Up and Over the Hump...

Repetition is an important part of becoming any kind of professional. In order to do your best, practice is necessary. As talented as people can be, the best athletes, journalists, doctors and even video game players have to put their hours in doing the smallest things over and over.

Doing the same thing a million times can sometimes bring your quality of work down, so be careful. It's great for procedural jobs, where everything needs to be the precise. For something like broadcasting a sporting event, saying the same words means you're not entertaining the listeners or viewers.

There's a difference between doing things the same way and doing them consistently. Consistency is what I aim for in my work. By having the same reliable format with plenty of new features, it makes things easier to listen to. I still relay the information in a clear way, but the listeners don't hear the Charlie Brown teacher out of their speakers.

I have a pretty informal method of getting rid of phrases or words I use too much. It may not work for everyone, but I suggest trying it if you feel like you're falling into a repetitive rut. Whenever I hear myself say something a lot, I write it down on my scorecard and cross it out. At the end of every game, I look at the words I axed and make note of it in my head. At this point, I don't think I've ever needed to scratch a word out twice.

I could keep going about how to stop repetition, but I don't feel like using the word anymore. Hopefully the points I've made are enough.