The Happiness Project: In Which I Have a Question for People in Happiness-Project Groups.

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.”

Several months ago, I began offering the starter-kit for people who wanted to start a group for people pursuing happiness projects together. Since then, more than 3,700 people have requested a starter kit! (Request yours here.)

I'm really curious to hear about how these groups are doing. If you're in a happiness-project group, I'd so appreciate it if you'd take a minute to post a comment.

I'd love to know the answer to questions like: how many people are in your group, and did you know each other before the group started, or not?

In particular, I'd love to hear any striking examples of personal change that people were able to foster because of the group. What specifically did you try, what worked, and why? Was there something that being in the happiness-project group allowed you to do, that you weren't able to do before, on your own?

More broadly, why did you want to join a group for people working on happiness? How does being in a group change the experience? The dynamic of doing a happiness project by yourself is very different from doing it in a group, of course.

I know this is a super-hectic time of year, so I really appreciate you taking the time to respond.

If you're a group leader, you may want to join the discussion on Facebook for group leaders, and remember to add your group name to the city directory.

Thanks!