#TBRChallenge Reading: The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

2017 TBR Reading Challenge
Book: The Happiness Project
Author: Gretchen Rubin
My Categories: Nonfiction
Wendy Crutcher's Category: We Love Short Shorts!

(Ahem! Here goes my justification for not following Wendy's category suggestion. I'm reviewing only the "Getting Started" and "January" portions of the book, rather than the entire thing. So it's a "short," right? Never fear, I won't be reviewing the succeeding chapters every month. That would be an excessive departure from Wendy's themes even for me.)

One day, Rubin asked herself, "What do I want from life, anyway?" The answer came back: "To be happy!" That was the impetus to start a year-long happiness project of self-examination and self-determination. Before this epiphany, she'd never taken a moment to assess how happy she currently was, what made her happy, or how she might be happier.

She readily admits that she wasn't depressed or even unhappy. However, she felt that there were aspects of her personality and her life that could be better, thereby increasing her happiness levels. The most important point she gleaned from all her research was that it was always possible to be happier. There was always room for improvement, no matter where in your life you were, and it all depended on how you thought and acted.

Armed with all her research and the practical self-knowledge after doing her Happiness Project for a year, Rubin decided to share her nuggets of wisdom with others through this book, because as Blaise Pascal has argued: "All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end."

Following Ben Franklin's practice, she created a similar daily Resolutions Chart where she recorded a check or a cross for each item every day. In order to do come up with her list of resolutions, she first identified what areas she wanted to work on—her goals—and then converted them into happiness-boosting resolutions—actions—that were concrete and measurable. She decided to focus on one new subject—and all the new resolutions that came from it—per month, and carried forward all the resolutions from the previous months. Some of her work areas were: social bonds, perspective, work & play, passion, money, and mindfulness.

As she worked on arriving at her list of subjects and resolutions, she discovered that some themes kept coming up in her thinking. She put those down as her Twelve Commandments. The number twelve had nothing to do with the number of months of the year; that was just a coincidence. Some of her commandments were: Let it go, Do it now, Be polite and be fair, Enjoy the process, Lighten up, and There's only love.

In addition to this, she came up with a set of fuzzier guidelines called Secrets of Adulthood, which included things like: Do good & feel good, It's important to be nice to everyone, People don't notice your mistakes as much as you think, If you're not failing you're not trying hard enough, What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while, and (a parenting biggie) You can't profoundly change your children's natures by nagging them or signing them up for classes.

Rubin's January Subject was: Boosting Energy Levels. Her corresponding January Resolutions were: Go to sleep early; Exercise better; Toss, restore, organize; Tackle a nagging task; and Act more energetic. While some of them are self-explanatory, a couple of them need a little thinking over.

Energetic:

If you act as if you feel energetic, you will become more energetic. In other words: Be the change you want to see. Why did she address energy? "I know that when I feel energetic, I find it much easier to behave in ways that make me happy."

Organize:

She addressed becoming organized, because "household disorder was a constant drain on my energy." She felt that clearing up her clutter from every part of her house would boost her domestic satisfaction and, thereby, her happiness. Speaking solely for myself, I can attest to this. My Project House Organization has made me feel distinctly successful, clear, and satisfied. Back to Rubin: She first identified different types of clutter, so she could decide how to address each type. For example, Nostalgic Clutter was made up of "relics I clung to from my earlier life." (C'mon, raise your hand if you have unopened boxes in your attic from more than a decade ago.) Bargain Clutter was from unnecessary things bought because they were on sale. A close cousin was Freebie Clutter. Aspirational Clutter were things she owned but only aspired to use. And so on.

A lot of people in her life and on Amazon have accused her of supreme self-centeredness by spending so much effort on her own happiness. However, she agrees with Aristotle, who said: "Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence."

To this, I add what His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has said: "“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions."

[I will cover the remaining chapters of this book in my monthly reading round-ups, one, each month. I will add links here when those blogs post.]