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Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin, creator of The Happiness Project, the phenomenally bestselling book and mega-popular blog, just revealed the cover for her next book, HAPPIER AT HOME (Crown). Here’s what we can expect in September 2012:

In the spirit of her blockbuster #1 New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin embarks on a new project to make home a happier place.

One Sunday afternoon, as she unloaded the dishwasher, Gretchen Rubin felt hit by a wave of homesickness. Homesick—why? She was standing right in her own kitchen. She felt homesick, she realized, with love for home itself. “Of all the elements of a happy life,” she thought, “my home is the most important.” In a flash, she decided to undertake a new happiness project, and this time, to focus on home.

And what did she want from her home? A place that calmed her, and energized her. A place that, by making her feel safe, would free her to take risks. Also, while Rubin wanted to be happier at home, she wanted to appreciate how much happiness was there already.

So, starting in September (the new January), Rubin dedicated a school year—September through May—to making her home a place of greater simplicity, comfort, and love.

In The Happiness Project, she worked out general theories of happiness. Here she goes deeper on factors that matter for home, such as possessions, marriage, time, and parenthood. How can she control the cubicle in her pocket? How might she spotlight her family’s treasured possessions? And it really was time to replace that dud toaster.

Each month, Rubin tackles a different theme as she experiments with concrete, manageable resolutions—and this time, she coaxes her family to try some resolutions, as well.

With her signature blend of memoir, science, philosophy, and experimentation, Rubin’s passion for her subject jumps off the page, and reading just a few chapters of this book will inspire readers to find more happiness in their own lives.

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I loved The Happiness Project and have written about it many times on this site so I can’t tell you how excited I am for Happier at Home. Have you read The Happiness Project? Do you follow Gretchen’s blog? Are you going to pick up Happier at Home when it hits bookstores in the fall?

 Oh, woe.

Happiness project part 1: Boost Energy was a flop. My plan, like the author of Happiness Project, was to boost energy by 1) eating healthier (too many birthday goodies around here for Big Guy's 9th birthday); 2) exercise more (pinched a nerve in my back frantically killing a tick on the bathroom wall. Darn Lyme-disease infested varmints) and 3) sleep more (5 y.o. spent more than a week waking me at 3 am to 1) find his plush Spongebob; 2) adjust his blanket; 3) put his bad dreams back in his dream catcher). All of which is to say: Energy boost=NOT.

I have decided to write the sequel to the Happiness Project titled, Why Bother? How Life Always Gets in the Way of Your Plans. Pen in hand, I opened up my notebook and then thought, Why bother?

Exactly.

How's things at your place? Any well-meaning resolutions gone wrong? I'd love some company in my energy depleted state. :p

I just read this cool book by Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project. It was an impulse buy at the bookstore. The subtitle intrigued me: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. What I loved about this book was that it wasn't just a month to month chronicle of her efforts to make resolutions and arrive at truths for her own happiness, but also a scholarly look at what philosophers, modern psychology, and pop culture have to say on the subject of happiness.  

I was simultaneously exhausted and fascinated by the sheer number of resolutions Rubin tackled--new tasks added each month until December where she had to do all of them at once. Tasks such as: Exercise better, clear clutter, quit nagging, give proofs of love, work smart, enjoy now...And that's just the first three months! 

The book comes with a guide to start your own Happiness Project, which I do plan to try. The main truths from the book that resonated with me for finding happiness were:

1. Staying true to yourself (including being honest about your likes and dislikes)
2. Striving for constant growth and challenge (it's the journey, not the destination)
3. The days are long, the years are short (my new parenting mantra).

Have you read the book? Do you have favorite ways to boost your happiness?

READ SOMETHING FUN!

Gretchen Rubin, author of THE HAPPINESS PROJECT and one of the most inspirational bloggers out there, gives some very interesting advice towards achieving happiness and balance in your life, “This week read something for fun!“

She explains that whenever she asks someone what they are reading, they typically answer with some profound work of great literature, a much-talked about, well-regarded book that tends to be a little “dry.” When Gretchen asks her friends why they don’t read something fun, they reply, “When I read, I want to learn something. I don’t want to waste my time with something that’s not worthwhile.” And yet everyday we turn on the television and watch something just because it is entertaining. Books should be regarded the same way.

As Gretchen says, it is always good to push yourself to read an ambitious book but when you are always pushing yourself, reading becomes a chore and not something you do for fun or enjoyment and then eventually something you just stop doing.

When you have the right book, nothing is more fun than reading. So go to a bookstore or a library or online and get something you want to read. The test? You should feel like going straight home and sitting down to read it, immediately.

Don’t judge yourself. Let yourself read what you want. Remember, it’s supposed to be fun. And it is fun, nothing is more fun, if you’re reading something you enjoy.

So go pick up a book with a great plot, some action, maybe some romance or humor and sit back and relax.

HAPPY READING!!