Did you ever notice that the more you want or need something, the less it is available?  In a past life Diane & I sang together in public.  This experience introduced me to the performance paradox.  Our highest quality performance was always in private when there was the least need for it.  If there had been a recording studio in the shower, I would have been up for a Grammy Award.  In public, however, when there was the greatest need for a quality performance, I was least capable of pulling it off.
        Our time in Alaska introduced me to the cold start paradox.  The frigid Alaska winter creates the most difficult conditions to turn over your car’s engine.  This is when you need the most power from your car battery.  Unfortunately, these cold weather conditions are when your battery is least efficient.  You need it the most when it gives the least.
        The performance paradox and the cold start paradox are interesting.  Understanding the desire/ fulfillment paradox will help you avoid a life spent vainly chasing the wind.  When I was in the US Coast Guard on the Coast Guard Cutter Clover in Sitka, AK, another sailor enjoyed introducing people to pot.  He would be filled with nostalgia for his own first experience with the drug.  His subsequent highs were never as good as his first high.  He was victim of the desire fulfillment paradox.  Ever increasing desire resulted in ever decreasing pleasure.
        Those wise enough to see beyond today are aware that a life focused on pleasure does not achieve lasting contentment and inner peace.  A James 1:14 point out that over time desire gives birth to sin and death.  Living for pleasure leads to diminishing fulfillment so the wise alternative is living for what brings glory to God.