I think I get you CQ. It's like a lot of personal development stuff out there these days is all about how you create your own reality, believe it and you will see it, positive affirmations etc. There's definite benefits of a positive attitude but I think some of that stuff goes a bit too far in the sense of promising too much, and almost blaming people if they don't 'manifest their dreams'.
I just don't think life is that simple, or that controllable. No one has a perfect life (except maybe Posh and Becks or Brad and Jen) we all have to try to accept what we can achieve in life, and the random crap that gets thrown at us (and random crap gets thrown at everyone sometimes). Some people survive things we can't imagine being able to endure, others seem to have a picture perfect life. You are the most important person in your world, so you owe it to yourself to be happy, with or without the house, car or man. Those things won't necessarily make you happy or make everything perfect.
A lot of it is about perspective too... I went to some tiny villages in India where there were people who were poorer than I could have ever imagined. But they radiated genuine happiness. Much more so than people I knew at home who had nice houses and cars and jobs etc. One friend said "they don't know any better" to which I replied "yeah and we're so smart we know better than to be happy with all the sh*t we've got". But they were happy because they had a different perspective. In their religion/ philosophy, they don't have only one life, they have dozens, hundreds. They don't have to achieve everything this time round, the way we feel we do. I think that sense of longevity gave them the ability to be happy with where they were without feeling the pressure to be, have, experience and accomplish it all in such a short life.
Anyway I'm rambling too now.... Is that kind of what you're getting at or am I totally off the beam?