In life, your situation will keep repeating itself until you learn your lesson. That’s almost always the case, although we rarely realize this.

Sure, perhaps it’s not the same situation or circumstances. But chances are large that you are stuck in that situation because you continue to repeat the same mistakes, and thus refuse to learn your lesson.

Thus, we can conclude that life keeps repeating the same life lessons because:

1. We haven’t fully learned the life lesson yet
2. We’ve forgotten the life lesson
3. We haven’t fully internalized and integrated that life lesson into our lives

We have not yet fully learned the required life lesson

Let’s say that you’re too afraid and insecure, and as a result, refuse to stand up for yourself. This might lead to issues at work, where your boss and coworkers keep piling up work on top of your shoulders instead of fairly dividing the work. In all likelihood, they most likely would fairly divide the work if only you had the required courage to stand up for yourself.

You might rationalize your inability to stand up for yourself as, ‘Well it only impacts my work situation’, or, ‘It was just this one time’. Yet, the concern in all likelihood doesn’t stop there. Since you refuse to learn the lesson that you desperately need to learn to protect yourself, which is being assertive and defending yourself, you’ll keep making the same mistakes in other aspects of your life as well.

Your relationship with your spouse might get ruined because of your inability to engage in the much-needed conflict to resolve annoyances, which leads to much larger obstacles over time. It might also cause you to refuse to put your own needs and desires first from time to time, which might make you resentful, or deeply unhappy.

And no, simply changing partners won’t change the issue at play here. Because you’ll keep meeting the same person in different bodies until you learn the lesson.

Perhaps you’re the laughingstock in your social circle, since nobody actually respects you since you’re unwilling, and/or perhaps unable to stand up for yourself. There’s nothing virtuous about not standing up for yourself. It means you’re simply nice to others since you don’t know anything else, or can’t act in another manner. It means you’re stuck in that mode of living that serves as your defense mechanism, albeit a detrimental one in the long run.

Being kind to others would only be virtuous if we possess the capacity to be bad and rude. It means we have other options available if needed, but actively decide not to since we’ve decided that being kind and respectful to others is morally superior to pushing ourselves on others to get our way.

We’ve forgotten the life lesson

While most of us are probably ecstatic when we’ve finally learned that harsh lesson that caused us a lot of pain and suffering, we humans are quick to forget those very same teachings when times are good. It turns out that pain, and even just the fear of pain, are excellent motivators to learn new things!

Tough times create strong men, but likewise, easy times create weak men indeed. And when times are too good, then we often forget to value what we have and have learned in the process.

Not just that, we’re only human. And that means that we tend to forget some stuff from time to time. Just because we know something, doesn’t mean that we actively try to implement these new understandings. It means changing our belief systems, routines, and actions to implement these new insights.

So you can’t simply pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for understanding the lesson. You need to actively implement the lesson so that you don’t even get the chance to forget it.

We haven’t fully internalized and integrated that life lesson into our lives

Again, we need to internalize and integrate the lessons we learn in life to prevent those same teachings from happening again.

This means that simply understanding what you did wrong, and why you failed, isn’t enough. It means that you actively need to make changes in your daily life. You need to make new, purposeful habits, change your mentality, and change your behavior, or the same mistakes will happen again.

Think about it. Why would we get different results if we keep doing the same thing over and over again? Even if the understanding is right, the same actions won’t magically result in different outcomes. That’s why simply waiting and doing nothing will rarely lead to better outcomes, contrary to the popular belief that “time will heal all wounds”. Time can sometimes help, but only if we actively undertake action to change the situation.