Have you ever considered what living a manifestive lifestyle means? Most of us live reactively, responding to life’s events as they appear. This is wonderful but unless you have very strong personal boundaries the chances are you are reacting to many events and requests that have nothing to do with your dreams or your bigger life.

Consider this, something buzzes on the table and you get a message on your phone. Do you instantly drop everything and rush to see who it is? You are offered a new job with the competitor. Do you get excited and see yourself signing on the dotted line just because somebody wants you? Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s easy to get distracted and flattered by attention shown to us.

If you take up all the ‘opportunities’ life throws at you, you may not end up living your own life but a life dictated by others. You could be reacting to outside impulses rather than making sure your daily choices are your own.

How to ensure you create a manifestive lifestyle and make decisions based on our own goals?

When my kids started school I was instantly distracted by the activities all mothers were supposed to be doing at the school and with each other. There were cake mornings, PTA evenings and parents pub evenings. I felt I had to take part. But very soon I realised I had to pull myself out. I just wasn’t me excited baking cakes for the school fair. It’s just not how I’ve been wired.

It’s very easy to get distracted by daily demands of other people. These often come in a form of flattering – “ah you are so good at this” – or guilt “how can you say no you should do your part!“. When we don’t do what other people expect of us to do we sometimes end up hurting them and that feels bad. But unfortunately you can’t keep pleasing everyone if you want to live an authentic life.

Distractions come also in the form of obstacles and failure. When we hit a snag and the world says ‘no’, we may give up our dreams and react to the negativity around us.

And it’s not only our goals and dreams that are affected by being reactive. It’s also our health and relationships that are at risk. How many times you’ve entered a meeting room unnecessarily eating all the biscuits that were at the table even though you weren’t even hungry? Or entering a relationship because ‘it was there’ even though you knew from the start it was’t going to work?

The Universe keeps throwing positive and negative impulses at you.

It is up to you how you react to them. It’s unfortunately much easier to react than to take control and manifest your own way. You can’t be in control about everything that happens but you can decide how you react to life’s situations – the positive and the negative ones.

If you follow a reactive lifestyle you will:

– end up trying to please everyone around you (will this make you happy?)

– drop your own projects and goals to attend what other people ask you to do

– you will give up at the first obstacle

– you may end up in a career or a relationship where you are not true to your authentic self

– you end up blaming circumstances around you for your situation

– goals feel impossible to reach

Following a manifestive lifestyle you will:

– make choices based on the vision you have set for your ‘bigger life’

– learn to say ‘no’ politely but firmly (the ‘yes detox‘!)

– achieve your goals faster as you are able to focus on projects based on your own values

– feel motivated and excited to start your day every morning

– feel satisfied and happy in your journey even when obstacles emerge

Nobody’s life is just reactive or manifestive, it’s usually a mixture of both. At DrivenWoman  we make a constant and conscious effort to live manifestive lifestyle and become aware of reactive pitfalls.

When you start pay attention to your daily choices your life starts to shift in magical ways!

What are your experiences of reactive and manifestive lifestyles? What has changed when you’ve chosen manifestive lifestyle over reactive?