We are all searching for one answer or another. We never stop. With our last breath we may very well be asking: What happens next?

And yet some people live with calm and authority over their lives, while others either hide from life or spend $5,000 for weekends with bearded gurus, or are addicted to self -help books, especially those with the word "secret" in the title.

The bad news is that you will never have all of the answers.

The good news is that you already have enough of the answers you need to get on with life with a greater sense of confidence. This is true for you as a person, as a manager or member of staff in the workplace, and true for those creative areas we choose as hobbies.

Good analysts and self-help books do nothing more than act as a can-opener to your heart and mind. (Actually, that's not totally true. They also provide the strength of support to make difficult discoveries and act on difficult choices.)

Too many people continue to look elsewhere for the answers. How often do you see good people who are enormously capable, and there they are signing up for every One Day Self-Improvement Course in town. One week they have one answer for their direction in life. The next week, or the next month, they have another.

What they do is pass responsibility for their perceived failures, or for their deep-seated unhappiness, off to others. They can blame them. They don't have to blame themselves.

When we select senior managers in our website design and publishing company, we are looking for people who have reached a place in their life where they are comfortable with themselves. They still want to climb the next peak ... but they do not have to prove their worth as people. They want to learn to be better managers and better people ... but they are not asking the company to subscribe to the latest management fad, nor to fork out to see a one-day-wonder management guru.

The same is true in much of what we do as professionals. When writing, or designing, you have to open yourself up to inspiration. You can mimic from external sources, but the best results come when you relax and let the 'solution' bubble up from within.

The finished result is not perfect. It will not hang in an art gallery. But it makes us happy and it makes our clients happy.

The parallel in life is obvious: if you aim to be perfect, you will never be happy. You will always be searching for one more answer to the problems of life.

If that's you, have the courage to act on your own worth. Find someone who can help you dredge up the answers that live inside you. Find friends and mentors who will give you the support to act courageously.

Or, as a wise friend of mine advises on those big questions in life: When there is no answer, just be content to live within the question.

Tim Boylen is Managing Director of an Adelaide website design studio specialising in original design, CMS and SEO. Website: http://www.boylen.com.au