Mistakes feel good. If they didn't, we wouldn't keep making them. One definition of a mistake is the conscious or unconscious decision to trade short-term pleasure for long-term pain. Getting angry and saying hurtful things is trading short-term pleasure for long-term pain. Lying is trading short-term pleasure for long-term pain. Cheating is trading short-term pleasure for long-term pain. We make the same mistakes over and over again because there is something in those mistakes that is providing us with a sense of pleasure. Or, at the very least, pain relief. This doesn't mean we should continue making the same mistakes. It just means we should forgive ourselves for the mistakes we've made. We're not monsters. We're moths seeking an escape from our suffering and so we fly towards the warmth of an open flame. Only to find more pain.