Defeating Burnout - Step By Step

Understanding the Principle of Repetition

Introduction

The ability to see things through is not something you are born with; it is a life skill that has to be cultivated over time through the principle of repetition. Personally, this is something that I am still in the process of learning and unlearning. I grew up believing that hard work produced results. Therefore whenever I had a task or a project to complete I will disregard grace and ease in the place of hard rigorous work in order to complete what I started. What I grew to learn was that the ability to work hard might have produced results but it never produced the best results; and here’s what I mean…

What I understood to be hard work was actually just an exhaustion of capacity in order to meet human expectation. For example, in university I was a student of the arts and the majority of our projects were fleshed out over prolonged periods of time. The expectation was to have the project submitted by the due date. I was able to meet that expectation because I had the perceived ability to work really hard under pressure and I thought I was talented enough to produce “good enough” work. Therefore my idea of hard work brought about an arrogance and complacency that led me to spend the majority of time that was to be spent on the project on other things. I will complete my projects at a subpar standard while coming out of them feeling burnt out. Life was never designed to be like that and “hard work” as some of us know it to be is not the ingredient behind succeeding in any area of your life.

Now don’t get me wrong. Hard work is important; but it is only beneficial when you don’t make your life even harder by trying to cheat the system that true hard work was designed to be built upon. You cannot grind your way into fulfilling destiny while you exhaust your capacity along the way. Your dreams, goals and visions become actualised on a journey of partnership with God where you will be guided along each and every step. It is through the process of taking step by step strides where you’ll understand that purposeful repetition makes room for more.

The Principle of Repetition

This is actually terminology used in graphic design defined as the act of repeating the same or similar design elements and making them come together as a cohesive whole. If there is an anomaly in the elements this will usually break the intended purpose of the design. The same thing can be said about anything built. Structures are developed through repetition which makes every outcome the result of a step by step process. Understanding this now and looking back to my time at university - it seems like I was trying to build a structure with a 4 year contract in the space of 6 months. When you cheat the system and bypass the universal principle of repetition you are guaranteed these two outcomes:

1. A Substandard outcome.

2. Burnout.

This is something so simple that so many people claim to understand but yet miss at the same time. If you suffer with lack in the area of consistently repeating habits for a desired outcome this might be a possible reason behind it. You have built up a sense of pride in your limited human ability causing you to put all of your faith in what your capacity allows you to do. While this is happening you are simultaneously growing in complacency towards the process. Therefore you trust yourself, more than you trust the process.

Why Should You Trust The Process?

Instead of trusting your ability (in whatever aspect of life that is applicable), you should trust the process that makes room for your capacity to grow. Even more importantly you should put your trust in the creator of the universal principle of consistency and repetition. This is more than just a cliche self-help statement. It is a spiritual law that governs how you progress through life. Trusting the process of repetition and consistency gives room for growth and establishment. But every time you bypass this law you are believing in your own natural hype to grant you a supernatural outcome. The unfortunate result of this is burnout and mediocrity.

O Lord, I know that the path of [life of] a man is not in himself;
It is not within [the limited ability of] man [even one at his best] to choose and direct his steps [in life]. Jeremiah 10:23 AMP

You enlarge the path beneath me and make my steps secure,
So that my feet will not slip. Psalm 18:36 AMP

I shared these two verses so that you can understand this one key factor. God is in control of the process, not you. The process is the route to your desired outcome and these principles have been set in stone from the beginning of time. Jeremiah’s prayer was an acknowledgement of his limited human ability and the simultaneous recognition of a step by step process ordained by God. David’s prayer was an acknowledgement of God’s ability to enrich capacity while simultaneously establishing security along every step of his path.

Establishing Consistency Without Skipping Steps

The patience to be diligent is a supernatural fruit that only God can produce in your life. Burnout is the result of having an appetite for something that is larger than your acknowledgement of the steps that are required to get there. Therefore the solution is to learn how to diligently and patiently repeat the habits and practices that enlarge your steps while finding joy in where God has placed you at this moment in time. This is a spiritual principle that can be understood through every single part of your life. Grinding and hard work will not get you to the promise. Your diligence, patience and understanding of repetition to build mastery is what produces results.

This should encourage you to work your land as opposed to following worthless pursuits (Proverbs 12:11). I have made this mistake far too many times and now I understand it as something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. The idea of “working your land” takes up the form of being consistent and diligent in where you are currently placed. That is how you build skills, knowledge and wisdom overtime and it is God who enriches and expands your capacity to be able to take the next step. Far too often we make the mistake of despising humble beginnings so we exhaust our energy by skipping steps or working on a land that doesn’t belong to us yet.

Ultimately, you need to re-orient your focus to find meaning in the things you once thought were meaningless. These are the small habits that are usually overlooked. Therefore, the daily devotion of time towards these practices will produce remarkable results that won’t leave you burnt out.

You are a product of what you do consistently.

What Do You Do Consistently?

This is an honest question that requires an honest answer. Everyday we make decisions to take voluntary actions in habit or in activity. These actions accumulated over time produce the fruit you see in your life. For many people there is a huge disconnect between who they are and who their desires say they are. This is simply because there is a disregard for the repeated actions of behaviour they engage in daily that accumulate towards how they show up to the world. For instance, if you can’t keep your room tidy you will be exhausting yourself by trying to keep your house or your office tidy. Take another illustration of the inconsistent ego lifter at the gym who hurts his back when he shows up twice a month and tries to deadlift 200kg. This is what it looks like when you disregard small consistent action over time to attempt to get things done in your uncultivated limited human capacity.

Moving forward, how are you able to implement the principle of repetition into areas of your life that will empower the steps you take tomorrow? How are you going to work your land from now up until the end of the year? My challenge to you is simple. Pick a small habit that you can implement into your routine and repeat it until the end of the year. My personal choice is consistent writing; what is yours?

I hope you found this useful, See you next week!