People often deliberately sabotage their own chances of success just to have a ready-made excuse for failure, a pathetic defense mechanism called self-handicapping.

A closer look

People often deliberately sabotage their own chances of success just to have a ready-made excuse for failure, a pathetic defense mechanism called self-handicapping. If you have a massive, career-defining presentation tomorrow morning and you choose to stay out until three in the morning drinking cheap tequila, you are unconsciously protecting your fragile ego. By ensuring you perform terribly due to the hangover, you never actually have to find out if your best effort simply wasn't good enough. We would much rather let people think we are lazy, disorganized messes than risk exposing the terrifying reality that we might actually be incompetent. It is a masterclass in psychological cowardice, guaranteeing that you never reach your full potential while simultaneously comforting yourself with the lie that you could have been great if you only tried