“Repetition of the same chant, the
same affirmations leads to belief, and once that belief becomes a deep
conviction, things begin to happen.”_Claude M. Bristol
One of the suboptimal
realities of human life is that too many of us are inconsistent, in areas where
consistency matters, most of the time.
To confirm that
assertion, look around you and listen to what people claim to be their main wants—either
implicitly or explicitly—then observe closely to see if their behaviours align
with those claims.
In a lot of
cases, there is often a mismatch between people’s aspirations and their exertions.
So to be
among the committed few who are really sincere to their own hearts, we need to
become relentless with the art of purposeful repetition.
By that, I
mean our persistent capacity to do what we need to do, when we need to do it, whether
we have the impulse to do it or not.
This is a
process of repeating the basics again and again, both during the winter and the
during summer; it is the discipline of loving the work and doing it, both when
we feel excited to do it and when we feel bored out of our minds.
In other
words, we should be bias for the process of
repetition that will invariably lead to the outcome we desire as Zig Ziglar,
the author of ‘See You at the Top’ said:
“Repetition is the mother of learning,
the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”
Commit to Tenacious Repetition
“The eight laws of
learning are explanation, demonstration, imitation, repetition, repetition,
repetition, repetition, repetition.”_John Wooden
Do you have
a resolution this year?
If yes,
write it down and don’t worry about it
Then create
a plan for throwing in the work that is necessary. Create a schedule for
putting in a volume of work on the things that are relevant to achieve the
goal.
The goal is
just an event; an occurrence that is not immediately up to you. However, the repetition
of a few critical inputs is what you have control over— right away.
Understand
that repetition of the same relevant action is what develops into a habit. And
enabling habits are what will help turn any lofty resolution into an attractive
reality.
By the
foregoing, I like to think that setting up a system for putting in the work is far
more important than choosing the goal.
If you
disagree, honestly answer the following questions.
If we ignore
the goal and focus only on the tactical repetitions; won’t we attain the goal?
But if we
daydream all day about the goal and become lax on doing the boring, repetitive
work that must precede good outcome; are we going to make it?
Since habits
are defined as repeated performances, we want to make sure that the actions we
repeat on a daily basis are relevant to the outcomes we want.
Therefore,
let’s commit ourselves to tenacious repetition of necessary disciplines, if we
want exciting results to be ours—in the end.
