Paul McKenna on manifestation: How to rewire your brain for success

“Brain rot” was the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year in 2024. It rose to prominence amid concerns over endless social media scrolling and consumption of low-value content.

The rise of the phrase suggests we could all do with a reset. And what better time to do it than the beginning of a new year.

Best-selling author and behavioural scientist Paul McKenna is here to help. After writing books that aim to help people boost their confidence, stop smoking and lose weight, McKenna’s latest offering is titled Power Manifesting: The New Science of Getting What You Want.

“People think that manifesting fits in the category of crystals, tofu and sandals but actually it doesn't,” says McKenna. “Show me a successful person and I will show you a manifester.”

To make his point, he recalls his days doing corporate speaking engagements. People would tell him they loved his motivational work, but asked that he didn’t do hypnosis because it was a little "woo-woo".

McKenna would challenge these people to do a thought experiment. He asked them to relax, close their eyes and go off into the imagined future. They would look at factors including their business environment, product or service, competitors and what the market wants. They’d gather all this information and bring it back to the present moment.

“Now to me, that's no different to self-hypnosis, visualisation or manifestation. But we used to call it strategic planning because it sounded more corporate. A lot of these techniques are in use in corporations, but they're labelled as something that sounds serious because manifesting has this slightly frivolous, New Age feel about it.”

So how does this process actually work? McKenna shares a very simple exercise to get started on this journey.

How often should people look to manifest? McKenna likens it to physical activity. The more you exercise a muscle, the bigger and stronger it’s going to get. On a scientific level, it's about brain function. The more you think about something, the more you reinforce the neural networks in your brain that are associated with that.

The other link to physical activity comes in the form of mental rehearsal, a technique used in the world of sport. Athletes imagine running a race or playing a match over and over again. They do it in their mind to train their brain and body. Some players purport to feel calm in pressure situations as their rehearsal has made them feel like they’ve been in the situation before.

“You're imagining success over and over again,” says McKenna. “You're programming the subconscious to use all of your creativity, all of your motivation, all of your energy.

"Everything you do, from boiling an egg to making a million bucks, will come from your behaviours. What drives your behaviours is your state of mind and body. Motivation, apathy, love, anger, fear, confidence: they're all states of mind and body. When we find ourselves in optimum states more of the time it feels good but also you're likely to produce better results.”

Sir Richard Branson provides a tangible example of someone who used manifestation in the business world. Airline travel in the 1970s was a stale market. One TV was shared between the occupants of a cabin, requiring large, gangly headphones. A grumpy attendant would throw something that looked like chicken for you to munch on. But Sir Richard saw an opportunity.

He sat down for an 11-hour flight and thought to himself, how would I do it differently? When you arrive at the lounge, you could get a haircut or a massage. On the plane itself, a TV in every seat, with a plethora of movies and high-quality headphones. Great food and a bar for people to socialise. He wanted to make flying an enjoyable experience, not just something that people had to do to get to their destination.

“When he got off the plane, he had a list of ideas written down,” says McKenna, who spent time studying and modelling the mogul. “He phoned up Boeing and asked how much it was to get a jumbo jet. To buy one costs a fortune but he found out he could lease one without potentially bankrupting the company. From just sitting there and having this idea and exploring it, he then designed it in his mind and took action. And, of course, changed the entire airline industry.”

Another area manifestation is proven to help is in overcoming challenges and setbacks. Sir Richard has seen Virgin Cola, Virgin Cars, Virgin Publishing and Virgin Clothing all fail.

McKenna says that proves that sometimes you've "got to go where it isn't to find out where it is". Sticking with the aviation theme, he says: “When a plane flies from one place to another, because of wind direction, other air traffic, etc, it's off course quite a lot of the time. But it always knows where it's going.

“Having a direction in life – call it manifesting, call it goal setting, call it a strategy – is so important. On life’s journey, you're going to face challenges and the state of mind and body that you're in and the perspective that you bring to it will determine how you handle those challenges.”

McKenna challenges business leaders to focus on themselves outside of a business context too, but also stop to appreciate what they have. He says he too has been guilty of this: “It's great to have a goal, but if all you have is goals then you're just onto the next and you never stop to enjoy how much you have.”