Whenever I see the procrastination topic the auto-handicap mechanism comes to my head: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-handicapping http://en.wikipedia.org/wi

Whenever I see the procrastination topic the auto-handicap mechanism comes to my head: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-handicapping http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-handicapping The way you describe yourself (ambitious; so many great ideas; big project) suggest that your self-esteem is high. However it might be unstable due to lack of evidence ("Experience-wise, I'm still a junior dev") that is convincing for you (as a result of constant comparisons with others). In such situation (high but unstable self-esteem) auto-handicap is a common strategy to preserve the self-esteem by avoiding situations that could lower it and providing some rationalizations instead. It feels nasty but we people keep doing it. One of many ways to cope with it is identify the sources we use to build our self-esteem and give them right proportions. Usually it comes down to rethinking the influence of other's opinions.