Five Things Making Me Happy (Sunnyside / proverbs)

Hello,

I love aphorisms, proverbs, koans, paradoxes, fables, and teaching stories of all kinds. In addition to working on my book Life in Five Senses, as a playing-hooky project, I’ve also been writing a collection of aphorisms—and as part of that project, I collect “Proverbs of the Professions.” I love these proverbs, and I’ve learned that a proverb that applies in one profession probably applies to life generally.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Stunt coordinator: If you’re not working, you’re training.

Emergency manager: Disaster is the wrong time to exchange business cards.

Poker player: If you can’t spot the fish at the table, you’re the fish.

Photographer: Zoom with your feet (get closer to a subject rather than zoom onto it).

Restaurant manager: If you’ve got time to lean, you’ve got time to clean.

Teacher: The children who are hardest to love need it most.

Rancher: Always leave a gate the way you found it.

An unexpected bonus of working on this project? When I’m talking to people I don’t know, and can’t think of anything to say, I ask if they can suggest any proverbs from their profession. Even if a person can’t think of a proverb, the question often leads to an interesting conversation.

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Onward,

5 Things Making Me Happy

One item on my “23 for 23” list is to have an adventure each month in a New York City neighborhood I’ve never visited. For January, a friend pitched Sunnyside in Queens. I loved getting away from my desk and out into the city that I love so much. Now I need to figure out where I’ll go for February.

I’m always searching for new podcasts to try, and I found this terrific list in The New York Times of shows to help us navigate challenges in our working lives. I was particularly happy to see three friends’ excellent podcasts included in the round-up: Manoush Zomorodi’s ZigZag, Esther Perel’s How’s Work? and Jonathan Fields’s Good Life Project. So much good listening.

Ancient philosophers and contemporary scientists agree: If you had to choose one single factor of life as the “secret of happiness,” it's relationships—warm, intimate, enduring personal bonds. I was fascinated to read an update of the famous Harvard Study of Adult Development that underscores this finding. Relatedly, loneliness takes a great toll.

One of the items on my “22 for 22” list was to watch Breaking Bad. I watched it, I loved it, I can’t wait to watch Better Call Saul. As I watched, I wondered about the accuracy of the show’s depiction of the various “science” solutions that Walter White brilliantly devises. Answer seems to be: fairly accurate.

As a left-handed person who always has to think for a moment to tell my left from my right, I was encouraged to read that a surprising number of adults—about one out of six people—shares this challenge. I use the method of making an “L” with my index finger and thumb as my cue. I’ve also learned this hack: in a car, instead of saying “left” or “right,” which can take time to process, say “driver’s side” or “passenger’s side” which is immediately clear.

Updates

Exercising your senses can help you be more present. Take a look at these fun, easy experiments that stimulate the senses—on my TikTok!

This week on Happier with Gretchen Rubin

PODCAST EPISODE: 415

Aim to show up. Many of us have gotten out of the habit of showing up, or show up less often, or are more inclined to cancel. But showing up often makes our lives happier.

Listen now>