Book Review: The Happiness Project
| October 26, 2011 | Posted by Angela under Random, Words of Inspiration & Motivation |
I finally got to finishing The Happiness Project. There was a time when I always had my head in a book. Now my head is in the computer reading countless articles about a countless amount of things. I was excited to focus in and read a book about something I am passionate about.
How did I choose The Happiness Project?
I was in the break-room one day at Rackspace and a co-worker asked me how my son was doing. My reply was “He’s a really happy baby.” And he reply’s back with “Well you know happiness is 50% heredity.” When I asked him where he got that statistic, he said he was reading The Happiness Project. I wanted to know more so as soon as I got back to my desk, I googled it. I found the website and saw that the author, Gretchen Rubin, had cultivated a community around The Happiness Project. Lots of followers were starting their own Happiness Project. Before I could get involved, I had to read the book.
The Approach
The author is married, the mother of two, lives in Manhattan and is a lawyer turned writer. I feel that in order to enjoy the book and relate to her approach, you had to have at least one thing in common with her. The reason being is that it’s her project and she takes on these resolutions that relate to her lifestyle. I’m not saying you wouldn’t enjoy reading it but honestly, if I wasn’t a mother, I’m not sure I would have lasted the entire book. I was struggling through her “starting a collection” chapter because I just don’t understand collections.
Each chapter is a month and each month she takes on a new set of resolutions related to a particular subject. She does reference a lot of material she did research on and comments from her blog which made the chapters more engaging.
What was my motivation?
I am generally a happy person but we all have room for improvement right? There were two main things I wanted to get out of it:
- Be more positive during the tough times. We’re all faced with challenges in our life and we all respond to them differently. I think you’re level of happiness is an indicator on how you’ll react to those challenges.
- I wanted to figure out more ways I could help others be happier; And in order to make others happy, you have to be happy yourself.
The book is very realistic in that the author doesn’t suggest you go out of your comfort zone to be happy. It’s about maximizing on the little things you can do within your comfort zone to create happier lives. For example, just changing the way you word things can mean the world of a difference to someone.
Here are some quotes I highlighted from the book:
“The days are long, but the years are short.”
“Happy people remember happy events better, and depressed people remember sad events better. ”“You’re only happy as your least happy child. ”
“People who have fun are 20 times as likely to feel happy. ”
“Real life-shaking catastrophes can provide insights into happiness that you couldn’t have any other way, but the more you know about what happiness really means for you before you come to that point, the better equipped you’ll be to handle it.”
“Knowing what you admire in others is a wonderful mirror into your deepest, as yet unborn, self. ”
“It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, yet everyone takes the happy person for granted. ”
“The things that go wrong often make the best memories. ”
“Laughter is more than just a pleasurable activity. It can boost immunity and lower blood pressure and cortisol levels. It increases people’s tolerance for pain. It’s a source of social bonding, and it helps to reduce conflicts and cushion social stress within relationships.”
What did I get out of it?
I think the biggest thing I got out of this is realizing that I know what makes me happy, it’s a matter of making it a commitment to do these things that are important to me. Here’s my first draft laundry list:
- Remember others on their special day (Birthdays, Anniversaries) – Too often I let these days fly by.
- Express to my husband how much he means to me – Always in my head but not always told.
- Exercise – This is always a challenge because I’ve always been an athlete and I think I have to do 2 hours everyday when in reality, I am going to continue to let myself down. If I make it a point to simply stretch everyday, I will feel better.
- Eat Healthy – I am pretty good at this but I could cut out small things.
- Work with the youth – My #1 favorite hobby outside of family and work.
- Take a day off to spend with my son more often – I am fortunate to have an awesome job and can take a day off here and there. I should take advantage of this and not worry about the work as it will always be there!
- Don’t complain about the complainers – To hear people complain is exhausting but how am I making it better complaining about the complainer?
I hope to join a Happiness Project group and get started on it soon.
Our Home of Four Generations
| September 20, 2011 | Posted by Angela under Family Stuff |
One of the neat things about owning an older home is learning the history behind it. Our home was built in 1947 and it was built to last generations. We are the fourth generation to live in this home; prior to us was the family of the builder, the Garcia family and the Trevino family. Rev David Garcia is a family friend and when we found out he lived in our home in the 50′s, we invited him to bless our home. When he saw it, he wanted to bring his five sisters to see it. They live all over the country and traveled to San Antonio this past weekend for their mother’s birthday. We invited them to see the home and they brought a photo of all six of them standing on our staircase. They had a blast telling stories: like saying the rosary every night at the end of the staircase, or only having two AC window units in the entire house. It was a real treat to have them visit.
Rackspace featured on CNN Money
| September 13, 2011 | Posted by Angela under Business & Technology |
CNN Money visited the Rackspace headquarters a few weeks ago to shoot the following video as part of their “2011 Best Companies to Work For” video series. My favorite quote was from Lanham: “We don’t have a dress code. The only code we have about dress is ‘Please wear something.’”
Labor Day 2011
| September 7, 2011 | Posted by Angela under Family Stuff |
My family has been going to North Padre Island every Labor Day weekend since I was a baby and before that, since my mom was a child. It’s a tradition and I wouldn’t miss it for a thing (I did only once when I was living in Austin and man was that a sad Labor Day weekend!). We were so excited to take Jacob on his first beach trip.
Before the trip started, things got a little hectic. I was trying to wash clothes before we left and well, the laundry room flooded. Then right before I went to bed, I went to the refrigerator for something only to find out that it was not working. This is especially devastating for a nursing mom that stores breast milk in the freezer! We saved what we needed and transported it to my parents home. After all that, we still managed to leave San Antonio on time. We got to Corpus around noon and left Jacob to visit with Jason’s parents. By dinner time, Jacob didn’t look too well. We took his temp and it was at 102.8! Turns out, he had fever all weekend. I managed to get him to the beach a couple of times for a few minutes.
So I guess our weekend didn’t go as planned but you know what they say, “when it rains, it pours.” I think the good thing that came out of this was:
1 – at least we discovered the fridge not working BEFORE we left on a long weekend
2 – at least Jacob got the attention from all four grandparents while he was sick
3 – at least we had beautiful weather in Corpus (no hurricanes or tropical storms)
Sometimes you just have to laugh at the stuff that happens when it doesn’t go your way. We did manage to get some photos of Jacob for his minimal time on the beach. That boy is such a happy child – smiling even though he was sick.
Evolution of Data Centers
| August 31, 2011 | Posted by Angela under Business & Technology |
We just launched another infographic on the Rackspace Cloud blog covering the evolution of data centers from the 1960s to today.
You might be thinking, “this has nothing to do with me.” Well, it does. Every time you update your Facebook page or upload a photo to Flickr or send a Tweet, you are using the power of a computer sitting inside a data center. As we transfer more and more data across the Internet, the more and more power we use. This is why Facebook launched the OpenCompute project – to showcase how they’ve built a green data center – and with the hopes that through collaboration with other technology providers, like Rackspace, we can build greener data centers.
We’ve collected a series of videos across the Internet from each era and it’s interesting to see how much has changed over the course of 50 years. Check it out.
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