Should I follow social media gurus’ money advice?

October 7, 2025 — 12.44pm

I’ve been reading your articles on mindset and I wanted to know your thoughts on manifestation. I’m a pretty practical person. I’ve successfully built and sold a business before and am currently self-employed and make decent money. But I’ve been stuck at a specific income level for a while.

I feel like there must be some ‘mindset blocks’ holding me back and I’ve been trying the manifestation techniques you hear about on social media – like visualising my income goal, ‘acting as if’ I already have it, etc. I’ll admit I haven’t seen many results, so I don’t know if I’m doing it wrong or if it’s all nonsense.

Changing how you think can make you more money – just don’t call it ‘manifestation’.Credit: Simon Letch

For every finance bro on the internet selling you his secrets to ‘beat the market’ and ‘become a millionaire by 30’, there is a manifestation guru selling you on how to ‘quantum leap’ and ‘manifest your dream life’. So, is it all nonsense?

Firstly, a good question to ask yourself here is: did the person claiming to ‘manifest’ money actually manifest it, or did they sell the idea of manifestation? For example, if they made $X selling a course, e-book, coaching program on manifestation, is that manifestation or is that just marketing and sales?

Now, there is some value to the core concepts of manifestation. However, let’s take the word itself off the table because it’s become a buzzword with a lot of baggage. Instead, let’s discuss the role your mindset plays in the creation of your financial results.

Let’s start with the first step for creating results: action. You take an action and it has some sort of result. If you spend more money than you earn, you’ll end up in debt.

Real mindset work is not about wishing, fantasising, daydreaming something into existence.

If you learn how to invest, you can put your money into investments, and those investments will grow. This is where a lot of the mainstream conversation stops; what action should you take?

But what drives your ability to take action? Why do some people face a lot of resistance, procrastination, avoidance, while others can take major action with ease? Why are some people able to produce bigger, faster results than others, despite taking the same action?

That’s because there is also a psychological and emotional element behind your results. This is what a lot of ‘manifestation’ techniques try to address – but sometimes it’s overly simplified.

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For example, while visualisation is a well-established technique in many performance and mindset training spaces, you won’t get your desired results if you have strong beliefs that contradict the result you’re visualising.

Say your previous experience of growing a business came with a lot of stress; you may have developed an unconscious belief that making that much money will require a level of stress you’re not willing to go through again.

As a result, you might avoid actions and opportunities that would increase your income beyond its current level. The financial result you then unconsciously ‘manifest’ (i.e. create) is one where your income is ‘stuck’ at a level that feels safe – even if you are visualising a much higher level of income.

So it’s not that manifestation techniques are total nonsense – but they are often incomplete or oversimplified. This can do more harm than good.

For example, instead of being a tool to help clarify and solidify your goals, used incorrectly ‘visualisation’ can become a convenient way to disassociate from your current reality and escape into a fantasy.

What should you do instead? Here’s some mindset work that might actually work:

1. Make a list of the actions you know you could be taking towards your goal (i.e. increasing income) and then write out the thoughts, beliefs, feelings you have about taking those actions. This exercise is going to show you exactly where your points of resistance and avoidance are.
2. Write out what you think it’s going to ‘cost you’ to get to your desired goal – and what are the thoughts, beliefs, feelings you have about those costs? For example, do you think it takes a lot of work, stress and hustle to get to your desired income goal? Does that trigger fear, anxiety, dread? In your case, maybe you think it’s going to require you to hire support staff, complicate your operations, overwhelm your calendar – and perhaps all those things seem daunting.

This exercise will clarify exactly what you really think about getting to your desired goal – and the thoughts, feelings, beliefs in the way of it.

Real mindset work is not about wishing, fantasising, daydreaming something into existence. It’s about changing your thoughts, feelings and beliefs that drive your actions and behaviours, to align with your desired results.

Paridhi Jain is founder of SkilledSmart, which helps adults learn to manage, save and invest money through financial education courses and classes.

• Advice given in this article is general in nature and not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.

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