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.