#19 Desire Is Directional Intelligence: A Signal From Your Future Self

Desire: The Signal That Pulls You Forward

A Modern Manifestation Podcast Episode

Today I want to talk about desire. 

I feel this episode resonates well with my chosen word of the year, which is unstoppable, because you can’t be unstoppable without some desire, vision and direction. 

We all go through seasons in our lives, and as we go through life our desires can change 

When I say to you: what do you desire? 

• How does that question feel to you?
• Do you feel excited to share with me your answer? 
• Do you clearly know what you desire? I honestly hope so? 
•  

And if you do then that means you have positive thoughts and programming around the concept of desire.  

If this is you, hang in there as we will further your positive relationship with desire in a little bit. 

But for some it may be the opposite. Desire may come with some automatic negative thoughts. Generally, these stem from childhood and part of your paradigm. So let’s talk about this group first before we redefine the power that is desire when it comes to manifestation.

For this later group when I say to you desire, 

Do you feel dread in trying to answer that because you feel like you are lost in life?

• Do you feel some guilt because you truly desire something that is completely different than what’s in your life right now?
  
  
• Or guit, or shame,  for wanting something more in life, or something better than you already have. In the I shouldn’t want more or ask for more or be happy with what I have sort of situation.

Let me tell you my friend, that I’ve felt all of those scenarios before. 

I’ve let the guilt hold me back from admitting to myself or to the world what I truly wanted. 

I’ve believed the “shoulds” that my brain told me. You should be happy with what you have. 

I’ve bought into sunk cost bias… you are too far in X to take another path. 

I’ve succumbed to the thought that it won’t work for me because stuff hasn’t in the past. 

I’ve alluded to this before in my podcast. Without desire, without direction, without new thoughts and actions we stay stuck in the loop that we are currently in. We make more of the same results, perpetuate the same problems, stay at the same income level. We stay the same person and just get more of the same results. I suppose what is changing is our body is aging and if we are choosing to remain in the same place, we are going to get surpassed, and left behind. We stagnate instead of grow. 

When your brain offers you these restrictive thoughts, I want you to know a few things. 

1. These thoughts are just a patterned way of thinking programmed in your subconscious mind. 
2. All of these things are your ego, your primitive brain trying to keep you safe, trying to keep you playing small, trying to conserve energy. |

Doing something new, pursuing a big goal requires growth which is uncomfortable, perhaps risky. 

I’m someone who loves to learn, loves personal development. In that regard why would I not have many desires to try new things, learn new subjects and reinvent myself?

Let’s look at desire in a completely different way.  

The study of psychology has shown that having a purpose and a desire is one of the things that pull humans forward in life. 

Dr. Benjamin Hardy teaches that humans are not driven by their past, but rather are "pulled forward by the future" they are most committed to.

So if you are/were someone like me that felt to desire was not a good thing it’s time we looked at this differently and redefined it in a more powerful way. It’s time to pack up those self limiting thoughts. And give our selves permission to desire, dream and do. 

Desire isn’t random.
It isn’t indulgent or something that you should feel shame around wanting more.

Desire is directional intelligence.

It’s the whisper from your future self saying, come this way.
It’s consciousness nudging you to expand beyond the familiar, beyond the identity you’ve already mastered.

Let’s talk about why desire exists, what neuroscience reveals about it, how it fuels manifestation—and how to hold it with power instead of pressure.

Desire Is an Evolutionary Signal (Not a Character Flaw)

From a neurological perspective, desire is rooted in the brain’s dopaminergic system—the same system responsible for motivation, learning, and forward movement.

Dopamine isn’t the chemical of pleasure.
It’s the chemical of pursuit.

Your brain releases dopamine not when you arrive—but when you anticipate, when you imagine, when you orient toward something meaningful in the future.

Which means this:

Desire is the brain saying, there is more capacity available to you.

When you feel pulled toward a different life, a bigger vision, deeper freedom, more wealth, more expression—your nervous system is responding to a future-oriented identity.

You’re not broken for wanting more.
You’re biologically wired to evolve.

Shaming desire shuts down motivation.
Honoring desire activates growth.

✨

Desire as a Call From Your Future Self

Here’s where science meets something even more profound.

In manifestation work, desire isn’t about lack—it’s about resonance.

You don’t desire what you can’t become.

You desire what already exists as a potential you’re capable of embodying.

All possibilities exist in the quantum as fields of energy. There is a version of you—right now—who already lives the reality you want. That version carries a different identity, different habits, different emotional set points.

And desire is the bridge.

It’s not saying, you don’t have this.
It’s saying, you’re ready to become this.

That pull you feel?
That ache for something more aligned?
That restlessness that won’t let you stay small?

That’s not dissatisfaction.
That’s evolution knocking.
It’s a calling coming from the soul level calling you to expand and elevate and align

Why Desire Feels Uncomfortable (And Why That’s Normal)

Desire stretches you beyond the familiar.

And your nervous system prefers the familiar—even when it’s unsatisfying.

So when desire shows up, it often comes with friction:

• Doubt
  
• Fear
  
• Impatience
  
• A sense of urgency
  
  

This is where people confuse desire with desperation.

But they are not the same thing.

Desire says:
“I’m moving toward something meaningful.”

Desperation says:
“I need this to fix me.” or I can not live without this, I must have this. 

Manifestation collapses when desire turns into need, because need communicates lack and urgency, which keeps the nervous system in survival mode.

And a dysregulated nervous system cannot sustain expansion.

To manifest big things, to shift time lines, to make a quantum leap in your life you need to have a strong desire. 

I’ve wasted time before having a desire for something different, a desire for change. 

But you have to have enough desire that your desire outweighs the discomfort of the growth phase you will have to go through, 

The discomfort of your current situation and getting out of that. You see the vision of your future and you connect with it knowing that it’s worth it. 

That’s where desire becomes magical. 

How much desire do you have for your big extraordinary goal? If you don’t have enough, then that’s one of the reasons people quit. 

Loose Attachment: The Sweet Spot of Manifestation

The magic happens when desire is held with loose attachment.

This doesn’t mean you stop wanting it.
It means you stop gripping it like your worth depends on it.

Loose attachment sounds like:

• “I want this—and I trust myself without it.”
  
• “I’m becoming the version of me who has this.”
  
• “I don’t need to force the timeline.”
  
  

From a neuroscience perspective, this state keeps you in regulated anticipation instead of anxious urgency.

You stay open.
You stay responsive.
You stay available for inspired action.

And that’s where manifestation accelerates.

Desire Pulls You—Action Aligns You

Just having desire isn’t enough. 

Remember that we don’t get or manifest what we wish for or what we want, but rather we manifest from who we are being, our identity. 

Desire is not passive. 

Doesn’t replace action—it directs it.

Desire clarifies:

• What identity needs to shift
  
• What habits need to evolve
  
• What boundaries need to be reinforced
  
• What version of you needs to step forward
  
  

When you stop shaming desire and start listening to it, it becomes a compass instead of a craving.

It moves you from autopilot to intention.
From reaction to creation.
From ordinary repetition to extraordinary expansion.

The Reframe That Changes Everything

Here’s the reframe I want you to carry with you:

Desire is not proof that something is missing.
Desire is proof that something is possible.

You wouldn’t feel the pull if you didn’t have the capacity to answer it.

So let desire be clean.
Let it be curious.
Let it be powerful—but unattached.

Because when desire is honored without desperation, it becomes the most elegant force of manifestation there is.

And that pull you feel right now?

That’s not random.

That’s your future self calling you forward.

 If you need help getting some clarity about what you want in your life, . Make sure you head over to the Make it Happen project.com and grab your copy of the 50 journal prompts for manifestation that's going to help you with that clarity.

Without clarity, we don't really know what we wanna manifest. I hope this helped you, and I will talk to you next time.