It is very natural of human nature that its needs are ever increasing. It wants more and more [not Aditya Birla's Retail store ;) ]. In this process Man's level of happiness is decreasing. Be it his career or salary or any other material possession, he wants the "next level thing". Well this is good when it is in terms of gaining knowledge or progress in career. This is his intellectual or calibre thirst which will make her/his personality more and more refined each time it is quenched. But when it comes to material possessions such thirst will lead to nothing but unhappiness.
Perfection is a very subjective term. According to me, it can never be attained. One can only strive to attain it throughout her/his life. But satisfaction can be attained and enjoyed. And dont confuse satisfaction with complacency. To be complacent is to be satisfied with one's faults. The satisfaction that I am referring to here means contentment you gain when you feel you have done something right. This leads to happy state of mind and that makes mind free to mingle with the world that is very typical of you.
Rampent competition in all the walks of life is giving a feeling of being "incompetent" to a person who dosent achieve the standards set by society. And he/she feels satisfied when he/she attains those. But do they think why are they strieving so hard to attain those or how will he/she meet her/his personal goals by meeting those standards set by society? ( well ..how many of us have personal goals here).
So the bottom line is, satisfaction be it materail or spiritual, can bring true happiness to you and its better if one sets his/her standards to attain it. ( It is assumed that standards here mean something that one considers to be ideal).