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

by Gretchen Rubin

I gave this question a lot of thought. In the end, I sided with the ancient philosophers and modern scientists who argue that working to be happier is a worthy goal. According to Aristotle, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” Epicurus wrote, “We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it.” Contemporary research shows that happy people are more altruistic, more productive, more helpful, more likable, more creative, more resilient, more interested in others, friendlier, and healthier. Happy people make better friends, colleagues, and citizens. I wanted to be one of those people.

Whenever I'm working on a book, an important stage is when I go through and cut at least half of the quotations. How I love quotations! When I'm writing the first draft, I can never resist putting in all my favorites, but after I start to edit, I always realize that although each quotation may be thought-provoking, including too many quotations slows down the pace of the book. It's always so hard to choose which ones to cut. However, the process is easier now I send out my free "Moment of Happiness" newsletter, where I send people a daily email with happiness quotation. So I know that even when I have to cut out some wonderful passages, I have a way to share them with other people. I have a giant trove of quotations that I love, and I add to it constantly. As a child, I copied passages by hand, but now I use the computer -- just so much faster to type, and my handwriting is so poor that it's hard to read.