Gretchen Rubin
When I find myself focusing overmuch on the anticipated future happiness of arriving at a certain goal, I remind myself to 'Enjoy now'. If I can enjoy the present, I don't need to count on the happiness that is (or isn't) waiting for me in the future".Collection: Goal
It's so easy to wish that we'd made an effort in the past, so that we'd happily be enjoying the benefit now, but when now is the time when that effort must be made, as it always is, that prospect is much less inviting.Collection: Monday
Nothing,' wrote Tolstoy, 'can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.Collection: Life
Studies show that aggressively expressing anger doesn't relieve anger but amplifies it. On the other hand, not expressing anger often allows it to disappear without leaving ugly traces.Collection: Anger
Laughter is more than just a pleasurable activity...When people laugh together, they tend to talk and touch more and to make eye contact more frequently.Collection: Relationship
We’ve all heard of Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In contrast, I realized, happiness has four stages. To eke out the most happiness from an experience we must: anticipate it, savor it as it unfolds, express happiness, and recall a happy memory.Collection: Memories
The biggest waste of time is to do well something that we need not do at all.Collection: Needs
Never start a sentence with the words 'No offense.Collection: Tact
You really have to begin by figuring out what kind of person you are. The tip is to really take a look at yourself.Collection: Looks
In the scope of a happy life, a messy desk or an overstuffed coat closet is a trivial thing, yet I find — and I hear from other people that they agree — that getting rid of clutter gives a disproportionate boost to happiness.Collection: Happy Life
Happiness: "You Bring Your Own Weather To The Picnic."Collection: Marriage
We are happy when we are growing.Collection: Growing
Look for happiness under your own roof.Collection: Inspirational
According to current research, in the determination of a person's level of happiness, genetics accounts for about 50 percent; life circumstances, such as age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, income, health, occupation, and religious affiliation, account for about 10 to 20 percent; and the remainder is a product of how a person thinks and acts.Collection: Religious
What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.Collection: Inspirational
... one flaw throws the loveliness of [everything else] into focus. I remember reading that Shakers deliberately introduced a mistake into the things they made, to show that man shouldn't aspire to the perfection of God. Flawed can be more perfect than perfection.Collection: Mistake
September is the other January.Collection: September
Being taken for granted is an unpleasant but sincere form of praise. Ironically, the more reliable you are and the less you complain, the more likely you are to be taken for granted.Collection: Taken
Act the way you WANT to feel.Collection: Happiness
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Lower the bar. Actually spending ten minutes clearing off one shelf is better than fantasizing about spending a weekend cleaning out the basement.Collection: Weekend
The days are long, but the years are short.Collection: Change
Pay close attention to any flame of enthusiasm.Collection: Flames
We can use decision-making to choose the habits we want to form, use willpower to get the habit started, then - and this is the best part - we can allow the extraordinary power of habit to take over. At that point, were free from the need to decide and the need to use willpower.Collection: Decision
One reason that challenge brings happiness is that it allows you to expand your self - definition. You become larger. Suddenly you can do yoga or make homemade beer or speak a decent amount of Spanish. Research shows that the more elements make up your identity, the less threatening it is when any one element is threatened.Collection: Yoga
Contemporary research shows that happy people are more altruistic, more productive, more helpful, more likable, more creative, more resilient, more interested in others, friendlier, and healthier. Happy people make better friends, colleagues, and citizens.Collection: People
I always had the uncomfortable feeling that if I wasn't sitting in front of a computer typing, I was wasting my time - but I pushed myself to take a wider view of what was "productive." Time spent with my family and friends was never wasted.Collection: Views
When you work regularly, inspiration strikes regularly.Collection: Inspiration
Think about what kind of person you are and shape your habits, and your happiness, to show what's true about you instead of thinking that you can just import the right answer from the outside.Collection: Thinking
The First Splendid Truth: To be happy, I need to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.Collection: Happiness
Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination.Collection: Procrastination
Happiness is a critical factor for work, and work is a critical factor for happiness. In one of those life-isn’t-fair results, it turns out that the happy out-perform the less happy.Collection: People
No one regrets having changed a lightbulb.Collection: Regret
Volunteering to help others is the right thing to do, and it also boosts personal happinessCollection: Helping Others
I needed to change the lens through which I viewed everything familiar.Collection: Lenses
Forbearance is a form of generosity.Collection: Generosity
The more I examine the issue of clutter, the more effort I put into combating it, because it really does act as a weight.Collection: Issues
Keep in mind that to avoid loneliness, many people need both a social circle and an intimate attachment. Having just one of two may still leave you feeling lonely.Collection: Lonely
One of the most important lessons of childhood is discovering what you like to do.Collection: Childhood
Now is now. Here is my treasure.Collection: Treasure
Remember that although the distinction can be difficult to draw, loneliness and solitude are different.Collection: Loneliness
When Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's government fell in May 1940, the nation turned to Churchill. At last, his unique qualities were brought to bear on a supreme challenge, and with his unshakable optimism, his heroic vision, and above all, his splendid speeches, Churchill roused the spirit of the British people.Collection: Unique
If I give more to myself, I can ask more from myself. Self-regard isn't selfish.Collection: Selfish
I think self-knowledge is a key to happiness.We can build happy lives only on the foundation of our own natures, our own values, and our own interests.Collection: Happy Life
Now that I've relinquished my fantasies of all the people I wish I could be, and stopped feeling guilty about not going to the opera or pretending that I want to attend a foreign policy lecture, I have more time for the things that I truly enjoy.Collection: People
Getting paperwork under control makes me feel more in control of my life generally.Collection: Feels
Act the way that you want to feel.Collection: Anxiety
People are powerfully moved by imagination, belief, and knowledge. They can consider the past and future. They can make changes in their behavior out of reason, in a way that animals can’t do.Collection: Animal
I grasped two things: I wasn't as happy as I could be, and my life wasnt going to change unless I made it change.Collection: Two
Nature is impersonal, awe-inspiring, elegant, eternal. It's geometrically perfect. It's tiny and gigantic. You can travel far to be in a beautiful natural setting, or you can observe it in your backyard - or, in my case, in the trees lining New York City sidewalks, or in the clouds above skyscrapers.Collection: Beautiful