Authors@Google: Gretchen Rubin January 29, 2010

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A few years ago, I had an epiphany on the cross-town bus. I asked myself, What do I want from life, anyway? and I thought, I want to be happy, but I never spent any time thinking about happiness. I should do a happiness project! I realized. And so I have.

My happiness project has convinced me that its possible to be happier by taking small, concrete steps in your daily life. In my book and on this daily blog, I write about what Ive learned as Ive test-driven the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from popular culture. Plutarch, Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Franklin, St. Thérèse, the Dalai Lama, Oprah, Martin Seligman, I cover it all.

Every Wednesday, I post a list of tips about how to be happier; every Friday, I propose a resolution for your happiness project; every Sunday, I post a quotation to get you thinking more deeply about happiness. Throughout the week, I write about my adventures as I work to be happier.

More than 35,000 people subscribe to this blog and more than 26,000 get my monthly newsletter. The blog appears on Slate as well as the Huffington Post,Yahoo! Shine, Psychology Today, Intent.com and elsewhere, and I also post onRealSimple.com. I feel lucky to be connected in so many ways to people who share my interest in happiness.

Im a bestselling writer who has published four books and written three unpublished novels, which are safely locked in a drawer. Before turning to writing, I started out in law. At Yale Law School, I was editor-in-chief of theYale Law Journal, and I was clerking for Justice Sandra Day OConnor when I realized that I really wanted to be a writer.

Raised in Kansas City, I live in New York City with my husband and two young daughters. My only hobbies are reading and writing, and helping other people to clean out their closets. Im left-handed, hopeless at sports, tone-deaf, a constant hair-twister, and afraid to drive. I talk to my parents and my sister all the time, and I live around the corner from my in-laws.