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Happier with Gretchen Rubin
A Little Happier: A Few Extra Words from Winston Churchill Make a Big Difference
00:04:34
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- [00:00]
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Did you know that infants are ready to learn sign language, 2 year olds are ready to learn the basics of science and three year olds are ready to learn coding. Your child is ready to learn and at Primrose Schools, teachers make the most of this time by creating a joyful, purposeful learning experience unlike any other.
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For instance, have you heard of the Primrose Friends? In every Primrose School classroom, teachers use these 12 lovable puppets to make character development joyful, meaningful and memorable. From exploring generosity with Benjamin the Bear to practicing honesty with Peanut the Pony, every friend plays a special part in helping children learn important values while having plenty of fun along the way. We can all use some friends like that. You can learn more@primroseschools.com now enrolling infants through children age 5. That's primroseschools.com for more information Elizabeth when we're together for the holidays, we end up going to Whole Foods Market every day. There's so many things that we need. Like we're going to a party and one of us needs to bring a gift for the host. They have these expert curated cheeses and crackers that everybody loves. They have excellent limited time seasonal desserts like holiday Rum Cake, Creamy Buche de Noel which is one of our family's favorites, and more. Plus they have these show stopping things for the table like bone in spiral cut ham, well, Gretch.
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I love that they have heat in each sides from the prepared foods department because you know that I am not much of a cook so heat and serve is something I can do. And they have floral Gretchen so you can bring a nice bouquet of flowers. If you're going to someone's house, shop for everything you need at Whole Foods Market. Your holiday headquarters.
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Lemonade I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier One of my favorite parts of my work as a writer is that I spend a lot of time copying passages from my reading into my giant quotation documents. When I copy these passages, I'm careful to mark whenever I edit out any part of a quotation. And I also reread the original passage carefully to make sure that I'm not distorting the author's meaning by cutting a quotation in a way that causes it to mean something unintended. I've noticed a few prominent examples of where people probably without knowing it, quote only part of what someone said, but when you read the full quotation, the meaning changes dramatically. For instance, I wrote a short, unconventional biography of Winston Churchill called 40 Ways to Look at Winston Churchill. Now, people often quote Winston Churchill as saying, never give in. Here's what he actually said at a speech he gave on October 29, 1941. Never give in. Never give in. Never, never give. Never, never in nothing great or small, large or petty. Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Well, that last edition changes his meaning quite a bit. Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Well, that qualification covers a lot of territory. I also often hear people quote the line, information wants to be free. This observation comes from Stuart Brand, who is a project developer and writer who's probably best known as the co founder and editor of the Whole Earth catalog. At the 1984 Hackers Conference, Brand said, on the one hand, information wants to be expensive because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other. So he does indeed say that information wants to be free, but he gives equal weight to the idea that information wants to be expensive. And that addition gives a very different meaning to what he's saying. I'm reminded of one of my secrets of adulthood. The opposite of a profound truth is also true. And I'll add that there's another famous proverb that people claim has an important addition, but in fact, that claim seems to be apocryphal. The quotation we've all heard is, the customer is always right. Now, in the last several years, people have begun to maintain that the actual quotation is, the customer is always right in matters of taste. And they often attribute that full quotation to Harry Gordon Selfridge, the retail magnate who founded the London based department store Selfridges. In fact, there's no actual evidence that he did say that, but it's a great example of how adding just a few words can totally alter the meaning of a well known saying. Along the same times, sometimes I hear a quotation that I love, but I wish I could tweak it just a bit. Style icon Diana Vreeland was a fount of brilliant observations and aphorisms. And one of her great lines is, the eye has to travel. But I always think, too bad. I think that line would be better if she'd said, the eye must travel. But that's not what she wrote. I love quotations, but if we quote someone, we must make sure that we accurately convey their meaning. If you love quotations as much as I Do you might like my Moment of Happiness page? A day calendar. It has beautiful quotations about happiness and human nature for every day of the year. I'll post a link in the show Notes. I'm Gretchen Rubin and I hope this makes your week a little happier. From the Onward Project.
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Hi Gretchen, Craig Robinson and my little sister Michelle here we host a new podcast called IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson. We know you're the queen of giving advice, so we wanted to get a few tips from you. You know Gretchen, a lot of our listeners are going through some major life changes. What advice do you have for folks who are trying to stay grounded in the midst of major life transitions?
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Craig and Michelle, I am so happy to be talking to you. Here are a few questions that might help us gain perspective. So consider questions like this. What activities take up my time but are not particularly useful or stimulating for me? Do I spend a lot of time on something that's important to someone else but is not very important to me? If I could magically change one habit in my life, what would I choose? And here's a question. Would I like to have more time in solitude, restorative solitude, or would I like to have more time with friends? You know, just thinking about questions like this can help us start to figure out how we might make our lives happier. With greater self knowledge, we're better able to make hard decisions that reflect ourselves, our own nature, our own interests, our own values. In my own case, I have found that the more my life reflects my nature, the happier I get and the more grounded I feel when I'm going through a period of major change or transition. For more great advice, search for IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson. Wherever you get podcast, you can listen to Issa Rae on letting go of certain friendships. Keke Palmer on why disappointment is actually the key to career success. Seth and Lauren Rogan on caring for aging parents and so many more.