The Line Between Smart and Scared
The 3-2-1 : Thursday 4th December, 2025
Thursday, 4th December, 2025
Welcome to this week’s 3-2-1 newsletter.
Three things I’ve been working through. Two quotes that keep showing up when I need them. One question about what you’re actually controlling.
This week I made a decision about racing after injury, launched something that’s been four years in the making, and kept thinking about the only two things that matter when everything else is uncertain.
Relevant if you’ve ever had to adjust your expectations while refusing to quit entirely.
Let’s get stuck in.
3 Thoughts From Me
1. “There’s a fine line between being sensible and using obstacles as reasons to abandon ship.”
Last week I told you about my ankle injury leading up to the race i’ve trained months for, “The Winter on the Downs”, a 55 Mile Ultramarathon on the south coast of England. Seven days of zero training. Ice. Elevation. Frustration.
This weekend I’m racing it anyway.
The ankle has no pain now. Recovery worked. But I’ve lost a key phase of training right before a brutal race with 7,500 feet of climbing. My preparation isn’t what I planned. My fitness peaked way too early.
I could use that as justification to pull out. Frame it as “being smart” or “listening to my body.” Make it sound responsible.
But that’s the trap. There’s a razor-thin line between legitimate caution and using imperfect circumstances as permission to quit.
I’ve adjusted my expectations accordingly and ill toe the start line with two goals : enjoy it and finish it. Pace doesn’t matter. Time doesn’t matter. Even if i finish in last place, i really don’t care.
Most people operate in binary. Either everything goes to plan or they don’t show up at all. Perfect preparation or complete withdrawal.
That thinking costs you everything. Life rarely delivers perfect conditions. Waiting for ideal circumstances means waiting forever.
The ankle recovered. That’s enough. Not back to peak. Not fully back on schedule. Just enough.
Sometimes the win is just recognising when you’re making excuses versus when you’re being genuinely sensible, then showing up anyway.
2. “Effort and attitude are the only things fully inside your control. Master those and what else matters?”
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I even have a newsletter on this very topic dropping on Sunday. When everything feels uncertain, when results aren’t guaranteed, when circumstances shift without warning, what’s left?
Two things.
Effort and attitude.
You can’t control outcomes. You can’t control other people’s responses. You can’t control injuries, setbacks, or timing.
But you can control how hard you work with what you have. And you can control the mindset you bring to the work.
Effort without the right attitude burns you out. Good attitude without effort is just wishful thinking. Together? They create something that external circumstances can’t touch.
Most people obsess over what they can’t control and neglect what they can. They want guaranteed results before they commit maximum effort. They want perfect conditions before they bring their best attitude.
Backwards.
Bring your best effort and your best attitude to imperfect situations. That’s where character gets built. That’s where you discover what you’re actually capable of when the safety nets are gone.
Effort and attitude. Both completely up to you. When you master those two, you stop needing certainty about everything else.
3. “Four years of testing. Eleven months of writing. Six months of hiding. Now it exists.”
My debut book “Sober Trails” is live on Amazon.
The frameworks that took me from barely running 5K to representing my country in ultramarathons at the highest level. The system that rebuilt every area of my life after six years of using alcohol to avoid difficult emotions. Forty-two thousand words on how to actually change instead of just talking about changing.
Four years of proving these principles work in real life. Testing them in ultramarathons. In business. In relationships. In the quiet moments when nobody’s watching.
Eleven months of translating experience into something someone else could use.
Six months of being afraid it wasn’t good enough. Hiding behind perfectionism. Telling myself I needed more time.
Then my mentor called out the obvious. I wasn’t refining anything. I was scared.
Now it’s done. Out there. Real.
The thing about finishing something you’ve been building for years: it doesn’t feel how you expect. No fireworks. No dramatic moment of completion.
Just quiet satisfaction that you pushed through the fear, shipped the thing, and stopped letting “almost ready” become a permanent identity.
If you’ve been stuck in “almost ready” for months, this is your reminder that good enough and shipped beats perfect and hidden every single time.
Available now here.
Available worldwide.
2 Quotes Worth Stealing
1. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle
Your daily actions aren’t random. They’re not neutral. They’re votes for the type of person you’re becoming.
Every time you choose the hard thing when the easy option is available, you’re voting for discipline. Every time you follow through when motivation is gone, you’re voting for reliability. Every time you maintain your standards when nobody’s watching, you’re voting for integrity.
The person you are in five years is being built right now. Not through grand declarations or ambitious plans. Through what you did this morning. What you’ll do this afternoon. What you’ll choose tomorrow when it would be easier to choose differently.
Identity isn’t something you claim. It’s something you build through accumulated evidence of who you actually are when tested.
Stop talking about who you want to become. Start voting for that person with your daily actions.
2. “I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language.” — Kobe Bryant
Effort separates people more than talent ever will.
Talent creates potential. Effort creates results. Talent makes things easier. Effort makes things possible.
The gap between someone with natural ability and someone with relentless work ethic closes fast. The person with ability coasts. The person with effort compounds.
You can’t control the talent you were born with. You can absolutely control whether you show up every single day and put in the work when nobody’s forcing you to.
Lazy people make excuses about circumstances. Effort-driven people make progress despite them.
Which language are you speaking?
1 Question Worth Answering
If someone studied just your effort and attitude this week, what would they conclude about who you’re becoming?
Not your goals. Not your plans. Not what you say matters.
Just effort. Just attitude.
Would they see someone bringing their best to imperfect situations? Or someone waiting for perfect conditions that never arrive?
Would they see consistency regardless of circumstances? Or random bursts of motivation followed by long stretches of nothing?
Your effort and attitude are the only votes that count. Everything else is just commentary.
Document what those two revealed about you this week. Then decide if you want to keep casting those votes.
The work continues.
-Chris
P.S. Sober Trails is now available on Amazon. The roadmap I used to rebuild my life from the ground up. If you’ve been waiting for a system that works in the real world, not just theory, this is it. Buy it here.
P.P.S. Found value here? Share it. The people around you reveal your standards.
