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
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4.1 • 471 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
“This book made me happy in the first five pages.” —AJ Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible Award-winning author Gretchen Rubin is back with a bang, with The Happiness Project. The author of the bestselling 40 Ways to Look at Winston Churchill has produced a work that is “a cross between the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love.” (Sonya Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want) In the vein of Julie and Julia, The Happiness Project describes one person’s year-long attempt to discover what leads to true contentment. Drawing at once on cutting-edge science, classical philosophy, and real-world applicability, Rubin has written an engaging, eminently relatable chronicle of transformation.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
An invitation to figure out your own blueprint for inviting more joy and fulfilment into your life, The Happiness Project is the detailed account of journalist Gretchen Rubin’s one-year experiment to become more energetic, patient and appreciative. Hilariously self-deprecating, Rubin revels in the process of self-improvement even as she bumps up against internal and external resistance. Full of inspirational quotes, new research and practical advice, this entertaining book is self-help grounded in reality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rubin is not an unhappy woman: she has a loving husband, two great kids and a writing career in New York City. Still, she could-and, arguably, should-be happier. Thus, her methodical (and bizarre) happiness project: spend one year achieving careful, measurable goals in different areas of life (marriage, work, parenting, self-fulfillment) and build on them cumulatively, using concrete steps (such as, in January, going to bed earlier, exercising better, getting organized, and "acting more energetic"). By December, she's striving bemusedly to keep increasing happiness in every aspect of her life. The outcome is good, not perfect (in accordance with one of her "Secrets of Adulthood": "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good"), but Rubin's funny, perceptive account is both inspirational and forgiving, and sprinkled with just enough wise tips, concrete advice and timely research (including all those other recent books on happiness) to qualify as self-help. Defying self-help expectations, however, Rubin writes with keen senses of self and narrative, balancing the personal and the universal with a light touch. Rubin's project makes curiously compulsive reading, which is enough to make any reader happy.
Customer Reviews
The Happiness Project needs Jesus
I did enjoy the read and did get myself organized even more. But...my little voice inside...being that I am a Christian women, really had a hard time with Gretchen's thinking/theories!!! I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and I rely on Him! I can't help, but feel sorry that Gretchen does not have a personal relationship with Jesus, therefore she will NEVER know True Happiness!!!! Happiness is from God and what is in your heart. Jamie hit the nail on the head saying she wasn't really happy, but thought she was, therefore she was. Our human minds can make or break us, but God and believing Jesus,the son of God, who died for our sins and loves us unconditionally is the true means to happiness!!! With this belief there is peace therefore happiness! I also can't help, but feel sorrow for Gretchen's girls because they are not learning of Jesus and how he died for our sins, which is is Gretchen and Jamie's responsibility to teach them. All children need to learn of spirituality,Jesus, so when things are good or bad they know who to rely on, not themselves or mom or dad! I am sorry that your parents never told you of Jesus, because he is the only way to heaven not happiness or good works or making people feel good! If you really want a good book to read, try reading the bible. It is full of TRUE stories and scenarios that will change your life! Everything we need to live is in that book! Peace Be with you!
Great project, great writer, great reading
Dr. Rubin wrote a fantastic account of her own quest for happiness in her own life over the course of a year. I enjoyed the trueness in her writing and her willingness to talk about the ugly places that she needed to work on for herself. This made the reading a lot more realistic for me as the reader. I also liked that she included comments from her blog supporters as she did a great job with her communication with them during the project. This was research for me and I'm hoping to be able to meet with and interview Dr. Rubin one day. She's the best.
Mrs.
After reading this book, I have been reminded to be more aware of how I deal with everyday life in order to make it a happier one. For instance, I want to make sure to "spend out" by wearing my favorite shirt; I want to spend more time on activities I enjoy; and even more, I want to smile more and just be a happy person to be around in general. I love how Gretchen Rubin shares her own experiences to help her readers connect with how she herself slowly works on building her happy life. Overall, great read and one I would recommend to others.