How to Become the Man You're Capable of Becoming: The Command Project Philosophy

Adapted from “The Command Project Philosophy,” the episode where I lay out the growth ideology this whole mission is built around. Watch the full episode above.

Who are you capable of becoming?

The Command Project isn’t just a fitness program. It isn’t a business group. It isn’t another personal development community where we consume a bunch of information and feel motivated for a few days.

This is a way of life. It’s a lens we see the world through, built around four core values: unity, integrity, growth, and leadership.

And it all starts with one question. Who are you capable of becoming?

Somewhere in your mind, you have a picture of the man you know you’re capable of becoming. Think about him for a second. How does he carry himself? What has he built? What does he stand for? And how does he respond when life gets hard?

I believe one of the greatest pursuits available to us is discovering just how close we can get to becoming that man.

On one side is the man you are today. On the other is the man you know you’re capable of becoming. Most of us can feel that gap, and most of us try to close it by chasing things on the outside. More money, a better body, a bigger business, more status.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting those things. But I believe most people have the order backwards. The question isn’t, “How do I get the life?” The better question is, “Who do I need to become to create that life?”

Outcomes are temporary. Who you become, you take with you forever.

Every decision is a vote for the man you’re becoming

Every time you keep a promise to yourself, you cast a vote. Every time you break one, you cast a vote as well. Every workout, every hour wasted scrolling, every time you choose discipline over comfort.

None of these decisions seems life-changing by itself. But your identity is being built through the accumulation of these votes. You don’t become your highest self in one massive moment. You become him one decision at a time.

Almost nobody wakes up one morning and decides, “I want to live an average life I’m not proud of.” It happens slowly. We drift.

One skipped workout doesn’t destroy your life. One broken promise doesn’t destroy your confidence. One year of playing it safe doesn’t destroy your potential. But enough small compromises eventually change who you believe you are.

That’s our first conviction. Extraordinary lives are grown from the inside out. Stop chasing success. Become the man capable of creating it.

Instead of waking up every morning obsessed with how to make more money or get the outcome, ask, “How can I get better today?”

Character, responsibility, and your body come first

Conviction two: character is the foundation of everything. Before we build the life, we build the man.

You can have money without character. You can have muscles without character. You can build a successful business without integrity, but I don’t consider that success.

Keep your word. Do the right thing when nobody sees it. Don’t leave slack for somebody else to pick up. Put more into the world than you take out.

Conviction three: growth is your responsibility. Nobody is coming. No government, no employer, no parent, no mentor, not even The Command Project. Nobody can do your push-ups for you.

I don’t see that as depressing. I see it as incredibly freeing. If your life is your responsibility, you don’t have to wait for somebody else to change it. Ownership is freedom.

Conviction four: health and fitness are the foundation of your freedom. Your body is your first training ground. The principles required to build a strong body are the same ones required to build almost anything worthwhile. Consistency. Delayed gratification. Keeping the promises you make to yourself. Working when you don’t feel like working.

Your workout isn’t only building muscle. It’s building evidence.

How to build real confidence

Conviction five: confidence is earned. I don’t believe confidence comes primarily from affirmations.

Here’s the cycle. Promise, action, evidence, self-trust, confidence. You tell yourself you’re going to do something, then you do it. Now you have evidence. Enough evidence creates self-trust, and enough self-trust creates confidence.

The opposite is also true. Every time we make promises to ourselves and break them, we teach ourselves, “My word doesn’t mean anything.”

Conviction six: action creates belief. Most people think belief has to come before action. “I need to believe in myself before I start.” I think that’s backwards too.

You don’t need 100% belief in yourself. You might only have 0.1%, and that’s fine. Believe 100% in that 0.1% and move.

Self-doubt is normal. Fear is normal. Every man who has built something difficult has felt some version of it. The difference is that some men move anyway, and every time you act through doubt, you create evidence that you’re capable.

I remind myself: “If he can do it, I can do it. I am just as capable as any man who came before me.”

The anatomy of growth: what a giant sequoia teaches us

Trees have 380 million years of growth and adaptation behind them. So instead of inventing some complicated philosophy, I started looking at something nature has already perfected.

A giant sequoia, one of the largest living organisms on Earth, starts as a seed small enough to hold between your fingers. You’d never guess what it’s capable of becoming, but the potential is there.

You are the seed. Not because you’re small, but because there’s potential in you that hasn’t been fully expressed yet. Your current circumstances are not the final measurement of what you’re capable of becoming. Your failures definitely aren’t.

The soil is your character, your values, your integrity, and your purpose. Everything grows from here. I don’t care how impressive your branches become if the soil underneath them is rotten.

The roots are your health, your fitness, your mindset, your skills, your habits, and your discipline. Most of this is invisible. Nobody applauds you for reading 10 pages. But those invisible roots feed everything that eventually becomes visible. Most people want branches without building roots.

The trunk is the work. Consistency, execution, persistence, courage, follow-through. You can read every personal development book ever written, but eventually you have to do something. Roots without work are unrealized potential.

The branches are achievement. Business, family, adventure, financial freedom, experiences. I want you to grow huge branches, but they aren’t the foundation. They’re the visible result of everything underneath them.

The oxygen is contribution. A mature tree doesn’t just consume resources. It produces something. Strength isn’t only measured by what you accomplish. It’s measured by how many people become stronger because you existed.

Most people try to build their lives from the outside in. We build ours from the inside out.

Conviction seven: achievement is a byproduct, not the purpose. We’re not anti-achievement. We’re anti-building your identity around achievement. Money can disappear. Businesses can fail. But nobody can take away the man you became in the process.

Why your environment matters: find your grove

Even the strongest tree doesn’t exist in isolation. Giant sequoias grow in groves. Their roots intertwine to share strength and resources and hold one another up. That’s how they become the biggest trees that live thousands of years.

We’re no different. No matter how disciplined you are, your environment is influencing you. The people around you, what you’re consuming, the standards of the people closest to you. Your environment is either reinforcing the man you’re trying to become, or pulling you back toward the man you’re trying to leave behind.

Conviction eight: control your environment. Who are you around? What are you watching? What standards are you tolerating?

Remove what’s continuously pulling you backward. Put yourself closer to the things that strengthen you. Stop asking yourself to consistently win inside an environment designed to make you lose.

Lead by example and hold the standard

Conviction nine: what you do speaks louder than what you say.

Who did you need when you were growing up? Maybe somebody disciplined. Somebody who simply showed up. Whoever that person was, be him. Live your life in a way that’s worth following.

Ask yourself, “Who becomes stronger because I’m here?” Share what you’ve learned. Check on the man who’s gone quiet. Help another man believe he can do something difficult.

Conviction ten: every man has a responsibility to take command. Your life isn’t isolated. Your family experiences the man you become. Your children experience him. Your community experiences him.

I believe meaningful change happens from the bottom up. The individual, then family, brotherhood, community, and culture. We can spend our lives complaining about what’s wrong with the world, or we can become part of the answer.

So what do you actually do tomorrow? Hold the standard. That’s it.

You don’t have to become your highest self tomorrow. You ask, “What standards would the highest version of me hold today?” Then you hold them. Tomorrow, you do it again.

Extraordinary lives are built through ordinary days lived to a high standard.

You have a seed within you. And just like that giant sequoia seed, if you tend to your soil, grow strong roots, do the work, contribute to the world around you, and grow alongside others with a common mission, there’s no telling how big your life can become.