To Be Reminded

Years ago, while discussing the many self-help books I’d read, a friend looked at me with disbelief and asked, “Don’t they all just repeat the same thing over and over?” I laughed and replied with a fitting quotation, attributed—perhaps loosely—to Dr. Samuel Johnson:

“People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.”

The truth is, our little brains can hold only so much wisdom before it begins to get sloshed out by the demands of daily life. That’s why I find it helpful to circle back to the foundational tenants again and again and again. So, yes, he was right, but that was the point.