When I look at a given magical ritual or working or spell I can break it down into steps. It may not be written that way, but realistically a magic spell or ritual is a set of step by step instructions that you are using for the purposes of doing some type of spiritual work. And when you approach you own magical work that way and organize it into specific steps it can help you get perspective on what you're doing and start seeing the underlying process of magic.
The process of magic is what makes the magical working happen. It is the action and progression of steps but also the why and how of magic that connects everything together and creates a causal link between your magical working and the result you are seeking to achieve. The step by step approach to magic makes it easy to see the connection between the working and result, and consequently accept it internally, which paves the way for external manifestation.
The benefit of taking a step by step approach to magic is that it gives you a chance to review what you are doing and start asking questions. If a step isn't clear to you, then you either need to figure out what the purpose of that step is, or give it the boot. This revision process, which I share in my free workbook How Magic Works can make your magical workings more effective because you aren't doing something because its always been done, but because you actually understand why it should be done.
When you don't understand why something should be done it creates inconsistency in what you are doing. It's like going into a pitch black space without a light. You feel around hoping you won't injure yourself, but you don't know where you are or what obstacles you'll encounter. But shine a light in that room and you can see where things are and navigate around them.
The same is true with a magical working. If you know what the steps are and why you are doing them, then the magical working makes sense and when it makes sense, then you are aligning yourself to accept the changes you want to manifest. There's no confusion or conflict. You see how it all fits together and how reality ought to change as a result.
I think that what hangs people up with magic sometimes is that the steps and process aren't explicit. But just because something isn't explicit, doesn't mean you can make it that way, and that's another benefit of doing a step by step approach because you can take a working that someone else describes and start writing out the steps. You'll quickly figure out what steps are missing, what gaps need to be filled in and you can do that, because in figuring out what's missing you can ask yourself what you would do differently or add to the working. Fill the working in with additional steps, try it and see what happens. Magic isn't written in stone, and when you approach magic as a process what you do is free yourself to discover how to personalize the working and make it relevant to you, as well as make a connection between the working and the result you want to manifest.