The Happiness Project: Ah, you're thinking, one blog isn't enough! Where can I read MORE from Gretchen? Check out RealSimple.com.

I’m working on a book, THE HAPPINESS PROJECT, a memoir of the year I spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from popular culture about how to be happy--from Aristotle to Martin Seligman to Thoreau to Oprah. On this daily blog, I recount my adventures as I grapple with the challenge of being happier. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will hit the shelves in December 2009 (Harper).

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.”

Ah, you're thinking, one blog isn't enough! Where can I read MORE from Gretchen? Check out RealSimple.com.

I was thrilled to be asked by RealSimple.com to post regularly as one of their new bloggers. I'll be writing in the "Life and Soul" section, in a blog called Note to Self, about trying to remember my true priorities -- while also trying to remember to pick up some milk.

Check it out!

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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.

Posted March 4, 2008

Comments

Many congratulations! Real Simple has always had such excellent life improvement content.

Posted by: stephanerd | March 04, 2008 at 07:58 PM

Actually, that's just what I was thinking. We wouldn't mind having a blog from Gretchen once in awhile at HumanKind Media. Can't wait to see what Note To Self brings us in addition to happiness.

Posted by: Chris | March 04, 2008 at 08:00 PM

Heeeey. Congrats! Real Simple is one of my favourite mags.

Posted by: andrea from the fishbowl | March 04, 2008 at 10:16 PM

That makes all the sense in the world - I like RealSimple for a lot of the same reasons I like reading your blog. Self-improvement in small, well-written, manageable, practical doses. I mean, you're deeper than RealSimple (I don't mean to compare your life's work to a magazine), but the approach is similar.

Posted by: Ella | March 05, 2008 at 08:33 AM

Best of luck, I know from experience that blogging on multiple sites can be a tricky task. It's important to define before you start what topics you'll discuss here and what topics are fair game over there.

Posted by: gamermk | March 05, 2008 at 11:09 AM

Congrats, Gretchen! I just noticed you there last night and was thrilled that there will be more of you on the Web. They're good talent-pickers, those Real Simple folks!

Posted by: Asha {Parent Hacks} | March 05, 2008 at 12:57 PM

I just found you through Real Simple! I am getting to know the blog and I really like it! I have one question though- why do you look so serious in your picture?

Posted by: Daniela | March 05, 2008 at 01:53 PM

That's great Gretchen!

You are such a talented writer with so many wonderful messages. I will be launching my blog officially soon and am excited to share you with my community. I have also been invited to write a monthly feature for Pink Magazine. You should check them out www.pinkmagazine.com I think you have exactly what they might be looking for and can be published in their hardcopies or online. It would be a terrific way to promote your books and blogs.

~Nicole

Posted by: Dr. Nicole Sundene | March 05, 2008 at 03:44 PM

Thanks for all these good wishes!

Ah, many have asked why I look so solemn in that picture. The reason? That's the only decent digital photo I have of myself.

Posted by: Gretchen Rubin | March 05, 2008 at 04:10 PM

That's fantastic! Congratulations!

Posted by: Sarah | March 06, 2008 at 01:00 PM

Congratulations! Real Simple is a great magazine.

Posted by: Natasha | March 07, 2008 at 07:20 PM

Congratulations, Gretchen! What a fantastic opportunity, and I've just bookmarked it under my "Essential Blogs" folder.

Posted by: Megan | March 08, 2008 at 10:16 PM

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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.