Habits and Hustle - Episode 576: Can You Really Manifest Your Way To Success?

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

What if manifestation is keeping you focused on the life you want while distracting you from the work required to build it? Manifestation has become one of the biggest trends in personal development. Visualize the outcome, believe it is coming, raise your vibration, and trust the universe to deliver. There can be value in believing in yourself and getting clear on what you want, but belief without action quickly becomes wishful thinking. Your thoughts can influence your focus, confidence, and behavior, but they cannot control every external outcome. Health challenges, financial circumstances, psychological struggles, timing, and access all play a role. When manifestation culture ignores those realities, people can end up blaming themselves for circumstances they were never fully able to control. It also creates an opportunity for self-help coaches to sell false hope, expensive programs, and promises they cannot realistically guarantee. In this episode of Habits and Hustle, I break down what manifestation gets right, where it becomes harmful, why mindset must be paired with a real plan, and the warning signs to look for when someone is selling you a fantasy instead of practical guidance. Because believing in yourself matters, but nothing replaces action, effort, and good old-fashioned hard work. What's Discussed: (00:39) Why manifestation has become one of the biggest and most controversial trends in self-help. (01:19) How belief, confidence, and positive self-talk can support the pursuit of a goal. (02:25) Why visualizing an outcome means very little without effort, action, and struggle. (03:50) How manifestation can make people overestimate their ability to control external circumstances. (05:18) Why the useful ideas behind manifestation cannot stand on their own without real work. (07:32) How social media and online coaches have distorted manifestation into a larger self-help subculture. (08:36) Why parts of the coaching industry prey on people's insecurities and vulnerable moments. (09:24) How misguided hope can become dangerous when it replaces practical tools and realistic guidance. (09:54) Why manifestation needs a clear plan and how it can lead to self-blame when outcomes do not go as expected. (11:23) How to identify coaching red flags, including constant upselling, expensive retreats, flashy lifestyles, and promises of material success. Thank You to Our Sponsors! Magic Mind: Head over to magicmind.com/jen and use code JEN at checkout. Pique: Go to piquelife.com/jenniferrsd to get 20% off for life plus free gifts Momentous: Ready to try supplements that actually do what they claim? Head to livemomentous.com and use code JEN for 35% off your first subscription.  Therasage: Visit therasage.com and use code JEN to get 15% off your order. Your skin Prolon: Prolon is offering listeners 30% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Program! Just visit prolonlife.com/JENNIFERCOHEN and use code JENNIFERCOHEN to claim your discount and your bonus gift.   Find more from Jen Cohen:  Website: jennifercohen.com Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements  

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it. Before we get into today's episode, I want to take a moment to talk about something that changed how I think about skin care. And that's peak. Because here's what nobody tells you. You can spend a fortune on serums and creams and still look tired. And then you start to actually wonder, maybe your skin is just done. But the real reason is that your cells are dehydrated and inflamed underneath. So nothing you put on top is actually going to feel. fix it. You're just treating the surface when the problem is way deeper. And that's why I love Peaks radiant skin duo. You take the sun goddess machin the morning to detox, calm inflammation, and turn your glow back on from the inside. And then there are BT Fountain Beauty Electrolites throughout the day. This is luxury hydration with thermosized and hyluranic acid that actually repairs your skin barrier at the cellular level, so your skin just drinks it up. They both come in these sachets, making it super simple to add into your daily routine and just add it into your water.

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www. p-I-Q-E-L-I-F-E dot com slash Jennifer S-D to grab the radio skin duo now. All right, welcome to another episode of Habits and Hustle Solo. For those of you guys who have not yet subscribed to the podcast, please do so. And also, when you guys leave a review, it really helps the podcast. So it gets other people to know it exists. So if you can please review the podcast and tell your friends, I'd be so ever grateful. All right. So let's get into it. Ready? Today's topic could be maybe a little controversial because we're going to be talking and exploring a topic that I think is probably the most popular. self-help trend that I've ever seen. And that is manifestation. And the ideas behind manifestation, what my belief system is around it, and all the things. So A, what do you believe in manifestation and just the idea of the whole trend? I like some aspects of manifestation and I just like some other aspects of them. Okay. I think it's important to believe things and will them into existence

to a certain degree. Like you have to really have that belief system to back you up. But I don't think that it's, yeah, I mean, I think that I think that there's like a lot to discuss on the topic, but I do think that to an extent having a strong set of beliefs and that confidence and sort of that self-talk is very important. So this is what I believe, if I do say so myself. I think that manifestation is a big, big umbrella lofty term. I don't think that it means it's not being pessimistic over optimistic. I think that people value manifestation way more than probably they should. This is my, by the way, this again is my opinion. You don't have to agree with it. You don't have to like it. It's just what I feel and believe. I believe this idea of, I'll say this, what I like

about it. I like the fact that it puts the onus on the person a little bit, but not enough. So I guess that's not what I guess I like and dislike that. I think that when you only visualize something and not put it into practice by putting work into it, it means nothing. I think that too many people are thinking that if they think about something, that it's going to happen. So this idea of mind over matter is true, in my opinion, to an extent. But I think it, what it does do is it sometimes makes the person have feeling that if something doesn't work, like if they're not taking into account psychological issues, socioeconomic issues, lots of other things.

So just willing something to happen is not enough. You have to put in the effort, the work, and like sometimes the struggle to get to what you want. And so I actually, I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan of how it's be, how it's overtaken everything in personal development and self-help. And it's like the biggest thing since sliced bread. But I think a lot of the people who talk about manifestation do acknowledge that.

Like they say you have to actually go out and do all of these things. It's not just simply about like thinking about it. You can't. I mean, that's just so not realistic. But I mean, obviously there are some woo haws out there who do just literally say that. But I think for the most part, the mass market and the people who really talk about like the coaches and those who by the way, the coaching world is something that I'm not a crazy fan of either. But I do often see them saying like, you know, it's a balance. You have to manifest it, but you have to work for it.

I don't see most people talking about that. I think a lot of people overestimate our agency in how we can control the external world. I think we can control to a certain extent, but I don't think that we have the ability. We're not superhuman and we're not superheroes. I think that, you know, what actually is realistic is we can try and put positive energy somewhere and positive belief and have a mind over matter, but not. not put all our eggs in that basket because I think that is actually quite harmful, right? And I don't see a lot of experts saying, oh, yeah, all you need to do is like visualize something and then also

work on it because then that's actually contrary to the whole overall idea of what manifestation is because manifestation's been around for many, many, many, many, many years. Like I think, I don't know, a long time. I think the 19th century is what I read a long time ago. The idea, I guess behind it is that your thoughts become things, and every thought has a vibration and a frequency, right? Right, like your thoughts become actions. Your thoughts become real. Your thoughts have a frequency,

and what you put out into the world kind of reverberates back to you. Now, I do like it in theory, but I don't think it's enough to stand on its own. Because I'm a big, like, you know, kind of like grinder mentality, right? Like, if you want a, if you want an outcome, you got to put in true actual effort. You got to like work for it. And I think my problem with overall manifestation is that I think it allows a big amount for just this idea of allowing the universe to kind of bring to you what you envision. for yourself, whatever you deeply envisioned for yourself. So I think that there's like a major

disconnect between what my overall idea, my idea is of how to get what you want and that idea. Yeah. No, I understand. I agree with that also. I think that you have to have balance. But I just think that for the most part, the people that I, because my sister, she's really in this world with like the Bray Browns and all of them. And she's constantly like following all these people who do these Instagram lives and stuff. And for the most part, what I hear is definitely that you need to attract things. Like manifestation is all about attracting stuff, right? Well, it's the whole law of attraction. Like this all, that's Rhonda, who's their name, Rhonda, who wrote the book, The Laws of Attraction. But they do, they do often discuss, like, the need for also actionable stuff. Like, you have to

also balance it out. You can't just, you know what I mean? But a lot of people are so stuck in this mindset of they're full of anxiety, they're full of stress, they're full of negativity, that just the act of manifesting alone gets them out of that headspace and then allows them to be able to go and do all of those things. So I think, yeah, I mean, someone should read like a book on manifestation and then your book and then together they would have superpowers. Well, I find that interesting that you just said that because there's other, like, what's in that same world that you were just mentioning is this idea of like self-care, of like meditation, so important. Self-reflection, exercising, therapy, all of those. these things are like kind of in the same bucket. And I like a lot of those things, obviously. I love a lot of those things. I talk about it all the time. But what I, my concern and what I don't like about

the idea of manifestation is putting way too much onus on your, like visions and your will versus actual work. Yeah, just your thoughts instead of stuff. To get to what it is. But then again, like, you know, I don't want to say that like, I know what you think becomes, like, what you do think actually does become reality, right? Like what you focus on becomes your truth. So there's elements of it. This is the thing. I think there's elements, the raw materials of what it's about, maybe I like it. But I think over time and because of social media and all these like kooky coaches out there. Yes, which is really a problem, by the way. Which is really probably the problem. They've like butchered what it really means at its essence. And,

then added all these other things to become this entire subculture of self-help, which I'm not someone who definitely doesn't like very much, doesn't agree with. Yeah, the coaching world is, I think the coaching world is actually quite dangerous. Like, I remember you and Mark Manson talking about this in terms of the self-help world and some of the issues there. I think that there are serious scammers out there who are constantly just prying on people's insecurities and their low points in life to be able to get a ton of money out of that. them. And I think that's a huge problem in the coaching world. I feel like it's on stop. It's crazy. It's the number one job on social media, right? It's coaching. That's how people are making their

living. They're like selling. They have funnels and sales funnels and they're praying, in my opinion, on people that are in a bad place in life, dark place in life, who are really struggling, who really have, don't have the wherewithal to discern from one or the other. And not only they take in their money, but they're giving them misguided hope. And I know that I'm a big believer that if you don't have hope, you don't have anything, but misguided hope is really, really dangerous, in my opinion. So like, I'm all about giving people, as you can imagine, this is what my whole podcast is about, is giving people tactile, practical things that they can do to even make their life 1% better, 10% better, that they can actually take the ownership of themselves and create that.

Now, if manifestation comes with, you know, not only you're supposed to visualize it, but then you also have actually like a plan to get from A to B to C to D, great. But if it's just like willing it and putting all the agency on yourself as you have all the control of what happens on the outside. Because the other train of thought and what is like people are talking from both sides of their mouth is that you don't have control of what goes on out there and all you can control is yourself. So if all that what you control is yourself, how do you then have control of all those external forces that you are supposed to be manifesting to like work in your favor? So when it doesn't work in your favor, when it doesn't happen, it doesn't work in your favor, then you go down a really dark rabbit hole. Because the part, like I said, is that people don't take into account all sorts of other ancillary things that are happening, like the socioeconomic, like any kind of like cyclone, like psychological thing or sickness or health issues. I mean, I just think it's a topic that needs to be really dissected. I mean, this is not maybe the best, only time we're going to talk about

it. It's just opening up this conversation a little bit to, really, to a conversation that's beyond just, yeah, like it's a vibration and mind over matter. And if you, you know, achieve it or believe it, and it will happen or whatever, you know, all these, all these like nice cliches, you know. I feel like something that would be important is, because some people do like life coaches, like they really would like to have them and some of them are really great. Some are great for sure. But I think what would be a really good tangible thing is like helping people understand how to discern between the good ones and the bad ones because there are so many of these people out there

that are spewing BS, but then there are also like real treasures out there that can actually help you. And it's also individual. One person might work great for one person and not for another. And so I think that would be a really good actionable item to be able to help people see like, okay, well, that's something I should be weary of, you know. Someone who's always trying to upsell you on something is somebody that you should be cautious of. They're consistently trying to upsell you on various products or digital products or this, that and the other that they have, that's definitely of concern in my eyes. You know, anybody who's consistently trying to get you to come to like 10 different retreats and wants you to pay for the. the bonus and the gold and the VIP and the silver. It's like I'm very weary of that sort of a scheme. I find this to be really, I just think that that's like a slippery road to go down with a lot of those people. And that's something that I always look out for as well. And I also think their social media presence is a really big factor too. Like I really like to see what someone's social presence looks like. If it aligns with me, if it does not, if I think it's full of a bunch of BS,

if it just looks like really generic content, there's just a lot of good red flags that you can take account for. And there's also some green flags that you can look for within a life coach. This is what I think, too. I agree with you. Definitely. I agree with that. But I think also, I find it curious when the people, okay, the first step is discernment. Look at who you're following. Again, we talk with us so often, watching who's telling you about manifestation. Key right there, right there. And the content that they have is actually quite important because if they are being super flashy and braggadocious about all the material things they have, I think to me, that's a red flag.

That's a good red flag. That's a huge red flag. I see a lot of people on social media who are talking so much about laws of attraction and manifestation, like talking from their private plane, which they probably don't own, and wearing, you know, Balmain and, or is that how you say, Balmain? I don't know. but I've actually always wondered. I think it's Balmain.

We're in Valentino, Ball-Made, wearing a really expensive clothes and who are basically trying to sell you a life of material riches. To me, such a turnoff and a major red flag. Okay, so to me, if you're seeing these things, probably you shouldn't be taking their advice. They're offering you like crypto-financed advice.

Definitely run. And you're offered you crypto finance. Exactly. Our NFT stuff run for the hills. But, you know, again, this is really about just opening up a conversation that's beyond just taking things at face value. I'm a big, I really am about and I really, I try to shed any type of light and, you know, pose a question that maybe, you know, you might be thinking but not sure of. maybe it can be some, you can glean some insight from the two, you know, Yahoo's on this podcast to think about something differently. But I really believe that manifestation has really taken

over in terms of personal development and self-help and just really think about what that entails. And if you are somebody who is a big believer in it and it's something that's really helped you, I'd love to hear your story. I'd love to hear how it has. Please share in the comments. Let me know and we can revisit the conversation. Yeah, definitely. And drop it in the Facebook group while you're at it. Tell us your story. Exactly.

And nothing ever, I want to say this, I want to end with this, nothing ever replaces good old-fashioned hard work, period.