Begin any happiness project or personal growth endeavor by prioritizing self-knowledge, as understanding your unique strengths, weaknesses, values, interests, and challenges is crucial for pursuing aims and methods that are truly right for you and ensuring success.
Approach personal change through a ‘happiness project’ by focusing on small, ordinary changes within your daily life rather than dramatic overhauls, as this approach is more realistic and sustainable for most people.
Start your happiness project by reflecting on what brings you joy, satisfaction, engagement, and fun (to seek more of), and what causes anger, boredom, remorse, or guilt (to seek less of), to clarify your aims.
When setting resolutions for your happiness project, ensure they are highly concrete and specific, allowing you to clearly determine at the end of each day whether you successfully completed them.
Utilize a ‘resolutions chart’ to track your progress by checking off daily whether you kept a resolution, as monitoring helps keep resolutions top of mind and reinforces consistency.
Create ‘personal commandments,’ which are overarching principles (e.g., 6-12) that define how you want to live your life, reflecting your core values, as this thought-provoking exercise provides long-term satisfaction and clarity.
Keep a record of ‘Secrets of Adulthood,’ which are hard-won lessons or wisdom learned over time, to help you track and remember your personal insights and understanding of life.
Actively seek out rare opportunities for reflection, such as during quiet moments or commutes, to ponder fundamental questions like ‘What do I want from life anyway?’ and consider your own happiness.
If pursuing happiness, research the topic extensively by consulting diverse sources such as contemporary science, ancient philosophy, books, and memoirs to gather a wide range of ideas and strategies.
Be honest with yourself about who you are and what you truly need, as this self-honesty is a best practice that ensures your personal endeavors are genuinely aligned with your well-being.
Consider signing up for ‘The Happiness Project Revisited’ one-year course to follow Gretchen Rubin’s rebooted project, receiving a personal playbook, audio guidance, and real-time updates to work on your own initiatives.