Quote

We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it.

Gretchen Rubin

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Gretchen Rubin
Age: 59
Born: 1965
Born: December 14
Author
Blogger
Motivational Speaker
Kansas City
Missouri
Gretchen Craft Rubin
Action
Directed
Everything
Actions
Must
Toward
Things
Exercise
Present
Bring
Epicureanism
Since
Attaining
Happiness
Absent

More quotes by Gretchen Rubin

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Writing makes me happy.
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Money. It's a good servant but a bad master.
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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.
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We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short period, and underestimate what we can do over a long period.
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Say “no” only when it really matters. Wear a bright red shirt with bright orange shorts? Sure. Put water in the toy tea set? Okay. Sleep with your head at the foot of the bed? Fine. Samuel Johnson said, “All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.
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You really have to begin by figuring out what kind of person you are. The tip is to really take a look at yourself.
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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.
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In general, religious people seem to be happier than non-religious people - under various definitions of religiosity, such as church attendance or professed spiritual beliefs.
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The more I examine the issue of clutter, the more effort I put into combating it, because it really does act as a weight.
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I needed to change the lens through which I viewed everything familiar.
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Enthusiasm is more important to mastery than innate ability.
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I'm a creature of routine, and I hate feeling incompetent, so I avoided novelty and challenge. Making an effort to push myself in that way has brought me surprising boost.
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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.
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I've found that I snack less and concentrate better when I chew on a plastic stirrer - the kind that you get to stir your to-go coffee. I picked up this habit from my husband, who loves to chew on things. His favorite chew-toy is a plastic pen top, and gnawed pen tops and little bits of plastic litter our apartment.
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[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.
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Focus not on doing less or doing more but on doing what you value.
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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.
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When you work regularly, inspiration strikes regularly.
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Happiness is hard because it's very subjective. I know the people that seem happiest to me, but whether they are actually - what they're really like inside is really hard to say.
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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.
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