While manifestation is a powerful tool that helps us connect with our desires and values, there is something critical missing from the conversation around it: How do we sustain our efforts long enough to see our intentions materialize?

Manifestation encourages us to envision the future we desire, but it doesn’t necessarily provide the fuel we need to stay committed to the process, especially when the results aren’t immediately visible. A lot of the time, when we don’t receive positive feedback, we begin to lose trust in the process. As a result, we may not stay long enough to see the compound effect of our efforts.

We often hear about the compound effect in the field of investment. Over 99% of Warren Buffett’s net worth was accumulated after his 50th birthday, demonstrating how exponential growth can take shape over the later decades of a long-term journey.

This applies to the creative field as well. For example, the director of Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee, spent six years unemployed before his breakthrough. During that difficult period, he considered giving up and switching fields out of guilt. However, his partner, Jane Lin, stopped him and convinced him otherwise: “There are plenty of computer scientists, Ang. But there is only one you. Don’t give up on your dream.”

Thanks to Jane’s encouragement, we get to live in a world with beautiful films like Brokeback Mountain.

When we dream big, the gap between how beautiful our desires are and how far we have to go before we can achieve them can bring us to despair. Despair and eagerness are friends: we fall into the trap of wanting things to happen quickly, and end up burning ourselves out.

If you want to start writing and dream of winning the Nobel Prize, the gap between where you are now and where you want to be may eat away at your confidence and make you feel like a fool. That shame can eventually stop you from writing altogether.

That is not to say, however, that becoming a professional writer is beyond our reach. But having a vision is only the beginning. We need to recognize that between where we are today and where we hope to be, there may be 10,000 steps to take. We often become so preoccupied with imagining the destination that we forget to focus on the very first step — and then the next, and the one after that.

This is where I believe long-term thinking and sustainability are the missing pieces of manifestation. Much like compound interest, our efforts can accumulate and generate exponential growth over time. An action that seems insignificant today may not produce any noticeable results tomorrow. But when sustained consistently, those small efforts can create something far greater than the sum of their parts.

Perhaps the real power lies not only in believing that our dreams can come true, but also in having the patience, commitment, and resilience to keep showing up for them — even when we cannot yet see the results.

Follow me! Next week, I’ll write about some techniques to help us stay intentional.

‍