Title: The Happiness Project
Author: Gretchen Ruben
Published: 2015/12/29
Genre: Self Help/Memoir
Rating: ★★★★
Synopsis
Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. “The days are long, but the years are short,” she realized. “Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.
In this lively and compelling account, Rubin chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Among other things, she found that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that money can help buy happiness, when spent wisely; that outer order contributes to inner calm; and that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference.
My Thoughts
This book has been on my radar for years. I actually found out about it when I bought the journal inspired by this. It’s one of those sentence a day and each page is a day but 5 years, that way the following year you can see what your thoughts were the year prior. Admittedly I have been really bad about using it and probably should get another.
Anyways! I listened to this an as an audiobook and enjoyed it. It’s not your traditional self help book but more of a self help book wrapped in a memoir because Gretchen is talking about her own happiness journey. In the book she goes through what she works on, the challenges she has and what she draws from the whole experience.
I personally really enjoyed the way this was written, it felt more like a conversation, as if we were sitting down and I had asked her to share her experience and then I was able to take away from it whatever I wanted, whether it be hard details or just friendly motivation to work on whatever I wanted to work on.
If your looking for a book to give you strict guidelines this book is not for you. If your looking for something just to help motivate you, maybe give you some inspiration on ways to work on things then this is a book you might enjoy.
My big take away from this, like always is consistency, and we can only work on ourselves, we can’t expect anyone else to want to join us on the journey but if they do we can encourage them. We choose how we react and taking a little bit of time to think about things is always a good thing. Nothing really new but always a great reminder.
Has anyone read this book? What were your thoughts?
Books, Boxes, & Baubles 
This book sounds marvellous! This is definitely my next read! Thank you for sharing 🙏🏽
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: End of the Month Wrap-Up: February | Books, Boxes, & Baubles