Repeat anything often enough and it will start to become you.

"Repeat anything often enough and it will start to become you." Thus spoke Tom Hopkins, unveiling the hidden law of habit, as old as mankind itself. His words remind us that man is not forged in great moments alone, but in the quiet, daily repetition of thought and action. What we do again and again carves grooves into the soul, until at last the act is no longer separate from the self—it is the self.

The ancients taught this with solemn weight. Aristotle declared, "We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." In this lies the seed of Hopkins’ truth: by constant repetition, virtue or vice becomes second nature. If you speak truth daily, you grow into an honest man. If you dwell in lies, the falsehood soon wears your face. To become is nothing more than to shape the soul by repetition.

Consider the life of Benjamin Franklin. In his youth, he resolved to cultivate thirteen virtues, practicing each by steady habit. Through deliberate repetition, he trained his character as one would train a muscle, until wisdom and moderation became the very fabric of his being. His greatness did not spring from sudden inspiration, but from daily shaping, proving that what we repeat, we become.

So too in darker examples, history warns us. Propaganda in tyrannical states is built upon repetition—the same lie spoken endlessly until it becomes accepted as truth. In Nazi Germany, Hitler’s ministers mastered this dark art, repeating falsehoods until whole nations were deceived. Here we see the double edge of Hopkins’ insight: repetition can fashion greatness or ruin, freedom or slavery, depending on what is repeated.

Therefore, let this lesson be carried forward: guard what you practice, for it is forging who you are. The words you speak, the thoughts you harbor, the deeds you repeat—these will write themselves upon your soul until they cannot be separated from you. Choose well, and let your repetition be of courage, truth, and love, that you may become what is noble. For in the end, man is not what he wishes, but what he repeats.