You know that tiny voice in your head that says, “I’ve learned my lesson” right after something goes wrong? yeah. That voice is a liar :)
It happens to me more often than I would like to admit. I’ve built product features, debugged issues, and made shortcuts to know how this story goes. Every time, I tell myself next time will be different, and somehow the same pattern repeats itself.
It’s not about being careless
Most people think repeating mistakes comes from carelessness. But I don’t think that’s true.
It’s usually because the next situation looks slightly different, so your brain doesn’t recognise it as the same trap.
It’s not that we didn’t care, it’s that the brain thought, “This is new, not that old problem.”
Patterns hide in disguise
In real life, too, it’s the same.
I’ll overcommit my week, knowing full well I’ll burn out by Friday.
I’ll skip a proper break, thinking “this week is exceptional.” and then every week becomes exceptional.
What’s tricky about repeated mistakes is that they don’t look identical. They just evolve.
It’s the same core issue: lack of pause, lack of systems, lack of boundaries just with different clothes.
We think we’re being adaptive, but most times, we’re just being forgetful in a new way.
Systems > Memory
The real fix isn’t to “remember not to do it again,” because memory fades, but habits don’t.
What helps is creating small systems that make the right thing easier to do and the wrong thing harder to repeat.
For example:
Adding a “post-launch checklist” in the release template so analytics is never skipped.
Writing down things that went wrong and revisiting them before starting a new project.
Setting up recurring reminders for things you always forget, like retrospective notes, breaks, or feedback sessions.
Basically, assume you’ll forget everything and make forgetting harmless.
When repetition becomes growth
Not every repeated mistake is bad, though. Sometimes you’re just hitting the same wall from a different angle, which means you’re exploring it deeper.
You might be learning how to design a better feature, manage your time better, or even handle people better.
Repeating a mistake consciously, with reflection, is just called practice.
It only becomes a mistake when we repeat it unconsciously.
The real lesson
If you find yourself looping through the same issue again, don’t overjudge it. It probably means you’re working on something complex enough to require more than one lesson.
Progress isn’t always about avoiding repetition. Sometimes it’s about repeating, but with awareness. The second time hurts less, you recover faster, and maybe this time, you build a small system around it.
And that’s how you quietly level up, not by never making the same mistake again but by making it better.
