Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project

Gretchen Rubin’s new book, ‘The Happiness Project‘, has been out for just two weeks and is already making a splash. It tells Gretchen Rubin’s story of spending a year testing strategies to be happier. It’s not that her life was bad beforehand – it wasn’t, and Gretchen was living a perfectly fine life in New York with her husband and young child. But Gretchen was curious about what it really took to be happy, and spent a year experimenting and blogging and writing about her journey.

In this interview, Gretchen and I discuss:

• How to convert the theory of happiness to the practices of happiness.
• Whether novelty and challenge adds – or reduces – happiness.
• The paradox of why things that increase your happiness don’t always make you happy.
• The happiness strategy that Gretchen was most skeptical about – and what she ended up discovering.

You can follow Gretchen on Twitter at @GretchenRubin and read a sample chapter of her new book at her website, The Happiness Project. Be sure to visit her website, Gretchen Rubin.

Listen to my interview with Gretchen Rubin

0:16    Michael introduces Gretchen Rubin
0:23    Gretchen’s book The Happiness Project
2:30    How to convert the theory of happiness to the practices of happiness
4:35    Whether novelty and challenge adds – or reduces – happiness
6:55    The paradox of why things that increase your happiness don’t always make you happy
9:00    The happiness strategy that Gretchen was most skeptical about – and what she ended up discovering
16:39   The  1-minute rule and why it works
25:24   Tricks and techniques to being a mindful person
30:41   How to find out more about Gretchen Rubin
31:25   Michael closes the interview