Repetition Isn’t Redemption 🧠

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle

There’s a point where exhaustion starts to feel like identity.

“What patterns are you tired of repeating?”

You find yourself once again in a friendship that drains you.
A job that strips you. A dynamic where your needs shrink until you barely recognize the version of yourself that accepted this… again.

You catch the pattern.
You know it’s there. You’ve named it.
Maybe you’ve even journaled about it.

But somehow, you’re still in it.

“I’ve ridden this emotional ride so many times, I should have a loyalty card.”

Why?

Because the familiar, even when it hurts, feels safer than the unknown.
Because repetition feels like control.
Because the brain would rather stay in a predictable wound than risk healing that requires change.

I’ve done this more times than I can count.
Stayed. Silenced myself. Took the blame. Labeled it “loyalty.”
Until the burnout wasn’t circumstantial… it was cyclical.

And the cycle only broke the moment I stopped asking why this keeps happening and started asking, what part of …