I Keep Making Big Mistakes at Work: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For I Keep Making Big Mistakes at Work, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
About 2 minutes
Try it here: list recent mistakes and what misfired
Listing the mistakes side by side shows which step keeps slipping.
Name up to three recent mistakes, each in a few words.
Practices that may help
- Reframe mistakes as the normal cost of doing hard things
Every person attempting difficult things makes mistakes — your errors are evidence of effort, not character.
Common Humanity, Made Practical - Own mistakes promptly and without over-explanation
A fast, clean acknowledgment of error lands better than a slow, elaborate defense.
The Pratfall Effect, Made Practical - Error archaeology
Examine every mistake to identify which chunk misfired, was missing, or had a faulty boundary.
Chunking: How Experts See What Beginners Miss - Apply three good things to work contexts specifically
Use the exercise to rewire what you notice about your work day — contribution, competence, and collaboration.
Three Good Things: The Evidence-Based Gratitude Practice - Use errors and failures to refine the mental representation, not just the technique
When something goes wrong, ask: "What was wrong with my model?" — not just "What was wrong with my execution?"
Mental Representations: The Expert’s Internal Map - Treating errors as data points
After any failure, immediately extract the specific information the error revealed about the problem.
Productive Failure: How Struggling First Makes Instruction More Effective - Distinguish system causes from individual causes in the analysis
Most failures have system causes and individual causes; fixing only the individual leaves the system to produce the same result again.
After-Action Review: The US Army’s Tool for Continuous Learning - Overgeneralization
Draw a sweeping conclusion from one or a few negative events.
Cognitive Distortions: The Thinking Errors Behind Anxiety and Depression - Actively watch for escalation of commitment
Each new investment in a losing course makes the next exit harder — catch escalation early.
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: Escaping Bad Investments - Audit work hours against your stated priorities
Compare how you actually spend your time this week against what you say matters most.
The Regret of the Dying
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I messed up at the thing I’m actually trying hard to be good at, and instead of "that’s part of doing hard work" my head goes straight to "this proves I’m not cut out for it."
- I dropped the ball and now I can feel myself about to bury the admission in a whole paragraph of reasons why it wasn’t really my fault
- I keep making the same kind of mistake and my response is just to "study more" in general, which never fixes it
- I could list ten things that went wrong at work today without blinking but I’d struggle to name one that went right
- I keep making the same kind of mistake, and every time I just try harder and drill the execution more
Related concerns
- I Keep Making Mistakes At Work And Its Killing Me
Every person attempting difficult things makes mistakes — your errors are evidence of effort, not character.
Reframe mistakes as the normal cost of doing hard things
- Why Do I Always Make Mistakes At Work
Every person attempting difficult things makes mistakes — your errors are evidence of effort, not character.
- I Can T Stop Making Mistakes At Work
Every person attempting difficult things makes mistakes — your errors are evidence of effort, not character.
- I Keep Making Mistakes At Work
Every person attempting difficult things makes mistakes — your errors are evidence of effort, not character.
- I Keep Messing Up At My Job
Every person attempting difficult things makes mistakes — your errors are evidence of effort, not character.
- I Keep Messing Up At Work
Every person attempting difficult things makes mistakes — your errors are evidence of effort, not character.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.