The Happiness Project: More true than you can possibly imagine.

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.”

Hollywood My sister is always dropping memorable apercus about what life is like when you write for TV and live in Los Angeles.

Some of my favorites:

"'Yes' comes right away; 'no' never comes."
"People succeed in groups."
"You don't call, you PUT IN a call."

But my favorite may be "Everything you've heard about L.A. is more true than you can possibly imagine."

Well, via Trish's Dishes and GalleyCat, this hilarious YouTube video about book promotion is more true than you can possibly imagine. I laughed out loud, then I set off immediately to order Dennis Cass's book, whatever it was. Fortunately, Head Case: How I Almost Lost My Mind Trying to Understand My Brain looks like the kind of thing I love.

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I’m going to start sending out a short monthly newsletter. If you’d like to sign up, click on the link in the upper-right-hand corner of my blog. Or just email me at grubin, then the “at” sign, then gretchenrubin dot com. No need to write anything more than “newsletter” in the subject line. I’ll add your name to the list.

Comments

Gretchen, that YouTube video hit a little too close to home. :) At least I know there are others in the same boat. Thanks for sending some happiness my way today as I continue in my pursuit to promote cool jobs.

Best,

Alexandra Levit
Author, How'd You Score That Gig?
Blogger, Water Cooler Wisdom
http://www.alexandralevit.com

Posted by: Alexandra Levit | May 29, 2008 at 05:06 PM

I'll have to add this to my summer reading list. Thanks for sharing.

Posted by: Nancie | May 31, 2008 at 11:23 PM

I love this page. When one as yourself devoted the energy time & care in order to make her fellow person feel better and dies it with wit intelligence and caring, one has the Happiness Project.
by link I have been festuring your wise calm.

IAS/7746

Posted by: Ian Schneider/7746 | June 04, 2008 at 11:49 AM

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