Repetition
In my younger years, the phrase “practice makes perfect,” was thrown around on the daily. The concept adults were trying to teach me was that if I repeatedly did the same action over, and over, and over again, I would grasp it to perfection. I understood that repetition could improve your knowledge on a certain subject, but I would always end up making mistakes along the lines.
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On the first day of school, the adjustment from sleeping in until 11 to waking up at 6:30 is extremely difficult for most people. Day after day they wake up to the classic Iphone ringtone, reaching for the snooze button. For me this process isn’t as hard, but for others, it takes at least a month until I get into my morning routine groove. I repeatedly set my alarms, hoping that someday getting up will be easier. And it does. While this habit didn’t happen in one or two days, I noticed from the start of September to the end of October, my once struggle became a daily habit. It still doesn’t make me excited to wake up and go to school, but I slowly get in the habit of waking up with the sun, and there is almost no struggle.
Repetition makes progress
Repetition. When we repeat things in our life, it slowly becomes a self-conscious habit that our body naturally does. Just because you repeat a habit continually doesn’t mean you will be perfect at it. I believe in the phrase “Repetition makes progress”, or others might better know, “practice makes progress”. This quote hangs on the door in my room so that every time I leave my room I subconsciously read it. It reminds me that the repetition I do daily from math, to history, to soccer practice, to guitar lessons, to homework will all help me progress. Even if you don’t recognize any progress, or feel like you are getting worse, repetition overtime will improve your memory performance and can help you maintain the knowledge for long periods of time. I often struggle to see the big picture. Repeating something one time may not make a difference, but repeating it day after day will create memory patterns and subconscious knowledge to better help me.
It takes perseverance and dedication
The basic definition of repetition is “the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.” Repetition is doing something continually because there is a benefit. I repeatedly tie my shoes everyday, not because I want to waste one minute making a knot, but because the benefit is that I won’t trip and my foot will stay in the shoe. I repeatedly complete my math homework every night, not because I have a love for endless math problems, but because the benefit will be getting a good grade in my class and using my math skills later in life. There are situations where it becomes hard to see the end result or why it has any benefit to me, but I do it anyway, hoping to find answers as I repeatedly go forward.
Repetition is a process. It takes perseverance and dedication. We don’t always see the result right away, but every time it starts to show. Repetition makes progress.
