The journey of the alchemist is a spiritual journey. You might think such an effort would distance you from day-to-day affairs—you might go searching for a cave, become more otherworldly, or drift off into la-la land and become less able to navigate the practical world of mundane existence.
The opposite is true. As your spirituality increases, you become a more efficient worker in the material dimension. You are able to accomplish greater things with much less effort. Synchronicity becomes your frequent companion. Just the right things seem to come your way when they are most needed. The environment ceases to resist you. Instead, it becomes a vehicle for the realization of your intentions.
What is the reason for this? The answer is quite simple. You are by nature a co-creator. As a co-creator you are using your being more than your doing to manifest your intentions. Focused thoughts—empowered by your emotions and directed by your intentions—achieve most of the results. Your thoughts are becoming magnetic and are attracting the events necessary for manifestation. You are learning how to use your consciousness to change the world around you.
Great spiritual masters are masters of the material world as well as masters of spiritual worlds. They can be detected not by their white robes, long beards, and lofty titles—but by the ease with which they move about and accomplish their work in the material world. They simply get more done than anyone should be able to do. They are models of personal efficiency.
There is an easy way and a hard way to do anything. Spirituality is the easy way. Materiality is the hard way. The subtle always motivates the dense. To deal with any problem at its level of density is to sign on for a lot of hard work. To deal with the same problem at a much subtler level is to do it with more ease. Intention can accomplish what no amount of hard work can attain.
This explains why a potential-oriented approach is so much more effective than a problem-oriented approach to anything. Liberating potential is a spiritual methodology. Solving problems is a material methodology. Both have their place. However, the spiritual approach is more fun, easier, and more productive