Daily Drops of Ink
The Ice Cube Lesson: What 273 Days of Writing and James Clear’s Atomic Habits Taught Me
The Art of Not Throwing in The Towel
Yesterday, I came across a fantastic article written by Kieran MacRae titled “I Wrote Every Day for 270 Days. It Was a Waste of Time.”
My mind went into overdrive since I coincidentally breached this exact number three days ago.
This is my 273rd article on Medium.
Without any prior experience of a similar streak, my mind couldn’t stop but brood a little.
Like Kieran, I too can identify with the patterns he writes about.
Like him, I don’t know what my end goal is, I don’t know if my writing practice will lead to something and I don’t know whether my writing is improving either.
Yes, I’ve grown. I’ve hit some milestones but my mind cannot stop asking — what next?
I don’t know yet.
Having pondered over it for some time, my mind kept going to the ice cube analogy James Clear shares in his bestseller — Atomic Habits.
I love this analogy because it keeps me going when the going gets tough.
The analogy goes like this…
Imagine sitting with a cube of ice in a room that’s set to a temperature of -6°C.
Your goal is to melt this piece of ice.
Imagine you know nothing about ice, its properties, when it’ll melt or change shape.
You take a guess and decide that increasing the temperature will melt the ice.
With every attempt you decide to change the temperature by 1°C
Attempt #1, -5°C and nothing happens.
Attempt #2, -4°C no change.
Attempt #3, -3°C and you are beginning to get impatient.
Attempt #4, -2°C and your impatience is turning into disappointment.
Attempt #5, -1°C and by now you are frustrated and angry.
You somehow convince yourself to keep going and give it one more shot.
Attempt #6, 0°C. Still nothing.
Imagine, in your exasperation, you decide to throw in the towel just when the ice would’ve started to melt.
Attempt #7 would’ve been a winner.
This is exactly what happens to most of us.
I’ve fallen into this trap and to a mismatch of expectations more times than I can remember.
While I’ve taken note of the traps experienced by my fellow creators, I cannot let these experiences stop me from creating.
Not until I finish my commitment of writing every day for 365 days straight.
I’ve walked 3/4th of the distance. It’s time to finish the rest.
I don’t know what the outcome is going to look like. But I’m willing to wait, put in the work and find out.
Like the ice, a change might be around the corner.
Dropping the ball now could mean I won’t ever know and all the work so far will be wasted.
What do you think?
