Christmas is the most peaceful time of year—and the most psychologically disruptive.
Christian Ray Flores here, on a warm Sunday morning in Austin, TX.
last chance for a gift to the poor
The tax year is wrapping up, last chance to make a tax deductible gift to the Ascend Academy in Maputo, Mozambique. If you’ve been itching to support a cause that is life changing not just for the children in one of the poorest places on earth but for those of us helping out - click here. If you’d like to learn more about the work, I’ll personally call you and tell you more. Just reply with the word ACADEMY.
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what christmas anxiety reveals (and how to fix it)
My family absolutely loves Christmas. The Christmas story. The Advent season full of anticipation. Even the shopping. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are easygoing—full of the kind of delight a house filled with love rewards you with.
But it’s also a life-pattern interruption that brings hidden anxieties to the surface.
I warn members of my coaching community not to freak out when negative stuff comes up out of nowhere during the holidays: anxious thoughts, sleepless nights, second-guessing, self-doubt, worry, imposter syndrome.
I expect it for myself too. And sure enough, I had three nights where I woke up in the middle of the night with irrational negative thoughts and anxiety.
This isn’t just a spiritual battle during a week many consider holy. It’s biology reacting to disrupted patterns.
This Christmas pattern reveals something universal about how we’re wired: your most irrational fears show up right when things are going well.
Our brains are wired to survive, not thrive.
The amygdala scans constantly for danger—social, physical, reputational—and reacts faster than your prefrontal cortex can reason with it. When threat is detected, real or perceived, resources get pulled away from growth functions and redirected to survival.
The result? Your brain will always choose safety over ambition. Certainty over possibility. Familiar pain over unfamiliar upside.
This is ancient code running modern hardware.
For most of human history, social survival mattered more than individual fulfillment. Standing out risked exile, ridicule, or loss of protection. It still echoes today in thoughts like “Who do you think you are?” or “Don’t rock the boat” or “Be grateful with your station in life.”
To move into thriving territory, you have to convince your brain that you’re safe enough to expand.
Here’s the counterintuitive part:
If you want to build a different future, make 80% of your life safe, repetitive, and predictable—and only 20% high-risk.
Your brain will calm down, interpret life as safe, and allow you to become more creative, optimistic, and deeply focused on growth.
Every founder I know who burns out lives at 60% chaos. Every one who scales sustainably lives a boring life outside their risk zone.
Here are my top five ways to spend as much time as possible in that 80% “safe” territory—while still taking real risks and expanding:
1. develop a robust transcendent practice—meditation, prayer, journaling. This pauses reactive thinking and moves you into metacognition, where irrational fear becomes easy to dismantle.
2. build a strong marriage and healthy relationships with your children, parents, and close friends. You need to come from the entrepreneurial battlefield to a home filled with love.
3. exercise daily. Movement activates your body’s internal pharmacy—from antidepressants to motivation chemicals—and reinforces the identity of someone who overcomes resistance.
4. hardwire growth into your schedule. For me, certain mornings each week are non-negotiably reserved for thinking, learning, and strategic expansion—whether I feel like it or not.
5. get coaching. Join a community where doing new and hard things is normal, expected, and celebrated. I don’t make big growth decisions in isolation.
So let me ask you this:
Where is your brain mistaking expansion for danger?
If imposter syndrome is loud right now, this episode will help you shut it down.