Book Review--The Happiness Project

I love to read on vacation and have to have a good book in my hands for the airplane rides, time by the pool, and the beach. This year, I was able to read a newly recommended book to me, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubins. One of my main goals for this year was to read more books and focus on my overall health, including mental and emotional, and this book was perfect.

I think we can all learn to be happier and to appreciate what we have more. There were many helpful things about this book that I can definitely apply to my own life, but a few things really jumped out at me. Gretchen takes an overwhelming project, a yearlong happiness project, and breaks it down into manageable monthly resolutions. She came up with a list of things she knew to be true, 12 things she wanted to work on over the year, and then broke that down into several resolutions to focus on each month. She then kept track of her progress on a daily resolutions chart. I definitely need to do this.

I love the fact that as a Mom of two, she kept it real. She only focused on changing her behavior. I plan on doing a modified happiness project in 2013 as we finish up Kindergarten and start school full-time next fall. The one quote that has stayed with me from this book is that "the days are long, but the years are short."

I highly recommend this book, and I'm currently reading the follow up book, Happier at Home. I'm also getting things organized for my happiness project to start in January by following Gretchen's blog here--http://www.happiness-project.com/  Happy Reading!