15 reasons why we consistently make so many mistakes …

“Oops!”

“Uh-oh …”

“I should NOT have done that!”

“Not again!”

Mistakes … we all make them. Some of us, more so than others.

Have you ever stepped back, looked at your life, and suddenly realized there seems to be a pattern of making mistakes?

Why do some people have a greater tendency for consistently making mistakes?

Here are 15 reasons why:

1. Sin. Many ministers make the serious mistake (no pun intended) of calling sin “mistakes.” Sin is infinitely worse and more serious than a simple mistake, but sin is often a root reason why we make mistakes. The more we overcome sin through the transforming work and overcoming power of the Holy Spirit, the fewer mistakes we’ll make.

2. Spiritual immaturity. Developing and consistently practicing key spiritual disciplines such as prayer, studying the Bible, meditating on God’s Word, memorizing scripture, developing a biblical worldview, etc., help us mature spiritually. The more we become like Jesus, the fewer mistakes we make.

3. Emotional immaturity. When we allow our emotions to drive or dominate rational thinking, we make more mistakes because we directly impede our ability for critical thinking and more rational thinking.

4. Mental health issues or mental illness. This is not to say a person who struggles with either mental health issues or mental illness cannot make healthy or wise decisions, but struggling with either can affect your ability to think rationally. The more stress, anxiety, or depression a person experiences, the more likely they will think irrationally. If mental illness remains untreated, the capacity to think clearly is reduced and can result in more consistently making mistakes you regret.

5. Very poor self-awareness. A simple definition for “self-awareness” is “conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires.” Most of us operate daily with very poor self-awareness, which directly impacts our decision-making, resulting in more consistently making mistakes that leave us thinking, “I should NOT have done that!”

6. Even worse other-awareness. Building on the foundation of self-awareness, “other-awareness” involves the skills of observing, recognizing, and understanding the basic wants, expectations, and feelings that other people have. Usually, when we’re lacking in self-awareness, we’re much more lacking in other-awareness. This lack leads to poorer decision-making, which leads to making more errors.

7. Overt failure to establish a personal discipline of making time for thinking. People today don’t like silence, don’t make time to be alone, and fill every moment with entertaining themselves or some kind of noise. Simply put, we fail to practice having time just to think. Many people are actually afraid to “be alone” with their own thoughts! That means they routinely wade into conversations and relationships without being prepared by prayerful and thoughtful consideration, which usually means they consistently make decisions “on the run.” That will mean making a lot of “snap” decisions which will result in more consistently making mistakes.

8. Bad information. Just because you saw a post, or meme, or you “Googled” something doesn’t mean you have factual information or actual truth from which to make decisions or act from. But those are common sources people use as their sources of information, which means they often act from bad information. Bad information leads to more mistakes made.

9. Bad motives. The right information, or actual truth, isn’t enough to avoid mistakes if you have bad motives for the thoughts you formulate, emotions you foster, or the action you finally decide to take. Motives of selfishness, or spite, jealousy, competition, comparison, or other such lesser motivations will cause you to make mistakes you’ll regret.

10. Bad judgment. Not only does scripture exhort us to pursue something as great as wisdom, it also implores us to develop good judgment: “Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment,” Proverbs 4:7. Many of us give no attention to doing either. That will definitely increase the mistakes you make in life.

11. Wisdom issues. Let’s build off of number 10 above. There is a progression toward wisdom, starting with logic, and it looks like this:

Logic is the most basic function of organizing or addressing information of any kind, but can be misleading and even untrue … we spend a lot of time at this level! The next step is to actually build our knowledge, gathering information, facts, and truth as a body of knowledge to draw from. But just having knowledge doesn’t mean you have understanding, which is the next level. The highest level is wisdom, which is the best application of understanding. To mature in all ways as a human being is to grow in knowledge, understanding, and finally wisdom. The less we do this, the more mistakes we make.

12. Habits of faulty thinking. As much as 95 percent of our thoughts are unconscious. When we don’t make time to think consciously, and maintain a low level of self-awareness, it is easy to develop a habit of thinking more irrationally than rationally, resulting in “faulty” thinking. It is also common for us to develop unhealthy patterns of cognitive distortions (see my post, “10 patterns of distorted thinking” here), which also results in faulty thinking. When we have patterns and habits of any kind of faulty thinking, we’ll make more mistakes.

13. Routinely fail to seek wise counsel. In spite of the fact that scripture strongly implores us to make seeking wise counsel a regular practice, many of us don’t, preferring to make all of our decisions as “lone rangers.” That will increase the mistakes you make in life.

14. Consistently listening to the wrong counsel. The Bible exhorts us to seek wise counsel, not just any counsel. Some people keep “bad company” and listen to what those influences have to say. The result? “Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for ‘bad company corrupts good character,'” 1 Corinthians 15:33. The more you listen to the wrong people, the more mistakes you’ll make.

15. “Brain fog” from fatigue. In spite of massive volume of information telling people of the need to develop and maintain adequate and healthy sleep patterns, many people insist on maintaining their lifestyles consistently sleep-deprived. Chronic fatigue directly affects your ability to think clearly, and that will increase the mistakes you make.

These are some of the common reasons why some people consistently make mistakes. You may find it helpful to check out two other posts related to this issue – “Would you like to make fewer mistakes? Try these tips …” and “A simple model for solving problems …”.

Scotty