Happy, Happy Me!

 

I recently borrowed the book, The Happiness Project, from a friend at work. And I have a new obsession.


If you have yet to hear of the Happiness Project, it's by Gretchen Rubin. I've linked to her website, but honestly it's a bit overwhelming if you don't have an idea of the concept. So here it is, my version anyway:

This woman looked at her life one day and thought that she should be enjoying it more, appreciating everything she has and just be more happy...damn it! This is what I liked about this book. She wasn't trying to change her life, or herself, or her husband or her kids. She just wanted to dig a little deeper into what was already around her and just be happy with it.

So she sets on her year-long journey of squeezing every bit of juicy happiness out of her life. I'm making this sound gross, but really, much of the things she wrote has resonated with me.


The book is divided by months, where every month she has a 'theme' to focus on and sets goals or challenges to accomplish through the month. The idea was to compound each month so by the end of the year she is doing it all!! I really like that she is honest by saying certain tasks were too demanding or lost their fun factor, so she just stopped doing them.

There are certain things I've liked about the book (so far...I'm on Chapter: October).

• She created for herself Ten Commandments of being happy. I can't remember any of them except one: Be Gretchen. I love this! I want to be Gretchen...I mean, me. I have to be focused, and accepting of things that define who I am.

• She uses quotes (of other people) a lot! Normally I'm not a big fan of quotes, because I can never remember any. But I actually do remember the general concept of some of them. I will have to leave you in suspense on these as they hit deep and I have much too much to say. Also, I have to go find the book and get the quote right.

• She has a family. A husband and two little girls. I just relate. I found many of her themes and goals quite reasonable for a working mother.

• She's a writer and truly enjoys the written word. I really like that has been able to combine her work and passion. Even in her goals. One example is her 'One Sentence Journal', where she took the time to write a minimum of one sentence every day. I liked this concept and thought it could be useful in my life. I'll let you know how that goes.

I guess this has turned into a book review, however I'm not quite done the book yet, so there may be more to come. I'd like to start trying out some of her ideas and I can bounce them off of you guys.

So...have you read/heard of The Happiness Project? Would you like to discuss? Are you as happy as you can be in your life right now? Deep...I know.