the power you forgot you had

Christian Ray Flores here —

I write the XE (Xponential Edge) twice a week. Sunday is free, Wednesday is for paid subscribers. Choose the paid version and you’ll get deeper dives, private chats, VIP invites — and my gratitude for supporting the work.

Todays issue: The highlights you brag about exist because of the lowlights you survived. Comfort dulls that edge — and antifragility atrophies. Here’s how to rebuild it, on purpose…but first.

opportunities

If you’re serious about building a personal brand and launching a newsletter that drives impact, income, and connection, this is your nudge.

Later in October, I’m working with a small group to nail:

• Your core concept (what you stand for, who it’s for, why it matters)

• Your publishing rhythm and repeatable format

• A simple business model (free vs. paid, offers, growth loops)

• How to publish consistently with a custom-developed GPT I built for this exact workflow

Details are coming soon. Seats will be limited. If you want in, raise your hand now.

Two ways to raise your hand

1. Secure your seat now for $97. If the time doesn’t work, we’ll reimburse you.

2. Want first dibs? Reply to this email with “Interested” to be added to the waitlist.

---

our sponsor – third drive media

All of my marketing is done by this team.

Reach out if you’re a business owner, expert, or consultant looking to create and execute marketing around your brand.

To become a sponsor of XE and reach 12k subscribers with your product or service. Learn more here.

---

build a life that scares you

Our social media posts, résumés, and websites showcase the highlights — the wins, the achievements, the filtered triumphs. Makes sense. Who wants to broadcast the lowlights — the heartache, failure, betrayal, costly mistakes, and all the stuff we wish we’d never done or said?

And yet… the highlights are the direct result of those lowlights activating a power we eventually unlearn: antifragility.

Coined by author and thinker Nassim Taleb, antifragility goes beyond the buzzword resilience.

Resilience is about getting back up after being knocked down — succeeding in spite of hardship.

Antifragility is about succeeding because of hardship.

We already have this power. Our bodies, minds, and character evolve, grow, and improve in the valleys of life. But as we “get established,” those valleys get shallower — and antifragility atrophies.

Now, 90% of our time and energy go not toward growth but maintenance: lifestyle, status, family, mortgage, staff, business, company politics, meetings… Maybe that’s fine. We’ve paid our dues, and now we get to enjoy some stability.

Only stability clashes with another deeply human desire — for more.

More freedom. More autonomy. More time. More money. More impact.

The problem with a plateau — even a calm, non-crisis, everything’s-stable kind of plateau — is that humans are wired to strive, dream, build, and create. That’s why you feel restless even when things look good “on paper.”

If that’s you, you have a choice:

Stay stable and perpetually dissatisfied — or enter a growth state, pursuing your version of “more.” Maybe it’s time with family. Maybe it’s financial freedom, creative expression, or helping more people in more places.

To do that, you’ll have to relearn antifragility. Because growth means you’re about to create more hardship for yourself — on purpose.

Redesigning your life to produce different results is always painful. But it’s worth it if you don’t want to settle.

The playbook you’ve been using — the one handed to you by your environment and mistaken for your own — burn it.

It served its purpose once. But it will not guild a different future.

You’ve outgrown the game that made you.

And the only way to keep evolving is to build a new one — from your core values, for this season, this future, this next version of you.

It won’t be easy. You’ll lose comfort, maybe some approval, maybe people who liked the “old” version better. But on the other side of that friction is the feeling you’ve been chasing while pretending you were fine.

For my paid subscribers, I’m breaking down the first three moves to rebuild your life from the inside out — to make the next twelve months the most creatively and financially transformative of your life.

If you haven’t gone paid yet, this might be your line in the sand.