[Lee Yongbeom's Psychology of Happiness] Happiness Is Not About Not Working but Doing What You Want to Do

Work Means More Than Livelihood... A Life Without Work Is Continuous Boredom
Would a Young Person Who Wants to Live Comfortably by Collecting Rent Be Happy?
Without Pursuing Success and Pleasure, Human Evolution Would Not Have Happened

Iyongbeom Novelist

In a corner of the market in Mexico City, Mexico, there was an old man who sold twenty bundles of onions every day. An American approached the old man and asked, "How much will you discount if I buy them all?" The old man replied, "I do not sell them all." "You don't sell them? Aren't you here to sell the onions you brought?" The American asked angrily, and the old man answered, "No. I love this market, and I enjoy meeting people here. That's my life. Once I sell all the onions, my day is over."

#1. Why We Work

This story is quoted from "The Gospel of the Indians" by American naturalist Ernest Seton (1860?1946). It carries one lesson: we do not work just for money. In 1999, a research team in the United States asked 138 college students to choose between two future jobs. One was a job chosen due to external recommendations, difficult for the first few years but with a very bright long-term outlook. The other was a job they always wanted to do but with low income. However, it offered high satisfaction and contributed to human progress.

You would choose the job you wanted without hesitation. In the experiment, 66% of students chose the job they wanted to do.

The researchers changed the question: "Then, which job would you recommend to a friend?" This time, 83% chose the job they wanted to do. They knew what a happy life was. However, 17% of students could not completely reject the expectations and views of others. Instead, they wished for their friend's happiness over their own.

British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872?1970) classified work into two types: one is moving objects on the ground to another place, and the other is having others do that. Most people prefer to have others do the work because they regard labor as an unavoidable hardship.

However, work means more than just a means of livelihood. The happiest people are those whose desired work, capable work, and necessary work coincide and who actually engage in such work. But this is very rare. Most people seek jobs to make a living and, once employed, have no choice but to do work they do not want.

People who work just to make a living are not happy. To become happy, one must change the "Should" work?work that must be done?from "Want to" work?work one wants to do.

#2. Young People Who Want to Become Building Owners

Many say they would quit their jobs immediately if they had money. There are quite a few young people who want to live comfortably by receiving building rental income. Would they really be happy if they stopped working?

A happy life is not a life without work but a life where one can freely choose the work they want to do. The unemployed cannot choose work according to their will. A life of doing nothing is just a continuous boredom. A life of being unable to do anything is a powerless life.

We do not work expecting great rewards. Sometimes, we work to escape boredom. That is why people give up comfort and take action even for very trivial motives.

In 2010, researchers at the University of Chicago conducted a simple survey with college students and asked them to submit the questionnaire either to a nearby office or to a place a 15-minute walk away. They were told that those who submitted it to the farther place would receive candy as a souvenir. As a result, the number of students choosing the farther place increased significantly.

When there is a reason to act, we boldly part ways with laziness. We are lazy not because we dislike work but because we cannot find a reason to work. Happiness does not require great achievements. We feel happiness when we actively live, not just exist (be).

At one time in Japan, the term "Satori Sedai (さとり世代)" was popular. It refers to a generation of young people who lost hope and became lethargic due to high unemployment. Many young people in our society today are in a similar situation. They seem to seek small happiness by escaping worldly desires. But in fact, it is close to giving up hope.

Being content with a modest life in a solitary room can be a severe selfishness that abandons communal responsibilities. It is not enlightenment but a failure of life. Some happiness evangelists urge people to give up greed and seek small happiness. However, if humanity had not pursued success and pleasure, we would now be mere insignificant fossils on top of dinosaur fossils.

A life without work is boring. Imagine Adam and Eve from the Bible. A life of forever gazing at the Garden of Eden is not happy. We should be thankful for God's curse that assigned us laborious work as the price for eating the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.

Where else but humans do animals have to fuss so much to assert their existence? As American Nobel laureate William Faulkner (1897?1962) said, "Man cannot eat for eight hours a day, cannot drink for eight hours a day, and cannot make love for eight hours a day. The only thing he can do for eight hours is work."

Even if Eden existed, we cannot return. Humans are born with the fate to sweat to live. We work not simply to eat but to eat better and more elegantly. Humans strive futilely to move forward on the wheel of happiness because we are descendants of ancestors who survived through greed.

#3. Rediscovering Meaning

American psychologist Barry Schwartz distinguished work as job, career, and calling. While a job is for livelihood, a calling is about confirming one's identity and pursuing meaningfulness.

The power that ignites passion is the reason for the act, in other words, meaning. People who give meaning to their work are happier. Various studies on hospital workers found that cleaners who believed they contributed to patients' recovery were happier. They even felt more fulfilled than doctors or nurses working in the same hospital.

Moreover, nurses who thought they were accompanying patients at their deathbeds were happier than other nurses or doctors who thought they were just doing menial tasks. Happy people are not those with good jobs but those who make their work meaningful.

But what meaning does work have for someone who types on a keyboard all day? What meaning does work have for someone who cuts wire for more than eight hours a day? Without understanding the overall context of their work, it is difficult to find meaning in work. A wire cutter must know that the wire they cut becomes a spring and what product the spring is a part of. Otherwise, work is just simple, repetitive labor.

In 2012, researchers at Harvard University divided participants into two groups and asked them to assemble Lego toys, paying them up to a certain amount. One group saw their assembled toys immediately disassembled and put back into the box. They soon lost motivation.

The control group assembled an average of 10.6 toys and earned $14.40. But the group that lost motivation assembled only 7.2 toys and earned just $11.52. From work perceived as meaningless, one gains neither motivation nor enjoyment.

Our ancestors lived in a world where life and work were integrated for millions of years. It is only recently that work has been perceived as hard labor. Therefore, we are not accustomed to working according to fixed norms while being conscious of others' eyes.

To prevent work from turning into suffering, we must rediscover meaning in what we do. What meaning will you assign to your work? This determines your attitude toward work.

Anyone can dig a 1.5-meter-deep hole. But not everyone can dig a hole on the boundary between life and death.

Novelist