the success checklist · to start being successful in our lives, what it really takes is believing...

THE

SUCCESS

CHECKLIST

Michael Shook

The Success Checklist © copyright 2018 Michael Shook and JMZ Publishing All Rights Reserved

© Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer

When addressing personal development matters in any of our websites, videos,

newsletters, programs or other content, we've taken every effort to ensure we

accurately represent our programs and their ability to improve your life.

However, by reading this Ebook you accept and agree that you are fully

responsible for your progress and results from your participation. We offer no

representations, warranties or guarantees verbally or in writing regarding you or

your results.

You alone are responsible for your actions and results in life and business which

are dependent on personal factors including your skill, knowledge, ability,

dedication, and personal life situation, to name a few. By reading this Ebook, you

understand because of the nature of the product, the results experienced by each

person may significantly vary.

Any statements outlined on our websites, programs, content and offerings are

simply our opinion and thus are not guarantees or promises of actual

performance. We offer no professional legal, medical, psychological or financial

advice.


Foreword

Each of us has an idea of what the word success means and how we

achieve it. We also have ideas about how easy it is to become

successful.

Sometimes we perceive success as being just out of our reach,

something we could attain if we only tried a little bit harder.

Sometimes we see success as being far off in the distance, at the tail

end of an enormously long and incredibly difficult journey.

And sometimes we are certain in our hearts that no matter what we do,

that sweet feeling of achieving success is going to remain forever an


elusive little wisp of an idea, destined to be the prize for someone else

but definitely not for us.

We’re often told that success is reserved for the few, for the hard

working, for the blessed, for the fortunate, for the people who are in

the right place at the right time, for the winners.

For everyone else, we have to settle for 2nd, for 3rd or even 18th best.

We’re told there is only so much success to go around and once that is

used up, there isn’t any more available for anyone else.

What a pile of Shazbat.

Success rationed out? Nothing could be further from the truth. You can

no more ration out success than you can ration love, or kindness, or

courtesy.

There’s plenty of success to go around, and not only are you entitled to

your share of it, but you can have as much as you want.

By achieving the success you want you can never diminish in any way

the capacity of anyone else to enjoy as much success as they want.

And of course, the corollary to this idea is that nobody else can keep

you from having as much success as you want either.

The trouble is that conventional thinking often confuses success and

winning a competition.

Usually there can be only one winner in a competition. Everyone else,

who is not the winner, is, well, not the winner. And because they don’t

have the coveted winner label, the other choice is often – loser.


That’s the biggest trouble with conventional thinking, if you’re not the

winner, you must be a loser. This is such a popular idea, that it makes it

really hard to see success if you don’t win.

Since you’re not really a conventional thinker, though, you are not

stuck with that old idea of one winner and everyone else a loser.

With your success as your goal, it’s good to understand that nobody

else anywhere at any time can keep the success you deserve away from

you.

For an alternate point of view of success, check out this example.

Let’s say a group of friends all decide to start their own businesses.

They decide to setup a little competition to see who can make the most

money in their first year. They all chip in 10 dollars, so 30 dollars will be

the big prize for the winner.

At the end of the year they get together and bring out their ledgers and

take a look at the amount of money each one of them has brought in.

Clarence made a total of 85,000 dollars. Adeline made 84,235 dollars.

And Florencio made 82,000.

Looking at those numbers, it’s easy to tell that Clarence is the winner of

the little contest.

And looking at the numbers again, it’s easy to see that each of them

was very successful for their first year in business.

Competition and success are two different ideas and it’s important to

see them as being separate. If Adeline and Florencio believed that only


the winner of a competition was successful, they could easily think that

they were not. But the truth is they are all successful.

To start being successful in our lives, what it really takes is believing the

idea that we can be successful. Once that idea is part of who you are at

heart, you can be successful.

And if the idea of success is not part of who you are inside, then

nothing you do on the outside is ever going to make you into a success.


Introduction

The steps to success are not particularly complicated. They do take

some modification of your thinking. Just to be clear here, so there’s no

mistake about this, achieving success is going to take some work. In

some cases, it might take a lot of work.

But it is not going to take nose to the grindstone 24 hours a day, 7 days

a week until you die from exhaustion.

Seriously, what would be the point of working like that if you never got

to enjoy what you were working for?

Authentic success brings you a reward of the heart – so that you

sincerely love what you are doing; a financial reward that allows you to


enjoy your life in the manner you want; and a self-confidence reward –

the idea that since you are successful in one area, you have the ability

to be repeatedly successful.

This checklist will provide you a framework to start your success

journey with. When you’re going on a journey, you have to start. While

that may sound simplistic, the truth is many people talk a good game,

but never really get going.

Don’t let that person be you.

You can have a lot of fun, make some good money, and earn the kind of

self-respect that can make your life sing.

Here’s the checklist. Read it. Think about it. Don’t rush through it. You

deserve the life you really want to live.


The Checklist

1. Start with a big idea.

Begin with an idea of success in mind that is so big it scares you right off

the bat. If you want to be the number on writer on Medium – make

that your goal. If you want to make a million dollars a year doing

affiliate marketing – make that your goal. If you want to make it

through the Badwater ultramarathon from the depths of Death Valley

to Mt. McKinley – make that your goal.


Along the way to your big success, you are going to make some

checkpoints to make you sure you are on track. Those will also allow

you to get a taste of success along the way.

Why not get yourself used to that good feeling.

Great expectations create great results. When you expect the best it

will become a directional mechanism that will guide you to seeking out

and finding what you expect.

The difference between great expectations and weak hopes is mindset.

You can choose to live a fulfilling life or one of “whatever” or even one

of sadness and despair.

It’s your choice. It’s always your choice. But when you begin with the

idea of a very large goal and the belief that you can achieve this, you

are already at least 187 steps ahead of where you started from.

It’s important to note here, that you are the only person who gets to

decide if your success goals are big. If the idea of doubling your income

in a year makes your knees knock together a bit, then that goal is big

enough for you.

If on the other hand, moving from your basement apartment to a

beautiful new home filled with light and beauty at a price you can

afford on the money you make right now, makes you feel almost (but

not quite) overwhelmed, then that goal is big enough for you.

If getting up from your chair by yourself after you’ve had a paralyzing

stroke makes you feel queasy, you are absolutely on the right track.

Start with a big idea.


2. Expect to succeed.

Quite frankly, most people don’t do this. Common wisdom dictates that

you:

“Hope for the best.

Prepare for the worst.

And settle for what you wind up with.”

Wow, if that’s not a candidate for a quote for a demotivational poster, I

don’t know what is. This is the perfect recipe for winding up exactly

where you started out. After expending all your energies, you topple

exhausted back into exactly the same state of affairs you began from.


If you don’t expect to succeed, there is virtually no way for you to

succeed, without a deus-ex-machina appearing at exactly the right

moment.

We all live with an unconscious expectation of ourselves and our own

lives. This expectation not only determines what we have in our lives

but it also represents what we are willing to settle for.

Expectation is a very powerful idea and one that very few people ever

learn to fully cultivate. Whatever you expect with certainty is what you

will get in your life.

Expectation is the place where an idea becomes so real that you feel it’s

reality in your life even though you can't hold it yet.

Expectation is like an invisible magnet that will attract into your life that

which you expect.

When you expect something you activate and engage that part of your

mind that can empower you to think the unthinkable and do the

undoable.

In effect, expectation is creating your world at the exact same moment

you are thinking about it.

We all know people who succeed time after time. We usually think to

ourselves how lucky they must be. In fact, when you change your

expectations, you can live a different life.

When you set up your really big goal and deliberately concentrate your

thoughts on achieving that big goal, you are changing the energy of the

world around you.


You are making yourself a success magnet.

Does that sound a bit woo – woo? Maybe so. But if what you have been

doing hasn’t brought you the success you desire, it’s time to try

thinking a different way.

Expect to succeed.


3. Speak differently.

Words have power. They have almost if not power than your thoughts,

and your thoughts are incredibly powerful.

Think about it this way.

All day, your mind is packed full of non-stop chattering. Unless you are

emphatically feeling a particular emotion, most of the time your mind is

occupied with thinking.

And those thoughts show up most often in words. It’s like we have this

constant barrage of conversation inside our heads. Not like people who

actually have hallucinations of voices but this is just the way our minds

work.


Many times – in fact – most times for some people, that conversation is

unkind. Those unkind thoughts and words are directed toward

ourselves.

When we first decide we’re going to create success in our lives and this

idea is different than what we’ve thought before, those voices are

going to start up in earnest. They tell us things like:

“Who are you to believe you can be successful.”

“Look at all the people who have already tried and failed.”

“You don’t have what it takes to make a success of your life.”

And endless variations of this theme.

That’s why it’s important to learn to speak to yourself differently. You

don’t want that critical voice inside your head waiting for you to fail,

encouraging you to give up, and giving a little snicker when there are

issues to overcome.

Nobody needs that.

In order to change what that little internal voice keeps yammering on

about, you need to think different thoughts on purpose.

Thoughts like:

“Good for you, getting on with life. Keep going.”

“Being successful is easier than I thought it was going to be.”

“I like this new successful part of my life.”

Of course, you can choose other words of encouragement to tell

yourself if these don’t fit for you. But choose some, and every time that


little nagging, belittling voice shows up, just tell it to hush, and then

think your success thought on purpose.

It is going to take some getting used to, to create this new habit, but

honestly no more than a week or two. Considering how long you’ve

been telling yourself unkind things, that’s a small amount of time.

Speak differently.


4. Act in accordance with your new idea

of success

True enough, when you first decide you are going to succeed in a big

way in line with your new expectations, you are going to be working

with the habits of life you already have.

Those habits have brought you to where you are today.

Intrinsically, there is nothing wrong with habits. They save us a lot of

time and are actually pretty useful when we don’t have to make

decisions everyday like what side of the road we’re going to drive on,

which shoe goes on which foot or which hand to use to brush our teeth.


Those are all habits and we learned them well, there is no need to go

back and learn differently (well unless we move and everybody is

driving on the other side of the road)

But it is time to create new habits that are more in line with the success

we want to achieve.

If you’re in university and have been getting passing, but not

outstanding marks and what you want is to graduate with honors, you

need to change your study habits, your “in class paying attention”

habits and your “what shall I do outside of class tonight” habits.

Those are not difficult things to do and they will make a difference in

your life.

If you want a new job, you need to change the habit of waiting for

someone to come to your home to offer you that new position.

If you want to be rich, you need to change the habit of how you think

about money and what you are doing to get it.

You created all your habits in the first place. You might have copied

them from someone else but when it comes to your life, you are in

charge of what you do.

Whether you keep on going the same way you always have or you

decide you want to create success in your life, your habits are going to

help or hurt you.

When you want something different than what you have right now, you

need to think and act differently. Any action you take toward the

success you want to be yours, is going to help.


Is it possible you might make a misstep or two, and then realize your

new habitual action is not helping? Of course, it’s possible. But when

your ultimate goal is the successful achieving of that new something

you desire in your life, all you do is change what you are doing.

You’re in charge, and you are free to change whenever you decide it’s

the right thing to do.

Be the new successful you in every way you can. Soon any old you is

going to be just a memory.

Act in accordance with your new idea of

success


5. Believe it.

Most people are taught to believe it when they see it. In some

situations, that is a perfectly reasonable idea.

If your friend tells you the town is erecting a new monument in the

park in honor of all purple colored dogs everywhere, that would be OK

to tell them you will believe it when you see it.

In matters of personal change, like deciding that you are going to be

successful at your new part of life, the ideas are opposite.

You must believe it first, before you see it.


When you believe and expect success it's not like expecting something

good or something similar, it is your goal. It’s the only goal you have.

You have to stop settling for less than you can be or have. When you

are willing to settle for something less than what you really want, your

belief takes a hit.

A big hit.

That makes it hard to keep that belief intact. You already decided what

you were going to be successful at. Could there be a small setback or a

detour?

Sure there could be.

Is that any reason to stop believing in your ability to have the success

you desire?

Absolutely not.

Now in all honesty, most people are not willing to suspend their

disbelief in themselves long enough to change their lives. But since you

are here reading this, it’s a good bet you are not like everybody else.

It’s also a good bet you don’t want to be like everybody else.

Of course, on a personal level, everyone is different than everybody

else. And on a human being level, we all share certain commonalities.

That’s the way the world is set up and there’s nothing wrong with those

ideas.

But we all have our own individual ways to walk through the world, and

if you want to be successful – I mean the kind of successful that blows

away all your previous thoughts and dreams, you need to be different.


That means, in this instance, you must believe it before you see it.

It works, it’s about having faith in yourself, and lots of people have

done it before you. So while your individual idea of what you want to

be successful is just for you, there is a world full of examples that you

can look to and emulate in your own way.

You got this. And you deserve success.

Believe it.


Conclusion

Many people believe that the hand we are dealt in life is what we will

always hold. We seem to keep doing the same things over and over and

after some time, you believe this is the truth of your life and what you

have now is how it will always play out.

But that’s not true.

In fact, there are plenty of people who decide to take charge of their

own lives. People who believe they deserve more than the original

hand they were taught to accept.


The first step is deciding what it is you really want.

The second step is changing your expectation of yourself.

Third comes changing the way you talk to yourself and other

people.

Next comes changing the way you act.

And finally comes changing your belief so that you can be ready to

succeed.

Your life is happening right now. It’s being lived whether or not you’re

in control. Every day that you wake up and go to bed is 24 hours of time

that’s passed by.

It’s up to you to decide if you’re going to let any more time go by

without living the way you want to.

When you decide you want a change in your life, when you want to

create the kind of success you’ve been looking for, you might want

some assistance in doing that.

If that’s the case, send me an email: [email protected] or visit

our website at JMZ Publishing

I’ve helped a lot of people change their lives and experience the kind of

success they’ve always wanted.

mailto:[email protected]

http://jmzdirect.com/

the success checklist · to start being successful in our lives, what it really takes is believing...

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