The Happiness Project
Gretchen Rubin · 2009
Gretchen Rubin spends twelve months test-driving what Aristotle, Benjamin Franklin, Tolstoy, St. Therese of Lisieux, Samuel Johnson, modern researchers like Martin Seligman, and popular culture have said about happiness, assigning herself a theme and a set of concrete resolutions each month, from energy to marriage to money, to see what actually moves the needle in a life that was already fine.
A skeptic's year-long field experiment on herself, arguing that happiness isn't found in a big life change, it's built, month by month, out of ordinary days.
Two of the ideas you’ll keep
The Clif summary of The Happiness Project pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first two.
- Rubin's founding realization is that she wasn't unhappy, but wasn't as happy as she could be, and that waiting for a crisis to prompt change is a mistake. A happier life can be built out of an already-good one.
- "The days are long, but the years are short." This line, which sets the project in motion, becomes her sense of urgency: the mundane present is the only material available, so happiness has to be built inside ordinary days rather than deferred.
The other 5 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.
What’s inside: 9 chapters
The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.
- Getting Started: A Skeptic Decides to Be Happier
- January: Boost Energy
- February: Remember Love
- March: Aim Higher
- April: Lighten Up
- May & June: Be Serious About Play, Make Time for Friends
- July & August: Buy Some Happiness, Contemplate the Heavens
- September & October: Pursue a Passion, Pay Attention
- November & December: Keep a Contented Heart, Boot Camp Perfect
Finish The Happiness Project tonight.
Read or listen to the full summary in about 11 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.
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