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

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

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.

30-Second
TV Commercial

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.”

This Saturday: a happiness quotation from Aristotle.

“Men are what they are because their characters, but it is in action that they find happiness or the reverse.” --Aristotle

Along those lines, current scientific studies suggest that, for happiness, genetics counts for about fifty percent, circumstances (like marriage, health, income, etc.) count for about ten percent, and the remainder -- about forty percent of happiness -- can be affected by purposeful strategies like exercise, cultivating gratitude, spending time with friends, acts of kindness, and the like.

*
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.

Posted May 17, 2008

Comments

Gretchen,

I read very little on the web, but your blog has made into the handful on my RSS feed.

Just curious - where do the stats above come from? Could you point to the scientific studies?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks,

Tom

Posted by: Tom Nagle | May 18, 2008 at 10:03 AM

I completely agree!

I can definitely see the difference in my mood and emotions when I make an effort to eat healthy, exercise, and keep in touch with people I know and care about.

Posted by: Stephanie | May 18, 2008 at 10:46 AM

The best source, if you're interested in this issue, is Sonya Lyubomirsky's new book, THE HOW OF HAPPINESS. She explores this issue at great length, and the book will point you to the studies that support that conclusion.

Posted by: Gretchen Rubin | May 18, 2008 at 07:34 PM

That has been so true in my experience as well. The more I eat fresh, raw foods and refuse to ingest processed preservative-laden foods, the more I avoid sweets, and the more faithful I am to my two-mile walk each evening, the clearer my head is and the more productive I become. It is such a simple thing but so effective. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind!

Posted by: Jenny | May 18, 2008 at 07:58 PM

I simply don't buy that 10% figure, especially when it comes to devastatingly bad events -- the early and unexpected death of a spouse or child, an accident causing a permanent disability, the loss of a job and a subsequent prolonged period of unemployment. These have lasting effects, and it's Pollyanna-ish to believe that they affect only 10% of your overall happiness.

Posted by: HuntGrunt | May 18, 2008 at 10:04 PM

HuntGrunt, check out Daniel Gilbert's "Stumbling on Happiness" which offers an alternative view to your point.

Posted by: Michael | May 19, 2008 at 12:34 AM

huntgrunt's comment reminded me of henry ford's saying, "Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right."

Posted by: txasslm | May 23, 2008 at 12:03 AM

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.

Gretchen Rubin is the best-selling writer whose book, The Happiness Project, is the account of the year she spent test-driving studies and theories about how to be happier. Here, she shares her insights to help you create your own happiness project.