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Gretchen Rubin: 4 Secrets of Adulthood

Season 6 Episode 617
Aired on 11/08/2015 | CC tv-14
The rules of adulthood seem strange and mysterious sometimes. You might feel that if only you could demystify them, you would be a little bit happier.

In her book The Happiness Project, researcher and best-selling author Gretchen Rubin lists some of the lessons she's learned about growing up, rules that she keeps in mind as she goes about her day. During her Super Soul Sunday interview, she and Oprah discussed four of the lessons. One of them—happiness doesn't always make you happy—might seem counterintuitive, but Gretchen explains why it makes perfect sense.

"Sometimes people act like happiness is always going to send us skipping down the street," she says. "It doesn't always work out that way. So you have to remember sometimes it doesn't—or when you're doing something new and challenging it can be very—like it can make you feel very bad and insecure and defensive but in the end you're glad you did it."

In the video above, Gretchen shares four thoughts that have helped her better understand adulthood.