The first step to doing anything is believing you can, or so many different types of coaches — athletic, career, life — may tell you.
But your journey to accomplishing whatever your goal is cannot end there. Especially if your goal is something concrete like having a certain amount of money saved for retirement or a down payment on a home or paying off a mountain of debt, you must take action.
“Delulu is not a solulu,” Aja Evans, a financial therapist told reporters at a Northwestern Mutual Psychology and Money luncheon on Sept. 18. When asked what kind of irrational financial advice and moves she sees too many people taking, she said that “manifesting” has too many individuals thinking they can believe their way to a better financial future.
Her colloquial response played on the internet phrase, “delulu,” which isn’t just short for delusional, but often directly refers to an individual’s self-confidence, according to Merriam-Webster’s definition.
“I’m an optimist, so I want to believe in the abundance, and I do, but I also want people to ground themselves in reality as well,” Evans added.
The problem with positive thinking alone
Manifesting is a popular strategy for getting virtually anything in life, especially on TikTok where the “manifestation” tag has nearly 9 million videos often featuring manifesting experts or everyday practitioners claiming they’ve manifested their romantic partners, dream jobs or even large sums of money. Over 307,000 videos feature the tag “manifestmoney.”
One user with nearly 2 million followers claims she earned $50,000 in a single day thanks to the power of manifesting. CNBC Make It reached out to the user for comment, but did not hear back.
The belief is especially common among younger Americans, with 48% of adults ages 18 to 29 saying they believe that manifestation, defined as “thinking positively or visualizing something can help make it happen, even without taking any other action” works, according to a YouGov poll from May 2025. That share drops slightly to 46% for Americans ages 30 to 44 who believe manifesting works.
While manifesting isn’t necessarily a bad habit, it will probably be difficult for you to actually see changes in your life without taking concrete action. Believing you will land a six-figure job or find your dream apartment in your price range is a good place to start, for example, but you will most likely have to go looking for those things and take action like applying to jobs or working with a broker to be successful.
Manifesting may seem to work in some situations because of confirmation bias, Evans says. For example, if you’re manifesting that money will come to you and then you happen to find $20 on the ground, believers may argue that the manifestation is working. But if you’re manifesting thousands of dollars to make your rent or pay off a large debt, you’re most likely going to have to take a more active approach than assuming money is going to keep falling into your lap.
That doesn’t mean you should take the opposite approach and tell yourself you’re not going to accomplish the goal.
“We believe the things that we say to ourselves,” Evans says. “If you’re telling yourself over and over and over again, ‘it’s not going to work out for me,’ you’re going to find ways to confirm that bias versus: ‘It is going to work out for me.'”
But on top of telling yourself it’s going to work out, you should be taking steps in that direction.
“Taking action along side the [abundance] mindset work is imperative. Whether that means applying while you manifest your dream job, creating a financial plan or getting support to help you navigate getting out of debt, action is needed,” Evans says. “Your manifestations may set the direction you want to go, but I need your actions to build out the path for your financial wellness.”
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