What if the way you compare yourself to others is quietly deciding how happy or miserable you feel every day?

In this powerful conversation on LOA Today, Walt and Joel unpack how comparison, gratitude, and mindset can either drain your joy or completely transform your life.

From the very start, Walt asks the core question behind the episode: Are we falling into a comparison trap, or are we using comparison as a tool for growth?

Joel doesn’t hesitate to call out the problem: “Social media is a platform of comparison; people see things, and they judge their life by where someone else is at, and that creates a feeling of lack.”

He explains how we look at someone else’s “100%” – the gym-obsessed entrepreneur versus the person on day three of addiction recovery, and decide one is worthy and the other isn’t.

But as Joel points out, both are giving everything they have. The problem isn’t effort. It’s the way we compare.

Walt adds another layer: those “perfect” people we see online? “You look closer, they don’t actually fit the images.”

There is no perfection. Yet we measure ourselves against it every day.

Joel recalls the famous line, “Comparison is the thief of joy,” and explains why: when comparison is rooted in lack, we broadcast the energy of “I’m not enough.” That vibration shapes what we attract.

But Joel also offers a reframe: “I like to be the dumbest, weakest, and poorest person in a room.”

Not because he feels less than, but because he sees possibility. Around people who are stronger, wiser, or wealthier, he isn’t asking, “Why don’t I have that?” He’s asking, “What can I learn from them?”

That simple question changes comparison from poison into fuel.

Walt connects the comparison to one of their favorite themes: response.

We can’t control what happens, but we can control how we respond. And with comparison, that response is everything: Do I use someone else’s success as proof I’m failing? Or as proof that what I want is possible for me too?

Joel illustrates this with heartbreaking, real-life stories: the overdose of a bright 16-year-old, the death of his own son, families choosing to turn grief into advocacy, awareness, and even life-saving organ donation. “You can’t make tragedy not be tragic,” Joel says, “but your response to it can be empowering.”

Walt brings it back to the simplest emotional guidance system possible: “It’s either I feel better, or I feel worse.”

Instead of comparing ourselves to strangers on a screen, what if we only asked: Does this thought, this action, this focus make me feel better or worse?

Joel agrees that comparison is at its best when it’s you vs. you: “Comparison is a quick way with yourself to show the subconscious brain things are different now.”

Comparing who you are today to who you used to be can reprogram your belief in what’s possible.

In the end, Walt sums up their journey: they both tried for years to make all of this complicated. But underneath it all, it’s simple:

• Notice how you compare.
• Choose gratitude over lack.
• Ask: Does this make me feel better or worse?
• And keep honoring the process, not just the result.

Because the real “gratitude beyond the cake” isn’t about the celebration at the end. It’s about learning to love the journey that gets you there.

LOA Today Episode Page: https://www.loatoday.net/comparison

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