The Happiness Project, Tenth Anniversary Edition: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

#1 New York Times Bestseller “An enlightening, laugh-aloud read. . . . Filled with open, honest glimpses into [Rubin’s] real life, woven together with constant doses of humor.” —Christian Science Monitor Gretchen Rubin’s year-long experiment to discover how to create true happiness. Drawing on cutting-edge science, classical philosophy, and real-world examples, Rubin delivers an engaging, eminently relatable chronicle of transformation. This special 10th Anniversary edition features a Conversation with Gretchen Rubin, Happiness Project Stories, a guide to creating your own happiness project, a list of dozens of free resources, and more. Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. “The days are long, but the years are short,” she realized. “Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project. In this lively and compelling account—now updated with new material by the author—Rubin chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Among other things, she found that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that money can help buy happiness, when spent wisely; that outer order contributes to inner calm; and that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference. This updated edition includes: An extensive new interview with the author Stories of other people’s life-changing happiness projects A resource guide to the dozens of free resources created for readers The Happiness Project Manifesto An excerpt from Rubin’s bestselling book The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles that Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too)

About the Author :
Gretchen Rubin is the author of several books, including the bestselling FORTY WALLS TO LOOK AT WINSTRON CHURCHILL. She was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor when she realized that she really wanted to be a writer. She lives in New York City with her husband and two young daughters.

Review :
“Happiness is contagious. And so is The Happiness Project. Once you’ve read Gretchen Rubin’s tale of a year searching for satisfaction, you’ll want to start your own happiness project and get your friends and family to join you. This is the rare book that will make you both smile and think—often on the same page.” — Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind “The Happiness Project is a wonderful book. Gretchen Rubin shows how you can be happier, starting right now, with small, actionable steps accessible to everyone. Among her many attainable strategies, her discovery of the connection between inner happiness and outer order is spot on!” — Julie Morgenstern, New York Times bestselling author of SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life “A cross between the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, and seamlessly buttressed by insights from sources as diverse as psychological scientists, novelists, poets, and philosophers, Gretchen Rubin has written a book that readers will revisit again and again as they seek to fulfill their own dreams for happiness.” — Sonya Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want “For those who generally loathe the self-help genre, Rubin’s book is a breath of peppermint-scented air. Well-researched and sharply written. . . . Rubin takes an orderly, methodical approach to forging her own path to a happier state of mind.” — Kim Crow, Cleveland Plain Dealer “Practical and never preachy . . . the rare self-help tome that doesn’t feel shameful to read.” — Daily Beast “If anyone can help us stop procrastinating, start exercising or get organized, it’s Gretchen Rubin. The happiness guru takes a sledgehammer to old-fashioned notions about change.” — Parade “Gretchen Rubin combines deep research and observations from her own life to explain how habits emerge and—more important—how they can change. It’s indispensable for anyone hoping to overhaul how they (almost unthinkingly) behave.” — Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit “Gretchen Rubin is a writer after my own heart—seriously brilliant, very warm, and funny. I think she’s amazing.” — Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird and Help, Thanks, Wow “Gretchen Rubin’s superpower is curiosity… Weaving together research, unforgettable examples, and her brilliant insight, Better Than Before is a force for real change.”  — Brené Brown, Dare to Lead and Daring Greatly "Loaded with practical solutions and impeccable research. Rubin is also a fine writer, and her enthusiasm for improving lives is contagious."  — Harlan Coben “With her characteristic mix of delightful charm, thoughtful research, and insightful advice… Gretchen Rubin shows how to add fun, joy, and harmony to your home life.” — Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking “Rubin’s funny, perceptive account is both inspirational and forgiving, and sprinkled with just enough wise tips, concrete advice and timely research (including all those other recent books on happiness) to qualify as self-help. Defying self-help expectations, however, Rubin writes with keen senses of self and narrative, balancing the personal and the universal with a light touch. Rubin’s project makes curiously compulsive reading, which is enough to make any reader happy.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Gretchen Rubin is the perfect guide. . . . Honest, insightful, and well-researched. . . . Rubin masterfully interweaves touching and often funny personal anecdotes into the analysis of her progress, resulting in a friendly, approachable, and compulsively readable narrative that will not only make you want to start your own Happiness Project, but will also make you want to invite Rubin out for a cup of coffee.” — San Diego Union-Tribune “Without any cutesy gimmicks or made-for-the-movies twists. . . . Rubin’s methods are contagious. . . . [She] wins readers with her honest, straightforward style.” — Miami Herald “Aided by her formidable intelligence and willingness to try anything, she spent a year road-testing every theory about happiness she could get her hands on, using her own life as the road.” — Time “Happiness is contagious. And so is The Happiness Project. Once you’ve read Gretchen Rubin’s tale of a year searching for satisfaction, you’ll want to start your own happiness project and get your friends and family to join you. This is the rare book that will make you both smile and think—often on the same page.” — Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind “Aided by her formidable intelligence and willingness to try anything, she spent a year road-testing every theory about happiness she could get her hands on, using her own life as the road.” — Time “Rubin had learned that there was a close correlation between habits and happiness, so she figured out how we form them, use them, and change them. Once I came to understand habits as harnessing our own laziness—making a habit frees you from decision-making, which you can use to your advantage—my relationship to them changed permanently.”  — New Yorker “Rubin had learned that there was a close correlation between habits and happiness, so she figured out how we form them, use them, and change them. Once I came to understand habits as harnessing our own laziness—making a habit frees you from decision-making, which you can use to your advantage—my relationship to them changed permanently.”  — New Yorker “Lays out life’s essential goals… serves as a kind of detailed instruction manual on how to achieve them.” — New York Times Book Review “Lays out life’s essential goals… serves as a kind of detailed instruction manual on how to achieve them.” — New York Times Book Review “If anyone can help us stop procrastinating, start exercising or get organized, it’s Gretchen Rubin. The happiness guru takes a sledgehammer to old-fashioned notions about change.” — Parade “Gretchen Rubin combines deep research and observations from her own life to explain how habits emerge and—more important—how they can change. It’s indispensable for anyone hoping to overhaul how they (almost unthinkingly) behave.” — Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit “Gretchen Rubin is a writer after my own heart—seriously brilliant, very warm, and funny. I think she’s amazing.” — Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird and Help, Thanks, Wow “Gretchen Rubin’s superpower is curiosity… Weaving together research, unforgettable examples, and her brilliant insight, Better Than Before is a force for real change.”  — Brené Brown, Dare to Lead and Daring Greatly "Loaded with practical solutions and impeccable research. Rubin is also a fine writer, and her enthusiasm for improving lives is contagious."  — Harlan Coben “With her characteristic mix of delightful charm, thoughtful research, and insightful advice… Gretchen Rubin shows how to add fun, joy, and harmony to your home life.” — Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking