Missing out or missing 'it'?

Each Monday I go to work. Each evening I come home, watch TV, eat dinner, sometimes read a book and go to bed. Each weekend I clean the house, catch up with friends, maybe do some shopping and then Sunday night rolls around and I start the week again.

I enjoy each individual part of that life. Work is fulfilling and I'm paid really well, I love my friends, my family is happy & healthy, I have dogs I love, I have a lovely boy who's committed to me, and I am happy with where I live.

So why, when they are put together as a whole, do I feel like there's something missing? I have all the things that should mean a happy, fulfilled life. So why isn't it?

I believe strongly that happiness is not about having what you love, but loving what you have. But that idea doesn't seem to be borne out in my day-to-day thoughts. I have looked to fill my life with things I enjoy and have moved from one hobby to the next in search of something that fulfils me. But no luck yet. I keep looking for what might be the key - perhaps buying a home of my own and not renting? Perhaps moving to a new town? Maybe it's my relationship that's making me unhappy? What if I did more travel? Occasionally the thoughts are fleeting and I know deep down they're not the issue. Other ones roll around in my head for days or weeks, or surface every couple of months. But none of them really scream out to me and say - this is it - this is what is the key. I know they're just like the new TV, or new computer, or new clothes, or new mobile phone that I always lust after and think they will be the most wonderful thing ever - until I have them, and after a few days or a week of enjoying them they just become part of life and before long I'm lusting after something new. It seems like I'm in a circle of upgrades, of trade-ins, of seeking the new and shiny and none of it fills the gap.

I know, or at least I pretend to know, that I should be happy with what I have. Stop lusting after what I don't have and focus on what I do. Think of all the people that have less and appreciate that I am one of the 'lucky ones'. So why is that so hard to actually do?

Have I fallen into the Western lifestyle tragedy that means that without new, shiny, exciting I somehow feel like I'm missing out? And more importantly - if that's true - how the hell do I snap out of it?