The Happiness Project: One secret to happiness and productivity: don’t follow Paris Hilton’s misadventures.

The Happiness Project

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

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.”

Maybe you’re genuinely interested in Paris Hilton. Maybe you talk about her with your colleagues around the water-cooler. Maybe you see her shenanigans as a fascinating commentary on certain aspects of American society.

If so, spending time on Paris Hilton certainly may contribute to your happiness. This kind of topic can be a lot of fun to follow.

I, however, was reading the occasional Paris Hilton story not because I was at all interested, but because I felt some kind of obligation to keep up with the latest twists. There’s so much coverage of it, I had a vague sense that I should keep myself informed.

Finally, light dawned. Hey, I told myself, this isn’t Iraq! This isn’t the immigration bill or the presidential election or even that guy with the rare strain of TB! I have no civic obligation to keep up with her story.

I’ve decided to spend NO TIME on monitoring the doings of Paris Hilton, and I’m sure I’ve saved untold hours to dedicate to more important activities, like reading magazines, flossing, and tidying my office.

*
I love tips lists, quotations, and anything to do with the subject of happiness, so I always find something worth checking out on the Positivity Blog. There's always something to get me thinking.

*
If you're new to the Happiness Project, you may want to consider subscribing to my RSS feed: Subscribe to this blog's feed.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by: |

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Your comment could not be posted. Error type:

Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.