How to Write Your Wishes and Manifestations (With Examples)

To write a manifestation you'll act on, write it like a plan you mean to keep: in your own words, specific enough to check off, with one line about what you'll do when life gets in the way. Most guides skip that last part.

I've made vision boards since I was a teenager, and I've been building VISIYA, a vision board app for iPhone and iPad, since 2022. The sentence on your board won't make anything happen. It does show you where to start.

How do you write a manifestation or a wish?

Make it yours, say what you want, and make it concrete enough to check off. Then add the feeling, your biggest obstacle and one if-then plan. As seven rules:

#	Rule	Ask yourself
1	Make it yours	Would I still want this if nobody ever found out?
2	Say what you want, not what you want to stop	Is there a "not," "don't," "stop" or "less" in it?
3	Make it concrete enough to check off	How will I know it happened?
4	Pick a tense you believe	Does this feel true, or like a lie?
5	Add the feeling	How do I want to feel when I get there?
6	Name the obstacle and one if-then plan	What usually stops me, and what will I do then?
7	Keep it about your life	Is the first step mine to take?

New to manifesting? Start with What Is Wish Manifestation? This post is only about the words.

The 7 rules, with weak and strong examples

1. Make it yours

• Weak: "Get a real job." (Your mom's words.)
• Strong: "I teach yoga two evenings a week."

A lot of wishes belong to someone else: a parent, a partner, your Instagram feed. Do you want the thing, or do you want people to see you have it?

2. Say what you want, not what you want to stop

• Weak: "I want to stop getting sick."
• Strong: "I am healthy."

Read "stop getting sick" and you picture being sick. Same with "less screen time." "I read in bed while my phone charges in the kitchen" gives you something to picture, and something to do tonight.

3. Make it concrete enough to check off

• Weak: "More money."
• Strong: "$3,000 for two weeks in Lisbon, saved by June 30."

With "more money," you never know when you've arrived. Not every wish needs a number: "a weekend alone at the beach" is concrete too.

In a review of 35 years of studies, Locke and Latham (2002) found that specific, challenging goals beat "do your best," mostly on work and lab tasks. For the number and the date, see What Are SMART Goals?

4. Pick a tense you believe

• Weak: "I am a millionaire." (And a voice in your head says, sure you are.)
• Strong: "I'm building my savings, $200 every month."

Present tense is fine when it feels true. When it doesn't, a softer line works better. More in the present-tense section below.

5. Add the feeling

• Weak: "Lose 15 pounds."
• Strong: "Strong and at home in my body."

Almost every wish has a feeling underneath: calm, freedom, being taken seriously. Write it down; sometimes it shows a shorter way there. To turn it into a line you say every day, see What Are Affirmations?

6. Name the obstacle and one if-then plan

• Weak: "Save for Lisbon."
• Strong: "$3,000 for two weeks in Lisbon, saved by June 30. Obstacle: when I'm tired, I order takeout. If I open a delivery app, $15 goes to the trip fund."

This rule has the best evidence. Psychologist Gabriele Oettingen calls the method WOOP: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. A meta-analysis of 94 tests by Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) found that if-then plans helped people act on their goals, with a medium to large effect. Later studies found smaller effects.

7. Keep it about your life

• Weak: "My boss gets fired."
• Strong: "I work on a team where I can say what I think."

You can't control what someone else does. Write the part you can work on.

Should manifestations be written in the present tense?

You can, if the sentence feels true. Present tense ("I am…," "I have…") is how manifesting is usually taught, but no study has tested it against any other tense.

One study is worth knowing. In Wood, Perunovic and Lee (2009), people with low self-esteem felt worse after repeating "I'm a lovable person," while people with high self-esteem felt slightly better. It tested sentences about yourself, not wishes, so read it as a hint.

If "I am healthy" feels right, keep it. If it feels like a lie, use a bridge:

• "I'm getting stronger every week."
• "I'm learning to say no without explaining."
• "I'm on my way to a paid-off credit card."

Why leave "not" and "don't" out of a wish?

Because you picture what you name. "The universe doesn't hear 'not'" is a rule of thumb, not a research finding, but it points the right way. Here's what studies have actually measured:

Study	What it found	What it doesn't show
Elliot, Sheldon & Church, 1997	Students with more avoidance goals ("don't fail") grew less satisfied over a semester.	That a wish with "not" in it fails. It looked at students' personal goals.
Sullivan & Rothman, 2008	Over two weeks, people with a "stop snacking" goal and no if-then plan ate the least healthily. With a plan, the "stop" goal worked too.	Whether it holds beyond two weeks or beyond snacks.
Oettingen & Mayer, 2002	People who only daydreamed about a good outcome put in less effort and did worse.	That daydreaming caused it, or anything about wishes on a board.

So write what you want, and if a "stop" wish won't turn around, give it a plan. Two claims you'll read online are superstition: that your subconscious takes your board literally, and that a "bad" wish comes back to bite you. Whether a board helps at all is a separate question: Do Vision Boards Work?

12 manifestation examples, before and after

Find the row closest to your wish and rewrite yours the same way.

Area	Before	What's missing	After
Health	Stop being so tired	Rules 2, 3	I'm in bed by 10:30 and wake up before my alarm.
Fitness	Finally start working out	Rules 3, 6	I go to a 7 a.m. spin class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My shoes wait by the door the night before.
Food	I have to eat healthier	Rules 1, 3	I cook dinner at home four nights a week and pack my lunch.
Love	Find the one	Rules 3, 7	Once a month, I say yes to an invite where I'll meet new people.
Marriage	Fight less	Rules 2, 6	We have a phone-free dinner every Friday. If an argument starts after 10 p.m., we finish it in the morning.
Family	More time with the kids	Rule 3	Saturday mornings are for the kids. My phone stays in the kitchen drawer until noon.
Friends	Stop feeling so lonely	Rules 2, 3	I see a friend every week and host a potluck once a month.
Money	Get out of debt	Rules 2, 3	My credit card is paid off by December 31.
Money	Be rich	Rules 3, 4, 5	I earn enough to hire a house cleaner and keep my weekends free.
Career	A better job	Rules 1, 3	I have a job where I learn something new every month and leave by 5:30.
Career	Not freak out when I present	Rules 2, 6	I speak up in meetings. If my heart starts racing, I breathe out slowly three times first.
Me	More me time	Rules 3, 6	Wednesday nights are mine. If someone asks, I say, "I already have plans."

Money wishes without the miracle promises: How to Make a Money Vision Board. Goal ideas by life area: Examples of Vision Board Goals.

Get the free wish rewrite worksheet

One Letter-size page, room for five wishes. Write each one the way it first comes to you, circle the rules it breaks, then rewrite it with the feeling, the obstacle, an if-then plan and a picture idea. The Lisbon wish is filled in as an example.

Download the Wish Rewrite Worksheet (PDF). It's free, no email address needed.

How do you write your 13 wishes?

The same way: one wish per slip, worded as what you want, concrete enough to recognize when it happens. The 13 wishes ritual comes from the Rauhnächte, the twelve nights between Christmas and January 6 in German folk tradition. You burn one slip a night without reading it; the one left over is yours to work on.

A few to borrow or rewrite:

• Health: I'm healthy and sleep through most nights.
• Love: I'm in a relationship where I feel chosen.
• Family: I call my sister every Sunday.
• Money: I have three months of expenses in savings.
• Work: I work on projects I'm proud to talk about.
• Me: I say no when I mean no, and feel fine afterward.

Only the last slip needs the obstacle and if-then plan from rule 6, since that one's up to you. Dates and how to burn the slips safely are in our 13 wishes ritual guide.

The free Twelve Holy Nights template in VISIYA gives each night its own area on your board.

Can you manifest a specific person?

You can write their name down, but what another person decides isn't up to you. Write what you hope to feel instead, then take the first step yourself:

• "He leaves his wife for me" → "I'm in a relationship where I never have to wait my turn."
• "My ex comes back" → "I meet someone I feel safe with."
• "She finally texts me back" → "I have friendships where we both reach out."

How I write my own wishes

I start with the feeling: how do I want to feel in my body? Every year around my birthday, I go through my board, and about half of the wishes have come true.

The universe has never delivered anything for me; I did. My board reminds me what I'm willing to work for.

My own boards don't always follow these rules, either. The board we keep for the VISIYA app has a tile that says "No issues with Apple!" There's the "no." It's checked off anyway: it came true because we worked for it, not because of the wording.

From wish to vision board

Give every wish a picture, ideally one of the way there: you in running shoes on a Saturday morning. Ideas: Vision Board Ideas. The whole process: How to Make a Vision Board.

In VISIYA, put the wish in a note next to its picture: the short version as the title ("Lisbon by June"), the full sentence and your if-then plan below. When a wish comes true, tap it, then tap "Mark as fulfilled." Your board's card keeps count.

One board in VISIYA is free, on iPhone and iPad: your own, or one of the free templates, like This Year I Will.

Then make the smallest wish on your board come true this week. Here's why: How to Activate a Vision Board