It’s thrilling to discover the principles, and it’s especially exciting when you see them work intentionally for the first time.
From there, you feel empowered and encouraged to think bigger and test the principles on more significant tasks.
But when you face a setback, you might be left wondering,
“What just happened here? I thought if I just live the principles perfectly, the rest of my life would be easy!”
I have an answer for this, and I hope it doesn’t burst anyone’s bubble too much, but we were placed on this earth to grow.
All life is compelled to grow and expand. That is one of the definitions that helps us determine whether something is alive: does it grow?
In order for us to grow, we must have challenges that stretch us beyond our present limits. We must work our mental muscles and exercise our mind, body, and spirit in order to have the joy and experience the success that only comes through growth and expansion. There are few joys that exceed the feeling of facing a difficult challenge, and overcoming it.
The truth is, that if we ever found ourselves without challenges, we would become unhappy and restless.
Remember when you were a child, and your mother tried to teach you how to tie your shoe?
Did it work the first time you tried it? Probably not. And it was probably very frustrating, and likely evoked some tears.
In that moment, there had never been so great a challenge in your life. You wanted to throw in the towel, give up, and if it didn’t make you cry, it probably made you growl in frustration. However, in time, it became old hat for you and you could do it without even thinking.
Sixth Grade
Then when you were in sixth grade, your teacher probably assigned you a book report that would take several weeks and had to fill up about 4 pages. You had never done an assignment that big before, and it was overwhelming. In time, and after being required to do a number of similar assignments, it was no big deal. What took several weeks could be completed in a day, because you had experience.
Fast forward to college.
Remember those projects that ultimately determined your final grade? Remember the countless hours on the computer? Remember closing off your social life in order to meet that deadline? It was overwhelming, and the stress was unbelievable. You had never been required to work so hard on something so important! If you were like me, you shed many tears and begged your professor more than once for mercy.
Then for some of you, you started in the work force and had job pressures and bills to pay. Sometimes it was too much to bear. You thought you had it pretty tough until…
You got married and added a spouse to the picture.
Now there were work pressures, bills to pay, and a spouse to please. Who knew that being responsible to one other person could stir things up that much?
Pretty soon, you got into the routine of things, and even though things are tough, you have no idea what tough means until…
You start having children.
Are there words to describe how complicated things became when kids entered the picture??
Now wait a minute. Think back to the time when you were learning to tie your shoe. Oh, if only life were that easy now!!!
But remember, at the time, when you were six and you had to figure out how to pull the string just enough to make a loop and not enough to make a knot, it was as though the world was falling apart and it was nearly more than you could cope with.
One day, today’s challenges will look like child’s play as you learn to conquer them.
All that I do through my books and programs is to provide the tools you need to learn how to succeed in overcoming the challenges you face today. Will challenges in general go away? No.
But you’ll be prepared to handle bigger challenges, and you’ll grow in faith, hopefully learning to rely more perfectly on God in all you do.
It seems that life will only get more challenging.
WAIT!
I didn’t say life has to get worse, or even harder, but it will constantly deliver more and more ADVANCED challenges.
As we learn the laws and adopt them into our habits, we become successful at overcoming them more and more gracefully. Every challenge could easily seem overwhelming, but only relative to what we’ve conquered in the past.
Challenges are important because they help us build confidence.
Imagine a child who never gained confidence in learning something simple. What if they were required to hold office as president of a large organization? Each challenge is intended to lead us along to receive all that God would have us receive. Each is an opportunity to overcome and gain increased confidence in the partnership we are developing between ourselves and God.
You can get good at handling finances and attracting wealth. Learning to achieve prosperity is a skill that can be improved. Just as you got good at tying a shoe, this is one skill that can become a strength.
Don’t get discouraged if new challenges show up. It doesn’t mean you are failing. It means you have grown to a point where God believes you can handle something else. It is an indication of His increased faith in you.
I heard somewhere, “When you are down to nothing, God is up to something.” There is joy to be had in the struggle. As we learn to find peace in each whirlwind of trouble around us, that is success. Then, the prosperity you want begins to flow naturally.
Seek peace and prosperity comes, seek prosperity and peace flees.
Let me help you find peace, by learning the laws and principles that are dependable and sure. Click here to join me in the Mindset Mastery course – as you allow me to walk you through each lesson and corresponding challenge, your life will never be the same.
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10 Responses
So when there is no evidence that it’s on its way. The goal in mind, then you just keep believing that some day it will come?
Well, it wouldn’t be wise to give a pat answer to a vague question. But I do encourage you to read about the seven laws in Hidden Treasures, and then conduct your own experiment with them.
Hi Leslie.
Thank you. What you said makes perfect sense. I appreciate the info and the reminder. I did four years of training with a mind-body holistic energy training center, and one thing they said when the founder was facing a big obstacle, “When you set a big vision, you will have big obstacles.” And in my own training, my instructor pointed out when I was going through a rough time that I was being “tested” by the Universe. Your words were a reminder, but actually, I really appreciate how you communicate the principles and your clarification of their interconnectedness. I left the training that I was doing about a year and a half ago, not because I disagreed with what they were teaching me, but more because I eventually felt out of alignment with their style of instruction. In my heart, I knew “out there” I would find others whom I could continue my learning from, who may communicate it more clearly.
I bought Portal to Genius a year ago, and loved it…and I’m sure that I’ll get more from it upon a second (and third..) reading, especially with your above suggestions of what to look for. Also, my 15 year old daughter really liked the book as well.
Thank you much. I appreciate your clarity.
Annie
Leslie,
Thank you so much for this boost. It couldn’t have come at a more perfect time (I’m sure you’ve never heard that one before 😉 ). I just spoke with my Mom who is going through some emotional struggles. She feels like she does really well for a while but then last night something upset her so she feels like she is failing for getting down after being up for a while (Law of Rhythm). I referred her to this article having read it and it was just what I needed to give to her. God works in wonderful ways. Thanks for being in tune with what we needed. I’m grateful to have been in tune to direct her here and thank you for helping me on my journey.
Many thanks! Kelly
Oh! And I might also add that this is the very reason I wrote Portal to Genius – the sequel to Jackrabbit Factor. You get to see how this plays out in the story of Richard and Felicity, and follow how they think to achieve the success implied in the epilogue.
It also follows two new characters – one who needs a medical miracle for his son, and another who needs to come up with $4.5 million dollars by Wednesday. Every one of them have to grapple with this question…
You can either get a copy at PortaltoGenius.com and read it in book form, or listen to the audio free if you’re a member of the Insider’s Club.
Leslie, thank you for that info. I hope you can help clarify a conceptual conflict I’ve had regarding the law of attraction and the challenges we face in our lives. I totally understand and accept that challenges allow us to grow and expand, and that we desire to grow and expand. But what I get confused about is if one is practicing the Law of Attraction well and is the master of his/her mind, then why would they attract the “challenges”? I’m aware of the concept that we are the creators of our lives. According to the law of attraction, we create the challenges (e.g. debt, dysfunctional relationships, illness, etc) by “wrong” thinking (or paradigms that are affecting our actions). According to LOA, if a challenge shows up in one’s life, s/he must have been in a bad vibration. So are we solely (through my understanding of LOA) or not soley responsible for the challenges in our lives? Do we create them through wrongful thinking; or does God bestow them upon us to grow? In other words, does God decide when I’m ready to grow or do I bring the challenges upon myself through wrongful thinking or not using LOA in my favor? I’d appreciate your thoughts on this! Thank you much! Annie
Hi Annie,
Great question. This was something I wondered for a long time myself until Bob Proctor taught me that the law of attraction really works like this: You set a goal, and often what shows up is something opposite of what you “asked” for. Most people react to that with, “Well, I guess it didn’t work” or “Maybe I did something wrong” or “I knew that LOA stuff was a bunch of hooey…”
But the “negative” thing that showed up was actually part of the formula for achieving the thing you wanted. It showed up – an opportunity in disguise – in direct response to your intention, to test you and see how you’ll handle it. Pass the test, and the thing you want is often just on the other side of it.
Can you see how interpreting every bad thing as evidence that you’re failing can really trap you? Yes, negative things can show up in response to negative thinking… but what really matters is what you do with the negative – no matter the reason it showed up. Too many people get so focused on trying to find the reason behind their challenges that they forget to create something amazing in spite of it.
In a sense, we may invite a challenge when we decide we’re ready to move out of our present circumstances and into something better. Challenges will come – but the victory will be worth the struggle. When you’re really focused on the dream, you can almost become immune to the pain of the struggle. You might not avoid a struggle, but you can choose to think in such a way that you rise above it, and avoid being adversely affected by it.
Price Pritchett said it something like this: “In the middle of a life-changing surgery, it would appear that there’s been a murder in the room.”
Here are two more articles that may help:
Friction or Traction
Adversity Before Prosperity
This is such an important thing for people to realize. Life is about problem solving, learning new skills and ultimately embracing the events of the day for what they are. We can use the laws to our advantage, but we can not control a world of agency and difficult circumstances we might face due to our own limitations, lack of skills etc. All of it is for our ultimate good. Through it all there are gifts of compensation. There are blessings, there can be joy if we look for it.
Great article.
I just love this, as usual it’s exactly what I needed to hear. I just came through one of those fear and despondency fogs and I wanted to know how I got into it in the first place. I was focussing on the prosperity instead of the peace. When I sought the peace it came, and I’m sure prosperity isn’t too far behind, but for now, the peace is enough, and I have enough.
Wow – I just have to say thank you – I was travelling to school to drop my children off the other day and asked the Universe to show me a sign on how I should go about selling our product (bearing in mind I have never sold in my life) and your article popped into my email today – and I have this inner knowledge that this was what I needed to read – so thank you very much. Vikki