Quotes from Gretchen Rubin

there is no Future-Gretchen, only Now-Gretchen.

Secret of Adulthood: Keeping up is easier than catching up.

I've noticed that some people are serial goal setters, rather than habit formers.

It is by studying little things, that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

But, as a follow-up, I asked myself, "Can money help buy happiness?" The answer: yes, used wisely, it can.

Behind our unremarkable front door waits the little world of our own making, a place of safety, exploration, comfort, and love.

a stumble may be helpful, because it shows me where I need to concentrate my efforts in order to do better next time.

Upholder, I see its dark side, too

Almost always, if I make a commitment, I can stick to it, even without outside help.

Siblings Without Rivalry and How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk.

from Lewis's brilliant essay "On Three Ways of Writing for Children": When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

Happiness," wrote Yeats, "is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing.

She eagerly meets society's rules and laws until they conflict with her own inner sense of justice—at which point she rejects them.

It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light." —G. K. Chesterton What's

I pegged her as a highly considerate UPHOLDER/Obliger. She's able to meet inner expectations without outer accountability, but only when outer expectations don't interfere.

The single most important element in developing an expertise is your willingness to practice

But not wearing clothes is as wasteful as throwing them away.

Gertrude Stein remarked, "Anything one does every day is important and imposing and anywhere one lives is interesting and beautiful.

Hiçbir ÅŸey, asla baÅŸlamayan bir görevden daha yorucu deÄŸildir.

They always said that you have to do that kind of work for yourself. If you do it for other people, you end up wanting them to acknowledge it and to be grateful and to give you credit. If you do it for yourself, you don't expect other people to react in a particular way.

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. —Toni Morrison, Tar Baby

When I felt like snacking out of boredom, if I put on perfume or did something else to gratify one of my senses, my impulse to snack faded away.

Enthusiasm is more important to mastery than innate ability, it turns out, because the single most important element in developing an expertise is your willingness to practice. Therefore, career experts argue, you're better off pursuing a profession that comes easily and that you love, because that's where you will be more eager to practice and thereby earn a competitive advantage.

many people decide to improve their habits, they don't begin by looking where their keys are; they begin by looking in an easy spot.