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The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun |  | Author: Gretchen Rubin
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $25.99
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Rating:  115 reviews
Sales Rank: 124
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0061583251
Dewey Decimal Number: 158
EAN: 9780061583254
ASIN: 0061583251
Publication Date: January 1, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780061583254 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project. In this lively and compelling account of that year, Rubin carves out her place alongside the authors of bestselling memoirs such as Julie and Julia, The Year of Living Biblically, and Eat, Pray, Love. With humor and insight, she chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Rubin didn't have the option to uproot herself, nor did she really want to; instead she focused on improving her life as it was. Each month she tackled a new set of resolutions: give proofs of love, ask for help, find more fun, keep a gratitude notebook, forget about results. She immersed herself in principles set forth by all manner of experts, from Epicurus to Thoreau to Oprah to Martin Seligman to the Dalai Lama to see what worked for her—and what didn't. Her conclusions are sometimes surprising—she finds that money can buy happiness, when spent wisely; that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that "treating" yourself can make you feel worse; that venting bad feelings doesn't relieve them; that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference—and they range from the practical to the profound. Written with charm and wit, The Happiness Project is illuminating yet entertaining, thought-provoking yet compulsively readable. Gretchen Rubin's passion for her subject jumps off the page, and reading just a few chapters of this book will inspire you to start your own happiness project.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 115
 Finding Happiness (and a Great Read) November 25, 2009
Phyllis T. Smith
189 out of 204 found this review helpful
This book is part memoir, part thinking person's self-help book. I like the fact that it draws not only on recent research in the new field of positive psychology, such as the work of Martin Seligman, but on the wisdom of thinkers as disparate as Samuel Butler and the ancient Stoic philosopher, Seneca. Many wonderful and wise quotations are included in the text. Gretchen Rubin has done a lot of research and reading, and distilled it all here, attempting to answer some vital questions. Is it possible to become a happier person? Is happiness a meaningful and worthwhile goal? She comes to the conclusion that while we may have a happiness set point, and a great deal of our mood is--researchers believe-- determined by heredity (50% or so), to some degree it is under own control (perhaps 30%). It may seem that someone who is not suffering from a painful mood disorder should be focused on other (more worthwhile?) goals than mood elevation. But happiness, after all, is something just about every human being wants, the goal that motivates much of our day to day striving. And rather than suggesting a life of self-centered hedonism, research indicates that the very factors that make for a meaningful life--good relationships, acting in a loving and generous way, engaging creatively with the world--contribute to happiness.
Will revamping your life and taking a systematic approach to seeking happiness work? Research indicates that it may. "I really am happier," says Rubin after a year of following through on her own personal happiness plan. She goes into enough specific detail here about how she got to her more happy state that I have no trouble believing her.
Very responsibly, Rubin points out that her intent is to help people who are well become happier, not to treat a medical condition, i.e., depression. I can imagine her book, however, being an aid for those who are mildly depressed, perhaps as an adjunct to medical treatment, though perhaps they need to be a bit easy on themselves and not follow the plan in a perfectionist, pressured way.
I'm with Rubin when she says that even though we are all very different, learning about someone else's successes and failures can be a better catalyst for change than studying ideas in the abstract. She is generous about revealing the details of her own life--her own "happiness project." What is most transferable is not the specifics--particular actions she decided to experiment with in order to become more happy--but the idea of identifying potential sources of joy, designing steps to take to become happier, making monthly resolutions, carrying through and being accountable--i.e., quantifying the results. The average reader is not going to be as thorough and focused as Rubin was--but in my view that does not negate the value of this book. I'm into progress, I guess, and I believe that even a couple of changes modeled on the plan could make a difference in people's lives.
The book is written in an open, engaging, often humorous style. There is no posturing--Rubin is if anything self-deprecating-- but the writing crackles with intelligence. I found the THE HAPPINESS PROJECT a pleasure to read, and I can imagine people reading it with enjoyment even if they are already happy as clams and have no desire to get with the program. Rubin includes a specific guide for those who want to construct their own happiness plans, and also directs the reader to tools on her web site--nice helpful touches. All in all, a terrific book.
This skeptic adores The Happiness Project January 13, 2010
Ellen Seidman (Maplewood, NJ United States)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I knew that this book would be a good read--The Happiness Project blog is consistently compelling, colorful and thought-provoking--but I was dubious that it would have a major effect on me. Read a book and get happier? It's not like happiness is something you can order up, like a pizza, right? But as it turns out, this book has been a complete eye opener. Gretchen Rubin's thoughtful exploration of happiness research, lively prose on her own efforts to achieve bliss and ideas for everyday, do-able actions really can transform the way you view happiness and your potential to achieve it. I have been feeling happier and less stressed since reading her book and putting a bunch of her tactics into play.
As I type this, I am eyeballing the little post-it I have put up on my computer on which I wrote out a quote from the book: "The days are long, but the years are short." The Happiness Project is filled with similarly inspiring thoughts. It motivated me to clear out household clutter, a major energy suck (my kids' playroom is now in some semblance of order for the first time in seven years); find pockets of time for pleasure in my day (I've started writing and crocheting again); and "spend out" (actually using too-precious items like real silverware or fancy notepaper instead of perpetually saving them). These bitty examples don't do the book justice; it is packed with gems, big and small. There is so much to absorb, in fact, that I am planning to go back and read the book a second time (and I don't have a whole lot of time to read books, let alone read the same one twice).
Gretchen Rubin's book is a tour de (bliss) force.
Perfect New Year's Resolution Book...for ANY time of year December 6, 2009
Mom of Sons (Buffalo, NY)
14 out of 18 found this review helpful
I love this book! No, I don't know the author. I received an advance copy through the Amazon Vine reviewer program, and this book alone has made it worth it for me to write reviews for the program. I connected immediately with the author, because she writes in such an inviting way. She's a wife and mom, and although she's intellectual, she does not have the luxury (or the desire) to cut herself off from the people she loves to "study" and "write" about anything, happiness included. No, this is someone we can relate to: she's working on her happiness AS she takes care of her family, AS she works...AS she lives her life.
This is a self-help book author who manages somehow to trod that very fine line between dispensing information, being highly readable and entertaining, and inspiring you to try "it" along with her, whatever "it" might be.
In this case, "it" is human happiness, what the author calls (and provides research and other learned opinions to back herself up) the most important thing humans can have, and that for which we keep searching.
To help us along, she shares her own "happiness project," a focused attempt (sometimes successful, sometimes not) on her part to decide on 12 principles of happiness to work on, one each month. June's chapter is "Make Time for Friends;" October's is "Pay Attention;" May is "Be Serious About Play."
It is December as I write this, and I'm eagerly awaiting January 1st to start the January chapter, "Boost Energy." But you do NOT need to wait until January, just jump in wherever you are and start that month.
Recommendation: Absolutely everybody.
Will $14.03 Make You Happy? December 31, 2009
Chris Guillebeau (Portland, OR USA)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
I've been reading Gretchen's blog for two years, and pre-ordered this book the first day it was available. It finally arrived, and I was a bit worried at first...
Would I be disappointed? (A lot of bloggers are better at shorter format than full books.)
Would I learn to sing in the morning and "fight right"? (I wasn't crazy about either idea.)
Would $14.03 make me happy? (Maybe not, but it was worth a shot.)
The verdict arrived almost right away: I'm so glad I bought and read this book. It's philosophical without being overly-intellectual, funny without being silly, and practical without being preachy.
"The Happiness Project" deserves to go out to a wide audience, and I'm glad to see it's well underway to bestseller status. You'll be glad you spent the $14.03, or whatever it costs by the time you read this.
In which a well-adjusted, reasonably happy person might learn that he/she can feel happier January 7, 2010
Jesse Kornbluth (New York)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I don't know Gretchen Rubin very well --- we're Facebook friends, occasional e-mail pals and, once a year or so, we have lunch --- but I would have said she's got the world on a string.
She's described her husband as attentive and loving, her kids as smart and adorable.
She lives on a good block.
Her books get published.
And, long before she became a wife, mother and writer in Manhattan, she was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Review and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
So I was a little surprised when she began a year-long "happiness project" and now, on the first page of her book --- The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun --- explains why: "The days are long, but the years are short. Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." Her conclusion: "I was in danger of wasting my life."
I thought: Just goes to show, some people are greedy for money and power, some people want more of the intangibles. But pretty much everyone wants...more.
Even Gretchen.
I read on. And saw I didn't quite have it right. Because on page two, she quotes Colette: "What a wonderful life I've had. I only wish I'd realized it sooner."
That's when I twigged that Gretchen was a greedhead in exactly the way I am: greedy to feel more alive, ambitious to see what would happen if she pressed her foot hard on a happiness accelerator.
Gretchen Rubin turns out to be the ideal guinea pig for such an experiment. Before starting, she leaned into her student/teacher past and read a laundry list of philosophers, psychologists, novelists, even the more articulate pop culture gurus. Then she divided the year into months, and assigned each a special priority (January; boost energy, February: remember love, etc). Finally, she listed her preliminary goals and beliefs:
* Be Gretchen.
* Let it go.
* Act the way I want to feel.
* Do it now.
* Be polite and be fair.
* Enjoy the process.
* Spend out.
* Identify the problem.
* Lighten up.
* Do what ought to be done.
* No calculation.
* There is only love.
And then she set out to live more happily.
Correctly, she starts with health. Which means, above all, enough sleep. Eight hours of sleep. Next she confronts her relationship, focusing on nagging, appreciating and consideration. (I looked in vain for advice about sex. Indeed, the combined messages of her first two chapters puzzled me. We must be up at 6 AM. That means we should be asleep at 10 PM. But our daughter is often up until 9. Does Rubin really believe we should have sex between 9-10 AM? I know humans are adaptable, but....)
Non-fiction books are often seriously padded --- I often say there's no self-help book I can't write in 4,000 words. Not this one. Gretchen Rubin doesn't just write about her experiments in having fun and lightening up and failing to keep writing a gratitude journal. She dives right into her Diet Coke and Fresca habit, watching TV with her husband, the wisdom of her savvy but not cloying seven-year-old. And she's not above dispensing practical advice: When you buy a device, put all the stuff that comes with it in a labeled Ziploc bag.
How does a book like this end? Well, in December, she tries to act on all eleven of her resolutions --- at once. And, at the same time, she assesses how well she's incorporated her project into her life. That is, how much happier she is. If any.
No spoilers here. Let me just say Gretchen Rubin is about to be cherished by many more people --- women, especially --- than her family and friends. Because there's always great happiness in giving, this will make her happy. It certainly makes me happy to commend her book to you.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 115
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