had a clear vision, an open heart, and wrote down my dream scenario which I tucked into a tiny little wooden box. I thought about that scenario every single day: being outside playing in the mountains, living in a little cabin with a black dog + a mountain man, and doing creative work.
I knew that I wouldn’t be able to find the type of work I wanted to do in my ski town, yet I couldn’t bring myself to move to a big city and leave my life of adventure behind. This is when I knew that I had to invent my own job. That was 7 years ago, and I’ve been running my design + illustration business ever since, working remotely from – yep you guessed it – a cabin in the woods.
I found the little notes I had scribbled down in their wooden box recently, as I’d forgotten all about them, and it was almost eery how many of the details had come true. Eery in a good way, obviously!! I have my ups and downs, but I can say for sure that I am living the life I’ve always wanted. 4 years ago I met the mountain man I had imagined, who arrived with the black dog I had also imagined. I work from 7AM-2PM and go out to ski, bike or climb mountains every day.. not your typical work life, but it’s exactly the right one for me.
Like I said, I don’t know exactly how this all works, but this is for sure: Dreams do come true.
xo Emily
Stand for YOUR values and what YOU believe in, not what somebody elses values are or what they believe such as “animal welfare”, etc. I stand for the core values my Mother instilled within me, and that speaks volumes for who I am. I am a leader and not a passive follower. Good Luck and God bless your success!
I love this story Corrine and Kris. It’s a great story about manifesting what you want and taking action to make it happen. It is also a great post to share how to get noticed while not stalking someone. Thank you for sharing this. I wish you both so much abundance and traction for your movement. xo
I’m in the process of starting my business and this is so inspirational and so very important. I’m going to focus even more of my energy inwards and trust that everything is going to work out the way it is supposed to.
Love and unicorns to both of you!
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So thrilled for you! Keep it up. xo, kc
Wow! This really proves that it is worth going that extra mile, and not let yourself be stopped by that thought of you ‘being too much’. What I mean is I have avoided sending people I am inspired by emails, contacting companies again from which I have been rejected for a position previously, engaging in their communities at times even because I felt I already taken up too much space there, and believing in that gut feeling that can just sound insane when you say it out load the first time…
This really says to me – go for it! Trust that gut feeling – big things definitely are awaiting! I am gonna shape up my blog once and for all, build my portfolio, apply for those UX design jobs I dream about and make that graphic novel once and for all!
Thank you for this post. It’s the perfect time for me to read it. I am busy starting a new project and I am so into it and I want it to work out so badly, but at the same time I keep thinking that it could be a waste of time. I am currently working on this project in my spare time, and I sometimes I feel like a crazy person spending so much of my free time on this without any results yet. But I know that I need to follow my dreams because I’ll never be content if I don’t. Thank you for sharing this story, you’ve helped me to realize that my dreams can come true, I just need to keep working towards them and never give up! <3
Kris,
A little over 5 years ago I was in a very unhappy place in my life. I finally had enough and left an unhappy marriage, went to culinary school and left my miserable job working for a miserable boss after 15 years to scoop ice cream and work part-time in a local bakery (with 2 kids to support). Finding the courage to do those things opened up a whole new world for me. This past summer, I left my full-time bakery job to start my own residential bakery. Business has been slow to grow but I do have some repeat customers and have had nothing but positive feedback from the people who have bought from me. Just last month, I began a new, online business as a social media manager for the sustainable travel and tourism industry. I love to travel and I love animals and the environment! My mission is to earn money by promoting those companies that strive to be sustainable and give back to their local communities. In return I want to donate some of my profits to different conservation and wildlife organizations. This is the business that will make me location independent so that I can travel and see the places and animals that I strive to save for future generations. I am just getting started and it’s tough and slow-going but I KNOW I am meant to do this, to make a difference in this world. I am not here to just slave away for shit money, pay bills and die!
Amazing! Love your story. Thanks for sharing.
This all sounds right to me, but what do I do, if I know I want something more, but I don’t know what it is?
My recommendation would be to stay open and focus on the intention to figure it out over time–journal, make a vision board, do more things that inspire you, surround yourself with more positive people, and give it time. The answers will find you!
I manifest a wellness similar to yours, that is also unique to me. π
I have a really hard time with manifesting as a practice. I feel like I have had a rocky road in life so far, and that most frequently things are quite difficult. If it’s not family, it’s money, if not those two things then it is physical pain, if not that then something else. Or even worse but very true, all of these things going on at once.
So when I try to set my mind to manifesting, my pessimism is just endless. For example, if I want to think about having the most ideal home for my family, but then I think “well nothing has ever been ideal so let’s be realistic and not ask for much”. I feel like the purpose of the manifesting is to call into your life what you truly want and need, and to really set your sights on the big dreams in your life. But I am convinced that it is not in the stars for me to have those things that I truly want and need. Does anyone else feel this way?
I feel ya, maybe go easier, like manifesting feelings of peace/love more often, and try EFT/tapping on those beliefs of: it can’t ever happen, I don’t deserve it, it hasn’t happened so far. Our primal brain is naturally tending towards negativity, especially when we haven’t had those wonderful experiences we hope for. Tapping, journaling, therapy, exercise, etc. can help. Also, I was saying just this this morning in a reiki/eft circle that we tend to kinda play it safe if we don’t get our hopes up, we won’t be disappointed, but if we get our hopes up and we get disappointed, so what? At least you had times where your hopes were up, and if something great happens then hey you win! What’s the worst that can happen if you hope for the best? You get disappointed, nothing happens, well nothing’s happening and you feel disappointed already anyway, so might as well try and hope π Not saying it’s easy, that’s why having a practice is important, but even a li’l willingness to just be a li’l open to it may let more light/love in. Also you can be daring, hey Universe show me! I’m losing hope here, I’m starting to believe it’s not in the cards for me, I need you to show me how… regain or create my trust in you and myself! Help me create these magical lives people on this site speak of. And just see what happens. Maybe nothing will, maybe something will, either way, you put it out there, and that’s powerful. You are powerful, even when you don’t believe it. We all are π
Manifestation does work! Years ago I was living the dream in Hawaii with my husband, just did not love my job. We’d always wanted to adopt and started learning about the process but it seemed like a whole lot of work so we put it off ‘until we own a house’. I wasn’t worried about it happening, I knew the right child in need of a loving home would find us. In the meantime I’d made a list of all of the things I wanted in a home – an herb garden, a vegetable garden, certain plants I would have, an Asian meditation garden, etc. Out of the blue my sister-in-law in California calls and says our baby is being born and we need to get paperwork to the hospital ASAP or the baby will go to the county. WHAT?! So we call every lawyer in the phone book, only one answers, and we make the quickest appointment we can. Within three hours we were faxing a stack of documents 18″ high to the hospital, and on our drive home from the lawyer’s office we get the call ‘IT’S A BOY!!!’ Truly a miracle how it happened. Fast forward to today, we moved back to California, I have a rewarding job I love, our son is eight and thriving, and we have gardens galore, every single thing I’d put on my list!! We eat (and juice!:) fresh veggies from our garden daily year-round, it is my absolute zen, especially sharing it with my family. I could not have made a child more perfectly suited for us if I tried, he is the love of our lives!! Wishing you manifestation bliss!! π
Wow! That’s awesome!! π It resonated with me, in that I am living what was once only a dream, but we are always expanding, and a little restlessness isn’t a bad thing, to want more to create more, so we can be even happier! Thanks for posting this! π
So powerful! I have been working toward similar things myself. In September 2014, I gave birth to my daughter, the light of my life, and with a well of emotions hitting me, I made the decision to quit my job. I had been prepping for it because I knew, if I was going to have to leave my baby and go to work, I sure as hell wasn’t going to go to a place that brought me nothing but anxiety, depression, and a copious amount of self-doubt. I had little support from certain key family members because it made no “logical” sense to the outside world. I had no idea what I was going to do, I mean, I had gotten my real estate license while I was 8mo pregnant (most stressful time of my life!) so that I had something I could show to my family as income and that I wasn’t completely insane. But I knew all along it wasn’t what I actually wanted to do. But when my daughter went to daycare, and I had the time to myself, I would work on what I wanted to manifest. THEN the absolutely amazing Kris introduced me to Marie, and B School and holy guacamole, I was instantly smitten. Then Marie introduced me to Danielle, and this became my power trio of ladies. My inspiration. The 3 women who constantly remind me to keep going, dig deeper, live soulfully and be true to myself. I did B-School 3 times during the course of 2015, because I would get halfway through an idea and it still wasn’t exactly what felt right. Then in August of 2015, it clicked and I launched my company, The Deep Green Shop. Still figuring it all out, but everything feels so right, I can’t even describe it. I haven’t felt this way in so long, it’s amazing to be doing this. I will be doing B School again this year to keep my business up to speed and generate new ideas for it! By the end of 2016, I hope to have transitioned to working The Deep Green Shop full time! THANK YOU KRIS. For EVERYTHING you do.
Such an inspirational story today. Corinne’s story is just great. Focus, hard work, determination and belief. Its a keeper to re-read on a bad day when dreams feel drowned. Thanks for sharing. And what a great job Corinne!
Thanks, Michele! Best to you.
I am working on manifesting health, happiness and a satisfying work life for myself. I have been very unwell the last few years and over the last year and a half have been working very hard on my mental/emotional/spiritual space. I recently made two vision boards, one next to my mirror and one next to my bed. I also do affirmations each day and use visualisations daily – I visualize my self well and whole and doing what I love. As part of this changing my life, I have come to learn that my current job is really not the big picture for me. I have felt for a long time, and felt it much more strongly since I have been tuning into my deeper self, that there is something much bigger for me. I have realized that my intellectual job does not allow for the creativity that my true self desires and needs to express. I have come to learn that I have been trying to fit myself into the box of what I thought I should be but have learnt that what I truly am is something quite different. My true self wants to write – to write my story, to write cookbooks, to create tools for people who are wanting to improve their health. So, that is what I am working on manifesting for myself – a healthy body and a life where I am happy and successful and doing what my heart and spirit REALLY want to be doing. Thanks for your encouraging blog today. Love it.
Your courage is strong and beautiful to go for your dreams while not feeling well! It takes so much grace to be able to find that place in ourselves that keeps on going and believing! My Illness experience as been very long but I still continue to do my Healing work with people, I play my flute and drum to help others heal, It strange being a Healer that is not well sometime, it is very humbling!! I know you will keep moving forward and being surrounded by love and your dreams and visions. Seeing wellness!
Amanda Christan
Blue Sky Woman
Hey Kris! You are awesome as usual! You rock too Corinne! Just gotta say I know there’s more for me out there, but I need to know what the heck to put on my vision board in the first place! I could put Kris Carr, sure, and Deepak Chopra and Marie Forleo and Dr. John Douillard. As much as I adore these fab humans, what does that mean I should be doing? I love yoga, singing, I am a graduate of IIN and lover of all things natural and spiritual. When I try to focus, my possibilities while numerous look like berries in a blender! Help me you gorgeous guru you! Peace & Love, Christine
Put everything on your board that resonates with your gut feelings! Things may not be clear now, but they will over time. I didn’t have a clear plan when I created my vision board, but I knew what felt good in my heart. When I look back at my vision board now, it all makes sense.
I have thought a lot over the years of returning to school to get my Batchelor’s degree and I went to a conference last week that finally cemented that I really want to do this. I have already applied to a college that caters to women, requested my transcript, filled out a FASFA, when I thought I was done with that since my youngest is now in her senior year in college. I am in the process of looking for grants, scholarships and any form of tuition assistance. I work in a school and am putting together a proposal to ask them to help me also! I really want this to happen and affirm it daily!