For each of the first four reasons why your life (probably) sucks, we highlighted some underlying factor as the cause. For our fifth and final reason, however, such is not the case. The fifth reason why your life (probably) sucks is:

You are the child of your parents

Before you accuse me of parent-bashing, let me explain. The role of parents is a vital one in the life of any new born infant. (I'm using the term 'parents' in the sense of primary care givers) Parents provide everything the child needs to grow and develop.

Along with the absolute necessities of life (food, shelter, a secure environment) parents provide a set of values and beliefs and a sense of self to the child. And where do those things come from? Parents can only pass on to their child what they themselves have. So the values and beliefs, that sense of self passed on to the child are those of the parents, who in turn received them from their parents who received theirs from their parents before them.

I don't for a moment wish to deny the influence of the social norms within which a family lives. However, that set of values and beliefs, that sense of self are fairly well established in the child by the age of six, before the world outside the family unit has much influence in the child's life.

Maybe you have had a great relationship with your parents. They are, in deed, very important people in your life. But I can say with little fear of contradiction that your parents set of values and beliefs, their sense of self, while it may have worked for them, was not perfect. No one's ever is.

When it comes to the area of self-esteem there is every chances that your parents were not even aware that such a concept existed. That is because it was not until the work of people like Abraham Maslow in the 1950s that self esteem came to be understood as the influencing factor that it is in people's lives.

That is not to say self esteem wasn't a factor in how people lived before that. It simply wasn't understood or recognised. Now there is more to self esteem than I can include in this piece, but simply put self esteem is "the view or picture you have of yourself as competent, worthy and lovable" and it is my firm conviction that self esteem or lack of it that is at the basis of all the issues we face as a society.

You see, I believe life doesn't have to 'suck'. I'd even go so far as to say it's not meant to suck. In fact, I also believe that life is the prize we all have for winning the egg and sperm race! ( You just knew we had to get to talking about sex sooner or later). So if your life is less than what you want it to be, there is a way forward, there is a better way of doing things.

But you are the only one who can change your life. I can't change it for you. Neither can your lover, your best friend, your family or your fellow workers. The rest of us are so busy living our lives that we just don't have the time or ability, even if we did have the desire, to change your life. So, if you want your life to be better than what it is right now, the next step is up to you. I look forward to seeing you "in the good life".

Graham Hunt is the founder of Prentis Carpenter Center, an organisation established to resource an environment where those people who chose to do so could discover and work towards their potential. One way in which Graham is doing that is through his website http://www.higher-self-esteem-site.com/ . Drop by anytime.