In her book The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin writes that happiness doesn't always make us feel happy. This is so true in my experience. For instance: I hate putting pictures in albums. Hate hate hate hate hate it. And yet it's such a delight to look at the albums afterwards, and also a delight to watch my enthusiastic kids looking at the albums, and a further delight to bask in my husband's appreciation of my having made the albums. It's worth it for the long-term happiness, even though it is a short-term pain. (A RIOT, one might say: a Reliable Inducer Of Tooth-gnashing).
On my list of fun things I wanted to do this summer, I put the 5-mile race that happens every July in Gladlyville. It's definitely a race, not a fun run. I will be finishing at the back of the sizable pack. I've thought about it for years, but this year I finally wrote it down as a summer goal and ponied up the registration fee. I am feeling undertrained and a little whiny, but I am telling myself this true thing: happiness doesn't always make us feel happy. Time to set the alarm and call it a night.
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