About this quote

We often fall into the exact same loops of confusion and repeat our mistakes as if they were brand new. You swear you have been in this messy situation before, yet you still failed to prepare for it. Why do we let ourselves forget the painful lessons of the past so easily? It is easier to laugh at our own repetitive foolishness than to admit we need to pay closer attention to our lives. Stop ignoring the patterns and start tracking where your focus slips.

When to use it

• A software developer says this to his teammate when he spends three hours debugging an error, only to find the exact same typo he fixed last Friday.
• A homeowner laughs and tells her spouse this when she drives all the way to the grocery store, only to realize she left her wallet on the kitchen counter for the third time this month.
• A runner sighs and thinks of this when he gets a painful cramp during a race, realizing he forgot to hydrate properly beforehand despite making that exact mistake during his last marathon.