AES 8: The Happiness Project

The Happiness Project is a book written by Gretchen Rubin. This book is about how you can improve your happiness by doing the most simple things, which mostly are the things that you do everyday. Gretchen Rubin learned the most effective way of making yourself happy is by making others happy. She spent a whole year trying to maximize her degree of happiness. For each month, she allocated herself tasks to engage with that she believed would make her happier. The Happiness Project summarizes the tasks that worked for her so you can also follow your own happiness project. I bought this book a few weeks ago, and I have read a few pages. It's a nice book, but I need to read it slowly because it’s a little bit hard to understand and immersed. Gretchen Rubin writes in a way that it was very easy for me to relate. It’s a real achievement how much research she did and how much information she is easily able to get across to the reader.

 This is a book that I think will stay with me forever and one that’s definitely worth reading it over and over again. I found myself reading it a bit a day, so I could understand it more. This book has many haters/dislikes by a lot of people because they don’t like the idea of having a theme every month of the happiness project. For me, this book is not great literature. This is not earth shattering or mind blowing in any way. Yet somehow, underneath the light-hearted entertainments, this little book is filled with profound truths. It is also filled with  extremely interesting bits of psychology and sociology research that are spread out through each page, mixed with her personal journey. Gretchen Rubin made me think about many areas in my life that could use a little boost of intention and mindfulness. I would give this book 4,5/5.