The Happiness Project: This Saturday: a happiness quotation from Boethius.

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.”

“Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it.” -- Boethius

We've all heard various version of this observation so many times that it's hard to appreciate how EXTREMELY true and important it is to happiness.

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Creating Ms. Perfect is great blog that's very happiness-project-y; Kimberly Palmer is tracking her adventures as she reads women's advice books to try to figure out what kind of person she wants to be. It reminds me of Jennifer Niesslen's terrific book, Practically Perfect in Every Way, and blog -- except that, even when two people have happiness projects that sound fairly similar, they end up being completely distinct and idiosyncratic. And every one is interesting. Kim posted a Q-and-A with me.

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If you're starting your own happiness project, please join the Happiness Project Group on Facebook to swap ideas. It's easy; it's free.

Comments

A must read is "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" by Dale Carnegie. Many of his ideas are reflected in this blog. Your work here is splendid, Gretchen!

Posted by: Michael Sporer | October 27, 2007 at 02:33 PM

Gretchen, thanks so much for the kind words about PP--given how much you know (and have shared), it means the world to me!

I can't wait to read THE HAPPINESS PROJECT (the book)!

Posted by: Jennifer | October 27, 2007 at 04:04 PM

THANKS for inspiring me.Keep up the awesome work.

Love & Gratitude,
Tina
Think Simple. Be Decisive.
Productivity, Motivation & Happiness

Posted by: Tina Su | October 28, 2007 at 02:35 AM

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