What Does “Inform Before You Act” Actually Mean for Manifestors?
A practical and grounded guide for Manifestors, partners, parents, and anyone who wants to understand the strategy that changes everything.
If you're a Manifestor, you’ve probably heard the classic Human Design line: “Your strategy is to inform before you act.” And if you’re like most Manifestors I work with, you may have had one of these reactions:
“That sounds like asking for permission… and I’m not here for that.”
“I don’t want to explain myself every time I move.”
“People already react to me so much—informing just feels like more work.”
“I don’t even know what I’m doing until I’m already doing it… how am I supposed to inform first?”
I hear you. Most explanations of Manifestor strategy are either too vague or too mechanical, and they completely miss the lived experience of being a Manifestor.
So let’s talk about what informing actually is. Why it matters. How it protects your energy. How it supports your relationships. And how you can use it in a way that feels empowering, not performative.
This is the guide I wish every Manifestor had the moment they discovered their design.
Why Informing Matters (and Why It’s Not About Asking Permission)
One of the biggest misunderstandings about informing is the assumption that it’s about making other people comfortable or getting approval. It isn’t.
Informing is about reducing resistance in your environment so your energy can move cleanly.
Manifestors move from the inside out. You feel an urge—clear, sudden, embodied—and your energy starts shifting before you even say a word. Every Manifestor knows this feeling: the inner momentum that’s rising whether you’ve planned for it or not.
The people around you feel that shift, too. But here’s the difference: you know what’s happening inside you, and they don’t.
And humans are wired to react when they sense a change they can’t interpret. This is the source of most Manifestor conflict:
a partner feeling shut out
friends thinking you’ve disappeared
coworkers feeling blindsided
kids sensing distance and not knowing why
people projecting motives or emotions onto you
Informing closes that gap. It offers context that keeps everyone’s nervous system settled—including yours.
So What Does Informing Actually Sound Like?
It’s a sentence. Sometimes two.
It’s not emotional labor. It’s not explaining yourself. It’s not a TED talk. And it’s definitely not permission-seeking. It’s simply naming the movement that’s already happening inside you. Something like:
“I’m about to dive into something for a bit.”
“I’m heading into quiet mode—nothing’s wrong.”
“I feel an urge coming on, so I’m going to follow it.”
“My energy for this is wrapping up and I’ll need to hand it off.”
Informing is directing the field, not just communicating information.
Informing Is a Nervous System Tool
This part rarely gets talked about.
Manifestors have an initiating aura—focused, contained, powerful. People feel your energy shift before they understand what it means When you inform, you give their body something real to respond to, instead of leaving their system to make assumptions.
For partners, this feels like relief:
“Okay, I’m not losing connection. I understand what’s happening.”
For friends, it feels like clarity:
“They’re quiet because they’re in a rest phase—not because of me.”
For coworkers, it feels like direction:
“This change wasn’t random—there’s movement happening.”
For children, it feels like safety:
“My parent’s energy changed, but I’m still okay.”
When you inform, you’re regulating the relational space around you. And when the relational space is regulated, you get to move without resistance, guilt, or conflict. This is the real purpose of informing—not politeness, but coherence.
Informing Helps You Avoid Burnout (Here’s How)
Most Manifestor burnout comes from one place: trying to sustain something long after your energy for it is gone.
You get the urge. You initiate beautifully. And then you push yourself to maintain it, because you think you should.
Informing helps you name your cycles before you hit the wall:
“The beginning phase is done.”
“My energy is dropping.”
“I’m going to step out for a bit.”
“I’ll need support with the middle part.”
This lets the people around you step in. Which means you’re no longer carrying the entire timeline of a project, relationship, or responsibility alone. Informing creates a world where you don’t have to be the builder—you get to be the initiator you were designed to be.
What If Informing Still Feels Unnatural?
For most Manifestors, informing wasn’t modeled in childhood. Many were taught to:
hide their impulses
tone down their intensity
stay consistent
not “rock the boat”
be predictable
So informing feels foreign because your body has learned that speaking your truth often leads to misunderstanding or conflict. Here’s the reframe: informing isn’t vulnerability. It’s orientation.
It doesn’t cost you power—it protects it. It doesn’t slow you down—it clears your path. It doesn’t weaken your autonomy—it strengthens your relationships so your autonomy doesn’t hurt the people you love.
And it becomes more natural with practice. Not because you force it, but because you start to feel the relief that informing brings.
A Quick Note on Ra and Strategy
Many people don’t know this, but in the original revelation Ra received, Manifestor strategy wasn’t as explicitly defined as the others. It evolved through observation—of Manifestors, of their relational patterns, and of Ra’s own lived experience.
This doesn’t make manifestor strategy “less valid.” If anything, it means something empowering: informing is not rigid. Manifestors have the most flexible, customizable strategy in the system.
You get to find the version that works for your life, your relationships, your style, your rhythm. There is no one right way to inform. There is only the way that feels honest.
So… What Does “Inform Before You Act” Actually Mean?
It means: Your energy moves first. Your voice helps the world understand what that movement means.
Nothing more complicated than that. Informing creates:
less resistance
more support
clearer relationships
smoother creative cycles
a life where your urges don’t cost you connection
And you don’t have to perfect informing. You just have to try it with honesty, simplicity, and your own rhythm.
Want to Go Deeper?
In my podcast Designed for More, I recorded a full episode that goes deeper into:
what urges actually feel like
why Manifestors burn out
how to rest without guilt
how to hand things off
how informing works energetically and relationally
what it’s like to love or raise a Manifestor
You can listen to the full episode here:
👉 Manifestor Strategy: Informing + the Urge + Creating Your Own Rhythm
If you’re a Manifestor—or love one—I hope it brings you relief, clarity, and a sense of being deeply recognized.
xx Julie
