It's funny and ironic to me that we, as human beings are always trying to accept only one side of this dualistic principle.
The perpetual search for greater and higher pleasures only brings more pain when we Demand them. The same seems to be true for the Demand of avoiding pain itself...more pain.
There is a fine road, a line, a way, if you will of navigating the pleasure/pain principle. It seems to require
an inner state of neutrality, and since nothing is constant and 'effort' is also another snare in which to get caught one finds that that it requires a light hearted vigilance that does not sleep. An acceptance and a love that breathes with your surroundings and circumstances, and the ability to allow yourself to fall asleep and wake up a thousand times a day without remorse, and love it for what it is, with a smile on your face is paramount to gleaning any understanding of self.
I think it's not the 'end' result, as if there was one, that's important, but just the moment to moment, day to day Journey that is crucial. There is only now. The future will come of it's own. "Sufficient unto the day are the concerns thereof..." -Bible (paraphrased).
"We hold reality in the palm of our hands...not too lose, and not too tight." --Some Zen Somebody
Some piece to this perplexing aspect of the human experience may lie in the acceptance of reality As It Is, rather than the constant knee jerk reaction of having to change every little thing that we do not like in this or that moment. How much energy is spent on that? How much energy is spent on trying, at great lengths, to avoid pain? What would happen to a person's inner evolution if they came to a Full Stop on manipulating their external reality? What would action then look like? Do we actually Know true Action apart from reaction?
Age comes naturally. You have to work for Wisdom.