VOL.78/2025.01

How To Enrich Your Life

Financial Planner’s Pick

2024.12.02

When I counsel clients on their finances, I often meet people who are not satisfied with what they have and are constantly chasing something that doesn’t exist. We expect greater wealth to bring greater satisfaction, but it doesn’t unless you are absolutely destitute. Money cannot be the ultimate solution because it is just one of many means. Then, how can we increase our satisfaction? I would like to introduce you to two books that will help you find the answer.

Author Seo Eun-Kuk, a professor of psychological science at Yonsei University, is a scholar specializing in the topic of happiness. He is considered one of the world’s leading psychologists studying happiness. In the modern world, people are exposed to a plethora of hedonic factors. There are times when the excessive pursuit of instant happiness leads to an imbalance and a greater sense of unhappiness. The Origin of Happiness (Book 21) takes a concrete approach to the abstract concept of happiness and its origins from a scientific perspective. It differs from other books on happiness in three ways.
First, while other books focus on “how to be happy?,” the main concern of this book is “why do humans experience happiness?” This helps us understand the nature of happiness. Second, the book is more interested in the instinctive, animalistic side of happiness than the rational side. It gives us insight into happiness beyond social conventions and values. Third, it tries to break the mold of conventional thinking about happiness. It helps us move away from unscientific, human-centered thinking that sees happiness as a process that requires daily effort to achieve. The idea is that we can enrich our daily lives by purposefully designing our own experiences of happiness.

When counseling clients, there are times when they focus on the how, not the where. Some follow what others are doing, or what the crowd is doing, out of anxiety. If you don’t have a financial goal, or if your goals don’t align with your values, the process can be exhausting, and the results can be unfulfilling. So, it is important to find a productive and healthy approach while making the decisions you want to make, so that you can be satisfied with both the process and the outcome.
Hwang Nong-Moon, the author of Slow Thinking (Wisdom House) and professor emeritus of materials science and engineering at Seoul National University, developed Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s “Flow Theory” based on his research experience in a state of extreme immersion. Immersion is a state, not an action. You can be focused without being immersed, and you can be immersed without being focused. The key is to understand the mechanics of immersion and set goals that align with your values. If you use immersion in the process of achieving your goals, you can begin to enjoy the process. It will make your life a lot less stressful and anxious, but instead full of joy and abundance.

Written by Jung Won-Jun (Financial planner at Barun Financial Planning)