Why the Laws of Success “stop working”

Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t – here’s one reason why:

If you had a breakthrough but found that it became more and more difficult to duplicate your success, you’re not alone.

We’re here on Earth to discover the path to true, lasting, and complete joy. It’s a path to God – a personal, two-way, living relationship with our Creator. We develop it by discovering and abiding by His laws. The more we learn and live by the universal laws that govern all things, the closer we approach that fullness of joy.

It’s like the child’s game of “hot and cold.” One child hides an object and the other goes to find it. When the second child is headed in the right direction, the first child says, “warmer,” but when the child starts heading in the wrong direction, the first child says, “colder” until, by constant course-correction, the object is found.

In life, when we’re headed in the right direction, we feel warmth and enlightenment from God in our spirits. That’s how we know we’re heading in the right direction. But when we are headed in the wrong direction, the enlightenment is replaced with a void, darkness, or confusion. It says, “Colder.”

Proximity to God or truth does not matter as much as does the direction we’re facing.

In the example of the child’s game, a person who is nearly right on top of the prize but faced in the wrong direction will hear the warning “colder”, while someone clear across the room will be told “warmer” for being faced in the right direction, even when there is a much greater distance to travel.

You may be as close to God or truth as a person can be and not feel the warmth at all if you’re facing the wrong direction. On the other hand, you may be as far from God or truth as a person can be but feel the warmth of His love and assurance by merely turning in the right direction.

Goal achievement can cause a similar kind of experience:

When you begin experimenting with Rare Faith principles, sometimes the results are swift and generous to let you know you’re on the right track, even if you are far from doing it exactly right.

Sometimes when we experiment with the principles for the first time and get something we want, and it’s merciful, actually, that it works at all, because none of us do it perfectly the first time. But pretty soon what worked before sometimes stops working, to invite those little adjustments that will hone our skill:

• We learn to be more careful in our language, or we learn the proper timing of letting go.
• We discover the importance of keeping calm, or we gain better appreciation for the role of inspired action.

To illustrate, the straight line running through the center of the image below represents perfect alignment with God’s laws, which is where we all should strive to live. But since we don’t always know where it is or exactly how to get there, we learn by trial and error.

Over time as we move from left to right, as long as our thoughts and actions land inside the dotted line, we will feel and experience the rewards that come from being on the right track. But if we stop fine tuning, it’s only a matter of time before our current way of being falls outside of the zone.

We’re not just accountable to what we know; we’re also on the hook to keep improving on what we know.

So in the beginning, we may see amazing results by operating in the dark blue region. But if we continue only doing things the dark blue way, there can come a point when we fall outside of the dotted line, and what worked before will stop working. Same activity, but different results – not because the activity doesn’t “work”, but because we’re no longer in the place where that activity is enough to qualify for success. We are expected to do better.

Even though the formula for success is exact, the process is forgiving of our clumsy attempts and generous in its rewards when we are new, but as time goes on, we are expected to increase our understanding and fine tune our skill.

“To whom much is given, much is required.” (Luke 12:48)

I believe God wants us to realize that there is something better to learn, something more powerful and wonderful to discover, or something more important to do. So when doing the same things no longer yield the same results, we’re kind of left to grope around a little bit like the child in the hot/cold game, until we point ourselves in that better direction and begin to feel “warmer” again.

Sometimes we feel “warmer” as soon as we identify a goal that is more worthy of our energy and commitment. Sometimes we grope until we recognize that something is amiss in our life and it needs to be corrected. Sometimes we meander until we discover the blessing in our hardship and come to peace with it before we discover the hidden benefit it contains.

If we have not accomplished the ultimate goal of perfect oneness with God, then the game isn’t over, and we need to pay attention to those “warmer” and “colder” spiritual promptings. There’s something new we’re supposed to find: a deeper understanding, a more perfect process of partnering with unseen help to accomplish even greater purposes than maybe we have previously considered.

Sometimes we’re in the dark blue zone when we experiment with the principles for the first time to get something we want, and it’s merciful, actually, that it works at all, because none of us do it perfectly the first time.

But Rare Faith isn’t just about “getting things we want”. It is about coming closer to God, or finding and fulfilling our purpose. There are things that we each need to do. So by experimenting with Rare Faith (first with little things and then with more important things) – we develop the faith we will ultimately need to find and fulfill God’s purpose in our lives.

When we’re on the right track, the process can really dredge up all the emotions on the spectrum. It’s a process which works to refine us. Thrill, disappointment, impatience, frustration, joy — all of it is important to the process, and by learning how to pay attention to those hot and cold clues, we can live in the miracle zone more regularly and purposefully.

The laws of success are true principles that fill our souls with light and understanding, so as you feel the joy in studying them, that is one good clue that you’re on the right track.

But don’t let yourself get too discouraged when things aren’t going quite right. It’s easy to get off course and not even realize it. So when the drive for success begins to eat away at family relationships, it’s time to get back to the basics and re-establish your footing on solid ground. When spending becomes a little careless, it’s time to demonstrate greater respect for money and show gratitude for simpler things. When you’ve developed a habit of achieving goals that add to our personal comfort, it might be time to set goals for improving the condition of mankind at large.

Wherever you are, if you don’t fine-tune and continually improve your intentions along the way, what once felt warm will ultimately turn cold. This is one reason why I don’t like to talk about the “Law of Attraction” without also sharing a more comprehensive look at the principles of “Rare Faith.”

Here’s another way to look at it:

Let’s say this image represents the path to a perfect fullness of joy, or a path to God. When you walk within the influence of the light, you enjoy the warmth of His Spirit, enlightenment, and divine guidance toward true success.

Our behaviors might start by being off true center, but as long as we’re inside the light-spread emanating from the Source, we will experience its benefits. But as we move forward through life, if we are not on the center path but parallel to it, we will eventually fall outside of that power, cease to enjoy its influence.

So we must always be willing to course-correct as needed, and move closer to the true center path, seeking to increase our knowledge and improving our obedience to the laws, so that we can continue experiencing the benefits of that power. As we move forward through life, the light zone will keep narrowing, guiding us toward center, teaching us what is true. This is how we are led to all truth if we pay attention to it.

So don’t be discouraged if you’ve fallen out of the joy or success you once felt. It’s still there for you, and might not be as far away as it seems. Get back to the basics. Keep things simple. You may be in a dark zone now, but the light will reach you as quickly as you turn the right direction. A minor course correction is sometimes all it takes for you to feel that assurance again.

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Leslie Householder

Leslie Householder is the award-winning, international best selling author of The Jackrabbit Factor, Portal to Genius, and Hidden Treasures: Heaven's Astonishing Help With Your Money Matters. Since 2002, she has helped people all over the world discover and apply the Rare Kind of Faith that causes things to happen for powerful life changes. Through story and shifts of perspective, Leslie aims to help her readers crush every challenge, achieve every goal, and vanquish every monster under their beds. Above all, Leslie is a dedicated wife and mother of seven children.

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