The Happiness Project

A couple of years ago I read a book titled “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin, which tells how the author dedicated herself to her own happiness, as if it were a work project. She identified 12 issues that she felt didn’t make her happy or about which she wanted to improve her happiness and she approached them with charts and monitoring for a whole year. The book was so successful in the United States that now the author has a blog (www.happiness-project.com), she’s in social networks, writes for Forbes and in general, continues to be very active to help people create similar projects.

I had forgotten about the book although I had loved it, and I came upon an article by Rubin on the web which fitted like a glove, given the fact that at the end of last year, I had decided that 2012 would be focused on happiness.

It is not that I had been unhappy — far from it. But I realized that I was complaining about little things, not valuing what I have, wasting energy on irrelevant subjects, spending less time with friends and family, and most of all, I wasn’t enjoying life 100 percent.

I’ve been trying to accomplish those goals and have already noticed a substantial difference in my mood; however, I feel each step of the workday and the growing responsibilities on my shoulders and that is why having found this book again was so important. Happiness has to be worked on just like any other matter. Today there are many books and even academic projects trying to analyze happiness and help people find it. Most have reached interesting conclusions, such as 10 percent of our happiness is defined by matters such as money, status and image. What they have found to be essential to be happy is to have solid personal relationships (family and friends), to feel part of a community or a group project, to have personal growth and develop activities that generate satisfaction.

It sounds easy, but modern society is going the opposite way and therein lies the challenge to put effort into the pursuit of personal happiness. We tend to think that our time here is infinite, that we can postpone everything and that dealing with children and family matters is a chore and not a gift of life. I will continue to be just as ambitious in my work — I have that in my DNA — but I won’t let my job and its fast pace make me forget what is truly important. Just as I heard an interviewee say in a documentary called “Happy”, “Life is a loan and we have to pay it back with interest.”

In this tough world, country and city it’s important to defend our happiness with a cape and sword. It doesn’t matter what it is, each person finds it in different ways, but clearly it’s the most important thing we have and the only thing we’ll take with us when we die.