You can wish for any number of outcomes. However, if a certain desire requires everything to obtain, you will not be able to simultaneously desire anything else, because it will require everything else to be displaced in order to get it. The best things in life are exclusive.
Unlike milestone desires, which can be reached without necessarily prioritizing their attainment above all other things, joy will not compete with any other thing. If you desire maximal joy and happiness, you have to realize that it will cost you everything to get it.
Obtaining full, enduring joy requires that it be the most important thing to those who seek it:
44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. (Matthew 13)
26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14)
If you limit what you are willing to do to receive joy in any way, you will never find it in its lasting fullness.
How do you know whether it is worth everything if you don’t know what it is like? How do you know what sacrificing everything means when you haven’t yet experienced it? The challenge of the gospel is that you need to believe in outcomes far greater than anything you can presently perceive, and you have to be willing to pay any price to obtain them.
Seeking joy is a difficult road: you are promised that you don’t really know exactly what a fullness of joy is. Paul said:
...eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)
Isaiah wrote:
For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. (Isaiah 64:4)
The difficulty of this road is exactly why we need God. We need God in this journey because without him, we would not know the way and we would not have the strength to walk it. Through incrementally increasing knowledge of his character we are given the tools to know what sort of person we must be to obtain, retain, and appreciate the joy he possesses. This is why he said: “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.” (D&C 6:36)
While we develop the faith necessary to truly believe God and believe in his character, it is right and good to place our hopes on tangible stepping stone situations. These placeholders will come and go as we face situations for which they are insufficient, particularly in light of their revealed limitations.
Eventually, however, our hope must be in Christ himself. It is our faith in him that will drive sufficient hope to maintain complete obedience to him in spite of all the obstacles life presents:
Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God. (Ether 12:24)
But because of the faith of men he has shown himself unto the world, and glorified the name of the Father, and prepared a way that thereby others might be partakers of the heavenly gift, that they might hope for those things which they have not seen. (Ether 12:8)
Without him we would surely fail. We would not even start the journey if he didn’t tell us the potential outcome. We would not know even where to start without him showing us the way. Even if we knew the way, we would not get very far without a knowledge of his justice, love, and mercy, all three of which are essential to endure through the tribulation and toil that are required to reach the joy we desire. Jesus said:
4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no <u>man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14)</u>
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the way to maximal joy, he is the embodiment of the truth that gets you there, and he lives the life we seek for ourselves.
Jesus showed that the sacrifice of all things is required to obtain all the joy God wants to give you, and he showed the way we submit to that sacrifice.
Jesus lived his life fully reconciled to his most sincere understanding of the Father’s will. Still, his final hours of life were the chief challenge of his hard life. His path to a fullness of joy required him to feel as if he were forsaken by the Father on the cross: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) Contrast this with his later statement: “It is finished.” (John 19:30) His torment did not end until he was ready to hang on the cross for all eternity, if that is what the Father willed.
The Lord had previously told his disciples: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) After his sacrifice of all things, he told them: “Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” (3 Nephi 12:48) Being perfect means perfect, total submission to God, to what is right, and to what benefits the world:
For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. (Mosiah 3:19)
In other words, the pinnacle realization in this life is that nothing of this world is worth having. Only what is from God is worth the cost. This is what Jesus meant when he asked: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)
Paradoxically, there is a law appointed in heaven which dictates that eternal possession requires sacrifice. It isn’t until you stop looking for your reward here that you actually gain it, and there is nothing you can do to fake it:
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. (Matthew 10:39)
34 ...Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8)
In other words, you can only retain eternally what you are willing to sacrifice first. In mortality Jesus had power over life because he was willing to die. He obtained all things by losing all things. Abraham retained Isaac only because he was willing to let him go. Nephi was given power to seal on earth and in heaven because he was willing to submit his will completely to God’s.
If you want to save your life, you have to first lose it. You can't permanently retain what you aren't willing to give away.
The whole purpose of creation and the gospel is to provide the means by which individuals can obtain maximal joy. The means consist of information and power. He gives us an understanding of the best outcome we can aim for, he reveals to us the path we must walk to get it, and he provides all the information we need to appreciate it. When you know how to get there and you have the ability to get there, it becomes your choice whether or not you do.
We may not know God fully, but we know enough about him that he can serve as a tangible target for the joy we seek. If we trust that God has all joy and his whole purpose is to guide us to the same outcome, he can bridge everything we don’t know yet. He can be what tips the scales in favor of our decision to sacrifice all things (knowing we don’t yet know what that means) in order to receive all joy (knowing we don’t yet know what that means).