The Happiness Project

At the beginning of this course, I mentioned that I had read a book that pertained all too closely to our topic for this semester. The title was The Happiness Project, and it was written by Gretchen Ruben, a mother of two, lawyer-turned-writer who decided she was not valuing the joy in her life well enough. On a bus one day she asked herself if she was happy. Her response was yes, but was followed by another question-- "Could I be happier?" Thus began her journey of happiness, covering all her bases from Plato to St. Therèse in order to discover what makes people happy, what happy people do and what comes from happiness. She had multiple strategies to go about this. In the end, she said, the one that aided her the most in her journey to happiness was her virtues chart. Modeled after Benjamin Franklin's, her chart was divided by month. Each had a theme, and a set of virtues that followed it. If I had my book with me I would give you a more precise example... I remember January was something along the lines of "Tidy Up!", and her virtues had to do with ridding of clutter, not taking on more tasks, etc. Every month she would tack on another set of virtues, all the while keeping track of the ones from months before. This would all occur on a large chart she would keep in her office. After months of trying to build a collection, doing random acts of love and going to sleep on time she said she wasn't sure if she was happier. But she did know that she was spreading positivity more, and that the people she knew were more thrilled to be around her. In the end, isn't that what happiness is?