Manifesting like Taylor Swift

I’m cranking up the volume on the new Taylor Swift album as I write this. I have been a huge fan for years, but I didn’t always feel this way about her. In fact, I had a lot of hate at first. Taylor and I actually did musical theater and performed together back when we were kids. We weren’t best friends or anything, but definitely friends of friends and would hang sometimes. She threw a cast party at her parent’s beach house once which I attended and she was always the one at all the cast parties rocking the country songs during karaoke. She had this dream…a dream we all thought was a little bit odd and far too big. She wanted to be a famous country singer. At 9 years old she had this dream.

When her album first came out, (I believe the first one was self-titled), I spotted it showcased at Walmart. I heard she had moved to Nashville to pursue this crazy dream of hers. Back then, I was insecure and my self-esteem was shit. My reaction was negative: “Oh god, like she is going to make it.” I thought and said this out loud numerous times.

Now, I feel so differently. I am so amazed and proud of her, but back then what I was feeling was jealousy, bitterness, and the self-pity of “why not me?” …which is the real reason why I truly didn’t “like her” or support her. When your own self esteem is so low, you tend to just hate on everyone else around you who are doing well and are succeeding at things you wish you could succeed at.

You see, when I was younger, being a singer was all that I wanted. I am still a singer, though I rarely perform anymore. I have been my whole life. But when I was younger, my life revolved around music and musical theater. My parents and sister are all musically talented in some way. My Dad has his doctorate in music and is a phenomenal pianist, my mom teaches voice lessons and is a singer herself, and my sister plays the piano and sings. We grew up engrossed in the musical theater lifestyle. Late night rehearsals, crazy tech weeks, putting on shows and then starting it all over again the next month. It’s all I knew about myself. It is all I felt I was naturally good at. Singing was the only thing I believed I could offer the world. So when I saw that album stacked up in the Walmart display, I felt like shit about myself.

It is amazing that as we grow, self-discover, and work really really hard at loving ourselves, how the petty and jealous reactions about other women’s success shifts. Within the last few years, so much has grown and changed inside of me that has completely altered that really strong reaction to her gaining such notoriety and humungous fame (still blows my mind how famous she is). I really have mad respect for everything she has done and pursued in such a short time. She is four (maybe 3?) years younger than me (I just turned 31). Damn girl.

What really, really, REALLY stands out to me about the whole thing is how she is the ULTIMATE example of manifestation. Don’t believe in it? Fine, but you’re only hurting yourself. That girl had a dream, a vision, and she never, ever wavered in that dream. She wanted to be a famous singer more than anything on this planet. Not only that, but she truly believed she was going to be, without questioning how or when. She just knew. Yes, she had phenomenal parents (with money) who were overly supportive in backing that dream when they chose to move to Nashville in order for her to do pursue that dream, but that girl FULLY believed she could. It is important that I say that because not everyone starts with a leg up (privilege, financial support and two parents who uprooted their lives ) as she did, but it doesn’t take away from her driven pursuit to be a star.

At the time I knew her, she was super sweet looking with her naturally bright blonde hair and bright blue eyes. We were all in our awkward stages at that time, but you could tell she was just naturally pretty. She was an alright singer, but honestly not insanely strong vocally. We actually had some really impressive and talented kids involved in that particular children’s theater. I share that now because I feel like her vocals have come VERY FAR since this time (how could they not: she was like 10?). But that girl KNEW what she wanted and never stopped trusting that belief. She went after her dream relentlessly, pursuing record companies at 11 years old, and never looked back. She believed in her abilities, talents, and herself. Man, women are truly unstoppable when they are that determined to get what they want.

Manifestation is all about fully believing in the dream. Fully believing you already have it and the universe just needs to catch up. I fully believe she did this (maybe not even realizing that’s what it was) and continued to pursue that goal without a doubt in her mind that she could, that she was capable. That little girl I knew (emphasis on the knew not know lol) had that dream and determination even back then. We all kind of thought she was slightly insane–I mean, who wants to be a country star when you’re from Wyomissing, PA? But that’s what she wanted. She pursued and believed and grew along the way.

I have done a complete 180 on her, because I am no longer jealous or bitter. I have now attended three of her concerts and thoroughly enjoyed them. Her songs are catchy, she’s a genius lyrically, and she puts on a good show.

My point is, whatever you feel about Taylor Swift (I totally get that feelings about her are very polarized), you can’t deny, even if you hate her songs, that she is incredibly smart, gifted, and the epitome of a #bossbabe. She built this empire, regardless of what Kanye says, and continues to do things smartly. Brilliantly in fact. She is also always extremely calculated in every move she makes. As a business woman, she should be. She looked at her desires in life and pursued those desires super early and manifested the shit out of her dreams. That, no one can deny, is pretty damn respectable and pretty fucking impressive. Not to mention, she is still humble and kind to her fans, and is really charitable with her earnings. #respect

When you believe in yourself and your passions a lot of magic can happen. It takes work, but the universe will give you what you want if you want it to. I no longer have the desire to be a famous singer, but I always go back to her when I think about pursuing my goals. She reminds me that if you really want something, if you really put the work in when the universe opens doors for you, you can have what you want and the “dream life” that you desire.

It is NOT about competition or who has what. If you are busy focused on other people getting what they want, you can’t truly focus on what you desire. I made that mistake with her years back, but now I realize what a detriment that is to my own success and well-being. I can’t possibly manifest the things that I desire if I am constantly looking outside of myself.

Manifestation works from the inside out. I am no expert, but I believe Taylor Swift is, and I don’t have anything but respect and love for her and all she has accomplished. She motivates me because she never cared what others thought of her pursuing a dream that to most of us seemed unattainable. I laugh now at how naive I was back then that I thought that those desires she had were too big and impossible. Obviously, they weren’t. Neither are my dreams, or yours! Let’s go after what we want and start believing it is possible. That’s what T-Swift did. You don’t have to love her to see that, but maybe I can make you a #swiftie yet. 😛

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