The Happiness Project: A quotation fromWilliam James.

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
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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.”

A quotation fromWilliam James.

“If we wish to conquer undesirable emotional tendencies in ourselves, we must assiduously, and in the first instance cold-bloodedly, go through the outward motions of those contrary dispositions we prefer to cultivate.” --William James.

Posted February 3, 2007

Comments

Fabulous quote; thank you! I love the James brothers' way with words.

Posted by: Anne | February 03, 2007 at 01:12 PM

yep - thoughts follow behavior

Posted by: damselfly | February 03, 2007 at 04:08 PM

I don't quite understand what he means. An explanation would be much appreciated Gretchen.

Posted by: Robert | February 04, 2007 at 12:14 AM

for me...it means "act" on what you want; not just "think" about it." Not unlike Gandhi: "be the change you want to see." Thinking alone never brings about change. The greatest ideas are only as large as the tiny brain molecules that hold theme...until one acts.

Posted by: peter vajda | February 04, 2007 at 11:56 AM

Two modern day, Cliff's Notes versions (to me, anyway):
Smile like you mean it.
Fake it till you make it.

Posted by: Sharyn | February 04, 2007 at 02:19 PM

Fantastic quote. I truly believe that and there have been studies (of course I can't think of exact ones, except I think I read about it in one of Malcolm Gladwell's books) to show that if you force a smile, it releases chemicals that are released when the smile comes from within, so acting does change the mind.

Posted by: Alex Fayle | February 05, 2007 at 01:13 PM

This has been one of the most startling things that I've found during my research this year -- if I act as I want to feel, I will CHANGE MY FEELINGS. Sounds improbable, but it really does work. So, if you're feeling irritated with someone, act toward that person in a particularly friendly or loving way. If you're feeling shy, act outgoing. If you're feeling lethargic, start moving as if you were filled with energy. And studies have indeed shown that if you fake a smile, you will start to feel happier; I've tried that myself, and it does work.

Posted by: Gretchen Rubin | February 05, 2007 at 09:58 PM

You will find the same approach of "fake till you make it" in Steinbeck's East of Eden. The chinese character tells a story from his parents past. The father had to watch the brutal death of his wife and to take care of his baby. By faking otwardly normal life he was able to survive and to bring up his child (if I remember correctly).

Posted by: chris | February 06, 2007 at 03:05 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.