I was listening to the always-entertaining Nerdist podcast on the way in to work this morning. (Quick aside: if you listen to podcasts and like comedy and/or nerdy things, you owe it to yourself to check out the Nerdist podcast. It’s fantastic.  Clickity for more information.)

Anywho, the guest was Sarah Silverman, whose comedy I’ve always enjoyed but who I’ve always sort of been afraid of because you get that feeling that she’s razor sharp and than nothing is sacred. But hearing her  talk as a normal person was fairly endearing and I came away liking her a lot more.

One thing she said stuck with me. She mentions that while she’s a naturally happy person, she actively tries to find something to be happy about each day. It was one of those moments where you realize you might not know as much as you assumed you did.

I guess I sort of thought of happiness as a one or a zero. You either were or weren’t. Outside events would be the cause, of course, but happiness or sadness was an unchangeable, force of nature reaction.

But now I don’t know if that’s the case. I certainly spend a good amount of time being unhappy. Not necessarily sad by any definition, but certainly apprehensive, tense, aggrivated, etc. Not happy.

But here’s the thing: I can choose to be. I think that how you react to life is largely up to you. It’s not easy and I don’t think it’s an all of a sudden *poof*-I’m-happy moment. But I can put one emotional step in front of the other and baby step my way to being in the right frame of mind.

So that, I’ve just decided, is my belated resolution for 2011. Despite the daily grind, despite an increasingly aggrivating society, despite not knowing what the future holds or how I fit in…   I choose to be happy. Not all at once and not naively.

But bit by bit each day, I will work to recognize that which is right about my life, that which is good about me. That which is good.

I will be a happier person. Because I can be and because I so choose.