Are You Repeating Your Mistakes?

If only we didn’t keep repeating our mistakes…what a wonderful world it would be!

Some people keep dating the wrong type of people while others are terrible about saving money. We all have mistakes – big, small and in-between – that we repeat over and over.

Why? We’re often blind to our mistakes.

Sometimes, we know we’re making a mistake but can’t seem to stop ourselves. We know that high-calorie treat isn’t on our nutrition plan, but… We know that the new gadget/outfit/thing we want isn’t in our budget, but…

Science has determined that we often repeat mistakes because we perfectly imperfect human beings tend to repeatedly choose a given behavior under stress.

Many of our mistakes happen when life is challenging.

We revert to what we know, even if it hasn’t worked well in the past, with a fervent but misdirected hope that somehow, things will be different this time.

Repeated mistakes lower the quality of your life and can also adversely affect your spirit. When you’re working to create and manifest a Spiritually Authentic life, taking steps backward via repeated mistakes is NOT in your best interest. Let’s look at some ways to change that repeated behavior.

Try one or more of these techniques to avoid repeating your mistakes:

1. Redefine what mistakes mean to you. Mistakes are a lot easier to manage and benefit from if you hold a positive opinion of them.
   • It’s easy to accept the concept that no one is perfect – see my description of us “perfectly imperfect human beings” above. The natural result of that idea is that people make mistakes. So, mistakes are natural, and you shouldn’t beat yourself up too much for making them. However…
   • Mistakes also hold the key to enhancing every part of your life. They show you what you need to learn, pay attention to, and what less-than-terrific habits you need to let go of.
     
     
2. Get a clear, calm, focused head. Making a good decision is much more likely when your head is clear, your emotions are calm, and you’re focused more on the positive outcome you want than the mistake you just made.If you’re feeling overwhelmed (and beating yourself up for it), you’re much more likely to make a big mistake. Avoid making decisions when you’re emotionally compromised, and you’ll make far fewer mistakes.
   
   
3. Evaluate your failures as objectively as you can. Look at your failures and determine the mistakes that led to those failures.
   • What did you do wrong?
   • What could you do better?
   • Did you have faulty information?
   • Did you need more information?
   • Do you have skills you need to further develop?
   • Do you have new skills you need to learn?
   • Maybe you just gave up too soon.
     
     
4. Notice what you’re doing right. It’s just as important to identify the things you’re doing correctly as to watch out for repeated mistakes. After all, if you stop doing those positive and productive things, that’s just another mistake you’re adding to your life. Doing more right things results in doing fewer wrong things, and a positive boost to your self-esteem and self-confidence.
   
   
5. Create an achievable plan for positive change. Now that you’ve identified your mistakes, it’s time to create a doable and focused plan to do things better next time. Sometimes just identifying a mistake is enough. Other times you’ll need to learn a new skill or approach. Or you may need to develop confidence, perseverance, or patience.
   
   
6. Focus on progress. It’s not always easy, or even possible, to change overnight. Avoid becoming frustrated with yourself. Be happy with any forward progress you’re able to create.
   • As long as you keep making progress, you’ll eventually reach your target.
     
7. Re-evaluate. Take a look at the mistakes you identified in Step 2. How are you doing – mentally, emotionally, physically? Have you solved your problem or found a way to work through/past them? Do you need to continue improving?Keep going until you’ve attained the level of expertise you need. It may take more focused time and effort to completely eliminate a particular mistake – especially if that mistake has been a part of your life for a long while. Keep trying, because making the effort to change encourages the change to happen.
   
   
8. Repeat as needed. This isn’t a one-time process. You’ll continue making mistakes throughout your life. Repeat this process on a regular basis if you want to continue seeing progress.

Repeated mistakes are frustrating because we know there’s a better way.

A clear head and an examination of one’s previous mistakes is a great first step to removing a particular mistake from your future.

View mistakes as a guaranteed part of imperfectly perfect human life and value the clues you’re given as to how to make positive changes, then create a focused, doable plan and get to work.

Avoiding the mistakes you make repeatedly will definitely make your life easier!