Everybody makes mistakes — that’s a given — but we don’t always learn from them. Sometimes we make the same mistakes over and over again, fail to make any real progress, and can’t figure out why.

“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” — Bruce Lee

When we make mistakes, it can be hard to admit them because doing so feels like an attack on our self-worth. This tendency poses a huge problem because new research proves something that common sense has told us for a very long time: fully acknowledging and embracing errors is the only way to avoid repeating them.  Yet many of us still struggle with this.  Some mistakes are so tempting that we all make them at one point or another.

Here are 10 mistakes almost all of us make, but smart people only make once.

1. Believing in someone or something that’s too good to be true

2. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result

3. Failing to delay gratification

4. Operating without a budget

5. Losing sight of the big picture

6. Not doing your homework

7. Trying to be someone or something you’re not

8. Trying to please everyone

9. Playing the victim

10. Trying to change someone

Emotionally intelligent people are successful because they never stop learning. They learn from their mistakes, they learn from their successes, and they’re always changing themselves for the better.

Travis Bradberry is the co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and the co-founder of TalentSmart.

This article originally appeared on LinkedIn.