Ever found yourself in the same unfortunate spot as you were a few months ago, doing something you swore you never will again?

Perhaps you promised yourself you won’t confide in a certain friend anymore after they broke your trust. Yet here you are again, having your secrets spilled, despite knowing better. Or maybe you went back to the restaurant that gave you food poisoning the last time and are reading this blog with a queasy stomach.

We often find ourselves making the same mistake over and over again, even though at some level our brain registers the risks involved. This tends to happen when we haven’t quite learned the lesson yet, and keep deceiving ourselves regarding a particular behavior.

So then, what is it that has us repeating our mistakes?

The Biology Behind It

As we go about doing various things, new neural pathways are created for those activities. Whether we successfully complete an activity or blunder midway through it, a pathway is formed for either of the outcomes. Thus, when we make a mistake, we’re actually slipping into the existing faulty pathway without realizing it. This may be caused by specific triggers that stimulate a particular response from you.

The Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon

We’ve all experienced moments where we’re struggling to find the right word for something, but just can’t recall it. It gets extremely frustrating when you know the answer but are unable to get it quite right. This is known as the “tip of the tongue” phenomenon.

What’s interesting is that the minute you remember the word, you can’t imagine forgetting it ever again and yet, it happens. Once again you’re caught between knowing but not being able to recall it right. It’s there on the tip of your tongue, waiting for a little nudge.

While you’re sifting for the right word, your “mistake pathway” is being triggered in the brain. Thus, instead of finding the answer as quickly as possible the next time, you find yourself drawing a blank as your brain struggles to remember, even though it knows the right term.

Evoking Nostalgia

In a study published by John Hopkins, participants were asked to find red and green objects on a computer screen, and were rewarded $1.50 and 25 cents respectively. The next day, they were asked to do the same thing but were told they wouldn’t be rewarded. Despite this knowledge, the participants focused more on finding the red objects instead of the green ones.

The results concluded that we’re not always aware of the things we pay attention to, or the reason behind it. This can be used to explain why sometimes people tend to continue with their old habits and repeat their mistakes, because there’s nostalgia and a false sense of formerly being rewarded for that action attached to it.

Rekha Shrivastava at Blossom Hypnosis helps individuals struggling with self-sabotaging behavior through hypnosis, using effective self-esteem enhancement strategies.

Book a free consultation today at our office or schedule an appointment via Skype.

Sources:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/why-mistakes-are-often-repeated/470778/

https://www.livescience.com/2471-mistake.html

https://medium.com/@amanlitt/why-you-keep-repeating-the-same-mistake-3abaf027681d

https://hub.jhu.edu/2016/02/11/dopamine-addiction-brain-science/