Update
Are you giving a copy of Life in Five Senses, or any of my books, as Mother’s Day gifts? To add a personal touch, you can request a free, signed, personalized bookplate (U.S. and Canada only) at happiercast.com/bookplate.
Life in Five Senses comes out in paperback on April 30.
If you live around New York City — please come to an event where I’ll be discussing Life in Five Senses with journalist Lee Woodruff:
- May 1
- 7:00 pm ET
- Upper West Side Barnes & Noble, 2289 Broadway (at 82nd Street)
If you live further way — please join my virtual event:
- May 6
- 7:00 pm ET
- Note: to get the invitation, sign up for the “secret chapter”
Try This at Home
Write your autobiography in 24 sensations. (In honor of 2024.)
Elizabeth and I share our own autobiographies in 24 sensations.
Happiness Hack
A listener suggests organizing a “card shower” to shower a recipient with cards and letters to provide encouragement and love during a tough time.
We mention the Paper Source prompts for April — sign up at happiercast.com/papersource to receive daily letter-writing prompts in April and a 10% discount at papersource.com.
Listeners’ Answers
In episode 476, a listener explained that because she was taking care of a fragile relative, she didn’t want to tell the truth about being a vet, but she also didn’t want to lie.
Listeners gave many great suggestions for how to handle this challenging situation.
Demerits & Gold Stars
Gretchen’s Demerit: I haven’t been marking up books enough.
Elizabeth’s Gold Star: She gives a gold star to all the listeners who have emailed and commented to encourage her to do Orangetheory.
Resource
If you’re part of a book club that has read or is reading Life in Five Senses (which is out April 30 in paperback), you could win a virtual drop-in from me to discuss the book and answer your questions. Ten lucky book clubs will be selected—I’ll announce the winners on May 3rd. Enter at happiercast.com/bookclub.
What We’re Reading
**This transcript is unedited**
479
[music]
Gretchen
Hello and welcome to Happier, a podcast where we talk about how to become happier, healthier, more productive and more creative. This week we’ll talk about in original, an interesting way to tell your autobiography. And we will report back on listener suggestions for the veterinarian who is worried about being approached by people about their pets during a time in her life when she’s caring for an elderly relative.
Gretchen
I’m Gretchen Rubin, a writer who studies happiness, good habits, human nature, The Five Senses. I’m in my little home office in New York City. And joining me today from Los Angeles is my sister Elizabeth. My sister the sage.
Elizabeth
That’s me, Elizabeth Craft, a TV writer and producer living in L.A. And today we’re getting sage advice from our listeners.
Gretchen
Yes, I can’t wait to dive in.
Elizabeth
Speaking of Sage.
Gretchen
Yes. And before we dive in and update, we’re getting ready for the summer. And so we want your summer hacks. Are there resources that you’ve found? Are there products that you’ve found? Are there things that you’re crossing off your to do list now in order to be ready for the summer? Or are there plans that you’re making? Are there traditions that you’re creating or planning to keep?
Gretchen
What ever have you done to make life easier and more fun during the summer? Send them our way. We are going to make a big collection for everybody.
Elizabeth
I can’t wait for those.
Gretchen
Yes.
Elizabeth
And then, Gretch, we got this from Joe, who said, I am a long time listener and a happier. I’m also a pharmacist and recently started working for a small independent pharmacy. Best job ever after almost 40 years of big chain stress while just clicking buttons and learning the software system, I found a category under our patient information. I said to myself, This looks familiar.
Elizabeth
And yes, there it is. Tendency, rebel obliger upholder and questioner This can be most helpful counseling patients. But I wonder, were you contacted by our software vendor? I hope so. Your podcast has been so helpful in my day to day life.
Gretchen
Well, I love hearing this, of course, because the Four Tendencies framework, I want everybody to use it. I love it. I was not contacted by the software vendor, but I love the fact that pharmacists are finding this to be useful framework in dealing with their patients and customers. And if you have no idea what we’re talking about, you can find out if you’re an upholder question or obliger rebel, and you can tell your pharmacist by taking the quiz.
Gretchen
A crutch Improvement icon slash quiz. I got the biggest kick out of that.
Elizabeth
Eliza Yes, Well, I know you hear from doctors all the time who use the tendencies.
Gretchen
Absolutely, Yeah. And another note, the paperback of my book, Life in Five Senses hits the shelves on April 30th, and you may be thinking of a gift for Mother’s Day for a mother in your life. Or perhaps you are thinking about something that you might like to receive as a gift. So I offer to you, if you would like to add a personal touch, you can request a free signed bookplate.
Gretchen
This is for us and Canada only because of mailing costs. And you can request that happier cars.com slash bookplate. And also related to the release of the paperback, I am going to be doing a book event in New York City with journalist Lee Woodruff. And if you are local to the New York City area, you can join me at 7 p.m. at the Upper West Side Barnes and Noble location.
Gretchen
If you live further away or you can’t make it that night, you can mark your calendar for May six at 7 p.m. Eastern because I’m going to do a virtual book club event that’s open to everyone. That’s going to be a virtual event about the book for everybody. And I will put links to both events in the show notes.
Gretchen
So if you’re buying the book as a gift, you might want to put a book plate in the book to make it a more personal gift.
Elizabeth
I want to go to your virtual book club Gretch. Yes, I’m going to put it in my calendar.
Gretchen
you’re such a good sister. And this list of our try this at home suggestion is to write your autobiography in 24 Sensations. Now we got the 24 from the year, which is 2024. We love to tie things to the number and because of the paperback of Life in Five Senses, this is a celebration of the senses, and it’s a fun way to create your own autobiography.
Elizabeth
Yes. So in episode 387, we each did a portrait of each other for a sense, and that was fun. And now we’re sort of using all the senses to reflect on our own lives.
Gretchen
Yes, this is a great exercise for self reflection, for our own history. It’s it gives us a way to go back through our memories. I find it very hard to remember the past, but when I go searching for these very specific sense memories, all sorts of stuff comes up. And so it’s a way to get a sense of ourselves in our own history.
Gretchen
And this is kind of a very specific and I would say, manageable way to go that.
Elizabeth
Yeah, it reminds me of the six word memoir. Yeah, it’s kind of a skeletal way to summarize your life, that is. Yeah, yeah.
Gretchen
Now and there of course there’s no one way to approach this. I mean, there are some obvious ways, but I’m sure listeners will come up with all kinds of imaginative ways that they might approach this. So for like me, I want to do all five. So I did four or five of each scent seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching because I wanted to be sort of comprehensive and evenly balanced.
Gretchen
But you don’t have to do it that way.
Elizabeth
No gretch. I just did it any way. I felt like just whatever those sensations were as I moved through my life, that’s what I use. So I did not pay attention to balancing out. And Gretchen, this is a try this at home that could also be a quote, right way. Segment four right? G four and 24 because we’re writing 2 to 4 minutes or 24 minutes a day.
Elizabeth
And this is definitely a way you could use that time. Yeah. Plus fun with the five senses and honor as you said, of your paperback publication.
Gretchen
Yeah. We’re always trying to think of, you know, when we come up with an idea, what is the segment for it? It’s like this could be any segment. So it’s right in our wheelhouse. Also, you know, I’m always thinking about everyday creativity. I think that people sometimes are like, Well, I’m not creative, but we’re all being creative, you know, whether it’s writing a toast for a wedding or writing a newsletter for the holidays or.
Elizabeth
Coming up with a t shirt.
Gretchen
Coming up with the t shirt, as we were just talking about that. And so this is a great way to exercise everyday creativity. I could imagine that people might decorate it. It’s a great keepsake, a self reflection keepsake. I mean, I remember I did another version of this, my editor for Life in Five Senses, my editor said, Well, in addition to the standard author bio, you should do a five senses author bio.
Gretchen
So that was really fun and I felt like that was a great exercise and I printed that out and kept that in my Memento journal. But this one is sort of more focused on the autobiography and the memories and going back over our lives. So it’s a really great exercise in everyday creativity that I think is thought provoking but also manageable, both in like skill level required and time required.
Gretchen
Yes, both of which we all have to come with different levels of this.
Elizabeth
All right, Gretchen, should we share our autobiographies and 24 sensations?
Gretchen
Yeah. So is it You go first. What are your 24?
Elizabeth
Here we go. Gretch Drying with broken bamboo on the outside walls of our house. We had bamboo growing, and I used to do that all the time. GROSS puke green carpet replaced with plush, pretty green carpet and our new house on Strafford Yes, Winston’s hamburger and the skyscraper song.
Gretchen
Okay, so that’s taste plus hearing.
Elizabeth
Yes. And that was the song they sang when they delivered this huge Sunday Wednesday ads. And they still do. Yes. The floor of Mrs. Funk’s kindergarten room at St Paul’s. I remember getting my little shape of where I was supposed to sit on the floor. the taste of a Shirley Temple at the Hyatt. After the father daughter dinner.
Elizabeth
I remember my first Shirley Temple was at the Hyatt and the smell of the Flume water at Worlds of Fun.
Gretchen
yes, very specific.
Elizabeth
Laughing with Mindy when I met her for the first time at a birthday party in seventh grade. Red Nails. I used to paint my nails red daily.
Gretchen
Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Liz. It has amazing nails.
Elizabeth
The feel of an X-Acto knife doing paste up for the voice. That was our school newspaper. Sarah and I did that. Lucille’s, which was a place where I worked Lucille’s fifties music playing during my graveyard shift as the soda jerk dining hall chocolate cake. When I went to Columbia, I dining hall, chocolate cake pretty much every day, cottage wine that is Gretchen.
Elizabeth
There was a Chinese place called the cottage in college that had free wine, which some college students loved from the side of the duplex from my apartment window on Sheridan Square. El Nino. When Sara and I moved to L.A., it was El Nino. So there was rain, rain, rain, Palm trees swaying in the wind. One of my favorite sights, the smell of catering on set.
Elizabeth
the feel of a direct chair under my butt. Not the most comfortable chairs. Adams Hug. I love hugging Adam Rain on our wedding day. To speak to Alanis Morissette. A foot massage. I got, well, trying to induce labor for Jack. I wanted to go. Ha ha ha ha. The feel and smell of Jack as a baby, along with the restaurant din white noise we used when he was a baby, you’d walk into his room in the middle of the night and it would sound like you were in a busy restaurant, because that was the sound he’d like to sleep to.
Elizabeth
Very eerie sound. The work of my treadmill desk. Of course, if you ever gave me the sight of nacho and daisy trotting around. Ah, And then finally the sound of my own voice yelling Jacks names so that he could hear it over his headphones.
Gretchen
That’s so fun.
Elizabeth
That’s where I am today.
Gretchen
See? And this gives such a picture of you. And I mean, for me, this is particularly meaningful because so many of your memories are my memories. I remember many of those, the smell of the flume, water, worlds of fun. I know that heavy chlorine smell. Yes. But this is so great. I love that.
Elizabeth
Yeah, I was really fun to do.
Gretchen
Really fun.
Elizabeth
All right, Gretch, let’s hear your autobiography.
Gretchen
Okay, So as I said, I wrote mine out. So for me, seeing was one of my first memories, was being in a swimming pool and thinking that there was a goldfish swimming in front of me. But it was actually my long red hair flickering out of the corner of my eye. So that’s a very one of my first memories.
Gretchen
The forsythia bushes outside our house on Stratford Road, this old fashioned library room called the Ellen B Room that I used to study in all the time in college. I had a very particular old, old library look, the sight of dog toys strewn across the floor and Jamie’s new glasses that I’m still getting used to like.
Elizabeth
new glasses.
Gretchen
Her hearing. Do you remember we had that funny doorbell on 70th Street that played this whole little song. So I remember.
Elizabeth
Though, I was little. I don’t remember that.
Gretchen
Yeah, you were probably too little Dad singing Light a Rose from the Music Man in the Shower, which you did for.
Elizabeth
Many, many years. Yes.
Gretchen
The sound of the audiobook of Harry Potter playing in the background for years, Jamie yelling hello from the front elevator because he always just yells out and then mysteriously awful beeping of our dishwasher, which I cannot figure out how to turn off. And it seems like no one can figure out how to turn off this beeping. So anyway, it’s something that I notice often, but now I have a fondness for it because I’ll be like, Well, this is part of this season of life is this beeping of a dishwasher.
Gretchen
I smell that smell of the old school paste that people used to use when they were really little. It had a very particular smell. My orthodontist, there was such a strong, not a bad smell, not a good cylinder, some very particular smell of the hallway leading to my orthodontist office. And I’m very choosy. I had many, many years of orthodontist.
Gretchen
And so that’s I actually went by there recently just to walk down the hallway to smell it. Johnson’s baby lotion, which is a smell that I love, the smell of my in-laws kitchen is the smell I love. And then the smell of Barnaby’s dog food, which I’m always worried. Does our whole house smell like dog food? So that dry, dusty smell taste hot dogs on the grill in North Platte.
Gretchen
Melissa, if you follow those two Diet Coke, I drink so much Diet Coke feta cheese on a Greek salad from York side pizza in New Haven, which both as an undergraduate and as a law student, was always a big treat. Best feta cheese in the world and then a chaffle. That’s my thing now. Egg and cheese waffle. I eat one practically every day.
Gretchen
So that’s a taste for today. But listen, you know, I wondered if you would put apple juice on your list because when you were little, you loved, loved, loved apple juice. So I always think of you whenever I see apple juice.
Elizabeth
Yes. You know what, Gretch? Now I can’t stand apple juice. I think I just had way too much as a kid. Apple juice. And you’ll remember. Pickle juice.
Gretchen
I remember the pickle juice for sure. Yes, Touch. Okay, Again, I was trying to think of my earliest memories. One of my earliest. You know, sometimes you get sun bumps on your hand. I don’t know if you ever get these losses, but you can have kind of a sudden reaction where you get bumps on the back of your hands.
Gretchen
I remember mom wanted me to hold her hand, but I was like, I didn’t like those bumps, but I didn’t want to hurt her feel by like, recoiling from that. So I remember that very distinctly. I remember your blankie, Elizabeth, which has a very particular feel and weight and texture, the stickiness of sap. There was a tree that I love to climb in our front yard and would always leave my hands very sticky and the cool stone of the walls of the stairway going to the library at Yale, the law library, because I would always put my hand against that wall.
Gretchen
And then for today, it’s my favorite giant mug. I love a giant mug. And I have a favorite mug that I will go for out of my way to use. And I love the just the heft of it is just perfect.
Elizabeth
Great. I love these I love this exercise. This is one for the ages. We may have to make a thing out of this.
Gretchen
Yes. Yes. So I’m going to print yours out. I’m going to print mine out and keep them. And then maybe we’ll do it as a family exercise for the next time we’re all together in Kansas City.
Elizabeth
That would be fun. Yeah.
Gretchen
You feel like you could do it over and over again and surface new memories and new associations.
Elizabeth
Absolutely.
Gretchen
Well, let us know if you do try this at home and how writing your autobiography in 24 Sensation works for you. How did you approach it? What did you do with it? We are very interested to know. Let us know on Instagram, Facebook, tik-tok threads. Drop us an email at podcast at Gretchen Rubin dot com Or as always, you can go to the show notes.
Gretchen
This is happy hour on cars.com slash 479 for everything related to this episode.
Elizabeth
Coming up, we’ve got a happiness hack related to national card and letter writing month. But first this break.
[music]
Gretchen
Okay here’s a hack that is connected to national card and letter writing month. It’s also you could use hashtag write 24 and 24. It’s a great way to support people through writing.
Elizabeth
This comes from Emily, she said. I wanted to share a hack for getting people to spread the happiness of writing cards. Last year, my 33 year old sister Tracy was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent chemotherapy, radiation and had a double mastectomy. Her family and friends are spread over multiple states. My mom and I decided to throw my sister a card shower, meaning we told lots of people to send Tracy a card to boost her spirits.
Elizabeth
We told one of my sister’s high school friends about the card shower and that high school friend told all of that friend group. We told one of Tracy’s coworkers about the card shower and that coworker told the rest of the coworkers, etc. We told people to send the cards around the same time, so her mailbox was bombarded with happy mail.
Elizabeth
She received over 90 encouragement cards the week of her double mastectomy. She hung the cards around her house so she could continue to be encouraged and feel the love. She said later that she loved going to the mailbox and feeling so much love at such a difficult time in her life. Just wanted to share this card shower hack in case others are trying to spread the joy of writing cards.
Elizabeth
Also, if you could please give a shout of congrats to my little sister Tracy for completing chemo. Tracy, Congratulations, Tracy.
Gretchen
Congratulate Patience. And I think this is a great idea. And you know, I’ve never heard of doing it just this way. I’ve been asked to submit a video for people who are stitching together a video for sort of a milestone celebration or like to submit something that then was compiled. But I like that here there’s a freedom where who knows exactly when it’s going to arrive.
Gretchen
Everybody would do it in their own way. I think this is just sounds like such a great idea.
Elizabeth
Yeah. And I love the phrase card. Sure. As soon as you say it, you get it. Yes. It’s easy to communicate what it is. You just send the address. Yes. And it’s easy for people to do and really great for the research.
Gretchen
Yeah. You’re just showering them with love and encouragement. So this is a great idea. And I have to mention, if you are into these letter writing and card writing prompts, I’m doing these prompts in April, and if you want to sign up for those, you can go to have your cars.com slash paper source and you can also get a 10% discount at paper source dot com for April.
Gretchen
I’m loving all the different ways that people are tapping into card writing and letter writing to just connect with other people and with themselves. It’s so fun.
Elizabeth
So fun.
00:20:58:01 – 00:21:07:19
Gretchen
And now for listener answers. Okay, so in episode 476, a listener asked a question and boy, have we received answers.
00:21:07:20 – 00:21:31:14
Elizabeth
Yes. So the question was about a listener who’s moving in to help care for an elderly relative. And she if she truthfully tells her new neighbors that she’s a small animal, that she knows she’s going to be inundated with questions and unexpected visits, which will also be very distracting and upsetting for her relative. And she knows this will happen because it’s happened many, many times in the past.
00:21:31:17 – 00:21:49:16
Elizabeth
Yeah. And she doesn’t want to lie about her profession, but she also doesn’t want to discuss it. She was saying, Well, how do I answer when people ask what I do? And we got lots of response. This first one comes from Kathleen, who says, I have a suggestion for the vet who wants to deflect attention away from her work.
00:21:49:18 – 00:22:08:27
Elizabeth
She can say to new people she is meeting. My current work is being a caretaker slash the primary caretaker for a family member. If they press her on what she did before that, she could say before I took on this new responsibility, I worked with animals or I have a background in animals, but that is not my primary focus.
00:22:08:27 – 00:22:36:09
Elizabeth
Now. Also, I have seen signs by doorbells that say something like Do not ring a bell or knock sleeping baby in the house. I’m sure she could come up with something similar for her relatives door. Please do not ring or knock so as not to disturb occupants. She may feel this seems unfriendly, but if ringing or knocking disturbs her relative, for example, if the relative has dementia or a mental illness, it is necessary to be firm but polite since the relative is her first priority.
00:22:36:09 – 00:22:54:13
Gretchen
Good practical suggestions. Evelin says, My husband is a doctor and I am a nurse, so I feel the pain of the person who wrote this question. Everyone knows what we do, so we get the questions a lot. Sometimes pointing out the legal trouble we could theoretically get into by giving advice without all the information needed or in a public place does the trick.
00:22:54:20 – 00:23:13:14
Gretchen
This especially works well when it’s questions over text or social media. Everybody understands that the potential for getting sued makes you want to be careful and protect yourself. Perhaps the listener could say, I cannot discuss my work outside of the office for legal reasons. It does create a little mystery, but would still make sense if ever it got out that they are a very good point.
00:23:13:14 – 00:23:37:28
Elizabeth
Yes. If they know you’re a vet and they ask a question, you can say I can answer for legal reasons. Yeah, Rachel says I am a hospital pharmacist. So I also get random questions from family and friends all the time. When people ask the vet what she does for a living, she should say, I’m a veterinarian, but I only see patients in my clinic or I’m a vet, but I don’t see animals outside my clinic.
00:23:38:00 – 00:23:59:06
Elizabeth
This may not stop everyone from bothering her, but this disclaimer should at least put the bug in people’s ear right away. Also, if someone does come to her door unsolicited outside the clinic, then she can help them. But tell them next time I will not be able to do this outside the clinic. If someone calls unsolicited, then she should tell them they need to call their vet clinic.
00:23:59:13 – 00:24:03:29
Elizabeth
Most clinics should have someone on call when the clinic is closed.
00:24:04:02 – 00:24:23:08
Gretchen
Good points. Tracy suggests the vet surgeon could tell people I work to supply a local veterinarian, or I’m in veterinary supplies. The supply they happen to be providing is surgery. So they did not lie, but they did not tell a fact that would invite the seeking of advice or the dropping off of injured animals at their home.
00:24:23:14 – 00:24:39:26
Gretchen
As the new acquaintance thinks they supply the products needed to run the office. So this is something that’s focusing on this question of not wanting to lie but not wanting to tell the truth. It’s like, is there a way that you can kind of. Yes, say something that points people in another direction? Interesting. Yes.
00:24:39:26 – 00:25:09:20
Elizabeth
Arabella says I’m a doctor and have had similar experiences to your listener. Here are some thoughts. Introducing ourselves to new people is a good opportunity to set boundaries without having to potentially insult people who have overstepped them with her before I would answer the what is your job question by putting the relative she is caring for, First, saying something like My current priority is my relative who I care for, but I work part time or used to work more as a vet.
00:25:09:23 – 00:25:27:24
Elizabeth
Then I would say something like I have decreased my hours and I’m considering stopping this job because people where I used to live found it hard to respect that when I was not at work, I was not on call and used to even do such things as turn up at my house uninvited with animals who should have been taken to the vet.
00:25:27:27 – 00:25:52:21
Elizabeth
Obviously this cannot happen when I’m caring for an elderly relative who would find this upsetting. I have taken advice from other doctors who suggest quite a hard line rebuff when approached by people with questions and they have advised me to answer. If you are worried enough to ask me, then you should see a doctor. This would work for questions and unsolicited visits by saying, If that were my animal, I would take them to a vet.
00:25:52:24 – 00:25:58:04
Elizabeth
Initially, I thought this was rude, but actually it’s not. And it’s worked very well for me.
00:25:58:06 – 00:26:21:06
Gretchen
Interesting. JP writes Her question made me want to know so much more. I’m so curious where she lives that people impose all their animal related problems on her and that they come to her house in the middle of the night. I’m picturing a village in the UK with 100 people. I live in a big city in Canada and I don’t know if it’s the size of our city or our Canadian this, but I can’t imagine the scenario happening.
00:26:21:10 – 00:26:38:06
Gretchen
Who would have the nerve to do this? Which brings me to my suggestion. My suggestion when people ask what she does for a living is that she answers truthfully and then adds on. I’m always afraid to tell people about my career because in the past, acquaintances have forgotten I’m a person and only talk to me about their pets.
00:26:38:11 – 00:26:55:17
Gretchen
Some people have even come to my house in the middle of the night with their pets instead of going to the animal hospital with a shocked look on her face like, Can you imagine? And so this is sort of related to the earlier response, but it’s just saying like modeling kind of this is just completely unacceptable behavior.
00:26:55:18 – 00:27:22:17
Elizabeth
Yes, I think that’s really smart. And finally, Erica says, I’m an attorney, so I’m often in similar situations. I’ve learned that most folks who ask me questions, well, concern for themselves or a family member are either shopping for free advice or just want to be pointed in the right direction. When I think of it this way, rather than burdening myself with finding an answer for them, I direct them to a qualified attorney if they’re willing to pay for the legal work they know.
00:27:22:17 – 00:27:37:11
Elizabeth
The person I recommend has been vetted. The vet tech could also provide a list of qualified veterinarians to anyone who asks for assistance that way, not only could they freely disclose their profession, but also help local veterinarians with referrals.
00:27:37:11 – 00:27:38:24
Gretchen
Well, that’s very constructive.
00:27:38:24 – 00:27:39:29
Elizabeth
Yes. So many good.
00:27:39:29 – 00:28:07:27
Gretchen
Ideas. So many good ideas. But I think this is a good reminder to all of us, because there are many people in many professions who kind of suffer a different version of this conundrum. And so I think all of us need to remember that, I just have a question that I’m going to take one minute for you to answer, or I’m sure you wouldn’t mind helping me out with this problem, that we should just be very careful to let people be off the clock when they’re off the clock and not constantly beating them up further for what they know because it’s tiresome.
00:28:07:28 – 00:28:23:26
Elizabeth
Yeah. So someone who has a good friend who’s a doctor and confessed to being guilty of. All right, grudge. Coming up, we have demerits and gold stars. But first, this break.
[music]
Elizabeth
Okay Gretch We’re back with demerits and gold stars. And this week you are up with the happiness demerits.
Gretchen
Well, this is kind of a counterintuitive demerit because I think a lot of people would think that this shouldn’t be a demerit. Okay. So I think a lot of people think that you should not mark up books that you own. I’m not talking about library books. You shouldn’t mark up a book that you own, but I do markup books that I own when I take notes in them.
Gretchen
And the demerit that I’m giving myself is that I haven’t been marking them up enough or permanently enough because I often find that I want to go back and look up something. And I’m almost always looking up something that caught my attention the first time. And if I marked up a book heavily, then it’s much quicker for me to find what I’m looking for.
Gretchen
But in a book where I’ve done that very lightly, or I used to do a thing where I would like erase pencil marks or I would underdog dog years on the pages that actually later, yes, that’s worse. So my demerit is not marking up books enough. And now I’m just going to really any mark that I make, I’m going to really keep because I know that it’s kind of wayfinding for me in future years when for reasons that I can’t even foresee now, I’m going back to the journals of jewelry and art, and I’m like, Well, where is that.
Elizabeth
Quotations? Like a treasure map?
Gretchen
Yes, it’s a treasure map. That’s exactly right. Why would you erase your treasure map? I need to keep it there. That will be a very easy demerit to learn from Elizabeth. So unlike some of them, which are more demanding. But what’s your gold star?
Elizabeth
Well, Gretch, I want to give a gold star to all of the listeners who have emailed me or commented and are happy you’re in Hollywood. Facebook group about Orange Theory.
Gretchen
Yeah.
Elizabeth
Yes. A new exercise thing I’m doing. So many people have gotten in touch to encourage me to give me tips about doing Orange Theory. Talk about how much they love Orange theory. So thank you everybody. It is encouraging me. I have been going. Yes, dedicated to my 50 times in 2024. So I’ll be reporting back, of course, on Orange theory.
Elizabeth
But thank you, everybody.
Gretchen
The journey is underway and everyone is cheering you on. Okay, excellent. The resource for this week OC If you are part of a book club that is reading Life in Five Senses or has previously read Life in Five Senses, you could win a virtual drop by from me to discuss the book and answer your questions. I have never done this before.
Gretchen
I’m very excited to give this a try. The paperback comes out on April 30th. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of book clubs really do mostly read paperbacks. I will pick ten book clubs. I will announce the winners on May 3rd. And if you want to enter, go to have your cars.com slash book club One word. And I’m so excited.
Gretchen
Is it those of us? We love book clubs. I love dropping by some book clubs of people that I don’t even know That will be super fun. And speaking of a book club in reading Elizabeth, what are you reading?
Elizabeth
I am reading the marriage sabbatical by Leon Dolan.
Gretchen
Leon Dolan. And I am reading the story of Charlotte’s Web E.B. White’s Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic by Michael Sims. And that’s it for this episode of Happier. Remember to Try This at Home. Write your autobiography in 24 Sensations. Let us know if you tried it and if it works for you.
Elizabeth
Thank you to our executive producer Chuck Reed and everyone at Odyssey. Get in touch. Gretchen’s on Instagram threads, Facebook and TikTok at Gretchen Rubin and I’m on Instagram and threads at Liz Craft. Our email address is podcast to Gretchen Rubin dot com.
Gretchen
You’ve heard me say before but if you’ve never done it, please do it. Please rate us, review us, follow us, or the best of all, recommend us to a friend. That is how most people discover our show.
Elizabeth
Until next week. I’m Elizabeth.
Gretchen
Craft. And I’m Gretchen Rubin. Thanks for joining us. Onward and upward.
Gretchen
So, Elizabeth, with orange theory, are you feeling like 50 is a realistic number? I mean, that’s a high number. What do you think?
Elizabeth
I think it’s doable. I mean, provided I don’t end up leaving town for two months or something. Yes. But twice a week, I think is a very good, solid goal. As long as I don’t get too sore, injured or something, I think I’m good.
Gretchen
It’s exciting.
Elizabeth
I’m determined you’re going.
Gretchen
To do it from the onward project.