Rubin manages to offer plausible, solid suggestions for what worked for her she’s great at navigating that delicate line between “just do this,” and “you might want to try that.”Īs self-help books go, Rubin’s works because it’s filled with open, honest glimpses into her real life, woven together with constant doses of humor. Superbly organized into amusing step-by-step months, “Happiness Project” is a definite success – just reading it will make you happier. She compiled her own “Twelve Commandments,” which begins with the all-important “Be Gretchen,” and her “goofier list” of “Secrets of Adulthood,” which includes tried-and-tested gems like, “By doing a little bit each day, you can get a lot accomplished,” and Luddite-loving zingers like, “Turning the computer on and off a few times often fixes glitches.”Īrmed and ready, Rubin set off on her year-long journey. Rubin assures us, “I wanted to change my life without changing my life, by finding more happiness in my own kitchen.”įirst she planned and prepared.
‘Is this really it?’” Asking herself what she really wanted, her answer seemed simple: “I want to be happy.” Like most of us, she “had never thought about what made happy or how might be happier.” But unlike most of us, she actually figured out how: “I decided to dedicate a year to trying to be happier.” And she gives the rest of us great hope because she did so without making radical changes like running off to Indonesia. One morning on a city bus, Rubin had a startling epiphany: “I was suffering from midlife malaise – a recurrent sense of discontent and almost a feeling of disbelief.
But she’s also prone to misbehavior that undermines her well-being: she loses her temper over trivial things, and fights melancholy and insecurity, not to mention that unshakable guilt. She’s married to the man of her dreams, has two “delightful” daughters, is a bestselling author with a Yale law degree, is healthy, and lives in her favorite city surrounded by supportive family and friends. Gretchen Rubin already had a pretty good life. If you need more convincing, let me count the monthly ways. Which means if you’re looking for an enlightening, laugh-aloud read, get the book and forget the rest of this review. Before I even finished the book, I had already preordered multiple copies of Gretchen Rubin’s latest title, 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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