Quote

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Lower the bar. Actually spending ten minutes clearing off one shelf is better than fantasizing about spending a weekend cleaning out the basement.

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
Spending
Clearing
Minutes
Shelf
Enemy
Shelves
Actually
Cleaning
Perfect
Weekend
Better
Lower
Fantasizing
Good
Bars
Basement
Ten
Basements

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I'm doing a lot of speaking and talking about habits, which is this subject that obsesses me. That's a lot of fun.
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Negative emotions like loneliness, envy, and guilt have an important role to play in a happy life they’re big, flashing signs that something needs to change.
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Laughter is more than just a pleasurable activity...When people laugh together, they tend to talk and touch more and to make eye contact more frequently.
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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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Forbearance is a form of generosity.
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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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The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It's more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted.
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There are no do overs and some things just aren't going to happen. It is a little sad but you just have to embrace what is
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I'm a person who's fine saying 'No.' I like saying to myself, no gossiping, no nagging.
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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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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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Remember that although the distinction can be difficult to draw, loneliness and solitude are different.
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Happiness is a critical factor for work, and work is a critical factor for happiness. In one of those life-isn’t-fair results, it turns out that the happy out-perform the less happy.
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Nothing,' wrote Tolstoy, 'can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.
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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.
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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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The biggest waste of time is to do well something that we need not do at all.
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The number one resolution that people mention to me as something that's made them happier is - to my surprise - making the bed.
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Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
Gretchen Rubin