Facebook Page


Join the Super-Fans!

My Photo

If you'd like a copy of my resolutions chart

  • Just drop me an email. The first part is grubin (then that familiar symbol). The second part is gretchenrubin (then a period, then a com). Sorry to be convoluted--because of spam.

Every Wednesday is Tip Day.

Secrets of Adulthood.

  • The best reading is re-reading.
  • Outer order contributes to inner calm.
  • The opposite of a great truth is also true.
  • You manage what you measure.
  • By doing a little bit each day, you can get a lot accomplished.
  • People don’t notice your mistakes and flaws as much as you think.
  • It's nice to have plenty of money.
  • Most decisions don't require extensive research.
  • Try not to let yourself get too hungry.
  • Even if you think they're fake, it's nice to celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day.
  • If you can't find something, clean up.
  • The days are long, but the years are short.
  • Someplace, keep an empty shelf.
  • Turning the computer on and off a few times often fixes a glitch.
  • It's okay to ask for help.
  • You can choose what you do; you can't choose what you LIKE to do.
  • Happiness doesn't always make you feel happy.
  • What you do EVERY DAY matters more than what you do ONCE IN A WHILE.
  • You don't have to be good at everything.
  • Soap and water removes most stains.
  • It's important to be nice to EVERYONE.
  • You know as much as most people.
  • Over-the-counter medicines are very effective.
  • Eat better, eat less, exercise more.
  • What's fun for other people may not be fun for you--and vice versa.
  • People actually prefer that you buy wedding gifts off their registry.
  • Houseplants and photo albums are a lot of trouble.
  • If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough.
  • No deposit, no return.

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.”
  • G.K. Chesterton: “Happiness is a mystery, like religion, and should never be rationalised.”
  • Solon: “Let no man be called happy before his death. Till then, he is not happy, only lucky.”

StatCounter2


Sitemeter

« Make your bed. | Main | Back in Kansas City, I get some happiness-boosting SLEEP. »

Happiness quotation from Christopher Alexander (again).

ChristopheralexanderIf I consider my life honestly, I see that it is governed by a certain very small number of patterns of events which I take part in over and over again.

Being in bed, having a shower, having breakfast in the kitchen, sititng in my study writing, walking in the garden, cooking and eating our common lunch at my office with my friends, going to the movies, taking my family to eat at a restaurant, going to bed agin. There are a few more.

There are surprisingly few of these patterns of events in any one person’s way of life, perhaps no more than a dozen. Look at your own life and you will find the same. It is shocking at first, to see that there are so few patterns of events open to me.

Not that I want more of them. But when I see how very few of them there are, I begin to understand what huge effect these few patterns have on my life, on my capacity to live. If these few patterns are good for me, I can live well. If they are bad for me, I can’t. -- Christopher Alexander

*
I'm on a Christopher Alexander kick right now. Just finished The Timeless Way of Building, now on to The Oregon Experiment.

*
Through Dooce, I discovered Momversation. So many great bloggers to watch! I must be strong, or I'll spend two hours sitting in front of the computer screen.

*
New to the Happiness Project? Consider subscribing to my RSS feed: Subscribe to this blog's feed. Or sign up to get email updates in the box at the top righthand corner of my blog.

Comments

Did you know that he has a web site? It is worth checking out: http://www.patternlanguage.com/

You have (again) in the headline but I didn't find a reference to the original quote - was there an original quote?

This is so true. I am lucky that the two habits that bracket every day are ones that feel particularly good. I love my first cup of coffee, and I love our comfortable bed. We also eat the same lunch each day, and I always enjoy it. They seems like such small things, but I believe happiness is made of many small moments.

Thanks for this one, Gretchen. I'm a big fan of "The Timeless Way of Building" and "A Pattern Language."

Alexander is awesome.

Are you familiar with how he's 'accidentally' revolutionized the software industry? It's really just jaw dropping.

I never thought to look at my life as the same 12 patterns that I keep reliving. That's a perspective that can help anyone find a way to break out and create positive change.

It's why I blog to open new doors that would otherwise be closed. I'm hoping to break old patterns and insert new ones that make me happier. So far it's been working.

As for the patterns I can't change...I know that I will never be able to change patterns such as sleeping and eating. My goal is to find more beauty in each habitual pattern so it stops feeling monotonous and becomes creative.

I love your blog and check in regularly. Christopher Alexander's quote is by far the most helpful to me yet in how I think about my own happiness and what I might change in order to be happier. A reminder to me to check the foundation of my life to see where there might be cracks. Thank you for this post.

I too am a fan of patterns and Alexander is the man.

Great excerpt and it really puts things in perspective. Master the few patterns you do everyday.

I'm a fan of intentionally test-driving new patterns on a monthly basis (I do 30 day improvement sprints.)


Hi

This is a fantastic quote!
It really puts things into perspective.
I'm going to have to think about my routine tasks.

Juliet

Keeping a journal of daily activities and moods seems like a practical way to build off Alex's mentality.

But more importantly, before every activity, one must consider the why behind it.

Interesting thought about life patterns. Will contemplate about that. Thanks for sharing!

The quote is interesting; what is the source document? Is it part of an article or book?

Thanks for the link to Alexander's site -- I'm off to check it out right now.

The reason I said "again" was that last Saturday's quotation was also from Alexander. Here's the link:
http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2008/12/happiness-quo-1.html

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

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

Working...
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.

Working...

Post a comment

Want to start your own happiness-project group?

Check out one of my one-minute movies.

Want to get my monthly newsletter?

Your email address:


Powered by FeedBlitz

Follow Me On Twitter

  • Follow me on Twitter

Twitter Counter

My earth-shattering happiness formula.

  • To be happier, you need to think about FEELING GOOD, FEELING BAD, and FEELING RIGHT, in an atmosphere of growth. Clunky, but it works.

My second ground-breaking insight into happiness.

  • 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.

9Rules

  • 9rules

LifeRemix

  • LifeRemix

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
  • “For the love of God and my Sisters (so charitable toward me) I take care to appear happy and especially to be so.” St. Therese
  • “Best is good. Better is best.” Lisa Grunwald
  • “All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.” Samuel Johnson
  • “I must do the work that I am best suited for…” Edward Weston daybook
  • “Order is Heaven’s first law.” Alexander Pope
  • “How slight and insignificant is the thing which casts down or restores a mind greedy for praise.” Horace

My books

Quantcast

Google Analytics