Happy with what you got?

One of my friends - an actual one - posted the following on Facebook a couple of weeks ago:
Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are. -- Malcolm Forbes

It got me to thinking why it is that most people don't value what they are or what they have achieved and always think about everything they don't have.
People want winter and when they get it, they want sun and warm weather. People who are in a relationship envy the ones that are not for the freedom those have and the ones that are single want to have the comfort and love of a relationship.
Do we have too many choices?
We have a saying in Germany: The healthy person has many wishes, the sick person only one.
So it is the perspective with which we are looking at things.
But is it only that? Are the things we wish to have or achieve the ones we really want or are there also some that we think we want because our family, friends, society and therefore "everyone" expects them from us?
How do we differentiate between the expectations and the true objectives we have for ourselves?
Of course parents only want the best for their children. But what is the best for them? Is it the same way of life they are leading or could it also be something different? What do the neighbors, the bigger family say to a child that is doing things another way? The child that doesn't get married at 25, builds the house, starts working on the grandchildren?
Should we even care what the neighbors think about our life choices?

Before doing things you don't really want yourself, it is very important to listen deep inside yourself and check out if any major decision is really what you want or whether there were influences that make you think you want something but you really don't.
I think there is no worse feeling than realizing one day that you have only done certain things and live a particular life now because you think it is expected of you. Marrying the guy, building the house, having the babies. Is this really what everyone wants nowadays with all those options?
There are many, many out there who want exactly that, I am sure. Once they've achieved all this they are happy and you can see it in their eyes.
But I also believe that there are so many out there, who only thought this is what they want because "everyone" else does it and it's expected of them. They do the same things, get married, build the nice house, have the children. And then they wait for the satisfaction and the happiness to arrive, but it doesn't. It puts them into a really awkward and unfortunate position. Now they have what they thought they wanted, but they are still looking for more, for something else.
They realize that this is not what they wanted. They were chasing a dream - the dream of someone else.