11 Key Insights from Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project - EDC 2016

Insight 9

Pursue a passion.

“Tackling such a big project and carrying it through to the end in a single month contributed hugely to the atmosphere of growth in my life.”

Gretchen realized that another critical support to happiness is having a passion, a deep and consuming interest in something outside of oneself.

Unless you already know what your passion is, the first step is to identify one. The key is to be honest with yourself. Don’t pick something because you think it will impress others, or it’s what you think you should like. Your passion can be anything: sports, outdoor activities, garage sales, reading, learning magic tricks.

To make time for a passion, you may have to eliminate or cut down on something else. And while watching less TV is usually good advice (the average American watches four to five hours of TV a day), there are other ways to accomplish this too. Examine just how you’re spending your free time and cull the things that aren’t priorities right now, the activities or behavior you’re habitually engaging in – often without even realizing it. It may be reading newspapers and magazines, going on social media, meeting people for coffee, reading or finishing books you don’t enjoy, or simply puttering around.

Once Gretchen identified her passion was writing, she took concrete steps to pursue a writing project: she would write a novel in a month.  While it was a huge amount of work, taking on such an ambitious project and then completing it provided a huge boost to happiness. Seeing what you can accomplish in a short time, when you put your mind to it, is one of the more substantial satisfactions in life.

“One thing that makes a passion enjoyable is that you don’t have to worry about results. You can strive for triumph, or you can potter around, tinker, explore, without worrying about efficiency or outcomes. Other people may wonder why you’ve been happy to work on the same old car for years, even though it’s still not running, but that doesn’t matter to you. An atmosphere of growth brings great happiness, but at the same time, happiness sometimes also comes when you’re free from the pressure to see much growth. That’s not surprising; often, the opposite of a great truth is also true.”

VIDEO 9: Watch Gretchen explain how recalling your childhood hobbies and adult envies can help you figure out what you’re passionate about as an adult.