I'm excited to blog about this book, as I've thoroughly enjoyed it, and it's easy to make personal connections. The book is written by an educated, affluent upper-east sider who decided to undertake a year long project where she would try to increase her happiness. She focuses on a new area of her life each month: Boost Energy (January), Marriage (Feb), Work (March), Parenthood (April), Leisure (May), Friendship (June), etc.
When I got to the work section, one of her suggestions was to make a BLOG (which made me so excited since I have two going right now and could totally relate)! Launching a blog, Rubin said, gave her "an enormous rush of triumph. I couldn't believe I managed to do it. The experts had been correct about the happiness effect of novelty, challenge, and an atmosphere of growth" (77). The thing about setting up the blog and getting used to it is that it's HARD and UNFAMILIAR and takes WORK especially at the beginning, and you have to do a little bit each day, but it's worth it because you have ACCOMPLISHED something and realize it's OKAY TO ASK FOR HELP. When I first started this blogging idea, I was doing hours of research on features of a blog and how to set up widgets. I was in constant contact with Randy, our district technology expert, to get help setting up the blog. When I introduced the blogging idea to the 9th grade team, I had to demonstrate features of the blog, help them get theirs set up and do some trouble shooting. When we started blogging with the 9th grade, it took some difficulty, tech errors, and time to get the blogs started, but it was all a learning experience. I could totally relate to Rubin when she said, "my blog remained an excellent source of happiness through challenge. The more I did, the more I wanted to do. I wanted to add images. I wanted to drop the world "typepad" out of my URL. I wanted to podcast. I wanted to add live links...I'd find myself overwhelmed with ignorance and helplessness...the images weren't loading...the images were too small..." (77). The she mentions, "As I struggled to master these tasks I would 'put myself in jail' and tell myself I had nowhere to go until I finished the task...It doesn't matter how long it takes, I have all the time I want...of course this wasn't true...but telling myself I had all the time I needed helped me focus" (77).
Despite her troubles, and despite my own struggles with starting up blogger, Rubin and I both came to the conclusion that blogging is gratifying and new challenges lead to happiness. Rubin states, "One reason that challenge brings happiness is that it allows you to expand your self-definition. You become larger. Also, a new identity brings you into contact with new people and new experiences, which are also a powerful source of happiness" (78). I have a new identify as a blogger and have overcome challenges of setting up the blog, learning blogger, and figuring out what to blog about, to help me increase the quality of my blogging. I hope to continue to grow with this experience. I'm hoping to look back to this blog post and think "how amateur!" as I grow in my understanding of writing and blogging.
Rubin said it best, "My blog gave me a new identity, new skills, a new set of colleagues, and a way to connect with people who share my interest. I'd expanded my vision of the kind of writer I could be. I had become a blogger" (78). :)
You can access her blog here: http://www.gretchenrubin.com/
