You say certain things make you happy. But what does happiness actually feel like to you?

In this episode of Shark Theory, Baylor shares a powerful question from a recent therapy session that completely shifted his perspective: What does happiness feel like?

Not what makes you happy. Not what you're doing when you're happy. But what does it feel like?

At first, Baylor listed activities. Walking his dog. Playing golf. Spending time with friends. But his therapist pressed further. Feelings aren't events. They're states.

That distinction changes everything.

Too often, people tie happiness to specific moments, roles, or achievements. Athletes tie it to performance. Professionals tie it to promotions. Parents tie it to milestones. When those events disappear or slow down, so does their perceived happiness.

But when Baylor dug deeper, he realized happiness for him wasn't about the activity. It was the feeling of emptiness of thought. A quiet mind. No overthinking. No mental clutter. Just presence.

That realization unlocked something important. If happiness is a state of mind, not a specific event, then you can experience it in far more places than you thought. It also means you can reverse engineer it.

When you understand what happiness feels like, you can identify its opposite. For Baylor, stress and anxiety show up as mental overload. Too many thoughts. Too much noise. Too much energy wasted on things that don't matter.

The lesson is simple but profound: you can't move toward something if you don't know what it feels like. Once you define your emotional state clearly, you can deliberately design your life around creating more of it.

• Why tying happiness to events limits your joy

• The difference between actions and emotional states

• How identity and roles can distort your sense of fulfillment

• Why defining the feeling of happiness matters

• How to reverse engineer your emotional state

• How awareness reduces anxiety and mental overload

"Happiness isn't what you're doing. It's the state your mind is in while you're doing it."

When the storm comes, giraffes don't run. They don't hide. They stand tall and face away from it. Maybe that's exactly what we need to do.

In this episode of Shark Theory, Baylor shares one of his favorite late-night research discoveries and the powerful life lesson hidden in how giraffes handle storms.

At three in the morning, a random question led to a fascinating insight: where do giraffes hide when it rains? The answer is simple and powerful. They don't.

Instead of trying to curl up or seek shelter they can't find, giraffes stand tall and face away from the storm. Researchers suggest that lying down in mud would require more energy to get back up once the storm passes. So they take it head-on, minimizing impact and conserving strength.

Baylor connects this to how humans handle adversity. When storms hit in relationships, careers, or personal growth, most people run, hide, blame, or avoid. Very few choose to stand tall and deal with it proactively.

Using boxing as another analogy, Baylor explains the concept of rolling with the punches. You're going to get hit. Storms are inevitable. But how you position yourself determines how much damage you take.

Avoidance often makes problems worse. Letting issues simmer in silence, refusing hard conversations, or running from mistakes only increases the energy required to fix them later. The longer you wait, the heavier the mud becomes.

The message is simple: storms are part of life. Quitting only makes it harder to restart. Stand tall. Be proactive. And remember that every storm eventually ends.

• Why storms are unavoidable in life

• What giraffes teach us about resilience

• How avoidance increases long-term damage

• The power of being proactive during adversity

• Why quitting costs more energy than enduring

• How to minimize impact by "rolling with the punches"

"Storms are coming either way. The question is whether you're going to run from them or stand tall through them."

t's easy to judge from the couch. It's harder to compete in the arena. The question is which one you want to be.

In this episode of Shark Theory, Baylor breaks down powerful lessons from the Winter Olympics and what they reveal about competition, criticism, and courage.

Watching elite athletes perform at the highest level makes one thing clear: there are countless ways to be great. Some sports may not make sense to you. Some events may look strange or unfamiliar. But at the highest level, everything is competitive. Everything has a degree of difficulty. And every gold medal weighs the same.

Baylor challenges listeners to stop minimizing their own gifts. You don't have to be an Olympian, but you do have to decide what you want to be great at. The world rewards excellence in any field, if you're willing to pursue it.

The bigger takeaway, however, is about criticism. It's easy to be an armchair judge. It's easy to critique, meme, or downplay someone else's performance from the comfort of your couch. But there's a massive difference between commenting and competing.

Baylor explains why he'd rather be the one in the arena being critiqued than the one on the sidelines offering opinions. Because growth only happens in the arena. Momentum only happens in the arena.

Using Lindsey Vonn as an example, Baylor highlights the mindset of someone willing to compete despite overwhelming odds. Torn ACL. High speeds. Risk of injury. She chose to go for it anyway. And while the outcome wasn't perfect, the spirit behind it is what matters.

At some point, you have to decide if you're content analyzing others, or if you're willing to step into the arena yourself and chase gold in your own lane.

• Why there are countless ways to be great

• The danger of becoming an "armchair judge"

• Why criticism is easier than competition

• The value of being compared among the best

• What the arena teaches you that the sidelines never will

• Why chasing excellence requires risk

"I'd rather be in the arena getting critiqued than on the sidelines giving opinions."