Maze your mind

Route to success is through repetition.

I took ballet class once where we all stood at the barre and swung our legs from front to back and side to side (known as tendu) at the count of 5, 6, 7, 8. Every class started the same, warming up then practicing the same skills, adding nuances occasionally.

Repetition is success.

Basic, boring, redundant be as it may, is the key to progress. Whether it's in ballet or any other skill or knowledge we need repetition to improve our proficiency.

Reflecting on the idea of repetition reminded me of the ayat:

"But ˹continue to˺ remind. For certainly reminders benefit the believers." (Quran, 51:55)

Reminders are repetitions and their value comes from strengthening our access to that knowledge. The more we recall from memory, the easier it gets to keep it there and retrieve information.

Imagine cleaning and reorganizing your closet to throw away clothes you no longer wear or don't fit then hanging your favourite hoodie on the door so you can easily grab and go. That's how our brain works to organize our neural connections to keep relevant ones, discard others, and making frequently used ones easily accessible.

Biology courses, even at fourth year, have a unit on basic cellular components, trite right? Surely, at this point, I've gathered that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. But the value of the reminder is not in its novelty, but to instill and reinforce fundamental concepts making it easier to recall at enzymatic speed.¹

Like how taxi drivers can take you to your favourite lunch spot in record time, no map needed! How, you may ask? Because they’ve driven those paths night and day. Their years of experience created a mental map of the city with all of its alley ways and shortcuts.

The key to mastery as Robert Greene put it, takes ten to twenty thousand hours of repetition in any skill or knowledge. In order to become a master of ballet or biology, or faith, it requires hours upon hours of reminders and practice.

Practicing skills and applying the knowledge is more valuable in true mastery. Because this requires us to recall the information and form new associations each time. For example, if I memorized a metabolic pathway for a test, chances are, I will only recall that information in the context of biology class. But if I'm eating my dinner and reflecting on metabolic pathways involved, I'm creating a new association outside the classroom. The more diverse connections we have, the easier it is to recall information and form even more connections.

Exercising neuroplasticity is important to maintain our brain health, the same way we would our bodies. Being life long learners can also prevent neurodegenerative diseases and make it easier to form neural connections even as we age.

Memorizing new surahs and hadiths are great ways to stretch our brains. And dhikr and dua enable us to form connections with Allah beyond the context of acts of worship. Aisha (RA) shared how the character of the Prophet (ﷺ) was a walking, talking Quran. Regularly exercising skills to increase our consciousness of Allah, taqwa, can help us bring the Quran to life as well!

So if you're ever getting bored of doing the same old thing, remember, you're on the path of success!

I'd love to know, what's your mastery? Mine is pancake making. I've mastered the art of flipping those fluffy delights, devoured with a slab of butter and more than a drizzle of maple syrup!

1. Enzymes speed up biochemical reactions.