The Happiness Project {book review}

This book was amazing. I borrowed it from a very sweet gal I go to church with on a Wednesday evening... and passed it on to sister in law smartest on Sunday morning (though to be fair, the smartest was having a sci-fi fest that week, so multitasking was easier than usual).

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
 is by a lovely lady named Gretchen Rubin who lives in New York with 2 kids and a husband. She started what she described as her "happiness project" at the beginning of January one year, and basically attempted to tackle different issues each month that would help increase her level of happiness.

I think my favorite thing about this book was the very simple and applicable advice. She has rules like "Be Gretchen" and "Act how you want to feel", which I found both interesting and instructive. Since completing the book, I have been partaking in some serious pondering- and am feeling challenged to:

- De-clutter the house (you should have SEEN the look on the guy's face when I pulled up to Goodwill with a car full. If ever I thought I might make a grown man shed a tear, it was in that moment)

- Be myself. Did you know that I have a penchant for children's literature? I recently finished the Eragon series- which is a fantasy series of 4 books all about dragons, and it was quite excellent. As a lingering childhood habit, I tend to glossy over the pieces of my personality that I think people won't be fond of or find relatable. But the fact remains that I am a book monger, and prefer books that happen somewhere far far away and involve talking animals of some kind.

- The 30 day novel challenge. This one is going to be difficult. In her book, Gretchen recounts how she took the novel challenge posed in "No Plot? No Problem!" by Chris Baty. Basically, the book is a guide to writing a 55,000 word novel in 30 days. I'm not 100% sure that I will take on the challenge in 30 days (debating 60, since summer is always buzzing with activity and I have enough hermit tendencies without encouragement, thank you very much) but I definitely do want to give it a go. Nothing breeds writing like... writing.

- Spend out. Gretchen makes a point that if we spend our whole lives waiting for the right moment to use our fine china or take that vacation, or buy a new pillow so our backs don't hurt that we might never actually get the chance. As such, I have started using the delightful cookie sheets we got as a wedding gift- because having cookies that don't stick is way better than having a pan that never got to serve its purpose.

I definitely recommend this as an excellent read that will make you feel empower to change things, without making you feel like your unchanged life up to this point was completely worthless (which is my biggest issue with self help literature, other than the utter lack of dragons).