What repetitive behaviors are paramount to your enterprise’s success? Which repetitive behaviors block your team’s progress? Which provide opportunities to amplify or reduce, and which ones appear fixed?

In John Green’s book The Anthropocene Reviewed, there is a chapter entitled ‘Wintry Mix.’ In the narrative, he communicates his struggle to maintain a vegetable garden and discourage the local groundhog, who forages freely from his plot. Eventually, he plants a separate garden for the groundhog, allowing John to maintain his passion project and reduce the groundhog’s desire to use it like a sample at Costco.

The groundhog’s repetitive behavior was eating from a garden. It would not switch tactics unless relocated or eliminated; neither was an option for John. So, a compromise was reached, allowing the author and groundhog to continue their passions with significantly reduced friction.

How might we assess our repetitive actions with sobriety? How might we embrace those that serve us, try to isolate those that foil our progress, and remain open to new mindsets?