Melting an Ice Cube

Goals are something we all have. We set them, but we often struggle to accomplish them. The book Atomic Habits suggests that this isn’t due to a lack of effort, but rather because we focus on the wrong thing. It begins with an excellent analogy that explains why:

Imagine you’re in a room with a temperature of 25°, and there’s an ice cube on the table in front of you. Your goal is to melt the ice cube, so you turn up the heat by one degree… then another… and another. After turning the heat up to 31°, the ice cube still hasn’t melted—it hasn’t even started. Despite all your efforts, your goal remains unaccomplished. You turn the temperature up one more degree, and suddenly, the ice begins to melt. One more degree, and soon the ice is nothing but a puddle.

This is where the book suggests an alternative way of thinking. What if, instead of focusing solely on the goal, we focused on the system we create to achieve it? In the case of the ice cube, you might consider your efforts unsuccessful until you hit 32°. But what if you saw success in the fact that, by consistently turning up the temperature, you were creating a process that eventually leads to melting the ice? Your success would be measured by the system you’ve built, not just by the single moment when the ice starts to melt.

Think about how this mindset could change your life. Instead of feeling like a failure until the goal is reached, you feel like a success as long as your system is working. This mindset brings satisfaction not only from the final accomplishment but also from the steps you take along the way. When you’re satisfied with the process, you’re more likely to stay on the path to achieving your goals. This is the key difference between goal-oriented and system-oriented thinking.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. - Abraham Lincoln

So, the next time you want to accomplish something, try focusing on the system you create rather than just the goal itself. You might be surprised by how much more you can achieve.