Way To Live Life

Here's how to live a better life, one that others
will remember.
Be generous.
Making the world a better place--by being free
with your time, energy and money--is a good
place to start. By doing so you can create a
domino effect that encourages others to follow
in your footsteps.
In fact, a recent study conducted by Cornell
University sociologists Milena Tsvetkova and
Michael Macy supports the idea that generosity
is contagious.
They point to remarkable "pay it forward"
situations, such as the drive-through shop
customer who a year and a half ago picked up
the tab for the next customer in line at a
Manitoba coffee shop, setting off a chain
reaction that kept going for the next 226 cars.
Their research , which involved an incentivized
game people could invite others to play and
thereby bestow financial rewards to them,
demonstrated that receiving help increased the
likelihood that a person would be generous to
a stranger.
"We concluded 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. But we found that it was
receiving help that sustained the cascade as it
spread through the group," they write.
Stop being jealous of others.
There's a reason it's called the green-eyed
monster--jealousy is ugly. And where did it
ever get you, anyway?
Whether you fear losing a relationship or wish
you had things other people have, you need to
let go. When it comes to your relationships,
nothing is more attractive than genuine
confidence . And as for having stuff, remember:
You can't take it with you, so why fret about
what you're supposedly missing?
Be appreciative.
Besides, you have a lot.
Consider that penicillin, the first antibiotic,
wasn't clinically tested and mass produced
until the 1940s. Before that, billions of people
throughout the course of history died from
bacterial infections. Losing a child to
sickness--something most people loathe to
imagine--was commonplace.
You also live in a society in which you are
completely free to choose your own destiny
and pursue happiness. This isn't the case
everywhere on the planet and much of the
world's timeline has been stained with
murderous wars that, again, have taken the
lives of billions of people.
You're alive. Be grateful for it.
Vow to get healthier.
It's hard to be appreciative when you feel like
crap. Exercise every day and always take the
stairs. Drink water instead of diet soda, which
is remarkably bad for you. Eat foods rich in
anti-aging antioxidants --things like berries, red
peppers, dark green vegetables, garlic, tea and
fish.
Eradicate a fear of failure.
Fear of failure can deter people from taking
action yet if you never try anything you'll never
achieve anything.
In fact, falling on your face can be a good way
to learn valuable lessons. Successful
entrepreneurs, for example, realize the
importance of failing as quickly as possible
when launching a new venture because the
faster you find bugs and problems, the quicker
you can get rid of them.
Failing isn't easy or fun, but you can't let it
dictate how you live your life.
I learned this several years ago when I went
back to school, elbowing up in my middle age
to young fresh-faced college students. One
some levels this endeavor--which felt daunting
at the time--was a devastating failure . Yet,
looking back I'm now proud of my hard work
and how I mastered tough subjects like math
and science. My experience also prompted me
to aggressively pursue a writing career, which
is where I was meant to be anyway.
Stop bad-mouthing others.
My dad tells the story of a former co-worker
named Bill Sander who was always positive
and giving people the benefit of the doubt.
"I never heard him say anything bad about
anyone, no matter how egregious their
behavior," he says. "He always said something
like, 'Well, I'd like to hear their side of the
story.'"
Read to your children.
I'm not a perfect parent. I spend too much
time on the computer and I'm often distracted.
But one thing I've learned over the years is
that spending time in the moment giving a
good story to a child covers over a host of
parental sins.
I'm not just talking about "Green Eggs and
Ham" or "Goodnight Moon." Every morning
before my pre-teens get on the school bus we
climb back onto my bed and I spend 15
minutes reading some kind of quality literature
to them. They gravitate toward this ritual and I
hope someday they'll remember this time a bit
more than all the years I spent working.
What are your ideas on how to live a better
life? I'd love to read them in the comments.