Here's your detailed report.

Your Main Procrastination Type is Planning

What is it?

If you tend to procrastinate by planning, that means you’re always in search of the ideal plan -- the perfect plan that will lead you to success. Procrastination by planning is very similar to procrastination by Busywork. As Eric Ravenscraft wrote in LifeHacker:
“Procrastinating feels lazy… Planning, brainstorming, and discussing feels productive because you’re talking about doing stuff. If you don’t move to action, though, there’s no difference between the two.”
The important difference to note here is that planning is talking about doing stuff and taking action is actually doing stuff. If we never move on from the planning phase, we haven't actually started working on our goals.

Why does it happen?

“For some people, planning can be a way to organize what might feel chaotic, but it can creep into avoidance,” says Melbourne-based clinical psychologist Dr. Jacqueline Baulch.

The reason we plan, or over-plan, is because we fear uncertainty. “Uncertainty is nebulous and planning is the opposite… But putting something as unwieldy as our future into a few Post-it notes doesn’t really change the uncertainty itself,” says Baulch.

Planning can also be a symptom of perfectionism. It is much easier to plan than to move through the messy middle. We tend to get stuck in creating a plan rather than take action because we feel 'if only I had the perfect plan, I would make little or no mistakes, minimize my chances of experiencing failure, and reach my goal effortlessly.' As Dr. Baulch explains it: “Often we only want to get started if we are certain it will be polished, perfect, or successful.”

What does it feel like?

Just like busywork, planning can feel gratifying because it gives us the illusion that we're working on our big project or goal. Planning can feel like work. It can feel like we're actually accomplishing something but if you take a closer look at what's really happening, you would realize that we're actually doing is stalling the work that needs to get done and not taking action on our big goals.

This is not to say that we shouldn't plan. Planning is an important step in working on any goal or project. The problem comes in when we forget that planning is simply Step 1 of the process. If we never move past the planning phase, we never move past step 1 to achieving our goal.

As far as Step 1's go, planning is great but it is not how things are accomplished. At some point, the amount of time being spent on planning is the amount of time that we could have been spending on our project and knocking out steps 2, 3, 4, etc.

People think that if they could only come up with the perfect plan, they would have the perfect outcome. It is our need for certainty (and fear of uncertainty) that drives over-planning to a degree. It is important to realize and accept that, in life, there are no guarantees. There is no certainty.

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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