One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Recently, I've been reading a lot of posts by friends whom I always thought of as, "having it together." I've always admired their ability to get things done, to organize, to be positive. They've always made me feel, I have to admit, slightly ashamed of my perceived lack of ability. My inattentiveness to my own life.
The posts I've been reading, however, show that sometimes even the most positive of people go through their own personal trials. Feelings of discontent, malaise, and outright dissatisfaction with life. For all their "togetherness," they don't seem to be any happier than I am.
This goes toward something talked about in Buddhism; the levels of suffering. The most gross is, "the suffering of suffering." Suffering with an illness, a major problem, a sick relative, being assaulted. Then there is the suffering of change, wherein a person, any person, feels overwhelmed by the changes in life. Nothing is permanent, and people like permanence, or at least want pleasurable things to last. Finally, there is all-pervasive suffering, a sub-conscious dissatisfaction with life, and existence, itself. Because we all want to be free of suffering, and the ego clings to the phenomenal world. But since everything is impermanent, the world is incapable of satisfying permanently. So, we make demands on the world, changing it ourselves as we do so, and speeding our journey into dissatisfaction.
Pema Chodron writes of an image of the Buddha, where he's seated under the bodhi tree just before his enlightenment. The forces of Mara, the illusory world, are attacking him, trying to stop his ultimate Awakening. The demon army of Mara fires many weapons at Siddartha, arrows, spears, and swords. Yet just before reaching the meditating Siddartha, the sharp points of the weapons transform into lotus flowers. Chodron writes that one meaning of this image is that the very things that one experiences as a sharp sword could also be experienced as a flower; the very thing meant to cut you down can wake you up, if you pay close attention.
Easier said than done. My normal reaction to such problems has been to shut down, and let someone else take over. Ultimately, however, no one can take over your life for you. You have to live it to the best of your ability.
Life is short. Make the most of it while you can. What is this suffering, this dukkha, pointing to? Knowing that, you can perhaps start to make life your friend, and not feel so oppressed.