You can't always get... What you want... But sometimes... ya get what ya need!
Not too bad a song right? It's coming to me though that the real surprise is not that you actually can get most of what you want, it's the way you go about getting it. I've noticed this phenomenon throughout the years that often going to the extreme on one side can actually get you the benefits of the opposite.
Example 1: You want a million dollars.
You see the fundamentals of that statement? You WANT something. Interestingly enough it seems the way to get a lot of money (legally) is not by TAKING but by GIVING. In fact, the more people you are able to reach and help with something, the more you are able to profit. Think of Bill Gates, he's providing a software platform that you're probably using right now. He's created something that's been used by millions of people and thus has reaped the rewards of it. Wait! What about people who sell only a few things for the very rich? If you're a fine arts dealer or antiquities or even an eye surgeon, you only help out a few people a year but could still be making bank right? That's true, but you're providing a 'bigger' service for those individual people (when I say bigger I mean a service people are willing to pay a greater amount of money for thus 'valuing' it more.)
Earlier I said 'get a lot of money (LEGALLY)' also realize that even the way many conman operate is by GIVING someone something first in order to lead up for a bigger payoff later. (I'd highly rec. checking out the show HUSTLE)
On to a new type of example.
Example 2: (this one i realized very recently) You want to be happy.
Whats the opposite of happiness? Pain and suffering. How do you achieve a great degree of happiness? Through pain and suffering. How? A simple example (within this example heh) is say you want to be healthy, one way to be happy is through being fit. How do you get fit? Working out, exercising. Yes when you finish a work out you feel good, but hauling your ass out of bed at some ungodly hour to lift heavy objects or run around is not anyone's idea of a fun time (at first anyway). Exercise hurts, you're ripping muscle so it can rebuild stronger than before, you will be sore later and feel more pain, and overall you will be more happy and hold more pride for yourself.
Other elements of happiness- great friends? Yes you develop friendship through going on great trips to the beach or crazy road trips... but it's not a true close friend unless they're there for you when shit hits the fan. You're not in the presence of a true friend unless they can listen to your troubles and be there for you to push and encourage you to become strong again and see the brighter side of a temporarily dark world.
It's not through your success that you discover who your true friends are, it's through your failures. It's the people who are with you through the tough stuff that you should share and enjoy your success with.
Another aspect I don't even particularly like, but seems to be very true: I'd like to think of myself as a creative person, but the way to be truly creative is to learn from other peoples' creativity first (in essence, not create anything at all but gather information) and THEN create on your own. A lesson I'm constantly reminding myself-- don't re-invent the wheel.