Extracted from the book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey

Clear your mind of everything except what you will read and what I will invite you to do. Don't worry about your schedule, your business, your family, or your friends. Just focus with me and really open your mind.

In your mind's eye, see yourself going to the funeral of a loved one. Picture yourself driving to the funeral parlor or chapel, parking your car, and getting out. As you walk inside the building, you notice the flowers, the soft organ music. You see the faces friends and family as you pass along the way. You feel the shared sorrow of losing, the joy of having known, that radiates from the hearts of the people there.

There are your family, immediate and also extended - children, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents who have come from all over the country to attend. There are your friends, someone who know you as a person. There are your colleague and your work associate. There are your church or some community organisation where you have been involved in services.

As you walk down to the front of the room and look inside the casket, you suddenly come face to face with yourself. This is your funeral, three years from today. All these people have come to honor you, to express feelings of love and appreciation for your life.

Now think deeply. What would you like each of these people to think about you and your life? What kind of husband, wife, father, mother, would you like their thought to reflect? What kind of son, or daughter or cousin? What kind of friend? What kind of work associate?

What characters would you like them to have seen in you? What contributions, what achievement would you like them to remember? Look carefully at the people around you. What difference would you like to have made in their lives? How would you like to be remembered??