Last week I posted my flops. And the response blew me away.

Messages from people saying they needed to hear that. That they had been carrying their own version of the same flops and hadn’t given themselves permission to acknowledge them yet. That seeing someone be honest about the imperfect parts of the journey made them feel less alone in theirs.

That response reminded me of something I said in last week’s newsletter. People don’t connect with perfection. They connect with honesty. And this week I want to keep that thread going because something happened to me recently that I have been sitting with ever since.

On August the 14th, I flew to the Philippines for what was supposed to be a 9 night, 10 day trip.

I visited Camiguin Island for 5 nights, met my two VAs in person in Lian, Batangas for the first time which is a whole story in itself (I’ll write an article dedicated to that), and spent a weekend genuinely disconnected from the noise of everyday life. It was exactly the kind of reset I needed.

Mantigue Island, off Camiguin Island, Philippines.

As you probably already know, when I’m not delivering a keynote or facilitating a workshop, I’m an online running and strength coach for busy professionals and dedicated athletes. Over the past five years I’ve transitioned from a personal trainer on the gym floor to the online coach I am today. The beauty of this career is I can work from anywhere with internet.

So six hours before my scheduled flight back to Australia, I looked at my calendar and saw the next two weeks held nothing but calls with clients and my VAs, calls I could take from anywhere. I thought: I may never get the chance to adventure through the Philippines like this again. As I get older, life will fill up with more responsibility. More keynotes. A family of my own one day. None of it will leave room for this kind of spontaneity.

People who know me always say the same thing. That I never stop. That I never slow down. That I should take a moment every now and then to smell the roses and either rest or adventure. That life doesn’t always have to be so serious. This felt like the chance to actually do that. So I did something completely out of character. I changed my mind, rescheduled my flight, and booked the next one to Siargao Island instead.

It felt exciting in the moment. Voice Two being bold. Choosing adventure over the plan. Saying yes to the unexpected.

Then, a few hours later, it hit me.

The anxiety crept in quietly at first, then all at once. I’d booked a 28K trail race for Saturday the 29th, one I genuinely wanted to run in on the Gold Coast. It would have been just my second race back from my near career-ending foot injury. The decision that felt so liberating the night before started to feel like a huge mistake. “You’re an idiot,” I told myself. “You worked so hard to get back to racing, and you’re trading it for two more weeks away?”

I sat with the knot in my chest, wondering if I’d let Voice One disguise itself as Voice Two. Whether what I called courage was actually avoidance. Whether the bold choice was the right one.

For someone who speaks about purpose, direction and doing hard things for a living, it was extremely hard feeling so uncertain and anxious in that moment. I haven’t felt like that for a long time. It couldn’t escape me and it was a crippling feeling.

And that is exactly the point I want to make this week.

I’ve reminded myself that uncertainty is not a sign that I’m lost, and that’s the same for you too. It’s a sign that you are making real choices about a real life. The people who never feel uncertain aren’t the most confident people in the room, they are the ones who stopped making bold decisions a long time ago. Because bold decisions come with doubt, every single time. And the only way to avoid that doubt is to stop choosing anything that actually matters to you.

I talk about Voice One and Voice Two in my keynote, The Run Within, and I want to add something to that conversation this week. Sometimes Voice One doesn’t sound like fear, laziness or excuses. Sometimes it sounds like reason. Like practicality. Like the sensible thing to do. And sometimes Voice Two doesn’t sound like confidence or clarity. Sometimes it sounds like a quiet but persistent nudge toward something you cannot fully explain yet.

The hard part is that in the moment they can feel almost identical. And the only way you get better at telling them apart is by making the choice, sitting with the discomfort that follows, and trusting that the uncertainty itself is part of the process rather than a sign you got it wrong.

I don’t regret changing my flight. And I’ve now given myself some grace for the hours I spent anxious about whether I had made the right call, instead of being present in the decision I had already made. I realised the anxiety wasn’t telling me that I had made the wrong choice, it was just Voice One catching up to a decision that Voice Two had already made.

And then something shifted. After a good night of sleep and a clear head, I found my feet again. I met local runners at the Siargao Run Club and that familiar feeling came rushing back. The community. The movement. The reminder of who I am when I strip everything else away. And now I’m loving it. I’m heading back to Australia next Monday morning (7th of September), and I even signed up for a local half marathon race on another island in Siquijor, this coming weekend, so I’ll still get to race after all.

But the best thing I’ve been able to do over the extra week, is learn to surf. Siargao is the surfing capital of the Philippines and it has felt incredible to be in the water, so present and out of my head. So I am doing the real work on the waves too.

Voice Two is alive and well out here.

I know I’m still on track, just taking a slightly different route than I originally planned. And honestly, that feels very on brand.

That is something I am still learning. How to make the bold choice and then actually let myself live in it without immediately pulling it apart. And I think that is something most of us are learning together.

The flops post resonated because it was honest. This one is honest too. I am not someone who has it all figured out. I am someone who is deeply committed to figuring it out in real time, sharing the journey as I go, and trusting that the uncertainty along the way is not the enemy of a meaningful life. It is actually proof of one.

So here is your question this week. Where in your life right now are you sitting with a decision you have already made and letting Voice One pull it apart instead of trusting the voice that made it?

Because sometimes the bravest thing isn’t making another choice. It’s staying in the choice you have already made.

That is the run within. It doesn’t always feel certain, but it is always worth it.

Thanks for reading.

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Sean