The Happiness Project: Two Things that Make Me Happy Today.

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.”

As I approach the publication day of my book (oh, did I forget to mention it? December 29), two things have made me happy.

First, I’m scheduled to go on the Today show on Friday, January 8. Very exciting! I did the Today show for my first book, Power Money Fame Sex (which is sort of the opposite of The Happiness Project). It was such an out-of-body experience that I have absolutely no recollection of talking to Matt Lauer. I’m thrilled to get the chance to talk about my book there. (And it's still far enough in the future that I don't feel nervous yet.)

Second, at long last, my book trailer is ready to be seen! It’s hard to believe how much work it takes to do a one-minute video – mostly done by my brilliant video person, Maria Giacchino at My Little Jacket. Check it out:

As always, although I worried about tackling a new thing, working on the trailer ended up being a lot of fun. I spent time with an interesting new person; I learned something about book trailers; I got the chance to exercise my creativity in a different way. Novelty and challenge are, well, challenging, but in the end, they lead to happiness.

If seeing the trailer inspires you to buy the book, here’s the pre-order link, and here are sample chapters.

Or if it inspires you to start your own happiness project, you can sign up to join the 2010 Happiness Challenge, to make 2010 a happier year.

* My friend Helen Coster published a hilarious piece in McSweeney's: A former investment banker analyst falls back on Plan B. I was laughing out loud.