The Happiness Project: This Wednesday: Tips for the minimum to do every day.

THE HAPPINESS PROJECT is the memoir of the year I spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier – happily, it was a #1 New York Times bestseller. As one of the hundreds of experiments I've conducted, I started this blog. Here, I recount my daily adventures in pursuit of happiness. –

Gretchen Rubin

Twelve Personal Commandments

Four Splendid Truths

First: To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.
Second: One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy; One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.
Third: The days are long, but the years are short. (click the link to see my one-minute movie)
Fourth: You’re not happy unless you think you’re happy.

30-Second
TV Commercial

What Started Me Thinking

"The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer somebody else up." Mark Twain
“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” Robert Louis Stevenson
"Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42
“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” Simone Weil
“What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” Colette
“It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” G. K. Chesterton
“A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.” Joseph Addison
“Best is good. Better is best.” Lisa Grunwald
“Order is Heaven’s first law.” Alexander Pope

Happiness Theories I Reject

Flaubert: "To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless."
Vauvenargues: “There are men who are happy without knowing it.”
Eric Hoffer: “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”
Sartre: "Hell is other people."
Willa Cather: “One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them…”
Alexander Smith: “We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once.”
John Stuart Mill: “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.”

This Wednesday: Tips for the minimum to do every day.

Every Wednesday is Tip Day.
This Wednesday: Tips for the minimum to do every day.

The beginning of a new year is a promising time to resolve to live a better life, but that goal can sure seem overwhelming. So here’s a list of a few things that everyone can do every day.

So, at the very least, after a discouraging day, I can comfort myself, as I climb into my smooth, tidy bed, “Well, at least I went for a walk. I ate an apple. I gave the Big Man a hug.”

Every day…

Make your bed.

Wear sunscreen.

Wear your seat belt.

Go for a ten-minute walk.

Eat a fruit or vegetable.

Put your keys away in the same place.

Touch everyone in your house with affection.

Posted January 3, 2007

Comments

This ties in with the "what counts are your daily actions not the once-in-a-while actions", right?

Posted by: Helen | January 03, 2007 at 02:21 PM

It is the little things that make life good if we would just remember to do them. Thanks for the reminder.

Posted by: joan | January 03, 2007 at 05:31 PM

Wonderful list Gretchen! I would also add "process your mail" and "do the dishes" to that list. These small habits will keep you from ever having to dig out from under a yucky pile of mail or nasty plates. :)
~Monica

Posted by: Monica Ricci | January 03, 2007 at 06:39 PM

Happy New Year, Gretchen. Just a quick note to say how much I enjoy your blog and how grateful I am to read that you will be continuing it in the new year. I do enjoy your Weds. tips and frequently pass them on. Cheers, Sissy

Posted by: sissy | January 03, 2007 at 10:31 PM

I'd add: take a shower/bath every day to that list. Makes you, and those around you happy :)

Posted by: Jack | January 04, 2007 at 06:50 AM

Don't forget to FLOSS!

Posted by: Paul Tailor | January 05, 2007 at 11:31 AM

That's really nice, but everything should be done without THINKING and FORCING yourself. Of course, first we need to say ourselves: "I should do this and this". But it should not last all life, it should become our habit: so that we can feel it as something natural, something inside our souls.

Posted by: Roman | May 07, 2007 at 05:03 PM

I think exercise is a pretty good one, try to go for a walk, take the stairs whenever you can, it helps clear the mind and enhances your mood.

Posted by: Salma | June 21, 2007 at 07:37 AM

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Gretchen Rubin is the best-selling writer whose book, The Happiness Project, is the account of the year she spent test-driving studies and theories about how to be happier. Here, she shares her insights to help you create your own happiness project.