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" I collect axioms, paradoxes, maxims, teaching stories, proverbs, and aphorisms of all sorts, because I love to see complex ideas distilled into a few words. "
Gretchen Rubin
Love
See
Words
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" Enthusiasm is a form of social courage. "
Gretchen Rubin
Courage
Social
Form
" Work done by other people sounds easy. How hard can it be to take care of a newborn who sleeps 20 hours a day? How hard can it be to keep track of your billable hours? To travel for one night for business? To get a 4-year-old ready for school? To return a few phone calls? To load the dishwasher? To fill out some forms? "
Gretchen Rubin
School
Work
Travel
" Accept yourself and expect more from yourself. "
Gretchen Rubin
Accept
Yourself
More
" If you want someone else to do a task, don't do it yourself. "
Gretchen Rubin
Task
Someone
Else
" When we don't get any treats, we feel depleted, resentful, and angry, and we feel justified in self-indulgence. We start to crave comfort - and grab that comfort wherever we can, even if it means breaking good habits. "
Gretchen Rubin
Good
Comfort
Angry
" Most people enjoy 'potato-chip news' from time to time - to track a presidential election or the Oscars. However, some are particularly drawn to material that makes them feel shocked, frightened, insecure, or indignant, and that's what potato-chip news often provides. "
Gretchen Rubin
Feel
Election
Enjoy
" One thing that makes me very happy is to have a complicated idea and to feel that I've expressed myself clearly. I remember writing the ending to 'Happier at Home.' I wrote the entire book to build to that ending 'now is now,' and what I had to say was very abstract, and yet I felt satisfied that I managed to say what I wanted to say. "
Gretchen Rubin
Myself
Happy
Home
" My writing tends to become very dense, so I have to keep some cushion. Sometimes, words that seem superfluous are actually essential for the overall effect. "
Gretchen Rubin
Words
Writing
Sometimes
" They say that people teach what they need to learn. By adopting the role of happiness teacher, if only for myself, I was trying to find the method to conquer my particular faults and limitations. "
Gretchen Rubin
Teacher
People
Need
" People often assume that the same approach will work for everyone, that the same habits will work for everyone, and that everyone has the same aptitude and appetite for forming habits, but from my observation, that's not true. "
Gretchen Rubin
People
Work
True
" One of the best ways to make yourself happy in the present is to recall happy times from the past. Photos are a great memory-prompt, and because we tend to take photos of happy occasions, they weight our memories to the good. "
Gretchen Rubin
Past
Memories
Happy
" We need to have intimate, enduring bonds; we need to be able to confide; we need to feel that we belong; we need to be able to get support, and just as important for happiness, to give support. We need many kinds of relationships; for one thing, we need friends. "
Gretchen Rubin
Happiness
Support
Important
" Putting myself into categories is fun, and I think it also gives me insight into my own nature. When I see myself more clearly, I can more easily see ways that I might do things differently, to make myself happier. Categories can be unhelpful, however, when they become too all-defining, or when they become an excuse. "
Gretchen Rubin
Think
Fun
I Can
" I have a lucky perfume. I love beautiful smells, but I save one of my favorite perfumes to wear only when I feel like I need some extra luck. "
Gretchen Rubin
Perfume
Beautiful
Feel
" Never label anything 'Miscellaneous.' "
Gretchen Rubin
Anything
Label
Never
" Sometimes, counter-intuitively, it's easier to make a major change than a minor change. When a habit is changing very gradually, we may lose interest, give way under stress, or dismiss the change as insignificant. There's an excitement and an energy that comes from a big transformation, and that helps to create a habit. "
Gretchen Rubin
Change
Stress
Habit
" Getting paperwork under control makes me feel more in control of my life generally. "
Gretchen Rubin
Life
Feel
Control
" When accepting a responsibility, imagine that it's something that you'll have to do next week. That way you don't agree to something just because it seems so far off that it doesn't seem onerous. "
Gretchen Rubin
Just Because
You
Week
" The more I examine the issue of clutter, the more effort I put into combating it, because it really does act as a weight. "
Gretchen Rubin
More
Act
Effort
" Whenever I'm trying to decide how to spend my precious time, energy, or money, I ask myself a series of questions. 'Will this broaden or deepen my relationships?' 'Will this contribute to an atmosphere of growth in my life?' 'Is this a way to 'Be Gretchen?' and 'Will this help connect me to my past?' "
Gretchen Rubin
Myself
Time
Money
" One of my most important 'Secrets of Adulthood': Outer order contributes to inner calm. "
Gretchen Rubin
Important
Adulthood
Secrets
" An enormous amount of ingenuity and creativity goes into commercials, and they can be fascinating if you pay attention. "
Gretchen Rubin
You
Attention
Creativity
" For quotes, I have one document for general quotes; the other for happiness-related quotes, which I use for the 'Moment of Happiness,' my daily emails of happiness quotes. "
Gretchen Rubin
General
Moment
Other
" I always feel calmer when I exercise. In fact, that's probably the main reason I exercise. "
Gretchen Rubin
Always
Reason
Feel
" 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, we're free from the need to decide and the need to use willpower. "
Gretchen Rubin
Habit
Need
Power
" In 'Happier at Home,' I write a lot about my struggle to create an unhurried atmosphere at home. "
Gretchen Rubin
Happier
Write
Create
" 'Potato-chip news' is news that's repetitive, requires little effort to absorb, and is consumable in massive quantities: true crime, natural disasters, political punditry, celebrity gossip, sports gossip, or endless photographs of beautiful houses, food, or clothes. "
Gretchen Rubin
Effort
Food
Clothes
" Children's literature is one of my joys, and it's also my mental comfort food. "
Gretchen Rubin
Food
Literature
Children
" Being taken for granted is an unpleasant but sincere form of praise. Ironically, the more reliable you are, and the less you complain, the more likely you are to be taken for granted. "
Gretchen Rubin
More
Praise
Reliable
" 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
Perfect
Good
Enemy