The Happiness Project: Resolve to Make 2010 a Happier Year.

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.”

I’m working on my Happiness Project, and you could have one, too! Everyone’s project will look different, but it’s the rare person who can’t benefit. Join in -- no need to catch up, just jump in right now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project.

Last year was a tough year for a lot of people, but January brings a fresh start. Ask yourself: what would make you happier? Cleaner closets, less yelling, more fun? Make it happen in 2010!

In 2010, each month, I’ll propose an area of life to tackle, and once a week, over the next four weeks, I’ll suggest concrete, manageable resolutions to help you boost your happiness – and I’ll periodically remind you to stick with them. Also, assuming I manage to pull this off, I’m going to do a series of short videos on the proposed resolutions and why they matter.

To help people stick with their happiness projects, I’ve set up a sign-up sheet so you can add your name to the 2010 Year of Happiness challenge. It’s worth taking a second actually to sign up; studies show that doing an action, like signing this pledge, will help you hold yourself accountable for your resolutions.

The areas of focus will be:
• January--Body
• February--Love
• March--Work
• April--Money
• May--Mindfulness
• June--Order
• July--Spirit
• August--Fun
• September--Parenthood
• October--Friends
• November--Attitude
• December--Boot Camp Perfect

Of course, these categories are just my suggestions. You might choose to focus on very different areas for your happiness project.

January 1 is always a good time to make a resolution – 44% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions – so by adding your name now, you’re committed to taking action when January 1 rolls around.

Also, it’s so exciting -- to kick-start your 2010 happiness project, you can check out the posts, tips, and tools over at the Woman’s Day Happiness Project page. Womansday.com has an entire area devoted to happiness projects, so check it out and get inspired. You can read accounts of other people's happiness projects here.

Now, some people argue with the term “happiness” and maintain that it’s not possible to be “happy.” But even people who can’t agree on what it means to be “happy” can agree that most people can be “happier.” And that’s the goal of the 2010 Year of Happiness challenge – in some way, to make yourself happier.

Join in.

* Nothing like a great time-lapse nature video of light in the Alps for a Friday!

* Want more happiness-project information? Check the book tour schedule. Read sample chapters of The Happiness Project. Pre-order the book.