“Go big or go home” might work for certain things in life, but habit formation isn’t one of them. Trust me, I’ve tried. The New Year’s resolutions, the ambitious Monday morning plans, the complete lifestyle overhauls—they’ve all led to the same cycle of initial enthusiasm followed by burnout and abandonment.
What finally changed things for me was discovering the concept of a “minimum viable habit” (MVH). It’s the smallest, most ridiculously easy version of a habit that you can maintain even on your worst days. It’s so simple that it seems almost pointless—and that’s precisely why it works.
Finding your MVH requires some honest self-reflection. When I decided I wanted to become someone who flossed regularly, I had to acknowledge that despite my dentist’s advice, I’d never maintained this habit for more than a week. So I started with flossing just one tooth. Yes, literally one tooth. It felt silly, but that was exactly the point—it was so absurdly easy that I couldn’t rationalize skipping it.
Your MVH should pass what I call the “sick day test”—even if you’re tired, stressed, running late, or feeling under the weather, it should still feel doable. For different habits, this threshold will vary. For exercise, it might be a single push-up or a 30-second walk around your living room. For meditation, it could be three conscious breaths. For reading, perhaps a single paragraph.
What’s fascinating is how these tiny commitments create a psychological doorway. Once you’ve done the minimum, you’ve overcome the hardest part of any habit—simply beginning. Many days, I’d floss that one tooth and then think, “Well, I might as well do the rest while I’m here.” But crucially, even when I only did the minimum, I still counted it as a success.
This approach completely transforms how you view habit formation. Instead of focusing on the destination (being someone who meditates for 30 minutes daily), you focus on consistently stepping through that initial doorway. Over time, these small but reliable actions reshape your identity more powerfully than ambitious but unsustainable changes ever could. The question becomes not “How can I overhaul my life?” but rather “What’s so easy I can’t say no to it?”
Ripple Habit 