#anthonyprice

Today, I finished reading the second book for my online book club, "The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun" by Gretchen Rubin. There are a number of things I am excited about having just finished this book:

I have finished my second book for the year!

I completed the book a few days early to be able to discuss it for the book club meeting

I have a lot of things rattling in my head regarding the topics Rubin covered in this book that I want to do something about.

Thanks to Life as Mom's, Jessica Fisher, I had a handy-dandy "Reading Notes" paper stuck inside the book so I could write down quotes from the book that stuck out to me.

Here are some of them:

Page 92, "The aspect of parenthood that intimidated me most was its irreversibility. Spouse, job, work, location- most of the big decisions in life can be reconsidered. Change might be difficult and painful, but it's possible. But a baby is different. A baby is irrevocable. Once Eliza [her daughter] was born, however, I never gave another thought to the irreversibility of parenthood." Rubin writes that children bring a fog happiness. Something you can feel, but it can't really be explained or captured. I enjoyed reading her thoughts on "before" parenthood.

Rubin talks a lot about "Being Gretchen." I thought about what does it mean to Be Malisa. This is something I want to discover and embrace.

Page 152, "'Mere exposure effect'...the more often you see a person, the more intelligent and attractive you'll find that person." So true!

Pages 176-178, "Hedonic treadmill - spending doesn't necessarily produce happiness." This goes hand-in-hand with Anthony and my decision to become debt free. The feeling of being enslaved to debt certainly makes this principle even more astounding. 

Page 179, "It's easy to make the mistake of thinking that if you have something you love or there's something you want, you'll be happier with more."

Page 185, "It's certainly true in my household that spending out [not expecting payback] creates a wealth of tenderness while calculation and score keeping build resentment." I loved Rubin's thoughts on this topic. It helped me realize that what I do for someone else matters and doesn't just affect them, but myself also. I think this mirrors the Golden Rule: Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.

Page 223, I also liked the portion about "Do what you do." She says, "What you enjoyed doing as a ten-year-old, or choose to do on a free Saturday afternoon is a strong indication of your passion." Herein lies a challenge for me, what do I like to do? Discovering what I like, not wishing I liked something else, is what I want to figure out.

Page 260, "As a way to help myself stay serene and cheerful, I resolved to discipline myself to direct my thoughts away from subjects that made me angry or irritable." WOW! This is a concept I am already trying to implement and keep on practicing. A great example is talk radio...if I'm finding that my blood is boiling, it is probably an indicator that it is NOT a source of happiness. Change the channel and steer clear!

Page 269, "Enthuisiasm is a form of social courage." How true. I was reminded of how someone very dear to me, my mom, has always been accused of being too Pollyanna-like. But her choosing to be happy and play the "glad game" is harder than the opposite, being a grumpy, angry person.

Page 270, "[It is] easy to be heavy; hard to be lighthearted."