Every step in life comes with a realization that you have less than what you thought and that the attainment of something better will require more than what you’ve done. The positive side to this realization is realizing that there is something better out there than what you already have.
There is always something better. The question is whether we are willing to pay the price required to obtain it.
We tend to tire of setting our hearts on something only to be bitterly disappointed in our expectations. Unfortunately, success in the game of life is determined by how many times, and how brutally, you are willing to be disappointed. Those who soften their desires in hopes of sparing themselves pain will only rob themselves of joy, and those who avoid disappointment through quitting the search will never obtain lasting or deep joy.
What makes it hard is that you can’t see how much better what is still out there actually is until you get it, and you can’t get it without walking through what seems to be unending darkness.
You have to keep trying. You have to try harder.
The stronger your desire, and the greater the value of what you desire, the more often and more deeply you will be disappointed. The less urgently you desire, and the lesser the value of what you desire, the less you will receive.
Those who attempt to avoid pain will only do so short-term, because they will only have “that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received.” (D&C 88:32) If you want to receive all the joy God has made available to you, you have to believe he has greater joy to give than what you can presently imagine:
For since the beginning of the world have not men heard nor perceived by the ear, neither hath any eye seen, O God, besides thee, how great things thou hast prepared for him that waiteth for thee. (D&C 133:45)
If you truly believe this, you must surely desire that level of joy. If you desire that level of joy, you are assured to suffer great disappointment as he teaches you what it takes to obtain it, why it is as valuable as it is, and how extensive is the list of what will not provide it. There is no other way.