Discover the powerful To-Be List that transcends traditional productivity. Learn 10 transformative habits practiced by successful people to create lasting fulfillment, authentic success, and a life of purpose.
Highly successful people don’t stumble into greatness by accident. They don’t rely on luck, coincidence, or cosmic alignment. The truth? Success is a deliberate practice—a series of calculated decisions and daily habits that compound over time into extraordinary results.
Walk into the office of any high achiever, and you’ll likely find evidence of meticulous organization: calendars color-coded to perfection, schedules mapped out weeks in advance, and the ubiquitous To-Do List. These individuals live on purpose, orchestrating each day with laser focus and predetermined commitments that move them steadily toward their goals.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: while virtually everyone knows about To-Do Lists, precious few actually live by them. Most people drift through life on autopilot, allowing circumstances to dictate their direction rather than seizing the steering wheel. You’ve heard them—they’re the ones complaining about being “pushed around by life” or “never having enough time,” as if the universe somehow shortchanged them on the standard 24-hour allotment we all receive.
I’m a firm believer in the power of a well-crafted To-Do List. But today, I want to challenge you to think bigger—to consider something that transcends conventional measures of success. Because here’s what decades of observation have taught me: public success and private fulfillment don’t always share the same address. The world is littered with publicly successful figures who suffer miserable private failures—people who’ve climbed the ladder only to discover it was leaning against the wrong wall.
Beyond Doing: The Revolutionary Power of Being
To live well, to experience wholeness, to feel genuinely happy in your own skin—fulfilled, content, and at peace—requires a different kind of list. These aren’t items you can purchase, achievements you can frame, or accolades you can display. They carry no monetary value, yet they’re priceless. They won’t appear on most people’s wish lists or To-Do Lists, but they represent the foundation of a truly rich and successful life.
Welcome to the To-Be List—ten transformative states of being that will revolutionize not just what you accomplish, but who you become in the process.
1. Be Grateful: The Gateway to Abundance
Gratitude isn’t just a feel-good practice—it’s a strategic mindset that rewires your brain for success. When you awaken each morning with a profound sense of gratitude, you’re not being naive or ignoring life’s challenges. You’re making a powerful choice to recognize that this present moment contains everything you need.
Consider the miracle of your next breath. The extraordinary complexity of your mind. The fact that your fundamental needs are met. The blank canvas of a new day waiting for your creative contribution. Gratitude is the practice of seeing good where others see ordinary, finding opportunity where others see obstacles, and recognizing abundance where others see scarcity.
Here’s the transformative truth: gratitude isn’t a response to favorable circumstances—it’s a choice that creates favorable circumstances. It acknowledges that you’re already thoroughly equipped to create the life you desire. As Zig Ziglar famously said, “Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions.” When you practice it consistently, you shift from a mindset of lack to one of abundance, and that shift changes everything.
2. Be Respectful of Time: Your Most Precious Non-Renewable Resource
Time is the great equalizer. Billionaires and minimum-wage workers alike receive the same 86,400 seconds each day. The difference lies not in the allocation but in the utilization.
Every moment you spend is a moment you can never reclaim. This isn’t meant to induce anxiety—it’s meant to inspire intentionality. Time becomes a tremendous ally when you respect it and work with it strategically. It becomes an unforgiving adversary when you squander it through procrastination and poor planning.
Respect for time manifests in practical ways: arriving punctually for appointments, starting meetings on schedule (without waiting for latecomers—that’s disrespecting everyone who arrived on time), and ending when promised. It means doing today what belongs to today, not borrowing from tomorrow’s account.
Procrastination isn’t just poor time management—it’s a presumptuous violation of the present moment. It heaps today’s responsibilities onto tomorrow’s shoulders, creating compound interest on stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. As Jim Rohn wisely observed, “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” Time can be your greatest tool or your most tyrannical master. The choice is yours.
3. Be Courteous: Small Acts, Massive Impact
Somewhere along the path to modern sophistication, we’ve lost something essential: basic civility. We’ve confused confidence with dismissiveness, strength with rudeness, and success with self-absorption.
Courtesy isn’t weakness—it’s strength under control. It’s holding the door for the person behind you. Allowing someone to merge into traffic. Sharing a genuine smile with a stranger. Exercising patience with an elderly person blocking the supermarket aisle. Offering assistance to someone who can’t reach the top shelf.
These gestures seem insignificant in isolation, but they create ripples that extend far beyond the immediate interaction. Tony Robbins teaches that “the quality of your life is the quality of your relationships,” and courtesy is the currency of quality relationships. Act as if the fate of the world depends on your actions—because in small but meaningful ways, it does.
4. Be Present: The Antidote to Modern Anxiety
In our hyperconnected, perpetually distracted world, presence has become a superpower. Most people are physically here but mentally elsewhere—ruminating about the past or anxious about the future, rarely fully engaged with the now.
This displacement creates the emotional cocktail of modern life: confusion, anxiety, frustration, discontentment, boredom, and disillusionment. Yet here’s the paradox: right now, in this present moment, nothing is actually wrong. Your fears are about a future that hasn’t happened. Your regrets are about a past you can’t change. But now? Now is typically fine.
Get present in your conversations, and you’ll discover new depths of connection and understanding. Get present with your family, and you’ll experience authentic love, acceptance, and joy. Get present in your work, and you’ll find excitement, engagement, and renewed energy.
As Les Brown powerfully states, “The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled.” Don’t let your life become a collection of moments you were too distracted to experience. The fullness of the present moment contains the seeds of your desired future.
5. Be Enthusiastic: Energy Is Contagious
Your energy doesn’t just affect you—it transforms every environment you enter. Joy, excitement, laughter, and calm anticipation spread like wildfire. So does negativity, cynicism, and complaint.
You have a choice: be an upper or a downer, an encourager or a critic, an optimist or a cynic. You can make things happen or wait for them to happen. As Brian Tracy teaches, “Your attitude determines your altitude.” The energy you bring to each situation significantly influences the outcome.
This isn’t about toxic positivity or denying legitimate challenges. It’s about choosing to approach life with exuberance and expectation. In times like these, the world desperately needs people willing to demonstrate enthusiasm for the goodness of life. Be that person. Raise your energy, change your vibe, and watch your environment harmonize with what you’re offering.
6. Be Responsible: Claim Your Power
Here’s a truth that will either liberate or offend you: you are 100% responsible for your life outcomes. Your successes, your failures, your highs, your lows, your triumphs, your setbacks—all of it.
This isn’t about self-blame or condemnation. It’s about recognizing your power. When you take full responsibility, you stop being a victim of circumstances and become the architect of your destiny. Blame is weak and beneath you. As John Maxwell teaches, “People who blame others for their failures never overcome them.”
The beautiful revelation in responsibility is this: if you created results you don’t want, you possess the power to create results you do want. That’s not burden—that’s liberation. That’s not guilt—that’s empowerment. Taking responsibility means acknowledging that you’re not at the mercy of external forces; you’re the creative force in your own life.
7. Be Kind: To Yourself First, Then Others
Kindness begins at home—specifically, with how you treat yourself. You cannot pour from an empty cup. If you’re self-loathing, self-sabotaging, and internally critical, you’ll struggle to extend genuine kindness to others.
See yourself healthfully and compassionately, and that perspective naturally extends outward. Then, practice seeing people as human—not as problems, obstacles, competitors, or disappointments. Humanize everyone in your orbit, and your thoughts and disposition toward them will transform dramatically.
In warfare, soldiers are systematically taught to dehumanize enemies to make destruction easier. Don’t let society’s subtle programming desensitize you to the humanity around you. See your fellow human beings as divine expressions—just like you. They feel, think, desire, hope, and love.
Bob Proctor reminds us, “Thoughts become things. If you see it in your mind, you will hold it in your hand.” See goodness in people, and you’ll create a culture of goodness. Be kind because we reap what we sow—it’s not just spiritual wisdom; it’s practical strategy.
8. Be Creative: Design Your Life Intentionally
Creativity isn’t limited to artistic expression—it’s the fundamental act of bringing something new into existence. You are creating your life whether you realize it or not. The question is: are you creating intentionally or by default?
Create the days you intend. Design weeks that move you steadily toward your goals. Build the family dynamics you desire. Generate the wealth you envision. Cultivate the community that reflects your values. Include everything that serves your vision; exclude everything that doesn’t.
Create the health you want through deliberate food choices and adequate rest. Create the relationships you desire through intentional communication and presence. As Darren Hardy writes in “The Compound Effect,” “Small, smart choices + consistency + time = radical difference.”
Be creative, or someone else will create a version of your life that looks nothing like what you would have chosen. Don’t surrender that power.
9. Be Open: The Posture of Growth
Openness is the gateway to learning, growth, and becoming the fullest expression of who you are. Be open to sharing, new ideas, unexpected opportunities, and meaningful relationships. Be open to constructive criticism, love, warmth, and abundance.
Many people allow negative experiences to build walls that cut them off from the very things that could enrich their lives. They close themselves to possibility in the name of self-protection, not realizing that the fortress they’ve built has become a prison.
Be open to truth, even when it’s uncomfortable. Be open to spiritual growth and enlightenment. As the saying goes, “The most expensive thing you’ll ever own is a closed mind.” Openness doesn’t mean gullibility—it means maintaining a posture of curiosity and possibility rather than cynicism and defensiveness.
10. Be Authentic: Your Unique Signature on the World
This is perhaps the most critical item on the To-Be List: be authentically, unapologetically you. Don’t contort yourself for acceptance or dress up your exterior to project a false image. How you look isn’t who you are.
The image you project is merely a representation of how you wish to be known. Your true self transcends labels, brands, styles, and external markers. The only way to be genuinely different is to be genuinely you.
Don’t let others’ opinions dictate your actions. You are not the opinion of others. Don’t practice dishonesty under the guise of protecting feelings—that’s inauthentic. Don’t misrepresent facts to impress or mislead others to feel superior.
Here’s the liberating truth: you’ll never please everyone, at the same time, in the same way. So the only real freedom is absolute authenticity. Love yourself enough to be true. As Jim Rohn said, “The greatest gift you can give somebody is your own personal development.”
The Integration: From List to Lifestyle
This To-Be List isn’t a teaching tool or a how-to manual. It’s an invitation to reflection, a catalyst for self-discovery. These ten states of being aren’t items to check off—they’re ways of moving through the world that compound over time into a life of genuine success and fulfillment.
The most successful people understand something fundamental: who you are being determines what you end up doing, and what you do determines what you have. Most people focus exclusively on the “having” and “doing” while neglecting the “being.” That’s why they achieve external success but lack internal fulfillment.
Start with one item from this list. Practice it intentionally for a week. Notice what shifts. Then add another. Over time, these ways of being will become your default operating system, transforming not just your results but your entire experience of life.
Success isn’t just about what you accomplish—it’s about who you become in the process. The To-Be List ensures that your journey toward achievement doesn’t cost you your soul, your relationships, or your peace of mind.
Be the best you can be. Not the best someone else thinks you should be. Not the best version of someone else. Be the best, most authentic, most alive version of you.
That’s where true success lives.
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