Harnessing the Power of Repetition, for Good and Evil
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I’ve been mentoring people in public speaking for more than 30 years. The one piece of advice I have given all of them is this: “Rehearse! Rehearse! Rehearse!” I give this advice because no one taught it to me; I had to learn it the hard way.
When I first started learning public speaking in a Toastmasters club, I was locked to the lectern. I was so nervous that I grasped the sides in a white-knuckle death grip and read my speeches from notes. Fellow Toastmasters kept encouraging me to break free of the lectern and my notes, but I went an entire year and through the whole first level of the Toastmasters’ program without attempting it.
Finally, because I wanted to win a speaking contest, I memorized my speech and then rehearsed so many times I could’ve recited it in my sleep. I won the contest, but more importantly, I won the battle—I’d freed myself from both the lectern and my notes—and I learned a valuable lesson about repetition. I learned that repetition actually opened the creative circuits in my brain. With my successive repetition of a phrase or story, I would frequently think of a better way to say or tell it, or I might think of an important nugget of content to add that reinforced the story.
Learning From Repetition Is in Our DNA
The old saying “Practice Makes Perfect” is in our lexicon for a reason—it’s true! We are hardwired to learn from repetition. This may date back to our earliest days as cave-dwellers, when there was no written language and vital knowledge had to be passed down verbally. The repetition of stories around the fire enabled our ancestors to remember important facts.
Common proverbs like “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” “Actions speak louder than words,” “Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched,” and “Nothing ventured, nothing gained” are good examples of wisdom that has been passed down through verbal repetition.
The Science Behind Repetition
Repetition works like this: You have a thought, and it causes several neurons to fire in your brain; if you have that thought again, those same neurons fire again; and if you keep having that thought, it will begin to form a neural pathway in your brain. You are, in essence, rewiring it. This is known as neuroplasticity, and everything you think, feel, and do reshapes your brain. Through repetition, our brain is literally molded and restructured physically, chemically, and electrically by our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Content retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/nz/blog/the-main-ingredient/202509/harnessing-the-power-of-repetition-for-good-and-evil.
