If you read last week’s blog on whether or not to set resolutions but are still undecided. Or, you’re still struggling to identify exactly which problem you are trying to fix, I offer some alternative ways to focus your intentions, channel your energy or otherwise manifest the life you want to create in the new year.

Write a manifesto

I first came across this idea when I attended a talk by Gretchen Rubin, author of the Happiness Project. The basic idea is that you create and write down your own personal manifesto to guide the way you live your life or, approach a particular situation.

It was the idea to create a manifesto for a specific situation that most appealed to me and so, over the course of the next few weeks, I created my own manifesto to serve as a kind of decision making framework/modus operandi for the first two years I am back in NZ.

The process I went through took some time. I didn’t write a list from start to finish in one sitting, rather as an idea came to me, I’d jot it down for further review. Finally after about a month, I felt that I had let my subconscious bubble away for long enough and sat down to reflect on my notes.

Out of this came my Homecoming Manifesto – a mix of values I want to live, priorities I want to promote and behaviours I want to enact as I traverse the process of repatriation. The intention here is to give myself a framework for making decisions and taking actions while I still have the ability to view things through the big picture lenses of time and distance.

Of course, I have no expectation that having the manifesto will insulate me from the inevitable highs and lows that come from returning to one’s native place. But I do hope that it provides me with a reminder of why I decided to come back and the life I want to lead there, especially in those times when I may feel torn by other’s expectations or overwhelmed by choice.

Create a vision board

There are different theories on why visioning is so effective as a manifesting technique. The more scientifically inclined argue that, by making a public visual commitment to the future we want, we subtly begin to orient all our subconscious effort to making it so.

The more spiritually inclined lean more towards seeing your vision board as a kind of ‘request to the universe’ who can then put her, not inconsiderable energy, into making things happen in an almost magical kind of way.

And then, there are those of us who think it might be a bit of both