Everything in life has a price, checks, and balances. Most people don't consider the prices they must pay for a thing, and just go merrily along, ending up lamenting whatever hurts or losses they suffer later. You have to learn to decide, consciously, if you're willing to pay the price that some moment of joy might bring you. You have to be willing to say to yourself, "In the end this may hurt, but the good I get now is worth that." You must learn to ask, "Is it worth it," and you must be willing to pay the price.

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An old friend once mentioned a proverb to me: "Take what you want," said God, "but pay for it." Basically this means that you can make whatever choice you want, but you must be willing to pay the attendant costs, to face the consequences. Goes for good choices as well as potentially negative ones, easy choices and the difficult. It goes along with all those proverbs and sayings that tell us that for every ounce of happiness there will be an equal amount of pain. It's the nature of the universe to bring balance from chaos, and chaos from balance.