Struggling with purpose anxiety? The pressure to find a singular, world-changing calling is exhausting, but what if you didn’t need one? Inspired by Forrest Gump and insights from Elizabeth Gilbert, this op-ed piece explores how rigid expectations around purpose can lead to burnout and dissatisfaction. Instead, embracing curiosity, presence and the balance between hobbies, jobs and careers might just be the key to a fulfilling life.

A few years ago, an Australian research agency McCrindle came up with a name for the youngest cohort – they were aptly called Generation Alpha. According to McCrindle, they will be the most formally educated, technology-supplied, and wealthiest people. They'll also be far more eco-conscious, braver and more open to revolutionary changes than their parents. Can you visualise a world ruled by your children?

When poet John Donne wrote that no man is an island, he really meant that humans need to connect with other humans physically in order to thrive. “Put down your phones and look up at each other,” says Dr Fiona Kerr, a founder of the NeuroTech Institute, who advises how to make the most of human senses and keep on growing our brains until our last days.

“Squiggly Brain. Neurodivergence, a mum’s perspective.” This isn’t a revolutionary finding but all parents raising neurodivergent kids need a solid mental health scaffolding of their own.

“Every fall into love involves the triumph of hope over self-knowledge.” Alain de Botton, The Course of Love, 2016

All things are supple when alive and are only hard when dead. So what if we allowed ourselves to be soft and vulnerable for a change?

For parents all over the world, the global pandemic has unveiled a hard truth: that home life is as vulnerable and imperfect as we are.

Self-love and love of others go hand in hand. The question is – how to feed our own happiness without becoming self-obsessed?