Repetition versus Insanity
Repetition can be good – until you repeat the same mistakes/errors again and again.
The best way to improve any skill at all is to repeat it. Keep at it. Over and over.
Repetition offers you an opportunity to build on an existing tangible or intangible thing. It tends to be an action such as writing or painting; altering or creating a habit like no longer chewing on your fingernails or setting a time for daily reading; improving a skill, like practicing knife work cutting vegetables or using a dip pen and learning a calligraphy font; repeating a mantra or affirmation to drill a new belief into your subconscious.
In these ways, repetition is intentional and serves a definite purpose. You know what you are acting upon to have/do/be/create and so on.
However, repetition can sometimes go off the rails. Before you know it, you’re repeating the same thing over and over – that never works. And that way lies insanity.
What does this mean? Allow me to share the following quote attributed (rightly or wrongly) to Albert Einstein:
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
In other words, repetition goes off the rails. Instead of building or improving on new skills, habits, ideas, or what-have-you – you’re beating the proverbial dead horse.
How do you know if your repetition has reached this point? The best way to identify this is via mindfulness.
Be mindful of your what, why, and how
When you read these words, eat the cookie, smell the fresh-cut grass, touch the soft fabric, hear the cat purr, or otherwise process input – you alone perceive it. Your perception of the Universe is unique to you. This goes into mindfulness.
Mindfulness, however, is the willful recognition of that input.
What does that mean? Let’s say you’re in a rush and eating a protein bar as you head out the door. You probably get a vague sense that there is a flavor to it – but it’s not something you savor or pay much attention to.
On the other hand, let’s say you just baked a chocolate chip cookie from the best recipe on the planet. You will take your time, savor the taste and texture of the cookie, and give thought to enjoying it as you eat it.
Eating for the sake of sustenance versus eating mindfully. The former means you will no longer be hungry – but the latter involves a deeper meaning to and enjoyment of the experience.
Mindfulness, ultimately, is that awareness of the input. That starts with your sensory input and thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
From there, your inner being – the mindset/headspace/psyche self that makes up your true essence – takes it in and processes it in the here-and-now. Awareness of the present, as such, brings you into the only true reality that exists – the now.
Still with me? Okay, mindfulness of your inner being opens you to awareness of your subconscious, wherein lies your beliefs and habits. Often, these are rooted so subconsciously that you hardly know what precisely they are or where they came from until you practice being mindful of them.
All this informs you as to what, why, and how you are. That opens you to recognizing when repetition crosses into insanity.
Repetition for clarity or insanity?
I know that I have breached insanity with a repetitive action on more than one occasion.
For example, I tried the same notion for weight loss more than once. Exactly as I did before. And just like before, the results I got – if any – were lackluster at best.
Lost a pound here, shed a couple of pounds there – gain five a month later. But if I try it again, just like before, I know it will work this time. Right?
See the above definition of insanity.
Another example – I kept trying to read more and make a daily practice of it. I would attempt before bed to sit down and do my reading.
For a few days, I did it. Then I had a night where, exhausted, I skipped it and went to bed early. Or watched Rick and Morty and didn’t want to read after. Or fell down the rabbit hole that is Facebook and neglected reading. After multiple failures to do this I tried again to read before bed. With the same result.
Via mindfulness, I realized the insanity of this practice. So, I tried something different. Every morning, after getting out of bed, the first thing I would do is sit down and read at least one chapter of fiction and one chapter of nonfiction.
This habit has stuck. As such, I look forward to reading every morning and enjoy starting my day this way.
This has been repeated for months, now. And repetition has made the habit I desired. I read a whole lot more now than I was – as I desired to do.
Mindfulness, and recognizing the insanity of failed repetition, opened me to a new tactic. That, in turn, helped me reach the desired goal.
Why does it matter?
Whether you practice conscious reality creation or find the idea of the Law of Attraction to be bunk – it is a human thing to build habits, often by repetition.
As creatures of habits – not all of them are good. You know examples of this – smoking, overeating, heavy drinking, excessive drug use, and so on. But along this same line – yet intangible – you have negative thinking, always seeing the dark side and fault, excessive judgment of others, blame, and so on.
Many of these are from repetition in the hope of a different result. Likewise, attempts to change them often fall into repetition hoping for different results.
When individually, we keep repeating the same things again and again – expecting a different result – but don’t recognize that via mindfulness, it spreads out to the world at large. Then you get a society where accountability, reason, and logic are easily dismissed by blame, fear, and opinion.
Many of the repetitive actions people take are utterly subconscious. Mindfulness practices can bring them to the surface and open the door to change them.
Most of the people I meet, even enjoying the good of a certain status quo, still have aspirations, goals, and things they’d like to experience different from what they have. Mindfulness is the best way to see where you are, here and now, and from there work out where you desire to be.
Identifying repetition for improvement versus repetition that isn’t working – and leading to insanity – gives you control. The only thing over which you have control – you, yourself. And that is why it matters.
Repetition can be good – until you repeat the same mistakes/errors again and again. When you recognize and acknowledge this, then take ownership of it – you can make necessary adjustments to get the results you desire.
Do you see where you might straddle the lines between repetition and insanity in your life?
This is the four-hundred and eightieth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Additionally, I desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.
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