I think it's true that a lot of people sabotage themselves this way. A more productive defense mechanism would be to tell yourself you could always have tried h

I think it's true that a lot of people sabotage themselves this way. A more productive defense mechanism would be to tell yourself you could always have tried harder when you fail, even if that's not necessarily true. On a related note, some folks think this is why LeBron James played terribly in the 4th quarters of the Finals games vs. the Mavs.