Sometimes, Being Repetitive Can Be A Good Thing

hey they’re here oh it’s David H
Lawrence the 17th and I had a couple of
conversations this week both of which
completely unrelated to each other both
of which reminded me of something that I
first became aware of when my girls who
are in their mid-20s were children we’re
kids the show Blue’s Clues has been on
forever and when I first started
watching it with the kids I noticed
something really odd about it I don’t
know if you knew this if you have kids
and knew this but the truth of the
matter is that every day Monday through
Friday Blue’s Clues would play the exact
same episode every single day like not a
progression of episodes where Steve and
blue were doing new things or creating
new events or just every single day if
there was a plot on Monday the plot on
Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and Friday
the show exactly word for word
everything and they just basically
played the same show now if you knew
this already great but I wondered why
that was and there was an article in
Mental Floss that kind of pointed this
out and I’ll give you the reason in a
second but the reason this came up was I
was talking with a voice-over talent who
says yeah I never do anything the same
way twice I’m an artist and we were
talking about auditions we’re talking
about performances we’re actually
talking about stage performances and you
know cuz I was I’m always of the mind of
when I find something that works I just
want to ride that for as long as it
works and if it stops working I’m very
happy to go find something else but what
she was saying was nope I make sure that
every single thing I do is different
every single time because I’m an artist
and the way this ties in is we often
tend to do that look I know we’re all
artists we want to be unique we want to
be groundbreaking we want to be new and
bright and different but sometimes
finding a pattern and sticking with that
pattern is really useful
now the article in Mental Floss was
dealing with why kids love to hear the
same story books every night when they
go to bed right what’s why do kids love
that no no read me rainbow fish again
for the 500th time and the reason that
they gave in the article was the same
reason that Nickelodeon and the people
that produced Blue’s Clues made a
concerted effort in a conscious choice
to play that same episode every single
day for five days now if you don’t never
watched Blue’s Clues it was a series of
visual puzzles in some cases where blue
would hide the bone behind a the couch
the blue couch or the red couch and
Steve would say where’s the bone blue
kids do you know where the bone is and
of course my daughter’s like it’s behind
the blue couch it’s behind the red couch
you know they would I still remember
like to this day and the reason that
they did it five days in a row exactly
the same episode with the same questions
and the same quizzes and the same
puzzles to solve is because on Monday
the kids didn’t know and then of course
they found out on Tuesday did they
remember maybe and you know if they did
great if they didn’t that’s okay they
got reminded again where the bone was
behind the red couch but by Wednesday
Thursday Friday they knew and what that
did was it engendered a feeling of
accomplishment and it’s the same thing
when kids are read a story book at night
they know what’s coming in the story and
so they get to sometimes fill in the
lines and they get to that that feeling
of accomplishment now what does this
have to do with us sometimes we go a
step too far and we think oh that thing
that’s been working for me yeah I got to
change it up I’m an artist I can’t be
caught doing the same thing twice but if
something’s working for you if the way
you’re auditioning for something or if
the way you’re dealing with certain
material certainly the way you’re
pronouncing a word when you’re narrating
an audiobook you know you don’t want to
go from schedule – schedule just because
it’s cool or it’s British right if you
unless you are British and then you’d
never be
ded saying schedule but the point is
sometimes being consistent is a good
thing and not against the idea of being
an artist does it make sense let me know
if what I’m talking about hits you in in
a good way I know that some of you will
sit there and go sorry I’m doing it
different every time I can’t help myself
okay but think about what you might be
giving up by not riding a winning horse
over and over and over again you know if
you have a really good natural positive
conversational delivery that works for
you consider doing it more than once be
like the kids that want mom or dad or
uncle or aunt whoever to read them that
same story every single night tell me
what you think about this the comment
box is below the video I’d love to hear
what your thoughts are on this and I’d
love to hear if you have to if you just
are are committed to doing things
differently or if you found some things
that work and you’re okay with doing
them the same if you’d like to be on my
list I mean here’s the thing these
videos I could have not very easily but
I could have made them all different
every single one of them different and
the artist in me might have felt some
satisfaction about that but the idea
that they open with something that’s
familiar you hear me mention my name
that’s familiar you hear me talk about
things you know I’m gonna ask you to
make comments you know I’m gonna ask you
to join my list by the way there’s a box
called get on the list on the bottom of
this page if you’re watching it vo
heroes com and I’d love for you to be on
the list and you also know what’s coming
next and it might be comforting it might
be something that’s like oh great it’s
it’s it’s what I’ve come to know it’s
what I’ve come to expect so there you go
I’m David H Lawrence the seventeenth I
thank you so much for watching and I’ll
talk to you tomorrow.