REPETITION UNDOES UNCERTAINTY REPETITION UNDOES UNCERTAINTY: Use your #1 best built-in behavior again, again, and again!

2020 – 2021, CERTAINLY UNCERTAIN

2020 is associated with “hindsight” and “vision,” but now these iterative digits pair best with “uncertainty.” Last year spewed chaos: Many jobs moved from office to home while other occupations went extinct; Various businesses withered while others grew; Some relationships disintegrated, and others blossomed. As we treaded these waters of sea-change we declared to nobody in particular, “Unprecedented!”

2021 now spawns The Uncertain Future, a beast who tiptoes beside us. These footsteps often evoke emotions which range somewhere between Slightly Jittery to Run Screaming with Pants on Fire. We extinguish flames as we flutter like half formed Phoenixes. Fortunately, these painful metamorphoses can be soothed by evoking our old reliable BFF, Repetition.

Understand and use your innate repetitive behavior to easily undo uncertainty

Join the REPETETIVE BEHAVIOR TOUR! Our three time-travel sightseeing stops:

1.      OUR PALEOLITHIC COUSINS WERE HARD-WIRED FOR REPETITON

2.      OUR MODERN-ERA CHILDREN USE REPETITION FOR COMFORT

3.      GROWN-UPS HAVE A BFF NAMED REPETITION

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1st STOP - OUR PALEOLITHIC COUSINS WERE HARD-WIRED FOR REPETITON

A squint back to our Paleolithic relatives reveals they were naturally primed for repetition. Consider the daily routine of your aunts and uncles a few-thousand-times-removed.  At sunrise, Uncle Thor and Aunt Tron hunted wooly mammoths and gathered nuts and seeds. After their “workday,” they and all your distant cousins played games and told stories as they admired their fire.  As light turned to dark, the whole damn-fam retired to sleep int the back of their caves. And so, eons before time tracking devices and bullet journals, our ancestors lived with daily, repetitive rhythms that diverted their thoughts about “Ten-Suns-After-Today” when animals, illness, weather, and tribal conflict could result in upheaval, injury, or death.

2nd STOP - OUR MODERN-ERA CHILDREN USE REPETITION FOR COMFORT

A fast-forward to our modern-era children proves our hard-wired instinct for repetition is with us today. One fitting example is Teletubbies and their repetitive shenanigans. That trippy 1990’s show presented carefree plushies who offered a multitudinous model of monotony for toddlers. Po, the fuzzy red one pressed her tv tummy play-button to trigger a benign vignette. First, happy children assembled a seven-piece jigsaw puzzle and then they fed lambs at a children’s zoo. When the video ended, Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, and Laa-Laa shouted, “Again! Again! Again!” Encouraged, Po pressed her tummy (again) which triggered the replay.  The high-chair audience was naturally attracted to this repetition because it is comforting to know that in the future, puzzles and lambs will certainly be tended, again, again and again. Decades later, we see the same behavior in today’s kids as they chant their comforting song, “Baby shark, doo, doo, Mommy shark, doo, doo, Daddy shark, doo, doo…” The future is bright – sharks will forever swim.

3rd STOP - GROWN-UPS HAVE A BFF NAMED REPETITION

Like children, adults mute the menacing growl of uncertainty through comforting repetition: Our day begins, and ends anchored by the regularity of wake and sleep cycles. Just like our ancestors, we add repetitive and constructive activities throughout the day. Your hunter-gathering routine may include food shopping and eating berries and your midday might be filled with scheduled Zoom meetings, carpooling, and exercise.  After your on-time evening meal, you might unwind with an art project, podcast, or a series binge and finally you retire to a safe space for sleep. If all goes well, the next day will be a similar replay. These daily constructive, purposeful, and regular activities help quiet our uncertainty about tomorrow.

Repetition is our #1 best behavioral tool to tackle uncertainty

USE REPETITION WELL AND WISELY, AGAIN, AGAIN AND AGAIN

Our time tour has ended. Now, we scroll through its images for meaning: Our disposition for repetition has always been with us and it is here to stay! Instinctive inclination for repetition is our #1 best behavioral tool to tackle uncertainty and tame tomorrow. In childhood, then later as adults, we find comfort through repetition. Cyclical stories and rhythmic songs teach confidence to the youngest among us. Deliberate planning and scheduled activities inject purpose then calmness to our adult lives. When we construct rhythmic days, uncertainty hastily retreats and tranquility peacefully arrives, again and again…and again!