The Happiness Project: 2010

Like many of you, A Reader's Respite has been considering our same ol', same ol' New Year's Resolutions. We made a tentative list, but then lost it after using it as a bookmark for a week or so.

Then we mulled over the idea of chucking resolutions out the window. After all, what are resolutions but yet another way to experience dismal failure come summer time and who needs that damper on life?




After just about giving up on the entire concept, we picked up Gretchen Rubin's new book, The Happiness Project. Actually, the full title is

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

Catchy, huh?

Rubin's concept may well just be the answer to our resolution woes. We were smitten with her ideas....after all, what are New Year's resolutions but a list of items that we are pretty sure would make us happy if we could accomplish them?

Thus, The Happiness Project.

Rubin uses her wit and insight to guide the reader through a series of steps that can - allegedly - lead to new habits and......happiness. Real happiness, which as we all know, can only come from within you.

Her technique starts with identifying what it is in this world that makes you happy. What makes you feel good (and no, a daiquiri doesn't count here)? What makes us feel bad? Because if we feel good on the inside, the outward result is a happy person.

Rubin's next step is to identify the concrete actions that will increase your happiness. Healthy meal plans? An organized desk? A calm reaction to your child's tantrum? Whatever those actions might be, they get thrown on the list.

Then comes implementation. We like Rubin's approach here: any new habit (good or bad) takes at least a month to take root. So Rubin divides up her list into twelve parts: one month for each item.

Think of it: devoting all of January to making exercise and healthy eating a habit. Just that one thing. February dedicated to devising a system of organization that by February 28 will have become habit for you. Each month builds on the last until, with a lot of dedication on your part, by the end of 2010 you are a HAPPIER you.

This is probably the most valuable book A Reader's Respite has read all year and if only one or two of our "resolutions" stick, we'll still be a happier person. Once a month, throughout 2010, we'll give you all a report as to how our Happiness Project is progressing. If we can do this, anyone can do this.



And when Mama's happy, everyone is happy.





Interested in learning more about Rubin's Happiness Project, or even starting one of your own? Visit The Happiness Project Website!