There are many magicians nowadays, both authors and members of forums, who insist that magick does not bring you results without you putting in your own effort. And they insist that if you do not work for what you have done a working for, you will not obtain it. This is pushed by magicians who have a more common idea of magick but this is also often pushed by magicians with the odd materialist-psychological philosophy that there isn’t really such a thing as magick but rather you’re just tricking your subconcious (and it’s unlikely modern psychologists would agree with their particular definition of subconcious) into certain beliefs and feelings of strength or power so that you can accomplish what you want through completely mundane means. So, basically a sort of confidence trick.
However, regarding effort, my experiences have often times been contrary to that insistance. I have done much magick without putting any effort into what I asked for and still recieved it. Even from my very first magical result, I did not place any effort into it, and yet it was simply given to me the very next day I did the ritual. I have done much magick since then without any personal effort (or, concious effort) placed into it was still successful. In fact, I’ve done magick on broad areas of life where I did put effort into, but then still recieved results from a different pathway that I did not put any concious effort into rather than the pathway I was focusing on.
This insistance on effort may be helpful to beginners, because they’re going to do magick on large things and be impatient and eager to see if magick works or not, but this idea of the necessity of effort should not be insisted on so heavily. It should not take the wonder out of the magick, or the blessings of the spirits, as often we recieve our gifts simply by the goodness of the Gods and the Spirits (Depending on the spirit).