This is last in a series of monthly articles from Gretchen Rubin’s book: The Happiness Project.
December Happiness Project is Happiness. Or as Gretchen called it: Boot Camp Perfect — following all her monthly resolution all the time! Keep on reading to find some interesting thoughts and answers from Gretchen Rubin.
Gretchen’s December project is an accumulation of all the month’s resolutions which she called Boot Camp Perfect.
She found it was not as simple as she thought: “This goal of perfection was daunting, because following my resolutions took a huge amount of mental discipline and self-control — not to mention, it took a lot of time.”
Through the year’s progress, she discovered four Splendid Truths: If we want to be happy, we need to think about feeling good, feeling bad and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.
- First Splendid Truth: Eliminate the bad feelings — generated by snapping, nagging, gossiping, clutter, eating fake food, etc.
- Second Splendid Truth: Creating more feel-good moments — such as laughing easily, listening to music
- Third Splendid Truth: Recognizing what feels right — especially important when making decisions
- Fourth Splendid Truth: Embracing an atmosphere of growth — mastering a skill generating feelings of gratification to push us forward in life
I find that many of my thoughts on happiness were similar to Gretchen’s. One of the biggest things I learned through this year-long Happiness Project was just being aware of what I was thinking and doing.
~ Was I really diligent in eliminating the bad feelings that sabotaged my happiness?
~ Did I really work at creating more feel-good moments during the day?
~ Am I effective at recognizing what feels right for me and acting on it?
~ Can I embrace an atmosphere of growth to bring me happiness?
When I first started reading her book and writing these monthly articles, I adopted a ‘we’ll see’ attitude. Since the year is nearly over, I feel the points in her book make sense and have changed me. So now, when I look at my life, I see I am making progress. That realization alone makes me know I have created more happiness in my life!
Gretchen’s concluding comments:
The year is over, and really am happier. After all my research, I found out what I knew all along: I could change my life without changing my life. When I made the effort to reach out for them, I found that the ruby slippers had been on my feet all along; the bluebird was singing outside my kitchen window.
How about you? Did you create more happiness in your life during 2020 — despite the chaos of this year?