Manifest with Intention

Intention, identity, and awareness are the foundation of real manifestation—not wishful thinking.

In this episode of Just Call Jenna, Jenna Williams breaks down the difference between hoping for change and actually becoming the person who creates it.

She explains that the universe responds not to words, but to frequency—your thoughts, emotions, and actions working in alignment. Rather than relying on surface-level positivity, Jenna reframes manifestation as identity-based change, where your habits, self-talk, and expectations train your brain to recognize and accept new opportunities. 

Watch the episode here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2jTdUvtxCs

Listen to the episode here:

Drawing from both neuroscience and spirituality, Jenna explores how the brain’s reward system can trap people in cycles of wishful thinking, while true manifestation requires emotional connection and consistent action. She introduces the idea that you don’t manifest what you want—you manifest what feels normal—highlighting the role of the nervous system and how deeply conditioned beliefs can either support or block growth. 

Jenna then shifts into the concept of “future self alignment,” emphasizing that transformation doesn’t come from chasing outcomes, but from embodying the identity of who you’re becoming. Through practical reflection and simple daily practices, she shows how small, aligned actions can close the gap between your current reality and your desired life. Rather than needing full clarity, she encourages listeners to focus on direction—choosing the next step that aligns with their future self. 

The episode closes with actionable tools, including visualization techniques and her ABC method—Action, Belief, and Clarity—to help listeners retrain their brain’s focus and reinforce a new internal state. Jenna reminds listeners that manifestation isn’t about forcing outcomes, but about allowing growth, regulating the nervous system, and consistently choosing thoughts and actions that reflect the life they want to live.

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Welcome back.

Today we're going to talk about manifesting with intention. So not just read the secret or think you understand it and it's going to poof appear, but real manifesting with intention, how that works in the brain and how you see yourself, how it relates back to some sustainment. And then also some practical tools that I use, which I call the ABCs of Action, Belief, and Clarity, what that means and how you can actually apply it in your world.

Um, so I'm gonna start with talking about the fact that I always like to say the universe doesn't speak English. It speaks frequency. That is the currency of the universe. So when I always say energy is contagious, that's what I mean. You are energy vibrating at a certain level, and that's what you're manifesting.

So let's break that down into wishful thinking versus active manifesting. Simply put, wishful thinking is dreaming. It's dreaming something. Hope I hope it happens. While manifestation is when your thoughts, your actions, your vibrations everything moves in that same direction to call it into you. That's sort of how it works.

So if I think about that more in like manifestation is not magic words. It's not hope is my strategy. It's not I think it and it appears. Sure, that would be lovely, but it's really it's about being aligned with that. In neuroscience, wishful thinking is just linked to that little dopamine reward spike. It feels good, but it hasn't changed any of your brain chemistry. It hasn't moved you in the right direction. Wishful thinking creates hope. But without any action, it's just a momentary feeling.

Scientifically identity-based changed. If you saw a previous episode, I talked about you sustain what you identify as. So the brain takes cues on how you talk to yourself, how you think, what you expect, what you repeatedly do, like a habit loop or a motivation loop. So if you're wishfully thinking you're thinking I want this thing over here, but you're still creating cues, habits, and all those actions that are keeping you where you're at now, not where you want to be.

In spirituality, they talk a lot about trusting the process. In religion, it might be faith and pray. Sometimes it's called surrender, but you sort of have to understand that you have to allow that to come in. You have to remove that force from it. There's a fabulous book, Power versus Force. Really the way I see it is that force blocks your manifestations. Force is like it has to happen now. I have to make it happen. But allowance is I'm becoming that person.

So let me try to give a story to that. And years ago, maybe 10 years ago, I was a very broke single mom. I could barely afford to feed me and my kids and put gas in my car at the same time. I remember my lowest low was I kept a in my cup holder in my car change for the parking meters because I had to go to work and pay let's say it was Wednesday. Uh Friday was payday. I think I had like eight dollars in my account. Like it was low.

And I went to Coinstar with all the coins in my cup holder, dropped them in, and I think it told me I had 50 bucks after they took their fee. So with fifty bucks I had to get gas in my car and feed my kids and me for two days. Well trying to figure that budget out and let everything go but those two days because Friday was payday. It would be okay on Friday, but I had to make it to Friday.

And I can remember getting that and going, okay, I can put, you know, twenty bucks in my gas tank and buy milk, egg, and bread. We had fried egg sandwiches for two days. My kids had no clue how hard that was. But it was allowing future me like to manifest that I wasn't gonna be broke. Like I can remember sitting there like Scarlet O'Hara and gone with wind with God as my witness, I shall never go hungry again that was my lowest and I refused to stay there or be there.

So manifestation was like allowing myself to be the me that got paid on Friday. At that point, I could buy them cereal. I could have creamer for my coffee. I could have something beyond bread and egg. So I became the kind of person that figured things out when they were hard. Now at the time I was worried about groceries and whatnot, but the manifestation is I understand that in two days my problem will not be there. That is the difference between power versus force, really, like the book. It's I am going to take my personal power back and say I can manifest this and become what I want to be.

Force is I'm trying to make it happen. Now, Force is like, I'm not a control freak, but you're doing it wrong. I am a bit of a control freak. Delegating things and letting go of controlling is very hard for me. That is how I used to manage my life. I needed to control everyone and everything around me. No wonder I had a stress poisoning problem. The amount of trying to control everything in your life is exhausting. Let go of the need to control. Make those aligned steps in the right direction.

So for example, like in spirituality, manifestation is about intention. That's kind of my point to this episode of manifesting with intention. It's about releasing the energy to where it should be, trusting, but taking inspired action is the science of it. So emotion teaches your brain what matters. If you can identify with the emotional state of the future, you you can expand your identity.

I think most adults have had that moment where you want to afford something and you've got eight dollars in your bank account. Maybe that's not the standard, but I think everybody's been there. At least I think most of us have. Manifestation doesn't respond to your desires. It responds to what you're conditioned to expect. So what does future you look like? Like how would future me on that Friday respond if I just got my paycheck Friday night just got paid. One of my favorite songs, by the way. You have to think about that. How does Future You react? And that's sort of where that abundance mindset will come in.

Your nervous system might not even have that understanding experience frame of reference. Like if I look back at me then, which was probably a decade ago that this happened, I don't think I would have had a reference point for what me now looks like after everything's I've survived, everything I've created.

So don't beat yourself up if you can't feel abundant right now. I hope that one day manifestation is taking those inspired action steps and creating what it takes to be future you. And it will help if you can connect to that and understand how would future me react.

Now I didn't know this a decade ago. I certainly didn't know this before I survived death I I had to learn this. It was a skill I trained. So I think a lot of times there's a lot of things out there manifest like, oh, I'm gonna manifest me paying my bills. I'm gonna manifest the job I want. I'm manifesting my dream home Sure, you probably are, but is it wishful thinking that you're thinking about it or are you really aligning with the you that has those things?

That's really what's important. Like you don't manifest what you want, you manifest what feels normal.

So have you allowed your brain, your nervous system and everything to accept that. If I go back to what it was like walking on every single driveway, having a walker You know, not even being able to take a shower and do physical therapy on the same day. My body was so broken. That me could not imagine what it's like to sit here and walk and talk. That is not something I had a frame of reference for I mean I could remember what it was like to walk and talk before the stroke, but being trapped inside my body and my brain that would not respond.

I felt like I was inside there somewhere screaming to be heard, seen, and take control of my life. and having no control, but how did I manifest that? I somehow figured out in that daily practice of seeing myself healed, connecting with the future me. So this was two years ago, but I sort of connected with this me in the future. mentally, spiritually, however you want to say it. And I just thought, what would that Jenna do?

So when you hear me call myself Jenna 2.0 I think that's the changed version of me that I was able to align with and start making those inspired action steps based on What would Jenna 2.0 do? Could I let the force that was blocking all manifestations, could I stop trying to force it and just have a little faith prayer, whatever you want to call it, and connect with the me that had the life I wanted to live.

But remember, the universe doesn't speak English. It doesn't speak whatever language dialect you speak. It speaks frequency. It speaks vibes. So what are you vibing at? What is the vibration of you? And to manifest, you really have to connect with that vibration that has what you want to manifest.

That's going to take action, faith. It's going to take a lot of that, but it's not, you don't force it. You can kind of imagine it, but then you as you imagine it, you have to connect to that. You have to figure out what would that version do? So what would version 2.0 Jenna do? And those are the actions I took.

As now I'm sitting here thinking, what would version Jenna 3.0 look like? Right? What would that level up look like? And can I connect to her? And are the actions I'm taking today moving me in that direction? So when you're thinking about becoming future you, it's not some imaginary you, but the real step-by-step you.

I want to talk about a client that I helped recently. He felt stuck at the gap between where he was today and who he was in the future. He had a very hard time connecting with future him. The gap was too big. He couldn't imagine more than wishful thinking. So he repeated some old patterns that kept him stuck.

His goal was to go from a victim mentality. He was like an Eeyore when we started, poor me, everybody's against me. And he wanted to be the kind of person that enjoyed his life. His body, his soul, his nervous system all had this frame of reference of I'm a victim. Bad things happened to me. And so he had a very hard time connecting to the future version of him that didn't think that way. He didn't know how to not think the way he had been thinking for years.

So we started with as simple as in his five minutes a day, start thinking about situations and going, what would future you do differently? Like you don't have to do it today, but let's just start there. If this bad thing happened, my kid yelled at me, my boss yelled at me, somebody cut me off in traffic, instead of going in the downward spiral.

We started with the five minutes a day. Okay, let's think about that. That happened yesterday. I was in a bad frame of mind. The storm kept coming. Life kept coming. Everything was on the spiral What would future you do differently than what you did? It wasn't asking him to take the step then. It was evaluating, I did this and what would I like to do differently.

Many of us can do that. We're we try to have a growth mindset. We have plans that at work. They ask you to evaluate yourself. Or, you know, you sit down with your spouse or someone you care about and you have real communication feedback where you're open to hearing about something different. So we took that same place and just started with what would future you do differently.

So instead of yelling at the guy that cut him off or going home and feeling like my boss is out to get me, um, it went back to what would future you do differently And he was like, I would just understand that that guy's in a rush and it wasn't me he was cutting off. It was any car. It didn't have anything to do with me. My boss was going to yell at anybody that day, right? Anybody that it wasn't me he was yelling at. It was the person performing the task that was making his job harder. It wasn't a personal I'm bad. It was I didn't do what he wanted me to do. We were living in different worlds.

And so it started with like future me would respond differently. I would understand that that was not a personal attack on me. And so I think when we started that place, he was able to create a frame of reference inside himself that he was able to get out of that victim mentality by letting things go.

And it started with what would future you do? And then the words we started using together were, I'm the kind of person who. I'm the kind of person who doesn't get mad when my boss yells at me. I'm the kind of person that doesn't take it personal when I get cut off in traffic, which by the way, I still do. Um, but it's I'm becoming I'm the kind of person who.

So if you think about that, like go back to me learning how to walk again. I'm the kind of person who walks without a cane I'm the kind of person that walks around the block.

So I think a simple practice is to ask yourself the following question: who would I be if this were already true? Who would I be if I was the kind of person that didn't take things personal? Identify the emotion, not the outcome.

That's a big one. Who would I be? What would that feel like? You can choose a habit or an action that will reinforce the identity that you are today or reinforce the identity of future you. Find that moment where you go, hey, I'm the kind of person who, you know, what what happened? What would future you do differently than what you did in that evaluation That is a huge chunk of manifestation.

So it's not just that I'm gonna dream this thing and have it pop into my life. I don't think that's it. Most goals will focus on the outcome. The brain isn't going to act that way. It doesn't think based on a goal. It acts on an identity. who you believe you are. Back to the RAS filter. You filter in those things. So your future self is not an imaginary thing.

In psychology they call it a future self continuity. Sounds fancy It literally refers to how you connect to the person you feel you are. So for example, who will I be in one year, five years, ten years? And you don't have that frame of reference. Remember, I am the kind of person who. But if you like me, think about that change cup moment, you know, lowest slows. Five to ten years ago you couldn't even imagine where you're at now.

So I'm not saying get stuck in the past. In fact, I don't recommend you do that But I think sometimes it's important to look at where you've come from to help you understand how you can evolve into the future you. People who feel connected to their future self They experience less stress, they treat themselves with more compassion, and they persist longer through the hard stuff.

Why do you think that is? Well, it's because they aren't making choices for an overwhelmed version of themselves that has no frame of reference. They are making decisions like a future them. So they are living the life they desire. That nervous system experience, I like to call it the container because I think it's a whole lot of things wrapped into one, but that container of the future them them can hold them now.

So for example, when I start imagining what does Jenna 3.0 do? What is she like to do in a day? How does that feel? And I start thinking about those things. I'm expanding the container of Jenna 2.0 that is here today and going, okay, how does Future Me do? And you know what? That is peace. That is a huge part of the lack of stress I have. I like to say stress less and live more But I live joyful, peaceful, and okay.

My nervous system is calm now because I connected to future me. When I was going through the hard part of therapy, which was not just the trauma of the stroke, but many other traumas I've survived in my life. Um, a lot of it is I had to accept I wasn't healing trauma out of my body and my nervous system to be able to take in more trauma. I was actually healing to let in joy, peace, and things that I didn't know.

I was actually healing to let in the wishful thinking. These would be lovely. I wanted my life to be a Hallmark movie. Man, I would love to run away to the forest and meet a guy with a Christmas tree farm and have everything be happily ever after. That's in a movie I mean, maybe it's real in life, but I don't have a space in my container to see that other than in Hallmark.

Instead, I think about what is that piece? What does that feel like? What does future mean look like and if I act when things panic me, when my brain goes into survival mode, if I can think what would Jenna do? What would Jenna 3.0 do? And that is the choice I'm making today. I am taking those aligned action steps to get to where I want to go.

You can't identify with you when you're fearful, limited, lack, whatever, when your vibes are in that heavy, low frequency. You know, you got a gap. You have a hard time aligning with the you that's up here because you're down here. So you know, you have to use a little delusion. You have to use a little imagination.

When you look at like mind control studies or people that are training others to use their ESP or their psychic senses A lot of times they're focusing on the pieces of them that live in imagination or delusion, as some of us call it. So maybe you don't have to be so crazy that you're gonna sell everything and run away. Like maybe that's not how far we want to go, but you are gonna have to use a little imagination, creativity, delusion. I call it the Dululu because I just like that term. My kids hate that I say it. Uh but I think it's funny.

So if you try to use that logic brain and get yourself there, you're going to limit yourself because you don't have that frame of reference.

Your logic brain doesn't have an experience in that RAS filter to pull from. Your brain is a prediction machine. That is actually what it does. Like it's the swami, it'll figure it out. It's the tarot card reader, whatever you want to give it. It's the magic eight ball you shape. Your brain is a prediction machine.

It predicts based on what's its known. So that's largely run by your RAS or that reticular activating system. It's constantly asking what matters, what to pay attention to. What do I filter to you? Well, manifestation is a lot like future me. Filter in those things so I can move in that right direction. It begins with an internal focus, changing your brain on what's possible, safe, and worth worth pursuing.

So more of this, less of this, right? Emotions are a big driver of that. A neuroscience is your brain is going to filter things in. So when you are manifesting, again, your container doesn't have the space for that yet. So when you want to manifest these things and move into future you and expand your container to have room to accept that Your your reticular activating system, your RAS, right? That's my favorite thing, the RAS. I think about what I want to see.

If I see myself as lucky, I'm going to be more lucky. Largely because my RAS is going to filter in all these opportunities for me to be lucky. If I see myself as kind, my RAS is going to filter in lots of ways for me to be kind. If I see myself as grateful, grateful will come in. So That prediction machine that is largely driven by a filter. It's like a camera lens. Do I want to be in focus or out of focus?

So if I can focus on who I want to be And what does Future Me do? The steps and actions that I take will get me there. For those who are visual, in a previous episode I had talked about Michael Phelps and how he would say play the videotape uh in his head. So he would visualize what his swim was gonna look like. What did the stroke feel like? How many breaths did he need? What would the turn feel like? What place was he coming in? Athletes use visualization a lot.

I actually had a very hard time with manifesting and becoming future me because I couldn't get that picture in my mind right What do I look like? What what does that picture in my mind visually like a movie screen? I have a very hard time with that. When I think of a movie screen of my life, I can almost feel what it feels like to play the role of that, like to be the actor of that. How do I think? How do I feel? How do I act? What might I be wearing? I have a very hard time Seeing it like a movie screen.

So maybe you've heard the story of Jim Carrey and his manifestation. So if you haven't, he wrote himself a check when he was living out of his car, not making any money, for ten million dollars, stuck it in his wallet and in the memo road for acting services rendered carry around that thing for a long time. Do I remember how long? No. I remember though that he lived out of his car and he would park on a hill in Hollywood and visualize himself acting and getting paid this and what did that look like and and when he went to film Dumb and Dumber, his paycheck was ten million dollars.

We're very stuck in this heavy now of us Life coming at us overwhelmed, expanded in every direction. I think many of us feel like those old pictures where there's a horse tied to each one of your limbs and they're all running in different directions I think most of us as adults in society nowadays, that's how we feel.

I think for me a lot of it is what I call my ABCs Action, belief, clarity. So this is my way. This is not going to be what works for everybody, and I really hope it works for you because it's worked for most of the people I've worked with.

I believe I live in peace. That is my belief. I believe that. My RAS filters in all the reasons I'm peaceful. I notice my actions. Are my actions peaceful? Are the things I'm doing peaceful? And if they're not peaceful, okay, they're not like Jenna 3.0 or even 2.0 and okay, more often than not, they're in the right direction. But are my actions matching my belief? I am filling the neuroscience of my brain with, okay, filter in this.

I'm clear that life keeps coming at me and that my frequency is peace. That is my vibe. Remember, I always say energy is contagious. I am peaceful, my actions are peaceful, and I'm clear that I'm peaceful. Therefore, more and more of what I'm around is peaceful. It allows me to use a little discernment and say This person is not peaceful. I don't like being around them, but that doesn't mean that I need to react in a way that's not peaceful. I can just say, okay, wish you well and I go about my way and I just don't let ya Back in my life.

So if you've followed along with this, remember there is wishful thinking and there is manifestation. Manifestation takes action into the right direction. You're gonna think about your brain and what would future you do? What does that person think, act, and feel like? And remember along the way your ABCs, who do you believe you are? Are the actions you're taking backing up your beliefs? And are you clear on what future you would do?

So thanks for joining me again. Remember, karma is real, energy is contagious, and it's time to check your vibes.