Mindset & discipline

Everything else on this site, from SAS preparation to ultras and fight camps, rests on the same unglamorous habits. These essays are the thinking behind them: how routines get built, why they break, and how to keep going through the boring middle.

Where the routines got tested

Winter Downs 200: three days on my feet, 18th overall.
100km di Torino: 100km in Parco Ruffini, first in M35.
My 21 SAS application: Alpha, Bravo and the preparation weekends.

Start with a habit → boredom → consistency → a larger challenge

Read my early-start experiment, the boredom after about 65 days, an honest writing lapse, then preparation tested in a long race. These are different moments, not a promise of a straight line from habit to finish.

See where the habits are tested

Personal application and sporting experiences, not clinical or military qualifications.

Start here

If you read one essay, read The Monotony of Life. It is the most honest thing I've written about why repetition, not intensity, is what changes people. Then read Lion Mentality for the mindset and Stop Talking About Yourself for how it shows up in conversation.

Routines and early mornings

I've written about waking at 4:30am, getting up early without waking a partner, and what happens when a routine gets disrupted. The pattern across all of them: make the habit small enough to survive bad weeks.

Where the discipline gets tested

Mindset is easy to write about and hard to prove. The proof is in the other sections: my 21 SAS reserve application, the marathons and ultras, and Muay Thai training abroad.

Reader questions

Do I need an extreme challenge to build discipline?: No. The essays are about repeatable habits and ordinary weeks. Races and training provide settings for my own experience, not a requirement for anyone else.