"There can be no outer change
until there is first an imaginal change."
-- Neville Goddard, 1960 recording, The Secret of Imagining.

Dare to Believe! It Changes Everything

Beliefs are not just thoughts we think; they are the lens through which we view reality and the engine that propels what comes next. They’ve been forming since childhood, inherited from parents, schools, culture, and they continue to evolve moment by moment as we decide what is possible, what is likely, and what is “just the way things are.”

We believe it’s going to rain. We believe we’re going to be late. We believe someone dislikes us or that we’ll catch a cold. These beliefs might seem trivial, but their cumulative power is anything but. They not only shape our present — they script our future. Refusing to believe something is possible is often the very act that ensures it won’t be. And the reverse is also true.

Our beliefs, often invisible and unquestioned, shape what we notice, what we expect, and ultimately, what we create. And yet most of us still cling to the idea that we’ll “believe it when we see it.” The truth is far more radical: we’ll only see it when we believe it.

Belief vs. Doubt: Two Roads, Two Realities

There’s an old saying: “I’ll believe it when I see it.” But as Wayne Dyer famously reminded us, “You’ll see it when you believe it.” Those two statements represent opposite ways of living. One keeps us tethered to what already exists; the other invites us to create what could be. The choice between the two affects our entire experience of life, and determines what doors remain open or closed.

A conversation with a friend brought this home to me. He was unhappy with his current living situation and listed several reasons why he couldn’t change it: “Everything’s too expensive.” “Landlords have too many ridiculous rules.” Each belief was a brick in the wall he’d built around himself. And while his complaints reflected real conditions, they also ensured he would continue to encounter those same conditions — because he had already decided that better options didn’t exist.

Why is it, then, that some people seem to find what they need — housing, jobs, parking spots — with remarkable ease? Are they luckier than the rest of us? Or are they simply operating from a different internal script?

The Boston Apartment: A Lesson in Expectation

Years ago, I was living in Florida and planning a project that would require me to spend three months in Boston. A friend who was heading there agreed to put up flyers for me in health food stores and metaphysical bookstores. As I handed her the flyers, she warned me: “It’s almost impossible to find short-term housing in Boston.” I replied that I only needed one — the one that was waiting for me.

I had no doubt I’d find a place. And sure enough, a few days later I received a call. An employee in a metaphysical store had seen my flyer and noticed another posted right next to it — from a woman looking to sublet her apartment for three months. She called me to pass along the number.

The apartment was exactly what I needed: space to work, walking distance to the subway and health food store, and right in the heart of Cambridge. I rented it sight unseen, and when I arrived, it was even better than I’d hoped.

When my project ran long, I needed another lodging for two months. I called the same woman from the bookstore. After a rather long pause, she exclaimed, “This is amazing. Just yesterday, one of my housemates told me she was going to California for two months and asked if I could find someone to sublet her room.”

My expectation and trust had again been met with a perfect solution. Not only did I get a place to stay for the next two months, but the roommate also offered me the use of her car, at no extra cost, which turned out to be perfect since the new place wasn’t near a subway stop.

Was this luck? Coincidence? I don’t think so. It was expectation. It wasn’t about wishful thinking; it was about knowing, without proof, that what I needed existed and that it would find its way to me. And it did.

The Universe Always Says Yes

Years ago, I read that the Universe (or God, or Source, or whatever name you prefer) always says “Yes.” If you say, “Things never work out for me,” the Universe says yes. If you say, “I’m always late,” it says yes to that, too. Whatever belief and expectation we broadcast, life echoes back.

This is why affirmations alone often fail. You might repeat “I am prosperous” until you’re blue in the face, but if a quiet inner voice is whispering “No, you’re not,” that whisper wins. The subconscious belief outweighs the conscious statement.

I learned this lesson the hard way while hiking once. To cross a small river, I had to walk across a fallen tree. The person with me crossed first, then turned to ask if I could do it. “Of course I can!” I boasted. But deep inside, another voice piped up: “I don’t think I can.”

You can guess what happened next. I slipped off the log and barely caught myself, clinging to it, until I crawled the rest of the way to the other side. That tiny doubt overpowered my confident words. And that’s how belief works — it’s not what we say out loud, it’s what we accept as true inside.

This is why cultivating belief is not about forcing affirmations but about aligning inner conviction with outward intention. When the two match, the world bends to meet them.

We must focus our awareness and consciousness on the desired result and imagine it happening, with us in the midst of it. And keep working on imagining it, feeling it, living it in imagination, until it clicks into the realm of the believable.

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

One of my favorite "belief games” involves traffic lights. When I’m driving toward a green light in the distance, I consciously focus on “green, green, green” instead of thinking, “I hope it doesn’t turn red.” Time and again, I sail through on green, even when it seems that the light "should have" turned to orange and then red in the length of time. As I pass, I offer a quick word of thanks and go on my way.

It may sound fanciful, but that’s the point: the willingness to believe is the key. Focusing on what I desire rather than what I fear, changes the outcome. And it works the same way far beyond traffic lights.

Try this the next time you’re heading somewhere: instead of thinking, “The parking lot’s always packed” or “I bet I’ll have to park far from the door,” imagine a spot opening right where you want it. Believe it’s possible, even if it feels like a lie. Often, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Life responds not to our skepticism but to our readiness to believe.

And if it works with parking spaces, why not use the same concept with bigger things? Why not with health, love, opportunity, or the healing of our world? The principle is the same — only the scale changes.

Our Inner Chatter Matters

Belief isn’t a one-time thing; it’s a practice. It begins with awareness. with paying attention to the inner chatter that runs through our minds all day. Are we expecting good things or rehearsing disappointment? Are we imagining doors opening or bracing for rejection? Those inner narratives are powerful because they become self-fulfilling.

We see it most clearly in small things: red lights, green lights, parking spaces. But the same dynamic operates in the larger arenas of our lives. If we expect failure, we unconsciously act in ways that bring it about. If we expect possibility, we notice chances we might otherwise miss. Our thoughts and expectations are not idle; they are creative forces.

And they don’t stop with our personal lives. This same power shapes the collective reality we share. Every time we uncritically repeat the narratives fed to us by the media — that division is inevitable, that greed is natural, that humanity is doomed — we give those beliefs power. When we let our imagination be ruled by fear, we are not serving our highest good or that of the planet.

The opposite is also true. When enough people dare to imagine a more compassionate, regenerative, equitable world, the very fabric of possibility shifts. The seeds of outer change are planted first in the soil of imagination.

Holding Fast to the Ideal

Neville Goddard understood this deeply. He wrote:

“Imagining creates events. Our world, created out of men’s imagining, comprises unnumbered warring beliefs. Therefore there could never be a perfectly stable or static state. Today’s events are bound to disturb yesterday’s established order. Imaginative men and women invariably unsettle a preexisting peace of mind.

Hold fast to your ideal in your imagination. Nothing can take it from you but your failure to persist in imagining the ideal realized. Imagine only such states that are of value or promise well. To attempt to change circumstances before we change our imaginal activity is to struggle against the very nature of things. There can be no outer change until there is first an imaginal change.”

It is easy to dismiss imagination as wishful thinking, but it is nothing less than the womb of reality. Everything we now take for granted — democracy, airplanes, the internet — existed first as someone’s belief in it being possible. The same is true for your life. And the same is true for humanity’s future.

So dare to believe. Dare to imagine boldly. Dare to speak and think as if the future you long for is already forming — because it is. The Universe is always listening. And it always says yes.

Marie T. Russell is the founder of InnerSelf Magazine (founded 1985). She also produced and hosted a weekly South Florida radio broadcast, Inner Power, from 1992-1995 which focused on themes such as self-esteem, personal empowerment, and inner well-being. Her articles focus on transformation and reconnecting with our own inner source of love. joy, and creativity.