The other day a Boeing 777 was departing from a major U.S. airport when the pilot had to suddenly abort the takeoff. Instead of pulling back on the yoke at V1, he pulled back on the throttles! The technical term for this is "accidental muscle memory." Thankfully the pilot quickly responded to correct the situation and prevented a disaster from happening.
When I lived in Germany, driving was a breeze because they drive on the right side of the road like we do. But the U.K. is another story. You automatically want to drive on the right instead of on the left. It requires a LOT of concentration for an American to do it right. Likewise, I have two bikes. One has rotary gear shifters and one has thumb shifters. Sometimes I find myself reaching for a thumb shifter that isn't there. 😏
You get the point.
My takeaways from the airport incident?
1. People make mistakes.
2. What matters is how we respond to them.
IOW, we are all human. Therefore we slip up. I learned long ago that to be a better, stronger, more successful runner/lifter/climber/surfer etc., I need to keep making mistakes to help me fine tune what works for me. Life is not about being perfect. It's about learning and improving. The airline pilot I mentioned above had 6,156 hours of total flying time. Yet at a critical moment, his muscle memory tripped him up. You can know intellectually what to do and not do it. When I first starting running I went way too hard. I even did two marathons on back to back Sundays. You just want to do ALL the races! You know you should hold back but you can't. Then you either get injured or burn out. Now you get it.
Friend, be the best YOU can be. And when you screw up, admit it and move on.