The first pancake usually flops because the pan wasn’t ready. Don’t judge the whole batch by pancake one.

The first attempt at almost anything measures the conditions more than it measures you. Cold pan, cold hands, no feel yet for how fast the heat moves. By the third one you have information the first one had no way of giving you, and the batter never changed.

When something goes badly the first time this week, a drill, a shift, a conversation, hold the verdict until the third try. Ask what the pan was like rather than what is wrong with you. Then run it again soon, while the heat is still up.