Essay · Tiny Buddha
How doing fine was holding me back.
Tiny Buddha ran Chris's essay on the quieter version of being stuck. Not rock bottom. A life that genuinely looks good, and an honest voice underneath it saying there is more in there.
Publication
Tiny Buddha
Date
August 27, 2026
Topic
Ownership & Growth
Format
Bylined Essay
Keynote Speaker●Published in Forbes●Published in Inc.●Bestselling Author of You Are Capable of More●President & COO●NATHO Vice President●Inc. Regionals #3 Fastest-Growing in the Midwest●Fortune Magazine Best Workplaces Award●10x Revenue Growth●Maxwell Leadership Certified Coach●Keynote Speaker●Published in Forbes●Published in Inc.●Bestselling Author of You Are Capable of More●President & COO●NATHO Vice President●Inc. Regionals #3 Fastest-Growing in the Midwest●Fortune Magazine Best Workplaces Award●10x Revenue Growth●Maxwell Leadership Certified Coach●
About the Essay
Most stories start at the bottom. This one doesn't.
Tiny Buddha published this essay in August 2026. It is a personal piece rather than a leadership column, written for the person whose life genuinely looks good from the outside and who still knows, somewhere underneath it, that they are capable of more than they are actually giving.Chris writes about how easy that is to explain away. The lie was never that he could not do more. The lie was that everything was fine, and every piece of it was true enough to believe.The essay follows what moved him off of that: a month-long challenge he decided to keep extending, losing his dad with no warning while standing in the ocean with his boys, and the shift from treating better habits like a mood to treating them like a decision that was already made.◆ The Through Line
Gratitude and settling can look identical from the outside. Being genuinely thankful for a good life is real, and it can also become a comfortable place to hide from a gap you already know is there. You are allowed to be grateful for where you are and still want more from yourself. The essay is about closing that distance on purpose, before something outside your control forces the issue.
Key Points
What the Essay Covers
01
The Comfortable Lie
The lie was never "I can't." It was "this is fine," and it was easy to believe because it was partly true.02
Good Is Not the Finish Line
When your life is genuinely good, nobody around you will argue that it should be more.03
One Hard Thing on Purpose
A month-long challenge he chose to keep extending, because for once he was doing something specifically because it was hard.04
The Discomfort Was Internal
The awkwardness was never coming from the room. It was coming from the voice in his own head.05
Time Is Not Guaranteed
Losing his dad without warning changed how he thinks about waiting to become the person he already knows he can be.06
Ownership Over Mood
The decision is already made, so the only question left each day is how, not whether.“
Notice when "I'm doing fine" is doing too much work.Chris Sund
About the Publication
Tiny Buddha.
Tiny Buddha is a personal growth publication built almost entirely on contributed essays, with a readership that comes to it for honest first-person writing on change, resilience, habits, and living deliberately.That is a different audience than the leadership and business outlets Chris usually writes for, and the piece was written for it. There is no framework in it and no company example. It is one person describing how he got out of his own way, for readers working on the same thing.For Editors & Event Hosts
Bring this to your audience.
Chris speaks and writes on ownership, potential, and what moves people from capable to performing. He is a sitting executive, not a consultant reporting from outside.
Response within one business day · info@chrissund.com · 402-212-5771