Here's your detailed report.
Your Main Procrastination Type is Pivoting
What is it?
If you’re someone that tends to procrastinate by pivoting, it means that you are actively looking for the best plan or strategy to achieve your goals in the most efficient way possible. Procrastination by pivoting is very similar to procrastination by planning except in this case, once we finally have a plan that we think is perfect, we change it.
Before putting the plan into action and seeing if it actually generates real-life results, we come across a new strategy, a new idea, or a new plan that is much simpler and easier to execute on than the one we have right now and we decide to make the switch.
This is also known as Shiny Object Syndrome and is more common in entrepreneurs.
Why does it happen?
There is a novelty element to something new. It is exciting and fun and has a temporary hit of dopamine which feels good and rewards our brain. This is comparable to the honeymoon phase of relationships.
Once the dopamine wears off, our brains want more and get us to seek out and search for that new novelty again so we can experience the same reward. That’s when we start looking for a new and exciting plan so that we feel the same “high” as we did with our original plan. Once we find a new strategy or plan, we feel that dopamine hit again and our brain is satisfied for the next little while until it wears off.
What does it feel like?
Procrastination by pivoting feels like expending a lot of energy only to get nowhere. Like running on a treadmill or being on a hamster wheel.
Once we've identified our plan and have laid out all the work that needs to get done, we can feel a bit overwhelmed by knowing just how much work there is to do. That's when new and other strategies seem most appealing and we ditch our plans thinking that 'the grass is greener on the other side' only to find out it never is.Once we create a new plan, we come to one of two realizations:
In either one of these cases, the logical conclusion is that the current plan we have is not good enough and that we need something better and easier to execute. So we begin the process of creating a new plan all over again without actually taking any action on any of the plans we've created so far. This cycle can repeat endlessly until we actually start executing on one of the plans we lay out.
Your Possible Root Cause is Fixed Mindset
What is it?
If you are someone with a fixed mindset, you tend to hold the belief: "I either have what it takes or I don't." You are likely to believe that you are either ‘born with it’ or you’re not and there’s no way to change that.
According to Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, a person with a fixed mindset believes that their competence, intelligence, talents and capabilities are innate, fixed qualities.
Why does it happen?
Having a fixed mindset is more a set of limiting beliefs than it is an actual physical barrier to success. Dweck believes that fixed mindsets are cultivated early on in life often through the way children were raised or through their experiences in school.
A Fixed Mindset is something that is picked up by children along the way because that’s what they were taught growing up. It is the commonly held beliefs that the children were taught along the way.
For example: Children who are taught (either directly or indirectly) that they should look smart instead of loving the learning process tend to develop a fixed mindset. These children become more concerned with how they appear to others, how they're being judged, and that they might not live up to expectations.
What does it feel like?
Children with Fixed Mindsets grow up believing that they have something to prove. That they must appear intelligent, smart, educated, competent at all times and are secretly fearful not living up to these expectations they have internalized.
It's sad because these expectations were never theirs to begin with. They were imposed on them and later internalized by them. Once grown up, these children no longer have that external critic telling them how they "should be" because now a part of them has become that critic to themselves.
Their sense of self-worth and well-being depends on how they are being judged by others. They live with a constant need for validation through every situation or circumstance.
"I've seen so many people with this one consuming goal of proving themselves in the classroom, in their careers, and in their relationships. Every situation calls for a confirmation of their intelligence, personality, or character. Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? Will I feel like a winner or a loser?" — CAROL DWECK
Living in this fear of not being perceived "the right way" or having this constant need for self validation can be a very lonely, tiresome and exhausting experience. It becomes difficult to open up to people and make genuine connections because of the looming fear in the back of your mind of not wanting to lose face or be seen as "less than what you're supposed to be."
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