The Adaptability Edition

Intensity is impressive but it adaptability that enables progress.

An app launched into 2010, it had one core function:

📸 Take a photo

🎨 Add a filter

📤 Share it with friends

Simple. Focused. Bare-bones.

But it did one thing exceptionally well: it made your phone photos look beautiful.

That was the MVP — Minimum Viable Product.

It wasn’t the full vision.

It wasn’t built to scale to support billions of users.

But it was enough to start — enough to validate the concept, spark delight, and build momentum.

The app was Instagram. Today it is a full-fledged lifestyle platform:

• Reels, Stories, Shopping

• Messaging, Creator tools

• Explore feed, AI curation, monetization

Instagram went through iterations to get to MLP — Minimum Lovable Product: a product that is sticky, robust, deeply engaging.

But it started with less.

And it grew because it adapted — in motion.

Goals work the same way.

Most people only define the “MLP version” of their goals:

• Meditate every morning

• Work out five times a week

• No sugar, 10k steps, eight hours of sleep

And sure — you can do all of that on your best day.

But when you hit a tough week — you’re sick, stressed, traveling, or tired — it all falls apart.

Not because the goal was wrong.

But because you never defined your MVP.

Without a minimum version of success, you default to all-or-nothing.

And usually, it’s nothing.

The Pattern

We’re taught to believe that success comes from intensity.

Go all in. Stay disciplined. No excuses.

So we build routines based on our best days:

The perfect morning. The full workout. The ideal workflow.

And we expect to repeat it — every day.

But here’s the truth:

Life isn’t linear. Energy ebbs and flows. Circumstances shift.

And part of being human is learning how to navigate through it all.

And that’s not a flaw. It’s a fact.

The problem isn’t your goal.

It’s expecting the same version of you to show up every time.

So when things go off-track — you work late, you’re traveling, you’re tired — you blame yourself for not “sticking with it.”

And that’s when the inner critic gets louder:

“I’m not disciplined enough.”

“I’ll never be consistent.”

“Why can’t I just get it together?”

But what if the problem wasn’t your commitment — but your lack of flexibility?

What if progress wasn’t about going hard… but staying in motion?

The Shift

Most people set goals based on their best days.

The fully optimized version of themselves:

5 workouts a week.

Perfect sleep.

Daily journaling.

Meal prep, deep focus, zero distractions.

And sure — that version exists…But only sometimes. Only when life cooperates.

The real question isn’t:

“Can I do this when everything goes right?”

It’s:

“What does success look like when things don’t?”

That’s where adaptability comes in.

Instead of chasing the perfect version of your goal every single day, define two levels of success:

• MLP — Maximum Lifestyle Potential: your ideal, full-expression version

• MVP — Minimum Viable Progress: your simplest, lowest-effort baseline

Both count. Because both keep you in motion — and connected to your identity.

Here’s what that might look like:

On your best days, go for MLP. On your toughest days, just hit MVP.

No guilt. No reset button.

Intensity is impressive but it adaptability that enables progress.

You don’t have to go hard — you just have to stay in motion.

Your Anchor

Change takes time. Identity shifts slowly.

When you feel like quitting, ask yourself:

🌀 “What would it look like to stay in motion — even just a little?”

🌀 “What’s the smallest version of success I can still feel proud of today?”

You’re not falling behind. You’re learning how to keep going — even when the plan changes.

That’s not weakness. That’s wisdom.