The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

Almost a month after posting my autographed book plate for The Happiness Project, I am still not done with reading this awesome book.


It is the kind of book you would want to read from cover to cover, as soon as you can. So the delay in finishing the book isn’t for lack of quality content, rather, it’s so good that I don’t really want to rush through it. I want to savor each page.
Among the reasons why I’ve hesitated to get this book, was the fact that the author already maintains a blog of the same title. What else does the book have to offer that the blog doesn’t already dish out for free?
It’s actually quite fun to read about the author’s very personal project. She is so different from me, yet I can relate to her anecdotes.  The book gives us a better idea of what sparked the Happiness Project, and the process she went through to outline the full year that she did her experiment. Through each chapter, that tackles the different areas of her life (focus shifts on a monthly basis), we are given plenty of examples that prove her ‘secrets of adulthood’ and ‘splendid truths.’  To be honest, it is upon reading the book that many of what she says in her blog clicks in my head. You know what I mean? When I read of them from the book, the picture becomes complete for me, and I finally truly understand what she means.
One of the recent epiphanies I read about from the book is about how money can buy happiness. Well, she doesn’t sum it all up in those words really, but if you think about it, that’s the easiest way to say it. Money doesn’t get you happiness, but spending money on the right things, and having the money to spend in the first place, is a path to happiness. The more I read, the more I am convinced to explore avenues to be happy. I am not unhappy, nor am I in a dark place (yes, despite recently losing my grandfather whom I love dearly). But I want to be happier. I want to facilitate happiness for the people I love, and maybe even the people I work with. But I don’t see myself launching my own year-long experiment just yet. Perhaps I’ll have mini projects. Right now though, what would really make me happy is to finally just get started with one or two of the million and one things I want to do in my life.
This book also not only encourages one to be happier, more importantly, it helps you think about how well you know yourself, and your relationships with the people around you. Seems to me that the project won’t work without you having to accept the simple, and sometimes probably painful, truths about yourself.
Do I recommend the book? I most definitely do. Check out The Happiness Project in Amazon. Locally, it is also available at Fully Booked. Also, checkout The Happiness Project Blog.
Oh, thank you Gretchen Rubin for deciding to become a fulltime writer. And thank you for spending your year wisely on this experiment.