You have spent your entire life learning to be unhappy

...and the way we learn to be unhappy is by buying into a particular mental model. The problem isn't that we have mental models, the problem is that we don't know that we have mental models

Perfect combination for unhappiness:

get something
so you can do something
so you can be something

All of this is a variation of the "if...then" model..."if this happens, then I will be happy".
When you're not accepting what is going on, then you're buying into the model and the model itself is flawed.

We define our life in terms of outcome...just stop investing in the outcome, start investing in the process. Investing in the outcome means that you make the achievement of a particular outcome dependent on your well-being.


http://www.ted.com/talks/srikumar_rao_plug_into_your_hard_wired_happiness.html

And yes, what you can get, you can "unget"...oh, so easy :(