Look for a repeatable mismatch between a stated aim and a choice you can describe. These five fictional examples show what to examine and what would change the interpretation. None proves a diagnosis, a hidden motive or a person's worth.
1. The proposal that keeps becoming another course
Aim: send a service proposal by Friday. Pattern: Avery buys a fourth sales course rather than drafting the offer. Immediate protection: the proposal remains untested. Available alternative: draft scope, deliverables and one price, then identify any genuinely missing information.
If Avery lacks a required license or essential client information, acquiring it may be necessary preparation. Count the missing prerequisite, not the number of courses. Kerub calls preparation that continually replaces output a form of protecting unrealized potential. [A_EGO:1]
2. The spotless portfolio that never gets a reader
Aim: apply for a design role. Pattern: Sam keeps changing fonts after the portfolio already meets the stated application requirements. Immediate protection: no one can reject an application that was never sent. Alternative: submit a checked version with a finite revision limit.
A quality check matters; indefinite polishing is a different behavior. Research distinguishes perfectionistic concerns from high striving, with different associations with procrastination. High standards alone do not explain every delay. E06
3. The agreement followed by disappearing
Aim: be dependable on a project. Pattern: Morgan accepts a task they have no capacity to finish, then avoids the project chat. Protection: saying yes postpones an uncomfortable conversation. Alternative: state capacity before committing, or renegotiate promptly.
A sudden emergency changes the facts. Examine the unrealistic agreement and avoidance separately rather than treating any missed task as moral failure. Kerub's people-pleasing chapter examines approval purchased through surrendered decisions. [A_EGO:6]
4. The imaginary future rescuer
Aim: find another job. Pattern: Taylor waits for a former colleague to offer a perfect position but never asks, applies or updates a resume. Protection: the possibility stays comforting and untested. Alternative: ask the colleague a concrete question while also completing an application of one's own.
Networking and accepting support are useful actions. The pattern is making imagined rescue the whole plan, which Kerub describes as passive hope. [A_EGO:13]
5. The dramatic promise with no next appointment
Aim: finish a short manuscript. Pattern: Casey announces an ambitious completion date but never schedules a writing session. Protection: declaring the ambition supplies the image of progress. Alternative: specify a feasible session, its output and a review date.
An interrupted schedule does not mean the entire plan was false. Kerub's systems chapter directs attention toward repeated inputs and adjustment rather than a distant trophy alone. [A_EGO:17]
Use the examples without turning them into accusations
Choose the closest episode and write the observed behavior, real constraint, immediate payoff and feasible alternative. “Maybe it protected me from rejection” is an interpretation to test; “I know everyone else's secret motives” is not.
Severe or persistent anxiety belongs in a professional assessment, not an examples checklist. E05 These cases are original editorial illustrations, not clinical case histories or an evidence-based treatment protocol.