Why you should learn to repeat yourself
14 days ago, I started a challenge. The challenge is to write everyday for a certain period of time, I chose 30 days (I might extend to 100).
The biggest hurdle that I’ve had so far is coming up with interesting topics to write about. And I think this is where most people stop. Many of us have an initial inspiration to start writing, start blogging or vlogging. Consistently putting out unique content is difficult. No one has an endless supply of creative ideas, it’s impossible.
I started thinking about all of my favorite authors and writers. Most of them had a common characteristic. They specialized in one topic and many of them even wrote multiple books on the same topic. For example, one of my all time favorite authors is Eckhart Tolle. His books The Power of Now and The New Earth are basically about the same thing; how to become aware of the mental chatter and bringing presence into your life. He went on to write many other books covering this topic.
Tony Robbins is another speaker/author that I used to admire at the beginning of my self-development journey. Even though I disagree with some of his approaches to self improvement now, he started of my journey and has made a great impact on my life. After having read many of his books and completed some of his programs, I also realized that he was repeating himself a big portion of the time. Many of his programs are simply the same ideas repackaged in different ways.
Everyone learns differently
Recently my girlfriend brought to my attention the 4 questions that you should be answering whenever you are writing something. They are:
- Why — why should I be learning this?
- What — what are we learning?
- How — how do I do it?
- What now — what do I do with this information now?
The reason for covering those topics is because everyone has a different learning style. Some people are more interesting in understanding the why, others are interested in the details of the what, etc.
To be able to get to all of the people with their own learning styles, an author must explain his topic in many different ways.
For example, The Power of Now is more of a “What are we learning?” type of book. Eckhart Tolle later wrote another book called Practicing The Power of Now which covers the “How do I do it?” and “What Now?” questions. He also wrote The New Earth that digs deeper into the details of “What are we learning?” question.
Tony Robbins did the same thing with his programs also. Some are geared towards the more spiritual crowd, while other programs are for the go-getter business people. The principles are very similar but packaged for different demographics.
Fine Tuning
Additionally, repeating yourself helps you fine tune your ideas. Writing just once about something can be shallow at first and might not have the depth of a well thought out idea. Learning to explain yourself in many different ways will allow you to have a much better understanding of your own topic. Just like with building something, every time you do it, you will be incrementally improving. The same thing is with ideas. By writing about something from different angles you will ultimately be incrementally changing and morphic your ideas.
I am a huge fan of stand up comedy. When the stand up comic hits the main stage, he or she has already performed that set hundreds if not thousands of time. New York is the launching place for many comedians because they are able to perform their sets more than 6 times per night, at different venues and different times. I remember leaving a stand up venue in New York and seeing the comedians performing the same set with the crowd next door. Many of us would have the urge to “be unique” in every set. But comedians understand the concept of repetition very well.
In conclusion, learning to repeat yourself is an important skill. While repetition can be boring in our ever changing world, it is the basis of all greatness.
