If you don't have a sense of meaning in life, even if you are a housewife, even if your mom and dad leave you billions of dollars of family assets, even if you are a noblewoman who never worries about food and clothing, even if you are a boss, a public official, even if you can't spend all your money before you die, and even if you don't worry about food, don't worry about clothing, and you get a pension of 30,000 to 50,000 dollars a month, so what?
I often joke with people, "I can't spend all my money until I die. And I'm not a loser because I don't have kids!" So why do I need to open a clinic and do so much more? Because people need "meaningful work".
If we don't establish a sense of meaning, we can't give the elderly a sense of fulfillment and happiness simply by taking up a hobby or an interest. So, do you understand why some older people are sick all over? Please tell this to every older person around you.
In the same way, you can't make young people feel fulfilled and happy simply by having hobbies without a sense of meaning. So, sometimes, you have to make the young man feel that he is contributing to the family, that his life has meaning, and even let the young man come to **** with the family's decisions.
You may think that people used to live a hard life. For example, in our previous generation, when we were a little bit older, we started to help our parents work in the fields. Maybe a teenage girl would have to carry the vegetables grown by her family to the market to sell them. But nowadays, will there still be teenage girls carrying vegetables to sell? People may think that young people are very happy nowadays. But ask yourself: is this really the case?
In fact, young people nowadays are easily lost, and they feel that they have no contribution to their families. Many parents raise children as if they were pets, and pets don't need to be of any use! So why do many young people have problems? Because they don't feel like they are contributing!
Does meaningful work mean there must be money? Not necessarily oh! Meaningful work may mean that it's a "playful" job, it may be a little "playful", but it's also energetic.
For example, Dr. Koh feels energized every time he conducts a book club. But do you know how much money Dr. Koh makes from a book club? Zero. And I paid for the gas, I drove myself. I've been on this book club for 20 or 30 years, and I've never taken any money!
But, for me, it's meaningful work, and it's energizing, and I do it with playfulness. Not only that, but I have the freedom of not being on, for example, I can use gout as an excuse. Then the staff will say, "Then we'll cancel this time oh, take care Dr. Hsu!" The truth is that I don't want to go to book clubs once in a while!
So why are many older people afraid to retire, afraid to retire? It's the fear of not finding a meaningful life after retirement!
For me, meaningful work means work with "playful energy". It's that playfulness that contains the great qualities of healing and creativity.