Welcome to a Success Strategies podcast on Total Picture Radio with Peter Clayton reporting. Joining us from New York is Gretchen Rubin, the author of the forthcoming book, The Happiness Project, an account of the year she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from pop culture about how to be happy. On Slate, Huffington Post, RealSimple.com, and on her blog, The Happiness Project, she writes about her daily adventures as she tries to be happier. Rubin received her undergraduate and law degrees from Yale and was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. She clerked on the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and served as a chief adviser to Federal Communications Commissions Chairman Reed Hundt. For many years she taught a seminar at Yale Law School and Yale School of Management. She lives in New York City. Talking Points: First, you have a law degree from Yale; why aren't you sitting in some big firm in NYC? What is the Happiness Project and why did you decide to focus on this research? What have you learned about happiness? What have you found most useful? What has not worked for you? There's a lot of people out there having trouble being happy, because they just lost their job. What advice would you give them? There are a lot of grim faces on the streets of NYC these days.. On your blog you've listed your Twelve Commandments: which offer a lot of insight into who you are, and how you want to live your life. How did you discover these, and how have these helped you? One of the Twelve I'd like you to expand on is Act the way I want to feel. What are some of your tips for Do it Now - helping people avoid procrastination. (Something I'm an expert in) You blog every day. How are you so disciplined to be able to do that, and keep it interesting? What is your Resolutions Chart and how has it helped you? You have some great ideas for getting out of a funk - what you call an "happiness emergency" can you share some of those with us? For those in the audience who would like to start their own Happiness Project, what are the first steps? Gretchen Rubin Biography: Gretchen Craft Rubin is the author of Forty Ways to Look at JFK and the bestselling Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill. Each biography plays with the biography form to capture the crucial aspects of the subject's oversized character and life. Her first book, Power Money Fame Sex: A User’s Guide, assumed the shape of a self-help satire to expose and analyze the techniques exploited by strivers for those worldly ambitions. Rubin received her undergraduate and law degrees from Yale and was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. She clerked on the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and served as a chief adviser to Federal Communications Commissions Chairman Reed Hundt. For many years she taught a seminar at Yale Law School and Yale School of Management. She lives in New York City.

[ Sat, 28 Mar 2009 09:01:30 -0400 ]

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