How to Avoid Repeating Old Mistakes

Any person has a habit that they want to change. The tendency to repeat old behavior has become part of the human psyche. ^{[1] X Research Source} Changing old behavior can be difficult and time-consuming. However, this process is possible through the action of proper planning and staying positive as you move towards accomplishing your goals in avoiding repeating the same old mistakes.

Table of Contents

Recognizing and Understanding Mistakes

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Don’t be afraid to fail. Making mistakes can be a pretty good thing. The key to turning a mistake into something valuable is to learn from it. You should examine the mistake you have made carefully and look for the cause. In this way, mistakes will be able to guide you to success. ^{[2] X Research Source}

Being overconfident can also lead you to misinformation and make you make mistakes.
Many conditions or situations can cause mistakes, such as from feeling tired from having a bad habit.

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Don’t believe it’s impossible not to make mistakes. This will only keep you making mistakes and won’t help you learn from them. Your brain can actually help you avoid mistakes. Research has shown that the brain responds within 0.1 second to factors that have made mistakes in the past by sending warning signals to prevent us from making the same mistakes again. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

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Focus on the action you are taking. While it can be beneficial to learn from mistakes, you should also focus on the right element. By focusing on the activities you do well, you can feel better about your efforts as you work on improving and avoiding mistakes.

Make a list of everything you’ve overcome as well as all of your achievements.
Write down your valuable qualities.
Regularly review the list to stay motivated and remind yourself of your progress.

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Start fixing mistakes. Once you are aware of a few mistakes you have made, you should proceed to correct them. The method you use to correct a mistake will likely vary depending on the mistake you are trying to improve on. Here are a few examples you can look at to learn about the adjustments you can make: ^{[4] X Research Sources}

If you’re frequently late to pay your bills, it’s a good idea to set up visible reminders for yourself.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. For example, if you are trying to cook a soup according to grandma’s recipe and are failing, you can take her advice.

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Focus on improving. You may want to set your goals high, but you should try your best no matter what your goal is. However, it will be easier for you to find success if you focus on improving gradually over time, rather than on the end result. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

Perfectionism can lead to anxiety about your goals and progress.

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Practice every day. Part of improving, finding success, and avoiding making the same mistakes is constantly practicing. Practicing every day is the key to helping you sharpen your skills and allowing yourself to improve slowly but consistently over time. For example, you can try to cook soup according to grandma’s recipe more often to gradually improve.

Make time to practice every day.
Record how long you will practice each day.
If possible, you should gradually increase the amount of time you exercise each day.
If you can’t practice a skill every day, visualization exercises can help. For example, if you don’t have a guitar on hand, you can imagine that you’re playing the chords of the song you’re practicing.

Getting Ready for Change

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Look for the behavior you want to change. Before you can avoid repeating old mistakes or behaviors, you need to determine what you want to change. Look for any behavior in your life that you want to improve. ^{[6] X Research Sources}

You should find the habits and behaviors that you think are most important to work on improving them first.
Don’t take on too many things at once. Select only a few issues that you think deserve the most attention.

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Discover your behavioral triggers. Consider a situation or event that could cause you to repeat old mistakes or behaviors that you did not want. Often, there’s an underlying reason why you’d want to change a behavior. Once you identify them, it will be easier for you to change your response to situations and avoid them in the future.

You may find that stress makes you crave cigarettes or eat unhealthy junk food.
If you feel anxious in a social setting, you may be aware that this situation causes you to start drinking, even though this is not your usual behavior.

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Look for elements to replace old habits. Once you form a goal to stop repeating the old behavior, you need to replace it with the new behavior. Without them, it’s easy to go back to your original unwanted behavior. ^{[7] X Research Sources}^{[8] X Research Sources}

For example, you could have a snack with your arms in place of fries or do 10 push-ups.
If you are easily angered, you should build the habit of deep breathing before allowing anger to take over.

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Write about your goals. After you’ve thought about the behavior you want to end up with and the appropriate replacement, you can write about them. This action will serve as a reminder of the goals you want to accomplish, and you can check them back whenever you want. ^{[9] X Research Source}

Keep your list of goals in a place where you will often and easily see them. For example, you can stick them at your desk or set reminders on your phone.

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Don’t rush. It will be quite difficult and time consuming for you to change old habits with new things that you have chosen. You should stick to your plan, stay positive, and strive to accomplish your goals. ^{[10] X Research Source}

It can take anywhere from 15-254 days to change a habit depending on your motivation, the replacement behavior, and the amount of time you repeat the action. ^{[11] X Research Source}
Remind yourself of your goals and how the change will benefit you to stay motivated.

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Don’t worry about obstacles. As you move toward your goals, swapping old behaviors with new ones, you shouldn’t allow obstacles to hold you back. Obstacles may arise, but it doesn’t mean you’ve seen defeat or that it’s time for you to back down. You should learn from them and constantly strive to accomplish your goals. ^{[12] X Research Source}

Obstacles can be turned into positives that will alert you to any condition or event that causes you to return to your old habits.

Make Changes

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Think about the change you want to make. The first step in making a change to a behavior is to think about it. Think about the benefits and any pitfalls that this process will bring to you. ^{[13] X Trusted Source National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Go to source}

Form a detailed list of the benefits and positive aspects that the new behavior will provide you.
Carefully list any difficulties that come to mind. They can be the factor that makes you want to return to old behavior or prevents you from building new habits.
For example, increasing the amount of exercise may make you stronger, but the lack of time may get in your way.

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Be prepared to face obstacles. Before taking action and making changes, you need to take some preparatory steps. The preparation phase includes planning to deal with any obstacles that might prevent you from achieving your goal. By being well prepared, you’ll be more likely to make changes. ^{[14] X Trusted Source National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Go to source}

This stage will help you become ready to deal with obstacles that prevent you from accomplishing your goals.
For example, if you think a lack of time will cause problems when you are trying to increase the amount of exercise, you should rearrange your schedule or think about exercising in your spare time.

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Start making changes. After you’ve thought about the new behavior you want to implement, and how to overcome the obstacle, you can start taking action. In this step, you need to focus on tracking your own progress, overcoming challenges, and rewarding yourself every time you are able to implement the new behavior you desire. ^{[15] X Trusted Source National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Go to Source}^{[16] X Trusted Source Harvard Medical Schop Go to Source}

Monitor your progress carefully to stay motivated and to be aware when you stumble.
Think ahead about overcoming obstacles. You should stay away from situations or events that could cause you to revert to your old behavior.
When you accomplish a goal, you should reward yourself. You can watch a movie you love or relax by soaking in the tub.

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Maintain change. Once you have replaced the old undesirable behavior with the new behavior of your choice, you need to maintain it. Don’t stop doing this refreshing act and keep enjoying it. ^{[17] X Trusted Source National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Go to Source}^{[18] X Trusted Source Harvard Medical Schop Go to Source}

If possible, you should increase the level of the original target. For example, if you want to exercise regularly and become more active, you can continue to strengthen your health improvement goals.
Keep things interesting. When trying to improve your behavior, you should go through the process in a variety of ways to stay committed. For example, if you are trying to stop snacking by eating healthier, you should check out more new recipes.
Stay positive and don’t allow obstacles to slow you down. If you have a failure, learn from it, and keep working towards your goal.

Advice

Be patient in the process of achieving the goal. Changing old behavior can be quite difficult and time consuming.
Think about obstacles in advance so you can be prepared to deal with them.
Don’t allow failure to stop you. Learn from them and let them guide you to success.
Mind and body are key, only the things that you allow them to form in your soul can reflect what’s going on outside.

Steps

Recognizing and Understanding Mistakes

Getting Ready for Change

Make Changes

Advice

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