You can choose what you do, you cant choose what you like to do. Gretchen Rubin More Quotes by Gretchen Rubin More Quotes From Gretchen Rubin The absence of feeling bad isn't enough to make you happy; you must strive to find sources of feeling good Gretchen Rubin feel-good absence feelings Happy people make people happy, but I can’t make someone be happy, and no one else can make me happy. Gretchen Rubin make-me-happy i-can people There's a kind of magical thinking about these kinds of things. Throw away those bad photos before the "magic" attaches to them, so the good ones stand out. Gretchen Rubin magic kind thinking The 20-minute walk I take is better than the 3-mile run I never start. Having people over for take-out is better than never having people to an elegant dinner party. Gretchen Rubin party running people Getting paperwork under control makes me feel more in control of my life generally. Gretchen Rubin authentic-happiness paperwork feels The biggest waste of time is to do well something that we need not do at all. Gretchen Rubin wasting-time waste needs It was time to expect more of myself. Yet as I thought about happiness, I kept running up against paradoxes. I wanted to change myself but accept myself. I wanted to take myself less seriously -- and also more seriously. I wanted to use my time well, but I also wanted to wander, to play, to read at whim. I wanted to think about myself so I could forget myself. I was always on the edge of agitation; I wanted to let go of envy and anxiety about the future, yet keep my energy and ambition. Gretchen Rubin ambition letting-go running Self-awareness is a key to self-mastery Gretchen Rubin mastery keys self Volunteering to help others is the right thing to do, and it also boosts personal happiness Gretchen Rubin volunteer boost helping-others I needed to change the lens through which I viewed everything familiar. Gretchen Rubin lenses familiar needed Forbearance is a form of generosity. Gretchen Rubin forbearance generosity form If you always use your stapler in one place, keep it there, instead of thinking that all the office supplies should go in one place. I've moved a lot of things around in my house because of that. Gretchen Rubin office house thinking 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. Gretchen Rubin grief acceptance memories Creativity arises from a constant churn of ideas, and one of the easiest ways to encourage that fertile froth is to keep your mind engaged with your project. When you work regularly, inspiration strikes regularly. Gretchen Rubin creativity inspiration ideas 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. Gretchen Rubin attachment lonely loneliness One of the things that you see ancient philosophers and contemporary scientists agree on is that strong relationships are a key to happiness, maybe the key to happiness. People who have more strong relationships in their lives just feel happier. Gretchen Rubin strong keys people [S]tudies show that one of the best ways to lift your mood is to engineer an easy success, such as tackling a long-delayed chore. Gretchen Rubin easy long way One of the great joys of falling in love is the feeling that the most extraordinary person in the entire world has chosen you. Gretchen Rubin extraordinary-person falling-in-love love-is We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short period, and underestimate what we can do over a long period, provided we work slowly and consistently. Anthony Trollope, the nineteenth-century writer who managed to be a prolific novelist while also revolutionizing the British postal system, observed, “A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.” Over the long run, the unglamorous habit of frequency fosters both productivity and creativity. Gretchen Rubin daily-tasks creativity running I realize that in a happy life, making your bed should play a very small part, I don't know why this is so helpful to people getting started on a happiness project, but for some reason, making your bed - it's concrete, it's manageable. There's a big difference between having a bed that's unmade and a bed that's made. That little bit of outer order in people's lives seem to help them get started. So, that's a very small thing that you can do. Gretchen Rubin play order happy-life
