A quotation from Anthony Trollope.
A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules. --Anthony Trollope.
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.
What Started Me Thinking
- "Whoever is happy will make others happy, too." 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.”
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Gretchen Rubin is a best-selling writer whose new book, The Happiness Project, is an account of the year she spent test-driving studies and theories about how to be happier. On this blog, she shares her insights to help you create your own happiness project.
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Key Posts About Happiness
- Secrets of adulthood
- Recommended happiness reading
- Ten myths about happiness
- The movie "Twilight" inspires me to do a better job with some of my resolutions.
- Six tips for good deeds that take less than five minutes
- Imitate a spiritual master – who is yours?
- Five happiness boosters that actually do more harm than good
- Do something every day
One Minute Movies
Wednesday Tips
- October 28: 5 great "don'ts" of a happiness project.
- October 21: 8 excellent tips for living that my parents gave me.
- October 14: 7 tips if you're chronically late.
- October 7: 6 tips to hold yourself accountable for your resolutions.
- September 30: 18 tips that aren't, it turns out, from a churchyard.
- September 23: 6 tips for coping with the fact that you've forgotten someone's name.
- September 16: 10 tips for getting along with your mother-in-law.
- September 9: 10 (more) tips for fighting right with your sweetheart.
- September 2: 12 tips to create a happier (and more productive) workplace.
- August 26: 8 tips for items to carry when traveling with kids.
- August 19: 5 tips for happiness reinforced by my family vacation.
- August 5: 23 phrases to help you fight right.
- July 29: 9 tips for having a good bad day.
- July 22: Quiz--Are you drifting?
- July 16: How to be happier in 4 easy lessons.
- July 9: 9 tips for giving memorable praise--and why to bother.
- July 1: 14 tips for running a good meeting.
- June 24: 8 fun tools to boost your happiness.
- June 17: 5 mistakes I make in my marriage.
- June 10: 8 tips for working more happily with your colleagues.
- June 3: 16 tips for feeling happier at work.
- May 27: 13 tips for actually getting some writing done.
- May 20: 7 tips for making good conversation with a stranger.
Popular quizzes
I keep appreciating your posts contributing to happiness.
I usually read your blog in bloglines, I had not seen your twelve commandments. I appreciate the cogent commandments and wish you all the best on being Gretchen.
David
Posted by: David Zinger | March 03, 2007 at 06:13 PM
This quote totally rocks!! I will use it with my clients as I assist them in learning new habits. Awesome awesome awesome! Thanks!
~Monica
Posted by: Monica Ricci | March 03, 2007 at 10:09 PM
When I saw Trollope's name, I had to comment. I was born in Banagher, County Offaly, Republic of Ireland (my email address)and came to the U.S. in 1956. A nugget that I brought with me is that Anthony Trollope was the Postmaster of Banagher for approximately three years. I used to walk past his former house on Cuba Avenue daily on my way to the Banagher National School.
Posted by: Brendan Loonam | March 06, 2007 at 01:51 PM
I agree with the quote, but the Herculean tasks are so much more interesting. Daily maintenance is boring (you can see how well I empathize with my clients!).
Posted by: Alex Fayle | March 09, 2007 at 08:52 AM