How to Make Wishes Come True (For Real)

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Can wishes come true? Find out with this expert-approved guide

Co-authored by Erin Conlon, PCC, JD and Eric McClure

Last Updated: September 16, 2024 Fact Checked

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Manifesting Your Wish

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Taking Action to Achieve Your Wish

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Crafting a Powerful Wish

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Expert Advice on Making Wishes Come True

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If you want to make a wish come true overnight, it helps to have a clear goal, a positive mindset, and a little luck. Do not make a wish and automatically assume that the universe is going to give you exactly what you want—you need to picture it happening and use the power of optimism. To help show you how, we talked to Jennifer McVey, a professional spiritualist and seer who specializes in wish fulfillment.

How to Make Your Wish Come True

Write out a specific, realistic wish with good intentions.
Use vision boards, meditation, or mantras to visualize your wish.
Make a to-do list of actions that will help you achieve your wish.
Complete your to-do list over the next 2-3 days.
Avoid using any spells or charms to manifest your wish.

Section 1 of 4:

Manifesting Your Wish

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1
Visualize your wish coming true. Do not let your anxiety or fear get the best of you. Picture everything that you want coming true. Literally picture the best-case scenario playing out in your head. Continue to picture your wish coming true while you’re getting ready for bed, making a vision board, or talking on your phone. Keep thinking positive thoughts to ensure that you’re projecting a positive outcome!^{[1]
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- If you’re having trouble staying positive, try to identify the source of your negative thoughts and challenge them in your head.
- For example, if you’re scared that you won’t get what you want for Christmas, try to figure out what you’re actually scared of. If you’re scared that your family or Santa will forget about you, fight back by reminding yourself of all of the reasons that you’re worth remembering!
Meditate to calm yourself and come to terms with your wish. To meditate, sit up straight in a chair or sit on the ground in the lotus position. Turn the lights down and shut out any distractions. Close your eyes and focus on smoothing your breathing out by counting your individual breaths. Once you’re relaxed, start thinking about your wish. Let your mind wander and explore different avenues and lines of thinking.^{[2]
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Tip: Meditating is a good way to think through the ramifications and different elements of your wish. For example, by thinking through a wish about your best friend, you may think about how hopeful you are that the 2 of you stay close as you get older.

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Write your wish over and over to compose a mantra. A mantra is a phrase or slogan that is repeated over and over again. The goal is to help concentrate on your phrase to visualize it and help it come true. Sit down with a blank piece of paper. Starting at the top left of the page, write your entire wish out. On the next line, write your wish again by copying the same exact words. Do this until you’ve covered the entire page.^{[3]
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- Let your mind wander a little while you’re doing this. Think about the individual words that you’re writing and consider how your body feels as you write.
4
Recognize the limitations of wishing without getting discouraged. You may find yourself running up against certain realizations concerning problems with your wish. If at any point you realize that there is a problem with your wish, go ahead and revise it. It's also important to remember that wishing is not a scientific way of achieving a goal. It is simply a tool to help access the best parts of your desires and fuel them with positive energy.^{[4]
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- Wishing is not a science. There is no foolproof way to make your wish come true.
- The most common limitations involve requiring other people to behave in a particular way. For example, you might wish, “I want my father to buy me a new video game tomorrow.” This wish requires your father to do something outside of your control. Try changing it to, “I want to get a new video game tomorrow.”
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Avoid using charms, spells, or other tricks to make your wish come true. Charms, spells, tricks, and magic are not going to make something happen. It’s fine if you want to use them as a visualization tool or as a channel for meditation, but there is no way that they will directly help your wish come to fruition.
- You may just find yourself disappointed if you put a lot of faith into a charm or spell that doesn't end up coming true.

Section 2 of 4:

Taking Action to Achieve Your Wish

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1
Figure out what you can reasonably accomplish in one night. If there is any element of your wish that can be acted upon before the next day, do it. For example, if you wish to do well on a big test, study the night before and review your notes! If your wish revolves around falling in love, call up the boy or girl that you have a crush on and ask them out on a date!^{[5]
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- You can’t sit back and hope that all of your wildest dreams come true without working towards achieving them.
Tip: You are not interfering with your wish by acting upon it. In fact, you’re helping it come true!
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Discuss your goals with a friend or family member to see how they can help. If your wish can be achieved with the help of others, see if your close friends or family members would be willing to help. Tell them what your wish is and explain what you want to achieve over the course of a night. Even if they don’t offer to help you directly, they may have a piece of advice that will help you get closer to your goal.^{[6]
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- Say, “I am hoping to make something come true tonight, do you have a minute to talk about it?”
3
Compose a to-do list to determine what you need to do to make your wish come true. Before you go to sleep, sit down with a blank piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Write down every actionable step that you can take in the next couple of days to make your wish come true. Keep the to-do list in a visible place in your room, and work from top to bottom. Cross off each item as you complete it.^{[7]
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- For example, if your wish is to graduate from a good college, include items like, “Identify good schools that I can afford,” “Figure out the application process,” and, “Visit potential schools over the summer.”
- Put the easiest items at the top of your list to give you a couple of easy wins. Starting with the easiest tasks will make it easier to get the ball rolling and gain momentum.
Take the original piece of paper that you wrote your wish on and fold it under your pillow. Go to sleep that night thinking about your wish coming true. You will sleep better that night knowing that your wish is secure under your pillow, and keeping it close to your head will help focus your mind as you sleep!^{[8]
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Section 3 of 4:

Crafting a Powerful Wish

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1
Be as precise as possible when defining your wish. Once you have a general idea of what you want to happen, see if you can narrow it down a little bit. For example, if you’re wishing for a boyfriend, try adding more details. Do you want your boyfriend to go to a certain school? Have certain hair? How will the two of you meet? These kinds of questions can help you narrow your wish down.^{[9]
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- McVey highly recommends focusing in on one concrete wish. If you wish for something broad, it will be hard to determine whether it comes true or not. For example, if you wish for good health, does catching a runny nose mean that your wish didn’t come true? The more specific you are, the easier it will be to figure out if it came true or not.
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Ask yourself why you want this wish to come true and reframe it. What goes around, comes around. If you’re making a wish for greedy or self-absorbed reasons, you may want to reframe your wish in more positive terms. Once you understand the general gist of your wish, ask yourself, “Why do I want this to come true?” and, “Will the world be better or worse if my wish comes true?” The answers to these questions will determine whether you should make a wish or not.^{[10]
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- For example, if you want to wish for a report card with good grades, don’t think, “I want good grades so that my friends think I’m smart.” Instead, think, “I want good grades because it will mean that I’m growing as a person.”
- Never wish harm or pain upon someone.
Tip: Do not wish for more than 1 wish to come true. If you divide your attention, you’ll run the risk that neither wish will come true.
3
Write your wish down, think about it, and post it in your room. Jot your wish down on a blank sheet of paper. Look at it for 1-2 minutes and repeat what you wrote out loud. Think about the specific language and try to think about how you can make it more specific or accurate. Reconsider whether your intentions are good or not. Once you’ve settled on a single wish, either rewrite it or keep your first draft on the paper and hang it somewhere in your room so that you can look at it.^{[11]
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- Being able to visually refer back to the specific wording of your wish is essential to staying focused on it. Posting it where other people can see it will hold you accountable to your goal if the wish happens not to come true overnight.
4
Create a vision board to help conceptualize your wish. Get a large piece of foam or poster board. Get a few magazines or print out a few images from the internet that relate to your wish. Cut them out and glue or tape them together on your poster to create a vision board. Arrange the vision board in any way that you want! Layer images and add illustrations in a way that feels right to you to truly make it your own.^{[12]
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- Vision boards help the creator to stay focused on their goal and visualize what success would look like. It can also serve as a therapeutic activity or a fun creative exercise.
- For example, if your wish is “I want my first day of school to be productive and I want the other students to like me,” consider cutting out photos of friends getting along, teachers smiling at students, or close friends hugging.
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Be realistic about the limitations of wishing. It’s important to recognize that wishing alone will not make anything happen. However, that doesn’t mean that wishing isn’t a helpful or productive activity. Composing and focusing on a wish can help you come to terms with what you want, why you want it, and how to achieve it. You’re going to have a much better experience if you recognize that making a wish is more of a visualization technique than some kind of magic.^{[13]
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- Considering what you can accomplish over the course of a night and act on it. Do everything within your power to make your goals come to fruition.

Section 4 of 4:

Expert Advice on Making Wishes Come True

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McVey says “the first thing that you should always do is get in the habit of listening to yourself. You have to learn how to ask yourself, ‘What do I need?’ If you never ask you, then you will never get the answer you need. It sounds kind of funny, but all information must come through your higher self.”
McVey explains that even without any ritual or meditation, you are already sowing the seeds to create the world you want. She says, “We are all manifesting things all the time. Everything that you have in your life has already been manifested. The key to bringing things you want into reality is to believe in your own vibrations and consciousness. Everyone is a powerful creator. So, if you're a beginner and you have no idea what to do, trust your own power and focus on your goal.”
McVey points out that “there are all different types of techniques you can use. For me, one of the best things that I can do with wishing is to write my wish down. I date it and write it down. If you're not quite sure about how you want to write your wish or if you're not a big writer or journal person, do something different!”

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Try not to get frustrated if your wish doesn't come true right away. Keep visualizing that you already have it to help manifest it into existence.

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