Ever catch yourself thinking, “Am I happy, or am I just riding the emotional rollercoaster of everyone around me?” This week, Melody and Curt get brutally honest about the messiness of happiness—how much of it we actually control, how much is tied up in our relationships (and our businesses), and whether you can ever really keep your emotions in your own sandbox.

What We Talk About:

1. Why Melody’s version of “content” is surviving New England winter, missing her dog, and baby therapy air fresheners
2. Curt’s Viktor Frankl reference and the impossible standard of not letting anyone affect you—and why he’s nowhere close to that
3. The story about Melody putting her dog to sleep two days before Christmas (bring tissues, not solutions)
4. Curt’s pancake analogy: feeling both rage and joy about his daughter’s wedding, and why happiness can come from the same thing that makes you miserable
5. The “box-holding” framework—aka, when you accidentally end up emotionally carrying everyone else’s stuff (and how that plays out at home and in business)
6. How business decisions, delayed pivots, and letting things linger can keep you in “cat poop side” of the sandbox way too long
7. Why happy isn’t a permanent state, contentment isn’t complacency, and sometimes you just need someone to tell you your perception is dead wrong (hi, Brittany!)
8. The Mountain Biking/Yoga/Weightlifting coping mechanisms, and what actually works to get out of your head

Key Takeaways:

1. Nobody is completely immune to the emotions of people they love—trying to be might just make you feel worse.
2. Contentment isn’t laziness; it’s being okay with yourself and your life—even when it’s messy or in-progress.
3. You can’t always “think” your way out of unhappiness, but you can pay attention to where you’re spending your emotional energy (hint: not all of it belongs to you).
4. Sometimes, the bravest move is naming your overwhelm (and letting someone else hold your box… at least for a while).

Timestamps: 0:00 – “Are you happy?” and Melody’s tiers of existence

5:22 – Grief, joy, winter, and the myth of perpetual happiness

16:21 – Business overwhelm and box-holding dynamics

34:02 – Sacrifice, spirituality, and not becoming a martyr

53:05 – Why you can’t live in other people’s feelings forever

01:01:09 – The happiness/contentment split, summarized