George Bernard Shaw once said:

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire and the other is to gain it.

Life is all about gaining or losing one's heart's desires. These are tragedies because you have no control over that aspect of your life once either scenario occurs. If you lose your heart's desire, you end up regretting what you did, you end up feeling bad about yourself, you enter self-pity and this will bring down your input in the other (as yet undecided) aspects of your life. If you gain your heart's desire, you grow complacent, you start taking things for granted, you grow arrogant, self-praise sets in. This will again bring down your input in the other (as yet undecided) aspects of your life. The only way to not let these affect you is by practicing self-apathy, which has the side effect of removing any desire in the heart, which though it seems at first a good thing (as there is no room for tragedy if the heart has no desire), it is detrimental to success as there is no definition of success either! Understanding this is of no use as it will only show you that the life is a maze, a maze where the only way out is up! (Pun intended).

You will, at this point, be thinking, 'How, then, should I lead my life if I am to fill my heart with desires, and yet stray clear of the tragedies that inevitably come with it? Where do I draw the line between leading a disciplined life and turning into a robot?' Well, I'm with you as I too am stumped by these questions. The key here is that the answer to these questions is not unique, but varies from person to person. If you're able to come up with answers for these, and more importantly, if you're able to convince your heart that the answers are satisfactory, you achieve inner peace. Only when you're at peace with yourself can you realise your ultimate potential and not just dream, but also chart a path to chase your dreams and conquer them. There are three things you need to deal with if you are to attain inner peace and avert tragedies and still harbor a heart filled with desires.

First, you need to learn to deal with defeat. Every defeat you face in life is like a fork in a road. You are always left with two options. One is to pick yourself up, tell yourself you're not giving up, and take the road that puts you through the same ordeal again, with the same goal at the end of it, only this time you are better prepared to achieve it. The other is to accept defeat gracefully, realise that the other road has equally bright pastures at the end of it too, and set off on that path. The key is to choose a path in the fork and once you do, forget that there was ever a fork. This leaves no room for regret, meaning you avert the tragedy.

Second, you need to learn to deal with success. The only thing you need to realise is that success is by no means synonymous to an ending. Success is always a beginning. Success brings with it confidence, desire, happiness; but the day it brings you satisfaction, you know your tragedy has arrived. A person satisfied with what he has achieved has no reason to live. You must always have a goal and must be working towards achieving it, and once you do, you must immediately replace it with a new goal. This is how you keep yourself on your toes and keep complacency at bay, and by doing so, avert the tragedy that success brings with it.

Third, you must always fill your heart with desires. If you have no desire, everything you do is out of compulsion. Your desire brings you joy for doing what you do. If your desire is true enough, you will never feel that your efforts are in vain, you will never feel apprehensive about achieving it. Instead, you will devote all your energy to achieving it.

In short, if you follow these three principles, you will be happy and you will be proud. If you're happy with yourself and proud of what you're doing, there is no room for tragedy.