I, me, mine, and my

Gretchen Rubin writes a blog about happiness: how to achieve it and how to maintain it. Every Wednesday she offers tips—small tools to try to break readers out of their usual routines. This week she suggests twelve mental exercises to drive creativity and problem-solving. Her idea is that exploration, challenge, and novelty are all key elements of happiness, and number three on her list of exercises is to write a letter (or in this case, a blog post) without using the words in this post’s title.

This blog is a place for personal feelings and ramblings, so avoiding these words is a little tricky. Is it possible to write something with immediacy and urgency without utilizing the first person? Here’s what’s not going to happen: this isn’t going to become some Seinfeld-esque situation where Tori thinks this and Tori feels that (remember the Jimmy episode?).

Anyway, it’s felt good to read a blog that is devoted to trying to be a happier person. There is definitely something effective about choosing happiness versus taking a dark pleasure in bad moods. And hearing what has worked for other people, where people have struggled, and what makes others happy has made for some interesting personal reflection.

One of Gretchen’s best posts centered on determining what “fun” really meant for her. It seems like that should be easy—we each know what makes us happy, right? But do we do things because they’re really fun, or just because they’re there? Is watching 30-Minute Meals on the food channel really fun or just easy and routine? Being able to identify fun increases the likelihood of recognizing it in the moment, which can only be a good thing. It’s also interesting to realize that everyone has a different (and equally valid answer) to the question: what is fun?

Anyway, The Happiness Project has been very worthwhile reading. As New Year’s approaches, so do the dreaded but somehow inevitable New Year’s Resolutions. While eating better and exercising more are always great goals, it’s nice to ditch the standards, do some critical thinking about how to be happy, and work toward bringing small joys into every day.