The Happiness Project: I'm Extremely Happy Because...

The Happiness Project

My book, THE HAPPINESS PROJECT, is 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. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT hit the shelves in December 2009 (Harper) and, happily, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. As one of the hundreds of happiness experiments I conducted during the research and writing of the book, I started this blog. Here, I recount my daily adventures in pursuit of happiness. –

Gretchen Rubin

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.”

I'm extremely happy because my sister had her baby last night! A boy.

Here she is, a week ago, courtesy of Sarah Fain Has Starfish Envy, talking about the upcoming event.

My sister lives in Los Angeles, a long way from New York, but fortunately I'll be out there very soon for my book tour, and because of the schedule, I get to stay in L.A. for three days. I can't wait to see the baby -- and to see my sister and brother-in-law as parents.

I'm so thrilled, and relieved, and excited. Zoikes! It's going to be hard to think about anything else today.

* Through Bob Sutton, I just discovered the great blog of Marina Park, who writes from her perspective as the CEO of the Girl Scouts of Northern California. She ranges over a lot of topics, great stuff.

* My book, The Happiness Project, comes out on December 29. If you're inclined to buy the book, pre-orders give a huge boost to a book, because they give the book momentum in the eyes of the media and booksellers. I love those pre-orders! Here's the pre-order link. To thank people who pre-order, I've prepared free bonus materials. If you do pre-order, just email me at gretchenrubin1[at]gmail.com (don't forget the "1") and write "pre-ordered" in the subject line.

If you're not sure whether you want the book, here are sample chapters and a zippy one-minute book video and seven reasons why reading the book is different from reading the blog.