思（おも）うように is a common sentence pattern in Japanese that is used for illustrating when something either does or does not happen in the way that one had thought. This phrase may be interpreted as ‘as one hopes’, ‘as desired’, or ‘as one thought’. 思（おも）うように is simply a combination of the う-Verb 思（おも）う and the conjunctive form of the auxiliary verb ようだ, ように.
Typical sentence structures that use this pattern will start with an (A) phrase highlighting the ‘expectation’, be followed by 思（おも）うように, then finished with a (B) phrase indicating the outcome. When (B) is a simple noun, 様（よう）な will be used instead.

• 最近（さいきん）仕事（しごと）が思（おも）うように行（い）かなくてストレスが溜（た）まってきてるんだよ。
  Recently, work has not been going as well as I hoped, so I am starting to get stressed out.
• 毎日（まいにち）漢字（かんじ）を練習（れんしゅう）しているが思（おも）うように上達（じょうたつ）しない。
  I am practicing kanji every day, but I am not making as much progress as I thought.
• 事故（じこ）に遭（あ）ってから指（ゆび）が思（おも）うように動（うご）かなくなった。
  Since the accident, my fingers have become unable to move as I had thought.

As the (B) part of 思（おも）うように sentences will contain the information about whether the ‘expectation’ of (A) either was or was not met, this phrase may be used either positively or negatively to show that something did not meet, met, or even exceeded that expectation.