Burning the midnight oil
To work late into the night.

Falling flat on your face
To fail completely.

Learning the hard way
Gaining knowledge from painful experiences.

Throwing in the towel
To give up or concede defeat.

Missing the boat
To miss an opportunity.

Hitting a brick wall
To encounter an obstacle that is impossible to overcome.

A blessing in disguise
Something that seems bad at first but leads to something good.

Failing to plan is planning to fail
Without a plan, success is unlikely.

Spilling the beans
Revealing a secret or plan that leads to failure.

Walking on thin ice
Taking a risky or dangerous action.

The last straw
The final problem or annoyance that causes failure or collapse.

Cutting your losses
Stopping a bad situation to prevent further loss.

Biting off more than you can chew
Taking on more responsibility than one can manage.

Out of the frying pan into the fire
To go from a bad situation to a worse one.

Shooting yourself in the foot
To harm oneself through one's own actions.

Drowning in failure
Being overwhelmed by failures.

Fumbling the ball
To make a mistake or fail in an important situation.

The writing on the wall
A sign that something bad will happen.

Barking up the wrong tree
To make a wrong assumption or pursue the wrong course of action.

Getting back on the horse
To try again after a failure.