"Two millennia ago, Aristotle distinguished between a life lived in pursuit of pleasure, which brings temporary satisfaction, and a life lived according to reason, virtue, and the pursuit of goals, which leads to true happiness. Therapeutic approaches of today tend to agree with Aristotle that fleeting pleasures aren't enough to make us happy and that a subjective sense of well-being stems largely from the way we live our lives."
"Yeongju, the owner of the bookshop, is one such refugee from the work world. She leaves a high-paying job that consumed most of her waking hours to open a bookshop, a choice motivated by her lifelong love of reading. She left a job that was meaningless to her, a career path expected of her by her family. Dedication to an empty pursuit affected other areas of her life, in particular, foreclosing meaningful connections with other people."
Aristotle contrasted a pleasure-centered life with a life guided by reason, virtue, and purposeful goals, identifying the latter as the path to true happiness. Modern therapeutic perspectives converge on three core components of well-being: meaningful social connections, a sense of purpose aligned with interests and values, and freedom from persistent negative thoughts and feelings. A Seoul-set narrative portrays a former high-paying-job worker who leaves an empty, expected career to open a neighborhood bookshop driven by lifelong love of reading. That career shift restores opportunities for connection and self-directed purpose and counters a punishing work culture that undermined relationships.
Read at Psychology Today
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