Starting a happiness project is all the easier when someone does the legwork for you. Freed from having to think too much about it, it was easy to get started on January's theme of self-knowledge by picking up a handful of suggestions from Gretchen and throwing in a couple resolutions of my own. The idea...
gretchen rubin
Happiness Project Redux
In my previous post, I mentioned that I'm endeavoring a Happiness Project again. I've written a lot of background about happiness projects, and why I find the idea meaningful—as opposed to mere frivolity––so I won't go into that again now. This time, though, due to some Black Friday margarita drinking*, I'm actually doing the official...
Wrapping Up My Happiness Project
Six months ago I started a small happiness project, and now it's coming to an end. Today I'd like to look back on the project, see where I succeeded and where I didn't, and what lessons I can carry forward.
Happiness isn't big enough
Last week I wrote a post considering the question of whether seeking happiness actually makes us miserable, as some maintain. (Spoiler alert: I don't think so.) I was moved by the comments to that post, and all week I've been thinking about this one: In the 1960s, there were some very popular and influential books that accused American...
Does Seeking Happiness Make Us Miserable?
Over the weekend I noticed an essay on Vox titled America is obsessed with happiness--and it's making us miserable. Obviously, given all that I have written about happiness here, including my own efforts to do a happiness project, the title jumped out at me. Even without reading the essay, that title gave me a prick of discomfort...
Happiness Project: Focus Areas
A few weeks ago I wrote about starting a happiness project. I'm putting together a mini-project to begin next week (I would have preferred September 1, but after our recent transatlantic trip I'm a bit behind). For reasons I'll share later, a six-month project fits my life better than a year-long one, so I'm going to start by...
Starting a happiness project
Have you heard of The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin? I stumbled across the book, and then Rubin's website, a few years ago. I was really taken by how clear and, well, smart her writing was. I tend to shy away from anything overly self-help-y and anything that relies on positive thinking to make life changes, but I felt that...