Manifesting in 2017 vs Manifesting TODAY (What's Changed and What's Working NOW)
In this video Aaron Doughty recounts his personal journey of manifesting success, contrasting his early reliance on traditional law‑of‑attraction tools—vision boards, thought‑focused affirmations, and seeking external mentors—with his current approach centered on embodying the desired identity, reshaping core beliefs, and rewriting personal stories. He shares a pivotal anecdote about meeting Jack Canfield while working at Barney’s, illustrating his former strategy of trying to be “put on” by a mentor, and how that same connection later resurfaced as an invitation to a mastermind. Doughty explains how daily YouTube videos transformed his self‑image, leading to a viral breakthrough and a shift from thinking about outcomes to living as the version of himself he wants. He outlines a concrete three‑step belief‑change process he recorded on his iPad in 2015: (1) identify the limiting definition or story, (2) imagine a new definition that feels right, and (3) behave as if the new definition is already true. Throughout, he emphasizes that reality mirrors the vibration and story one embodies, urging viewers to adopt the identity of their desired reality rather than merely visualizing it. The video concludes with a promotion for his monthly coaching program, the Shift Academy, which guides participants through this belief‑shifting methodology.
Chapters
June 3rd, 2014. I will earn $125,000 by the end of this year. I will receive these monies from time to time in various amounts by rendering services as the ultimate salesperson. I impress upon others motivation and drive and expand— still talking about expansion— on opportunities presented to me. I understand that my earnings are in direct proportion to my service to others and I constantly strive to increase my sense of value. My relationships are being nurtured intentionally. I rely on a clear vision for the way I treat people instead of the way that I feel. So I wrote clear. Yeah. So even if I wasn't feeling like really great, I, my intention would be to treat people well. And this is because I had a sales commission job for many years selling women's shoes. And there's certain ways and certain things that I've realized on how I used to manifest, how I used to have a vision and have a vision board and all of these kind of stereotypical ways of going about the law of attraction to how I do it now. It's very different. And you know, back in 2014, my goal was to make $125,000 in a year and I do that. You know, I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I can like manifest that very quickly. Um, but that's also because I have had the momentum of building up myself and my own sense of value to where now I can do that. So remember, you don't always get in life that which you want. You get in life a reflection of who you are being. Always you get a direct reflection of who you are being. And the version of me that was manifesting, looking like, uh, you know, doing it that way versus this way is a very different version of me. And I want to share with you some of the differences. Now, one of the differences is if you could see this, I'm going to post this. This is a card that I took a photo of, of Jack Canfield. Jack Canfield, SEO or CEO, the Canfield Training Group. This card right here, for a long time my intention was to manifest or to meet somebody that did what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be like a motivational speaker in a way. I met Jack Canfield. I helped Sage Robbins, which is Tony Robbins' wife, and I had these little synchronicities that would happen and I would get extremely excited about it. And my goal though, or my intention back then, the way that I thought I would create my dream life to where I'm at today was through like meeting somebody that was going to put me on. And I remember meeting Jack Canfield. I was working at Barney's New York in women's shoes and it was right before I almost went full time on YouTube. And what happened is he came into the department with some clothes that he was going to buy for his wife. And I worked in women's shoes. Normally somebody else would have been helping him with the clothes and got the commission for it, but there was no salesperson over there, so it just worked out well to where there was no one on the sales floor. He came over here and I recognized him immediately, although I will say he did look quite a bit older than what I was used to from the movie The Secret, and, uh, at first I didn't recognize him. He then goes to pay with the black American Express card, which said his name on it. In that moment I knew, oh, That's who you are. You're the chicken noodle soup soul guy or whatever. And, um, he was really nice. I said, you know what, one day I'm going to do what you do. That's what I said to him. And I knew it was cheesy, but I said it. And he goes, oh yeah. He's like, well, I have this training thing where it's $20,000 to come to like Scottsdale or something and I train you how to do what I do. I thought, well, that's really cool, but I don't have $20,000. You know, that was a huge stretch for me at the time. To have that kind of money. Now here's the funny thing. I told him that I worked at what I worked at, you know, Barney's New York. Uh, he went on his way and years later, this is like last year, I got invited to a place in Costa Rica where Jack Canfield is and I got invited because I'm an influencer that does something similar to what he does and I got, I don't know if I got a personal invite, but I got an invite nonetheless from his team to come and join. And to be part of whatever mastermind he had. So I thought it was kind of fun. It was kind of a coming full circle moment because I doubt he doesn't remember that I helped him with shoes years ago, but I told him I'm going to do what you do one day and now I'm actually doing it. Now, one of the things though about this story I want to share is the way that I was trying to manifest back in the day is I was trying to manifest somebody putting me on, trying to manifest like meeting somebody. I literally thought, oh, I might meet like Tony Robbins one day and he's going to see all this potential in me and then he's going to in a way like help me get to my goals and, uh, to help me to be a full-time, you know, speaker or whatever. That was how I was thinking. And one thing that I was doing is it was all about thoughts. I was thinking better thoughts. I was focused on what I was thinking. I was constantly listening to Abraham Hicks and Bashar and all these different, uh, like sources for me to like get hyped up to manifest my dream life. I didn't experience any great change until I stretched out of who I was being as the 9 to 5 job goer and I decided to start making the daily videos. That started to change my self-image. That changed the way that I view myself and that also changed the way I was showing up. From that, I became somebody that was, that was more of a hard worker and that changed my sense of identity as I was making daily videos on YouTube. Within a couple weeks of doing that, I started to get more natural in front of the camera, and from that, a video went viral and it started this momentum that really changed my life. So one of the things of how I used to manifest versus now is I don't really focus on so much just what it is and the thoughts. I focus on me being in that vibration. I focus on me being that version of me. So back in the day, yes, I mean I had that definite purpose that you just saw, the definite purpose I learned from the book Think and Grow Rich, which I found to be a very powerful book for if you're looking to like, you know, create your dream life. It's very powerful for that. Um, but what I would really recommend that when you're looking into this is yes, these things can, like a vision board can be a powerful symbol, but I'll be honest with you, a vision board has never been the thing that actually got me to create what I want. And I want to really encourage a lot of you that, you know, yes, it's cool to like be wanting something and then to be thinking about it and then to experience something of it, but a lot of times it's really surface level things. It's like, I want to attract a parking spot or I want to attract, you know, like, you know, $1,000 or something, and then it may come into your reality. But what I found to be much more empowering is to focus on the version of you that is in that ideal reality you want to experience, and then just decide that that's who you are now. That's who you are. You're no longer going to, um, you know, because a lot of times it's called the backwards law from, from Alan Watts, and it's anytime you want to improve yourself or to be a better version of yourself, what happens is the more you imply that, the more you want that, the more you are emphasizing that I'm not that already. And one of the things that really switched things for me is I just decided I gave myself permission to be that version of me that was a full-time YouTuber. And as I gave myself that permission and I was being that version of me because it's who I choose to be, it became my reality. Remember the way reality works. It's not you must first have something, then you can do something, then you can be something. The way reality works is you must just be it. Just decide it's who you are and it's who you are because it's who you choose to be, not because of what it'll get you. When I started making daily videos on YouTube, I just decided this is who I am and because I'm sharing videos that added value to other people, what happened— that was my intention, at least that was my intention. And what happened is then because I was coming from that frame, it was a very expansive feeling, but it was also something that began to Um, people could feel how I felt about myself. Remember that people feel what you feel. In a way, you could think about it like whoever you're being, whatever your vibration is, you're seeing reality through that lens and reality is being reflected back to you based on the energy you're putting out. And one of the biggest transformations that I've made in my own manifestation process is that priorly it was mainly about thoughts. And now it's more so about me understanding belief systems. What do I believe to be true? That is the reason I'm getting a certain reflection. And once I became aware of my beliefs and I started to change those, and another word for beliefs is story, that's when everything begins to change. So for you living your current dream life, I would become more aware of what are the stories you're telling yourself that has you locked into the reality you're currently in because the current reality you're in is most likely very familiar. It feels very familiar because it's a comfort zone and it's something that you think the same thoughts every day. You feel the same emotions every day. You do the same things every day. You get the same results every day and the story that you tell yourself keeps you locked in that reality. And one of the things that changed everything was when I started to change my story. So instead of changing my thoughts, I started to change my story and I realized that I felt like I was only worthy, worthy of working a 9 to 5 job. I felt like that 9 to 5 job gave me stability even though I wasn't passionate about it. And then eventually I changed that story. And sometimes there's things that just happen in our life where our stories will automatically change. You know, if, if a monkey in a tribe of other monkeys, whatever you call it, say the lead alpha monkey dies and a new monkey needs to— an ape needs to like stand up and become the alpha. Within a day, that monkey's levels of testosterone go up sky high because now that he's embodying out of necessity that alpha in order to protect the tribe or whatever it is, he then starts becoming an alpha like that. And any one of us can start to become more empowered in our lives by making the choice. Now of course that kind of happened to them. He did it out of necessity. There are, I remember hearing Tony Robbins talk about it when he first had his, uh, he'd found out he was going to have a kid. When that happened, he all of a sudden went from making like, you know, a smaller amount of money to making like $2 million a year or something like that because he had a stronger why. He just made a choice and he had to adapt. And you in the same way can change your story and realize, oh, I just, I'm going to do this. I did that. With YouTube. I'm going to make videos every single day on YouTube and that's going to be my reality. Now, one thing I wanted to share with you of how to change your beliefs. I found this inside my iPad from September 12th, 2015. This same photo, it's a handwritten photo that I took a photo, like a handwritten thing I took a photo of. I have used this as a benchmark in my life for the last, since 2015, and it has helped me get to where I'm at today. So would you like me to share this with you guys? If you'd like me to share, go and like this video, like this video. Let me know if you want me to share this with you. Um, and this is, I might start doing this more often to share some of these like things that are inside my iPad, um, that were the big things that helped give me a switch. Like it's changed my life. So I wrote this down. I think I learned it from Bashar, but basically it's find out what definition that would make you feel in order to relate to that situation. So basically, uh, find out the definition that you are using that's causing you to feel the way you are about your current situation. So what is the belief, the definition, the story that is keeping you to feel like crap? Now realizing that is key because that's where it's first off stemming. And now it says, uh, choose to— it says, uh, it's, uh, It's like so blurry because I don't have WiFi connection right now. That's like good. So it's like not, uh, it says choose the definition of what you'd prefer to experience using your imagination. So find out the old definition of what's causing you to feel the way that you do, and then it's choose a new definition using your imagination of what it would feel like to experience what you actually want. And then thirdly, know that the new definition is authentically in place, whatever the new definition is, whatever the new story is. And then it says behave and know that it has changed. This is the key thing right here. Just behave and know that you have changed. When you look at Tony Robbins and him coaching people, he just gets people to feel a sense of certainty around whatever they're changing. Just, he's like, you're just, you're there. NLP, you're there. And it's like a sense of certainty. Now then, do not keep checking to make sure it has changed. Simply know and behave towards the new reality. Uh, when— so basically what it is is do not keep checking when you change your definition. It's like you're not like, whatever your definition is, you're not just keep looking to see if it's changed on the outside. Don't keep searching on the outside to see if it's changed because you've changed your definition. Simply know and behave as if it has changed and then live in the now and have fun and see everything as opportunity is what I, what I wrote. But basically this is the step-by-step process of how to change your beliefs, how to change your stories. This is how I still manifest today. I become aware of what are the stories I'm telling myself that are keeping me locked in my sense of familiarity. And some of those now are that making YouTube videos is the same thing I've been doing for years. That's the key to me. Experiencing the reality that I, that I want. I need to— oh, is that true? Now I want to do live events, so I need to shift something there. I need to become aware of the belief that is causing me to feel stuck, the belief that is causing me to think the same thoughts every day, feel the same emotions every day, do the same things every day. And then what I do is I become aware of those and then I make a— I then realize, oh, that's why I am where I am. And then I use my imagination to say, what would be the new version of me? Making live video or live videos, live events, uh, virtual live events, that would be a new version of me. And then simply decide that that's who I am now and begin to behave as that version of me. And as I began to do that, my reality will then change on the outside, but I have to have the certainty and the knowing that that's who I choose to be. So instead of thinking better thoughts, focus on what are your stories and not just focus on your stories, but who are you? The version of you that you can imagine, that's the ideal version of you, already exists because there's an infinite number of parallel realities that exist. And when you use your imagination, you can then imagine this version of you. You can then decide this is who you are now. And as you decide that that's who you are now, you will then notice that your reality begins to change because you then get a new reflection on the outside. And it also becomes more natural for you. Think of this being natural by the time you reach your goals. It's not this— here's a cool thing on a pedestal. It is natural for you. And knowing that means that you're changing your sense of who you are. And anytime I've used this process, it works like magic. And that's why I have something that's called the, uh, the Shift Academy. The Shift Academy is step by step where I bring you through a process of you shifting your beliefs to shift your reality. That's my monthly coaching platform. If you want to check that out, click the link below and join the Shift Academy. We do this step by step with accountability, with taking action, and you literally become the ideal version of you. It's not about thinking thoughts. It's not about just the surface level things. It's deeper than that, and that's what we do in that of the Shift Academy. So you can click below to check that out. Other than that, like this video if you want me to share more from my iPad. And comment below and let me know how do you manifest now versus how you used to manifest? What did you used to do and what do you do right now? Let me know. I'd love to see as well because mine has definitely changed over the past and I'm sure yours has as well. And we got to see what stage we're at and like what works for us as well in the comment section. So other than that, hope you guys enjoyed this video and I'll talk to you on the next one. Peace, much love, and namaste.
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