How to Become a Capable Human Being
Build yourself by building systems, erasing comfort, and acting relentlessly.
I. Intro: Capability or Drift
Becoming a capable human being isn’t about stacking goals or building perfect routines.
It’s about building yourself into someone the world can rely on and someone you can rely on when it matters.
There are different paths to get there.
Some men build systems. They design their days, control their attention, and stack disciplines carefully over time.
Some men burn the safety nets, sprint into the chaos, and build speed that leaves no time for hesitation.
Both work. Both are real. Both can build a life that compounds.
This is a conversation between those two forces.
Chris builds capability through structure, through deliberate layers of discipline, control, and craft.
I build capability through raw will, through violent motion, risk, and a life designed to collapse comfort on purpose.
I didn’t always live this way.
Before skydiving, I also thought my life was about discipline and control.
But jumping from planes cracked something open in me.
The door would open, the wind would explode in my face, and I would hesitate.
I realized that hesitation is the first cut.
And that cut grows deeper every time you pause.
Skydiving taught me that life rewards speed not carefulness.
It taught me that you build who you are by how fast you move into risk.
This shift didn’t make me reject discipline. It made me burn the waiting.
It made me kill the backup plans.
It made me move with a different kind of urgency.
Chris and I take different routes but we’re building the same thing:
Men who can move.
Men who don’t fold.
Men who build gravity.
This is how we both get there.
Build for eternity by excelling in the present.
II. Chris’s Side: The Discipline Stack
If you observe disciplined people getting what they want and living a fulfilled life, you realize your life only feels terrible because you can't repeat good habits for more than a week.
You start things based on a high of motivation after watching a 2-hour compilation of David Goggins and Jocko yelling at you to stay hard and disciplined, sitting on your bed at 3 am.
You absolutely get what they are talking about.
You feel that tension and alertness in your body. The massive release of dopamine. Your prefrontal cortex lights up, and all sorts of ideas, plans, and goals come to your mind. Your mirror neurons are on fire, mirroring the confidence and determination you see on your phone.
To make it short. You feel unstoppable like the Terminator, charged by Thor's lightning strikes.
Like you are the one who is going to carry the boats and the logs.
The problem is that you don't really understand discipline, so you will quickly return to your baseline.
And to be completely honest, this baseline is probably not that developed.
That's why you are watching those YouTube videos—for the short high that makes you feel like you made progress. However, this is nothing more than mental masturbation.
Here is the brutal truth:
Continuing this habit will never lead you toward your goals or bring you close to what you aimed for.
The good news is: You’re in the perfect position to change this.
But to get to the new level and break free from this loop of highs and lows, you need to be consistent in three domains of your life that, unlike motivational content, don't just target your emotions alone.
This framework addresses:
Body - resilience and pain tolerance
Mind - focus and decision-making capacity
Heart - accountability and emotional regulation
These three pillars are the foundation, creating cross-domain strength for a life well-lived.
So, here is how to take your future into your own hands with the discipline stack
1) Body
If you think about it, physical training is by far the best way to develop discipline and willpower.
That's why all motivational speakers are jacked and ripped.
They developed their mindset and learned their lessons through exercising.
This is why you start by picking one physical activity you can do consistently.
Activities like running, bodybuilding, calisthenics, or even daily walks.
The specific activity matters less than your commitment to it. However, the best way to ensure consistency is to start ridiculously small.
Commit to just 10 minutes daily.
Not 60 minutes when you’re motivated and zero when you’re not.
As you might know, consistency beats intensity every time.
Make it non-negotiable and do your physical practice regardless of weather, mood, or schedule. This teaches your brain that you can do difficult things even when you don’t feel like it (which you will).
Mark each day you complete your physical practice to track your streak, because visual progress builds momentum and creates psychological investment in continuing.
This will help you stay on course.
2) Mind
Most people don't know it or actually don't care, but your phone is like a radioactive weapon aiming to destroy what hides behind your eyes.
That's why cleaning your information diet should be on top of your priority list.
Start by deleting one social media app from your phone right now. Then grab a book and start replacing mindless scrolling with intentional consumption that actually develops your thinking and not destroys it.
Commit to reading for 20 minutes daily from physical books, not articles or social media posts, because books require sustained attention and build your capacity for deep thinking.
This will help you make better decisions and stay focused for hours at a time.
Your new focus capacities are also extremely useful when you schedule your 45-60 minutes of focused work.
Why should I focus on work, you may ask now?
That's the point. You don't even know why to schedule sessions like this.
You do it because you want to get to the next level. We discussed this earlier. Focus sessions, where you spend an hour a day learning a new skill, building a business, or working on a project, are the best way to get there.
And to get the most out of it, turn off notifications and put your phone in another room. This will diminish distractions, which are one of the red flags when it comes to deep work.
At last, stop consuming the latest news, trends, or viral content. Focus on timeless principles and knowledge that compound rather than information that expires.
This is how you sustain long-term growth.
3) Heart — Your Social Foundation
Our heart is the key to life.
Without it, you wouldn't be able to read this right now.
But many don't waste a second thinking about the key role it plays when it comes to discipline. But most of our deepest drives stem from connection, belonging, and contribution to others
This is why you should have at least one real conversation with someone you care about every week. Not texting or surface-level chat, but actual connection that requires vulnerability.
This will also help you combat isolation, which a lot of people in their 20s have to battle with (myself included). What helps battle isolation best is to actively engage with your community, friends, and family. Join a group, attend events, or simply have conversations that go beyond small talk.
This way, you get to talk with all kinds of different people who might even have bigger problems than you, which will make you realize that you aren't as bad off as you always thought.
You also want to learn to regulate your responses. When you feel triggered or reactive, pause for 10 seconds before responding. This builds your capacity to choose your response rather than just react.
Pro tip: Establish accountability by finding someone to check weekly progress. Share your commitments and report your results. External accountability reinforces internal discipline.
Note: Don’t try to perfect all three at once.
Start with whichever pillar feels most natural, then gradually add the others. The magic happens when all three reinforce each other:
Physical discipline gives you energy for mental focus
Mental discipline provides clarity for emotional regulation
Emotional discipline creates stability that makes physical discipline sustainable
III. Thomas’s Take: Build Through Raw Will
I don’t build capability through systems.
I build capability through violent motion.
Through raw will. Through speed that leaves no space for hesitation.
Most men are not stuck because they lack tools.
They’re stuck because they’ve trained their bodies to pause.
They’ve rehearsed hesitation.
They’ve normalized slowness.
Kill the Safety Net - Physical Discipline
Safety nets are not security.
They are permission to fail.
They are permission to stall.
They are permission to pace.
Burn your backups.
Kill your side exits.
Erase the soft landings.
When you know you can’t fall, you’ll never run like you can.
Force yourself to move like you can’t afford to fail because you can’t.
Move like it’s this or nothing.
Move like survival is tied to ignition.
And you will move with fire the man with a backup can’t access.
Move Now - Physical Discipline
Procrastinate once and you train hesitation.
Procrastinate twice and you build a rhythm.
Procrastinate three times and you’ve rewired your identity.
The moment you wait, you are no longer the man who moves.
You become the man who thinks about moving.
And that’s the man who gets buried.
You must move before your brain has time to argue.
Before your mind has the chance to craft a story.
Before the hesitation calcifies.
Every time you move fast, you reinforce the right pattern.
Speed trains speed.
Delay trains death.
Productivity Is Work. Period. - Physical Discipline
The cult of morning routines is a dopamine trap.
I don’t care how cold your face is (e.g. Ashton Hall).
I don’t care how many steps you track.
Work is the ritual.
Work is the proof.
Work is the only practice that matters.
Skip the theater.
Move the needle.
I personally wake up, workout, shower, have breakfast and head straight to work, don’t waste time!
Risk Builds Capability - Physical Discipline
The man who risks grows.
The man who plays it safe calcifies.
If you follow the typical career path, especially in France where I live, there is no chance you will ever be wealthy.
Taking the entrepreneurial risk is the only way to get there.
You must flirt with collapse.
You must touch danger.
You must step into social, physical, and emotional risks with speed.
The biggest risk is to not take a risk.
Safety kills capability.
Comfort murders velocity.
Beliefs Are Chosen for Utility, Not Truth - Mental Discipline
I don’t care if a belief is true.
I care if it moves me.
If the belief makes me faster, I keep it.
If the belief makes me hesitate, I burn it.
Truth is not the filter.
Utility is.
Beliefs are tools, not identities.
I pick the ones that feed velocity and discard the rest.
Belief Becomes Structure - Mental Discipline
What you believe shapes how you move.
If you believe you have time, you will move like you do.
If you believe you don’t, you will burn faster.
Beliefs are not neutral.
Beliefs are structural.
They either build walls or open roads.
Beliefs about risk, fatigue, and speed are the architecture you either obey or demolish.
Chaos Is Your Training Ground - Mental Disicpline
You don’t wait for clean plans.
You don’t wait for stable footing.
You don’t wait for perfect systems.
You move through disorder.
You move through instability.
You build while sprinting.
Chaos will always be there.
Build your capability inside it.
Don’t wait for it to pass.
Identity Dictates Motion - Mental Discipline
You don’t move because you feel like it.
You move because you see yourself as the man who moves.
Motion is not behavior, it’s identity.
When you wake up as the man who moves, you move.
When you wake up as the man who negotiates, you stall.
Stop waiting for motivation.
Start moving like your story depends on it.
Doubt Is a Signal to Accelerate - Emotional Disicpline
When hesitation spikes, speed up.
When fear hits, move.
When doubt arrives, burn faster.
If your brain starts building a story, interrupt it with action.
Don’t let hesitation settle.
Doubt is not a red light.
Doubt is a green light.
Move through it.
Learn to Love Your Work - Emotional Discipline
Work is not a punishment.
It’s not something to get through.
It’s something to be proud of.
He who loves his work moves like he can’t stop.
He who is merely productive burns out.
One path builds velocity.
The other builds collapse.
Love the work. Move inside it.
Negativity Is Motivational - Emotional Discipline
Imagine your worst-case scenario.
Imagine your most brutal failure.
Imagine your darkest future.
Now move to destroy it.
Negativity is not weakness.
Negativity is fuel.
I don’t just move toward dreams.
I move to escape nightmares.
I move to avoid the man I would become if I waited.
That’s why I burn.
That’s why I run.
That’s why I move now.
Optimism Is a Tactical Weapon - Emotional Discipline
Optimism isn’t softness.
It’s not wishful thinking.
It’s not comfort.
It’s a war tool.
Optimism is the conscious decision to burn through chaos expecting good.
It’s the habit of reframing "bad" things as fire for your movement.
It’s how you create speed inside disaster.
If it rains, I run harder.
If I fail, I move faster.
If I get hit, I smile.
Growth mindset isn’t a hack.
It’s velocity.
You Will Be Judged - Emotional Discipline
Rare movement invites judgement.
What is rare will always attract stares.
You will be judged.
You will be called reckless.
You will be called unstable.
Good.
If you are not judged, you are moving too slowly.
Remember that what is the rarest has the most value.
And that what has the most value is the hardest to reach.
People will judge you simply because they do not have the guts to act like you.
See this as a trophy, not as a punishment.
IV. Build Your Stack: Two Paths, One War
Becoming capable isn’t about finding the perfect method.
It’s about knowing which weapon to pull when the fight demands it.
Chris builds through systems. I build through speed.
Both forge men who don’t fold. Both build gravity.
When To Use Systems:
When you’re building from zero.
When you need to hold multiple priorities without breaking.
When your past intensity cycles crashed.
When your environment is calm enough to sustain structure.
Systems are best when the game is long, when you need to grow slowly and when missing a day won’t kill you.
When To Use Velocity:
When hesitation will bury you.
When you’re staring at a window that’s about to close.
When your life is stuck in planning loops.
When the system itself has become a cage.
When your current situation is so bad you can’t afford to wait.
Velocity is best when the stakes are immediate, when waiting will kill the chance, when speed is the only survival.
The Integration Principle
You need both.
Systems build your walls.
Velocity breaks them.
Use systems to build your rhythm.
Use velocity to burn through the walls when they slow you.
Use systems to sustain.
Use velocity to strike.
If you’re unsure, start with systems.
But don’t build systems forever, at some point, you must sprint.
I use systems to fuel the fire, not to build cages.
I don’t waste time building perfect routines,
I build lean systems that keep me moving.
Right now, I want to improve my running endurance and gain muscle.
My plan is simple, I do my morning triceps/biceps/push-ups/rows workout and I run in the evening.
If I want to do speed work, I run fast, if I feel less energised, I run slower but longer.
I don’t overthink the plan. I just act.
The world doesn’t care how you got there.
It only cares about the results.
Start building. Move now.
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