(5 / 5)
Did everyone else besides me read this when it came out? I feel like I’m soooooooooo late to the party. I think my sister has even read it multiple times. When it was published I was in my early twenties and life was good. I was a college student with basically no responsibilities except to take classes and live life to the fullest. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say I was very happy back then. I certainly didn’t think I needed to read a book about being happy. And honestly, I wouldn’t say I’m unhappy now, but my life is just different. I’m playing the long game now which requires a lot of diaper changing, time clocked in the kitchen and the car, and not a lot of spontaneous road trips (or spontaneous anything). I truly love my life right now, I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but I as I looked around I thought to myself, “I have so many wonderful things in my life, why don’t I feel as happy as I think I should be?” Luckily this is almost exactly the same question Gretchen Rubin in “The Happiness Project” asks herself. I felt I really connected with the author, sure our lives look different from the outside but her way of thinking was is harmony with my life outlook. Rubin devotes hours of research to what makes people happy. I was amazed by the scope of her resources. She puts a plan into action not for what will make people in general happy, but just her happy. She wrote about what she did each month for a year to feel more happy with only making small life changes. She never claims her methods will work for everyone, in fact she admits that probably won’t be the case, but by modeling what she did, we her readers can tweak and adapt our own happiness projects. I read this book over the course of 2 months, reading only 10 pages (or less!) a night so I might think on them and apply certain principles she wrote about.
This book gets 5 stars from me because without question it changed my life. I cleaned my closets, lived in the moment, tried to quit nagging (still working on that one), built something (this blog), and tried to live more true to myself. I understand why this book may not work for some people, the author lives a very privileged life in a New York apartment with two beautiful children and a “soulmate” husband. She is financially stable enough to pursue her passion of writing full-time. People may think, “she should be happy already with everything at her feet. Who is she to tell someone like me, someone with real problems how to be happy?” (I saw this sentiment expressed many times on GoodReads). To that I say it just goes to show that you can have money and a stable family life and still chase happiness. Life circumstances may not make you as different as you think. Also this book is about making small changes to the life you already have-something everyone can do, not making a radical life changes (moving to a different country) that require resources only a privileged few have (not which almost never result in true happiness anyway).
If you read this book, and I hope you do, I suggest taking your time with it. I think you’ll be happy you did.
Violence: None Language: Low Adult Content: None