The reason you’re living
Two things people worry about a lot in life are purpose and love. It shouldn’t be that way! With a bit of thinking, you will soon realise that these are two exciting adventures in life that you should enjoy as much as you possibly can while you can.
First of all, purpose. People become gloomy and depressed when they can’t decide why they are alive. This is simply because they do not know themselves properly. Not many people do not know what they are like, so don’t worry about it right now, I’m going to teach you how to get to know yourself.
Generally, you can describe someone else better than yourself. That’s because you give a lot of time to becoming friends with other people, but don’t give any thinking time to yourself. So become friends with you! Okay, maybe that seems a bit too simple to work. Let me break it down into steps.
1. Ask someone else to make a list of your qualities and bad points. Tell them to be honest and not to leave anything important out. This will give you a new perspective to learn things about you. You might be surprised at what they say, you might agree with it, but never realised before. Either way, this will give you a starting point for befriending yourself.
2. Try to listen to and watch yourself go about life. Most people are blind to their own reactions and expressions. Even self conscious people simply worry they will do something wrong. You know the people who say something awkward or the wrong thing at the wrong time? They don’t usually realise this, unless of course the room goes silent. So for a change, notice what you are doing. If you see something reflective, try and see your expression. You might not have previously noticed that you have a really grumpy face when you are thinking!
3. Accept your new perspective on yourself and try to love yourself. It’s surprising how many people do not love their own self. It’s so important to understand that you will be a lot happier and more likely to keep relationships with others if you are truly comfortable with being you. You have to love yourself before others can, as they say. There’s always something to love about yourself, always something endearing and idiosyncratic.
Now that you’ve begun to understand yourself, you can find your purpose in the world. With just a few details about someone else’s personality, you can give a good guess at what they can do best. So do it for yourself. Write down a few ideas. Write whatever comes to mind. Some things will be unrealistic. But when you hit the right thing, you’ll know. It will feel so right; some people even cry when they get it. Spend a long time on it though- a half effort will get you nowhere.
It’s really as simple as that!
I’ll update with the bit about love as soon as I can be bothered. 
Motivation
A lot of people find it really hard to stay motivated for a long period of time. They can make themselves feel motivated for a few minutes simply by imagining all the things they could achieve and the suchlike. But if they want to feel motivated for a whole day, or even for doing a project over the weeks, it seems impossible.
Motivation is important for all aspects of life. Without it, we’d just not exist. We wouldn’t be bothered about anything. So having good motivation is vital. So why is it so difficult to keep it?
A lot of it has to do with what you have achieved already. Okay so you’re doing alright, you’ve got a job or a family or something. But so does everyone else! So what’s the point in trying too hard to keep it all together? You feel mediocre, like you’re only existing because you have managed so far, and you’re a bit curious about the future. Maybe you live through your children, your partner or your friends.
Well that’s no fun. There’s no point in living when you’re not enjoying it, at least most of the time. I’m not saying you have to enjoy everything, because then it wouldn’t feel so good, which is why overindulging will not make you happy, but that’s for another discussion. I’ve learned that the first step to living a motivated and successful life is enjoying it. It might seem obvious, but it’s surprising how many people don’t realise it. A lot of people think that you need to be serious to be successful, but that’s not right at all.
So what’s the point of what I’m saying?
1. Enjoy what you’re doing. It’s always possible. If you don’t enjoy your work or whatever now, what is it going to give you in the future? Money? So what? All you’re going to spend it on is more things to prolong your boring depressing life.
2. Make physical changes to affect yourself mentally. Changing the way you look can be a powerful motivator. You feel like you can start anew, you can do anything, because you’re a new person. Perfect your outward appearance. I am most definitely not shallow and do not endorse caring only about your appearance and feeling bad if you think you’re ugly. I mean keeping yourself clean and neat, no shabby clothes, etc. This will make you feel better about yourself instantly.
3. Tidy up your surroundings and your mind. A clear space for working and living in will in turn clear your mind and keep you focused. You can relax easily and feel comfortable and clean. Your mind is the most important part of you. Keep it tidy and exercised. Meditate, read or write down your feelings to help with this.
Finally, here are some thought provoking quotes from one of my favourite novels, Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami.
“Everyone of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads—at least that’s where I imagine it—there’s a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in a while, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you’ll live forever in your own little private library.”
“Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves. So anyone who’s in love gets sad when they think of their lover. It’s like stepping back inside a room you have fond memories of, one you haven’t seen in a long time. It’s just a natural feeling…”
“Sometimes fate is like a sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you should imagine.”
“Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard.”
“According to Aristophanes in Plato’s “Symposium” in ancient times people weren’t just male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female, or female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and never really gave it much thought. But then God took a knife and cut everybody in half, right down the middle. So after that the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to locate their missing other half.”
“People are mostly a product of where they were born and raised. How you think and feel’s always linked to the lay of the land, the temperature. The prevailing winds, even.”
