[Voices of the MZ Generation Column] Growing Through Replacing "Something" With "Something"

Changing Life Through "Replacement," Not "Elimination"
A Process of Seeking Something Better Than Before
Continuously Searching for What Truly Fits

As the new year begins, people each make resolutions. This year, I will quit smoking; this year, I will start exercising or writing?such resolutions abound. These resolutions often seem like efforts to turn something from “nothing” to “something,” or from “something” to “nothing.” For example, changing a smoking state to nothing, or changing a non-exercising state to an exercising state. However, in reality, life is closer to replacing one “something” with another “something.”

Replacement does not mean turning nothing into something, or something into nothing. It precisely means changing one something into another something. When we talk about quitting smoking, we often think only about turning smoking into nothing, but more importantly, it is about replacing smoking with something else. When the urge to smoke arises, one might exercise or play mobile games instead. One must replace the stimulus they desire with another stimulus. Turning something into nothing is impossible or very difficult. Something must be replaced with something else.

Our daily lives are filled with countless things that can be replaced. For example, the cola, chocolate, and vanilla latte you consumed today are all replaceable. If you want to reduce fatigue and fat to build a better body, you can immediately replace these sugar-based foods. When you crave sugar, you can eat nuts, and instead of the sweetness of a vanilla latte, you can enjoy the sourness of an Americano.

If your daily life is fundamentally filled with stress, you need to examine your work and relationships. Quitting your job and turning it into nothing does not solve the problem but only avoids it, potentially creating bigger issues. You must desperately think about how to gradually replace your current work with something different. Find ways to replace it little by little, within the possible range. Look for ways to make it a bit easier, a bit better, or a bit different.

If you are stressed because of people and decide to cut off all relationships, humans will stagger under loneliness and alienation. What is needed is not a state of nothingness without people, but better people. In the world, there are not only bad relationships around you but also good ones. Then you must desperately seek out those better relationships. Whether it is a book club, exercise group, or religious gathering, as better relationships deepen, bad relationships disappear and replacement occurs.

If exercise is not fun, instead of deciding that exercise is not your aptitude and quitting, you should replace it with an exercise that suits your aptitude. This replacement process does not happen all at once; it seems to require very subtle effort. Through continuous attempts at replacement, you gradually find substitutes that suit you, and eventually, you find an “alternative life” that fits you. Of course, such a replaced life may be replaced again as time passes.

Especially youth is a time to diligently experiment with these possibilities of replacement. During your twenties and thirties, if you diligently seek possibilities for replacement, there is a greater chance you will move toward a life you truly love. Trying small replacements from small pieces of daily life, in retrospect, forms the most important phases of your life. Attempts and resolutions to replace create a better life. Creating something from nothing or turning something back into nothing is the domain of the divine. Humans grow little by little by replacing something with something else.

Jung Ji-woo, Lawyer and Cultural Critic