Building an MVP System: Getting Into Shape

Example of how someone may build a “minimal viable product” version of their system, taking the first incremental step towards their goal of getting into shape.

In a previous post, we examined the trap of trying to build a perfect system for the aspirational version of yourself rather than your current self and identified steps to building a system for achieving the first incremental step towards your goal. In this series of posts, we are examining examples of building this MVP system for the first incremental step. For this second post in the series, we will take a look at the steps to achieve a goal of “Get Into Shape.”

First, let’s review the steps of how you can produce an MVP system for achieving your goals:

Identify and clearly define your goals.
Clarify your goals by asking why you want to achieve what you want to achieve, then ask why that is the reason; refine your goal and its definition accordingly.
Make a road map and break down the steps you will need to reach your goal.
Figure out the small steps that you can take right now towards that goal.
Craft your system for achieving just that small, incremental step.
Implement the system, including a timeline for when you check in with yourself.

Get Into Shape

Think of a person who decides they want to get into shape. Full of motivation, they sign up for an expensive gym membership, map out a plan to wake up two hours earlier than usual every morning, and mentally commit to an hour-long workout before work, even though they currently wake up about fifteen minutes before they have to leave to make it to work on time. They also plan on completely overhauling their diet, cutting out carbs, and starting a supplement routine, all at once, starting Monday.

You can see the problem. The person has, sadly, designed the equivalent of a mountain with a steep rock face for them to summit. While they could very well do everything they set out to do, it is more likely that they will fall off on their efforts at some point, then another, and another, until it cascades into them giving up altogether.

Now pretend to put yourself into this person’s shoes and let us examine how you would build an MVP system for the first incremental step.

Step 1: Identify and Clearly Define Your Goal

At this point you know you want to “get into shape,” but what does that actually mean? Right now it is vague, and vague goals tend to invite over-complicated solutions before you even know what problem you are solving.

There is value in avoiding analysis paralysis and taking action, but it is imperative to know what your goal really is. Imagine if you start by buying an expensive treadmill, expensive shoes, a closet full of running clothes, and cool hydration packs, but you despise running and are not aiming for a skinny body or a 6-minute mile.

One of the big problems is that “Get into shape” could mean a number of different things. Does it mean being able to lift a certain amount of weight? Does it mean being able to walk or run a certain distance without stopping? Does it mean having a healthy heart? Does it mean moving without chronic pain? Does it mean looking better? Each of those is a meaningfully different, albeit related, goal, and the system you build for one may look nothing like the system you build for another.

So before you go buying equipment, stop and ask yourself what getting into shape actually looks like for you.

In this case, let us say that your goal is to get stronger.

Step 2: Clarify Your Goal by Asking Why

Here is where things get interesting, because the why behind getting into shape can lead you to very different destinations.

Let’s say you ask yourself why, and the answer is that you want to be able to carry your child. That is your why, but dig deeper to reinforce and clarify it.

Now ask yourself why that matters to you. Maybe it is because you do not want to be the parent who has to put their kid down when other parents are still going. You want to be there for them physically; not just now, but as they grow. You want to feel capable and strong, not winded after a single flight of stairs. It is more complex than being able to pick up your child as they grow (strength), you want to keep up with them. The goal becomes something more like “build the functional strength and endurance to keep up with my child and be physically capable as they grow.”

In contrast, if your version of “Get into Shape” is to look better, then you are building a different, albeit related, program. You want to feel attractive, turn heads, fit into clothes that have been sitting in your closet. That is a completely legitimate goal, but it points you in a meaningfully different direction than keeping up with your kid. Here aesthetics are driving the bus. You are less concerned with how much you can lift functionally and for how long (i.e. strength and endurance) and more focused on an aesthetic physique, which could require even more analysis. How do you define an aesthetic body? Is it sculpting a visible, well-defined body? Is it building huge, statuesque muscles? Losing body fat and toning an athletic build?

The why matters to make sure you are heading in the right direction.

Step 3: Make a Road Map

Now that you know where you are headed, you can start mapping out the steps to get there.

If your goal is to carry your child and keep up with them as they get older, your road map looks something like this: build functional strength and endurance by regularly lifting and carrying moderate to heavy weight over time, fuel your body with nutritious food to support that output, and give your body enough rest to recover and get stronger. Notably, you do not necessarily need to cut calories or lose weight to do any of this, although reducing body fat may help.

If your goal is to look better with an athletic build, your road map looks more like this: build visible muscle through structured resistance training, reduce body fat through a sustainable caloric deficit, and stay consistent long enough for those changes to show.

It is worth pausing here to note that when you have a well-defined goal, the steps that follow may be simpler than you might expect. The next couple of steps in this process may even seem to blend together, and that is fine.

Step 4: Figure Out the Smallest Thing You Can Do Right Now

After careful thought, evaluating what has worked and has not worked for you in the past, as well as what your habits currently are, you sit with your road map and start turning it over.

For something like getting into shape, the roadmap for different goals may have similar first steps. That is okay. The road map will make sure that as you refine your system, the following steps move towards the right goal.

Maybe the smallest thing is getting more sleep. Research has repeatedly shown that sleep supports muscle recovery, weight management, and physical performance, and you are probably not getting enough of it. Or maybe it is committing to lifting on a consistent scheduled day so the habit has a foothold. Maybe it is making a small adjustment to your diet — cooking at home a few more nights a week, cutting out soda.

All of those are reasonable. But the more you think about it, the more you start to notice something. Every single item on that road map — the workouts, the recovery, the nutrition, the mental discipline to stay consistent — depends on your body actually functioning well. And the simplest, most foundational thing you can do to support all of it is something most people are not doing nearly enough of.

Drink more water.

That is it. Before the gym. Before the meal plan. Before the supplement stack or the new sneakers or the fitness app. Just drink more water.

Step 5: Craft Your System

You may be tempted to go out and buy a high-end smart bottle that syncs with your phone, tracks your intake by the ounce, and sends you push notifications every forty-five minutes. There is nothing inherently wrong with that impulse, but in this scenario you already do not drink enough water. Adding a new gadget and an app to maintain on top of that is adding a new source of friction for implementing your system. Imagine if you forget your smart water bottle at home, are you sure you will not hesitate to keep drinking water knowing it is not being tracked? Instead, the simplest option is probably something far less exciting.

Pick a daily target and buy an inexpensive bottle of known size. Then track every time you finish it. That is it. If you worry about forgetting it somewhere, buy more than one and keep it in different places.

What if you do not finish it all the way? Estimate how much you drank. You do not have to be perfect and refined. You do not even necessarily need to write things down — you could keep track using tick marks or ranger beads to keep track of how much you have had to drink.

The system here is almost deceptively simple, and that is entirely the point.

As you get into it, you may come to find that the benefits go well beyond simply keeping your muscles hydrated. You start to notice that when you are properly hydrated, your brain works better. And when your brain works better, self-control is easier, follow-through is easier, and resisting the things that work against your goal gets a little less hard. What you come to learn is that drinking enough water is not just one item on your list, it is the thing that quietly makes every other item on your list more achievable.

No gym membership required yet. No waking up two hours early. No supplement stack. Just the bottle and the target.

Step 6: Implement the System and Set a Check-In Timeline

Give this system at least three weeks. That is enough time for it to start feeling like a routine and for you to run into real situations where it either works or it does not. At the end of those three weeks, sit down and honestly evaluate it.

Are you consistently hitting your water target?
Do you feel any different physically — energy, sleep, soreness, recovery?
Are you making other small healthy choices more naturally?
Is the habit starting to feel automatic, or is it still a daily effort?

It may seem ridiculous to expect any meaningful change from just drinking more water, but there is some method to the seeming madness. Staying properly hydrated is one of those things that works quietly in the background, making the harder things incrementally easier. If you are feeling better and making better choices, that is a real result, and a foundation worth building on. Maybe that is enough for now. Maybe it is not, and you are ready to layer in the next step.

From here, you figure out whether your system needs to be revised, refined, or if it is ready to evolve. Maybe you are ready to add a consistent workout day. Maybe sleep turns out to be the bigger lever and that becomes the next thing you address. Whatever you discover, you will be making that call from experience rather than a fantasy. Moreover, you have already established a simple new habit and the next step will be easier and less overwhelming than trying to reinvent yourself overnight. From this MVP you are able to build the next part of your system and move towards the person you want to be.