I picked up this book on a whim at the library, and I couldn’t put it down.  It’s written by a woman named Gretchen Rubin who spent a year trying to make herself happier. She worked on a new set of resolutions every month, and used an intricate chart to track her daily progress. Happiness, it seems, was not always fun and was often a lot of work. What was the most fulfilling part of her year-long journey? Was it all those books she read, or the hours spent being silly with her kids? Nope. It was putting all those gold stars on her chart. At least she’s honest. I can see how that would be satisfying.

There were a couple parts of her project that I would like to try, though. I liked how she gave each month a theme, and then she set 4-5 goals around that theme to work on. I think that would make it easier to remember to the goals (I often forget what it is I’m working on). Also, she has a one-sentence journal. How cool is that? I was at Urban Outfitters, when I saw this One Line A Day – A Five-Year Memory Book journal. Early Christmas present for me! Each day (such as January 1st) is broken into five sections, so you can see what you were doing on that date for up to five years as you write. I hope I can manage to hold on to the book for that long. My track record is not so great…