Happy Tho Lucky

One of the things that makes me happy is to stay up late or get up early with the aim to finish a book. As I sipped my final drops of coffee this morning, I thumbed through the acknowledgement pages of The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. My takeaways from the book: be kind, be mindful, and set goals. At least those were my thoughts until this morning when in "December," Rubin makes a distinction between goals and resolutions: "You hit a goal, you keep a resolution." Good point Ms. Rubin.

It was interesting to follow the author's journey toward the pursuit of (more) happiness. Rubin was not an unhappy person when she started; she wanted to build good habits and improve her happiness. She admits that her life is (was) not a bad life. Indeed, one of the lessons from my "Year of Service" is that there is always another who has more challenges than we do. So how do we live every day? I think that is the question to ponder. One of Rubin's truths is that "The days are long but the years are short." This quip will stick with me as will a series of other mantras (she calls them commandments) that are repeated throughout the book. I think most of us reach points of reflection as to whether or not we are happy. To be happier, we must "do" rather than "be."