Ahmad hosseini’s Reviews > A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas > Status Update

Gretchen Rubin says the classic misconception people have about happiness is that it is a state of being you suddenly find or “arrive” at. But as Rubin on this subject tend to concur, creating happiness is ongoing. You don’t find it, you gradually figure it out for yourself—questioning and experimenting as you try to understand what makes you feel happy and how to bring more of that into your everyday life.

Gretchen Rubin says the classic misconception people have about happiness is that it is a state of being you suddenly find or “arrive” at. But as Rubin on this subject tend to concur, creating happiness is ongoing. You don’t find it, you gradually figure it out for yourself—questioning and experimenting as you try to understand what makes you feel happy and how to bring more of that into your everyday life.

The difference between just asking a question or pursuing it is the difference between flirting with an idea or living with it. If you choose the latter, the question will likely become what the psychotherapist Eric Maisel calls a “productive obsession.” You’ll wrestle with it, walk with it, sleep with it. And all of this will prove helpful during the What If stage of inquiry.