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How to Stop Worrying About Mistakes and Reduce Anxiety

Worrying about mistakes you've made causes anxiety and hurts your mental health. We can reduce worrying about mistakes. Here's how.

Worrying about mistakes goes hand-in-hand with anxiety (Worry: How Much is Too Much?) and we need to learn to stop worrying over spilt milk. As irksome as they can be, mistakes are simply events, incidents in our lives, but they don’t need to become our lives, taking over our wellbeing. How we react to mistakes affects our mental health. To reduce anxiety, including generalized anxiety disorder, it's important to stop worrying about mistakes.

Life, unfortunately, isn’t perfect. Things don’t always happen the way we want them to, and sometimes mistakes are made. Big or small, mistakes can negatively impact us and/or those around us.

I've worried about mistakes since early childhood. There's a counseling technique that asks people to write a headline that describes their life. My own headline comes from the realization that I've almost always experienced worry and anxiety about making a mistake: Five-Year-Old Tanya Makes a Mistake, Sets Up Lifetime Anxiety and Quest for Perfection. We make mistakes-- many of them. Worrying about them doesn't change this, but it does increase anxiety and stress.

Our Worry Over Mistakes Affects Anxiety

When facing mistakes, ours or someone else’s, we have the choice to react in different ways.

  • Focus on the mistakes: When dealing with problems, it’s easy to focus almost exclusively on what’s wrong. While we do need to pay attention to them so we can fix mistakes, focusing too much on them actually prevents us from addressing them. When we fixate on mistakes, we don’t have room for solution-focused thoughts, and as a result, we remain stuck, frustrated, and anxious.
  • Focus on the consequences (or imagined consequences): When something goes wrong, it’s normal for humans to look ahead and foresee all that could continue to go wrong. A degree of this is good; it’s part of planning and repairing damages. If we don’t know what problems the mistake could cause, we’re not motivated to do something about it. However, this can easily spiral out of control, harming our mental health. The act of imagining everything that could go wrong and blowing it out of proportion is known as catastrophizing (Anxiety Can Feel Like a Catastrophe). Catastrophizing can increase anxiety and stress and prevent us from taking effective action.
  • Become angry: No one loves a mistake. Mistakes interrupt our ability to live in a perfect world. Mistakes do have consequences. Sometimes mistakes are big, and they can’t be lightly laughed off. However, if we allow ourselves to get angry, and more importantly, stay angry, we remain stuck stressed, and anxious -- definitely miserable. Not only are our mental and emotional health impacted, anger doesn’t move us forward. Anger keeps us keyed up, spinning, and less able to take effective action. Also, anger decreases our ability to connect with others to move forward.
  • Maintain proper perspective: See a mistake as a single event in the grand scheme of your life, and keep going forward. Worrying excessively about a mistake gives it power and makes it seem bigger and more devastating than it is. The more we worry, the more we fixate on the mistake. Fixation and worry increase anxiety. A mistake may be unpleasant, but it won't destroy your life.

Stop Worrying About Mistakes

Worrying about mistakes you've made causes anxiety and hurts your mental health. We can reduce worrying about mistakes. Here's how.When mistakes happen, remember these things in order to stop worrying about the mistakes:

The mistakes have already happened. They’re in the past, and there’s no going back. Look forward and forge ahead. Rather than worrying about the mistake, actively plan ways to recover from it.

Choosing a healthy perspective and planning ways to keep moving forward reduces worrying and increases anxiety-free living.

Of course no one likes mistakes. Sometimes (okay, a lot of times), they happen. The beautiful thing is that you have choices. How you react to mistakes affects your mental health, so what are you going to do next time you’re faced with a mistake? Don't increase anxiety by excessively worrying about mistakes.

Let's connect. I blog here. Find me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. My mental health novels, including one about severe anxiety, are here.

APA Reference
Peterson, T. (2016, September 15). How to Stop Worrying About Mistakes and Reduce Anxiety, HealthyPlace. Retrieved on 2024, March 19 from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/anxiety-schmanxiety/2016/09/worrying-about-mistakes



Author: Tanya J. Peterson, MS, NCC, DAIS

Tanya J. Peterson is the author of numerous anxiety self-help books, including The Morning Magic 5-Minute Journal, The Mindful Path Through Anxiety, 101 Ways to Help Stop Anxiety, The 5-Minute Anxiety Relief Journal, The Mindfulness Journal for Anxiety, The Mindfulness Workbook for Anxiety, and Break Free: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in 3 steps. She has also written five critically acclaimed, award-winning novels about life with mental health challenges. She delivers workshops for all ages and provides online and in-person mental health education for youth. She has shared information about creating a quality life on podcasts, summits, print and online interviews and articles, and at speaking events. Tanya is a Diplomate of the American Institution of Stress helping to educate others about stress and provide useful tools for handling it well in order to live a healthy and vibrant life. Find her on her website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Crystal
November, 3 2021 at 8:59 am

Hello I've been going through a hard time and i was at the edge of committing siicide because i feel like im unable to get out of this situation it has affected me mentally i over think and that has taken me out if reality it might not sound as had as you think but trust me i feel abnormal please hear my call and help me

November, 3 2021 at 11:25 am

Hello Crystal,
Thank you so much for reaching out and sharing honestly about your experience—that is a brave first step. I am so sorry to hear that you are in the midst of a painful, difficult circumstance. Please consider seeking out help. HealthyPlace's list of mental health hotlines and clinical referral numbers can point you in the direction of helpful resources to look into. You can find this information here: https://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/resources/mental-health-hotline-numbers-and-refer…. I know it can be hard, but please continue reaching out.
Sincerely,
Mary-Elizabeth Schurrer
Comment Moderator

Jim
August, 2 2021 at 6:07 pm

Ive just got into a new relationship and after a talk about social media the reaction of my new partner set alarm bells off from a previous relationship, I lost it and called her 3 times to ask her what was going on, we've subsequently, continued to see each other but now the issue remains as my partner is now, saying they need time to see where it goes, but I have 3 week work trip and I don't know how to bridge the gap and stop worrying about her running away.

Leanne Cardnell
November, 11 2020 at 7:06 am

I've started my new job 3 months ago and I'm constantly making mistakes to the point where I cannot concentrate or other think things, I fear this will affect my job or anything else in that matter

November, 18 2020 at 2:02 pm

Hi Leanne,
You might be surprised to know that new job anxiety is very common. One tip that often helps is to take some time to sit down with yourself and consider why you were hired for this job. There were probably other applicants (and even if you were the only one, they didn't have to hire you but instead could have waited until the right candidate applied), so why *you*? List your strengths, traits, and qualities that you bring to this job, and then keep that list handy so you can refer to it often as a reminder and confidence boost. Also, give yourself time to learn and adjust. There's a learning curve in any new situation, so rather than thinking about mistakes, reframe them as learning opportunities. Gradually, your anxiety will be replaced with greater self-confidence.

Susan goodwin
July, 19 2018 at 7:31 am

I have a meeting tomorrow which may end in dismissal I am so worried

Sophia
May, 24 2018 at 12:09 am

May I have a chance to meet up with anyone.
Thank you

JohnT
September, 17 2016 at 1:58 pm

I don't worry about the mistakes. I always worry about my past and I always worry about the future. Rarely do I live in the present moment. Anxiety is with me through most of the day. Just add beer and it get worse. Exercising and living in the moment is what I am striving for.

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