When you stop to think about what someone might say at your funeral, you probably think about some things you could be doing better. You’re not alone here in wanting your fleeting time on Earth to matter. With this in mind, you should know that there are some things that you can do better so others have a more positive view of you when you’re gone.

Be Generous Not Jealous

Jealousy is an ugly “green-eyed monster” that you need to nip in the bud. Being genuinely confident is always better than desiring things that other people have. After all, you can’t take material things with you when you’re gone so you should be striving to leave a better world behind you instead. By being free with your time, energy, and money you can help others feel free to do the same thing.

Recently Cornell University’s sociologists conducted a study that supports the fact that generosity is contagious. In this study, Milena Tsvetkova and Michael Macy looked at “pay it forward” situations (e.g. the restaurant customer who picks up the tab for another customer and sets off a chain reaction in doing so). They found that people who receive financial rewards are more likely to be generous to strangers. In conclusion they discovered that “observing an act of kindness is likely to play an important role in setting a cascade of generosity in motion, since many people can potentially observe a single act of helping.” It’s the receiving that helps sustain this cascading affect through the group.

Don’t overlook your own family when it comes to being generous. While nobody can be the perfect parent, spending time in the moment with your children will encourage them to forgive you for those times you get distracted by the computer or other things you enjoy in your own personal life. This is especially true when you spend time reading a good book to your child.

Books like “Green Eggs and Ham” and “Goodnight Moon” are great examples of literature that even your pre-teens will crawl into bed to enjoy with you. All it takes is 15 minutes to read some type of quality literature like this to them. Once this becomes a ritual in your home you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how your children will gravitate towardsit. This is a ritual that everyone will look back on in the future and remember more than all the time you spent working.

Be Appreciative Not Fearful

Inc says that beyond being generous you also need to be appreciative. Here it’s important to start by eradiating the fear of failure since this can deter you from acting. However, it’s important to consciously realize that if you don’t try something you’ll never achieve anything either. In fact, researchers have found that “failing” is a great way to learn some of life’s most valuable lessons. This is something that successful entrepreneurs realize and remember when they launch a new venture. They realize that the faster they find bugs and problems, the faster they can fix these things too. Although this is never easy or fun, you can’t let it dictate the way you live your life.

These are all challenging issues to learn, especially if you take on a daunting task that soon becomes a devastating failure. In the future when you look back on things though you may feel proud of yourself because you managed to learn something from the experience. This is a great way to change fear into appreciation.

When you take some time to look around you you’ll see that there are a multitude of other things to be thankful for today as well – including:

• Living in a society where you’re completely free to choose your own destiny and pursue happiness
• Not being surrounded by murderous wars thathave taken the lives of billions of people
• Being alive and having medications that help you sustain a high quality of life when you need some help doing so

Waking up with thoughts like these are enough of a reason for you to want to make a conscious effort to stop bad-mouthing other people. Instead, you’ll want to be more positive and give people the benefit of the doubt regardless of their egregious behavior. After all, you never know where they’re coming from until they have a chance to tell you for themselves.

Be Sensual, Not Sexual

Although both sensual and sexual references to the world of carnal lust, there is a difference here. Sexual refers only to your sexual needs while sensual refers to touching pleasing textures, tasting an enjoyable food, listening to romantic music, and being emotionally compelled to act. In this way, sensuality is really healing in that it connects our mental, emotional, physical, and conscious needs. In this way, it’s a powerful gateway through which we can experience our own raw emotions. Some may say this sounds “cheesy” but, it’s something we should take seriously as it’s an important part of being healthy. Spare sometime for sensual talks and try it.

Speaking of “healthy” this is another thing that we need to take seriously. We should all vow to get healthier so that we can appreciate the world around us without feeling like crap. Besides exercising every day, drinking lots of water, and eating the right foods (e.g. those rich in anti-aging antioxidants like berries, red peppers, dark green vegetables, garlic, tea, and fish) we also need to find the right time and place to talk about sex. This is where adult chat rooms are beneficial because there we can find the right person to talk to without having to go any further than we desire – someone out there will respect our personal boundaries.

All these tips will help you live a better life, but you need to take them seriously. You need to get up out of bed each day and strive to be a better you – strive to be the best possible you. In doing so you’ll grow a little more, become a little better, all the time. Since this is something you’ll want to do, make sure you heed these tips.