Recurring motifs in a life — the same symbol, wound, place, temptation, type of encounter, or lesson — may be understood as refrains in a personal myth.
Repetition is not necessarily failure. It may be the way the Storyteller underlines a theme until it is consciously received.
Things will be repeated until they are learned, fully experienced, and wrapped up.
Everything that happens or arises needs to happen in order for the character to move closer to the culmination of the story.
Also, history rhymes. The same archetypal themes and stories get played out over and over again with different superficial circumstances.