As I look into my past, I may not even change anything since those memories gave me a learning experience rather to consider a perfect life but a life with understanding fulfilling basic needs and establishing a goal focus.  One way to stretch out the idea of simplicity for me was to find a way to live a life that will work without the demands of society and environment.  An example was work environment with a repetitive schedule where I can easily just clock in do the job description find solutions to small errors and establish the time for the two week paycheck.  The job choices seemed to be something temporary than to be a permanent career choice.  Personally, have family that tried to pursue this type of living may have sacrificed a bit to commit maybe 20-40+ years in a company.  In the end, the company decides to recruit younger and cheaper employees to replace the position which can have mix emotions of either self-worth and questioning commitment.  Hence, I like the previous comments about seeking simplicity with appreciation.  Even if you try to plan it out, there is something that might be missing or to consider as a part of one's perfect life perspective.  Personally, I wouldn't mind having more kids, but like the second quote, "we cannot get what we always ask".  My wife and I are already content with having one son after the previous attempts led to miscarriages.  There are still ups and downs in life, but there was never any regrets in the life only life lessons.