Joy can never be an expected outcome of our hard work, our searching, our struggling. There's much that we can expect to gain from our own efforts - financial security, intellectual satisfaction, applause - but joy cannot be gained by work or effort. For joy is a gift. Search for it, and you won't find it. Pray for it and it will come to you.
"He who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity's sunrise". William Blake