Pain in purpose

Wouldn't life be so much easier if we knew our purpose. We spend most of our time trying to be happy, successfulr, wealthy, comfortable or just simply trying to find or fulfill our purpose. But why is there so much pain accompanying that process? Is the pain pertinent? My answer is yes. Without the pain we would continue to travel down wrong paths. The pain is just a form of redirection. So I'm thankful for the reasoning of pain although the pain itself may have been uncomfortable but I realize that because of the pain I'm once again headed back in the right direction.