Pattern. The next time the same problem comes up, think pattern. Now the concern is not just that this has happened once, but that a pattern is starting to develop, or already has.

Author Robert Greene gave this advice: “One of the things you look for are patterns, in judging their character, because people reveal themselves in the past. They reveal who they are through their actions. They try to disguise it, but they reveal it … nobody ever does anything once.”