The Happiness Project

As usual, I have many items in mind to post about here. Frequently those subjects land on the back burner when a certain item asks for immediate attention. Today’s find is the Happines Project.

You will probably ask: “What is that about and why are you interested?”

To start with the last question:

My wife and I are in our fifth year of operating our very luxuriouse bed and breakfast. Before we started it, we both had a long working career in other areas. We get a lot of satisfaction out of it, because we have created something unusual where people talk about and where people even write about in glossy magazines, and where other people only dream about.
However our real satisfaction is that we are able to make our guests happy during their stay with us. We believe there is no better satisfaction for a hotelier than a happy guest. The name and tag line of this Blog are indeed very serious!

Me stumbling on this Blog of a lady lawyer, Gretchen Rubin who became a mom and a writer, made me realize this is an excellent resource and opportunity to make these hoteliers even happier (and so our guests)! I like to share that with you!

Gretchen blogs about her research of all things connected with happiness in:

A memoir about the year I spent test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study I could find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah. The Happiness Project will gather these rules for living and report on what works and what doesn’t. On this daily blog, I recount some of my adventures and insights as I grapple with the challenge of being happier.

One funny story is about her waitress friend:

A friend told me a story about the first summer she spent as a waitress.

Several times, she had tables of people who seemed really nice, with whom she had a great rapport, for whom she went the extra mile, and she’d think, “Wow, I’m going to get a great tip!”

And she wouldn’t.

Other times, she had tables of people who seemed indifferent or grouchy, and she’d think, “Wow, they’re going to stiff me.”

And they’d leave a generous tip.

She mentioned this observation to her manager. He said, “You’re only surprised because you’ve just started waitressing. You’ll see, almost always, people tip whatever they usually tip. They don’t tip more or less based on you and what you do.”

This comment would have put the waitress much more in balance with herself.

Gretchen furthers it with the observation derived form Aristotle: “We are what we repeatedly do. It is a habit: A generous person makes a habit of generosity, a happy person makes a habit of happiness.” I couldn’t have put it better! And in addition my obeservation: A seemingly indifferent person can be nice and vice versa.

Enjoy further reading!