You should not dwell on a particular action of yours and see it as a mistake. Rather, you should consider yourself fortunate to have had that opportunity to learn whatever you learned from that event.

Some people have better judgment and more foresight that others, and will not need to learn through making a mistake as they will see the future result clearly. Others will need to learn through making a mistake first. None of this is important and the stage at which you learn does not matter, what matters is that you actually learn.

Again, bad decisions are not mistakes but active learning.

Almost everyone over the age of 25 who has consumed alcohol has had too much to drink at one point and either developed a headache or worse. Perhaps this is a part of life, I'm not sure. What I do know is that when you develop that headache or throw up, you learn that excessive alcohol can have negative effects on the body. Once you learn from it and adjust you behaviour, then you're on the right track.

If you find yourself doing the same thing over and over again despite knowing the inevitable negative consequences, then you're not learning or making mistakes; you have a PROBLEM which you need to address either through professional help or a conscious personal decision.

If you're gambling your salary away every month, or find yourself sitting on the pavement in an intoxicated state every weekend, you have gone beyond making mistakes and are obviously not learning; you have a PROBLEM which needs serious attention.

If you're a manager and you use a particular approach with employees which does not resolve any issues or boost their morale yet you continue to use this approach, you have a PROBLEM which you must address.

Someone once said that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results. An engineer who builds a bridge that collapses, and builds another bridge with the same structure as the first must be crazy!

Accept responsibility for your actions, embrace your opportunities to learn and be prepared to acknowledge and attend to any problems which you may have.