“Most people are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”

It always struck me a bit odd that Abraham Lincoln wrote those words. I’ve never seen a single photo of Lincoln sporting a broad smile—and he arguably endured the most difficult presidency this nation has ever seen. Yet he still seemed to view happiness as a choice.

I was reminded of this quote today when I happened across a website devoted entirely to happiness. It chronicles one woman’s quest to spend a year “test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study … to gather these rules for living and report on what works and what doesn’t.”

So far, my favorite is “nine tips for having a good bad day.”  The theory, of course, is that you can choose to make even a bad day better.

It’s easy to apply these tips when you put orange juice in your coffee instead of milk. But will they hold up when things start to fall apart like dominoes?

It just so happens I have a bunch of dominoes on my desk at work. I’ll let you know how the nine tips pan out.