The Competing Aims of your fantasy and need to put up the Christmas Tree

Although I still believe that it is possible to create the life you desire around you (within limits), I have learned that there are two major obstacles that I under-estimated. I now have the kind of job that I wanted when I left law school, but I underestimated some of the ways it would effect my outside life. I will address this in another post.
I have also come to learn that if a committed relationship is part of the life you desire, you will have to learn to meld your vision to the desires of your mate, either through convincing them of your vision or changing yours to meet their expectations. Neither are easy.