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Should the pursuit of happiness be turned into a project? Gretchen Rubin made it a year-long project, one she put her heart and soul, blood, sweat, and tears into. It may seem like a weird way to go about attaining happiness, but her results, as finely detailed here, are impressive and inspiring.

Much has been written about how to be happier. The general belief seems to be that happiness will come when some milestone is reached or something life-changing happens: paying off a large debt, reaching a goal weight, or winning the lottery. Prior to reading The Happiness Project, I’d read articles on this topic now and then but always found them vague. “Happiness experts� repeatedly say that deep, long-term happiness can’t be found in the life-changing moments, but it wasn’t until reading The Happiness Project that I understood happiness-attainment concretely. In plainer words: This book makes sense.

The Happiness Project is organized well, divided into twelve chapters (one per month), with each of those further divided into a series of main points. January, for instance, is subtitled “Boost Energy� because that was Rubin’s resolution for that month on her journey to true happiness. Related to boosting energy, she covered the following points: “Go to sleep earlier,� “Exercise better,� “Toss, restore, organize,� “Tackle a nagging task,� and “Act more energetic.� In January Rubin did all these things, methodically and meticulously. Some she enjoyed more than others, but she did all of them.

I appreciated Rubin’s candid and sincere tone. She talks of feeling rushed and anxious at times, of losing patience and getting irritable. She never pretends to be perfect, though she set the bar high for herself and persisted. It’s admirable and overwhelming just reading about all that she did over the course of one year, and, ultimately, her type-A personality probably helped.

Especially fascinating to me was Rubin’s short but careful preparation. Right before starting her project she compiled a list of twelve personal commandments to help guide her and get her back on track when needed, and a list of “Secrets of Adulthood,� something she admits was goofier. What I loved, however, were what she dubbed the “Four Splendid Truths,� which were born of the project (and therefore revealed themselves toward the end) and are philosophical.

The Happiness Project is a sort of memoir/self-help book/handbook mesh, but as a self-help book/handbook the sheer amount of information is overwhelming, and this is the only fault I could find with it, if it can be called a fault. It begs a rereading, or if not that, extensive note-taking during the first reading. Rubin does, however, have a blog that has prompts to help readers set up their own happiness projects.

Trying to catch and hold on to an immaterial concept such as happiness isn’t so ridiculous; it’s precisely because Rubin did specific things over the course of one year that she got results. That’s how this book is valuable—in its specificity. It’s unnecessary to embark on a year-long challenge. Even if a reader makes only a handful of changes, that can help, and even readers who aren’t unhappy can find The Happiness Project helpful.