Put on a happy face!

I've been thinking a lot lately about happiness and what it takes to acheive it. One of the things I've determined is that some portion of happiness is self determined. I'm not sure what portion that is, but I'm convinced it's sizable. I've decided to try to be more like my friend Steve. Sorry, not you Steve. This is a Steve who I worked with at Message Secure.

The thing Steve does that I am trying to do more is simple. Whenever someone asks Steve how he is doing, unless there is something really terrible going on in his life, he answers "Fantastic!". I usually say something like "hanging in there". My response is much more gloomy. I've found that if I use an upbeat response, I feel more upbeat. Today, someone asked how I was doing. I responded "Excellent." Aside from the fact that I should have said "Excellent-ly" I felt a surge of warmth as I said it. Perhaps I realized that things were going very well. Or perhaps I just convinced some part of me that they were. Whatever. It works.