Direction

I usually have a very good sense of direction and I understand the road layout system that most cities use as it is the same as Milton Keynes but I am having problems. I know where I am for instance at 6th street and want to get to12th street so I use the map to work out which way I want to walk and I nearly always get it wrong and have to back up and go the other way. Another example was from the subway to my hotel in New York I turned right, left, left, right. After three attempts I noticed that my hotel was just one block straight ahead. It is really irritating.