In a fast paced society with endless things to buy, consume, and work towards, we feel a lot of pressure to consistently achieve. Achievement can look like many different things: more money, more stuff, a better career, or a better life. And the pressure to constantly feel successful can be detrimental to our experience as humans.
In what ways are we pressured to achieve?
Pressure to constantly achieve goals can come from many places. It can come from our families, friends, employers, professors, or even society as a whole. It can also come from within. That pressure not only comes from our current circumstances or environment, but the environment or circumstances in which we were raised and our brains were developed. Pressure to be successful also comes in many different forms.
Pressure to perform
In some cases, we aren’t seen as successful or don’t feel we have achieved something unless we can constantly perform in whatever role we are seeking success. Constant work towards a goal, without breaks, can lead us to feeling burned out, disappointed, and unmotivated. This doesn’t make us as successful as society would expect us to believe, but consistent work does. Take breaks, and take your time working on the things that are important to you.
Acquiring new things
One of the biggest ways that outsiders often judge our success or sense of achievement is by the money and material items that we have or can acquire. The pressure to gain more material items, make more money, or take luxurious trips can increase the stress we feel to show others that we are successful, even though this is not an accurate representation of how well we’re actually doing in life. So many more things are important to us as individuals, such as connection, relationships, and happiness, rather than money, material goods, or showing off.
Increasing a forced pace
The pace at which we work and at which we achieve goals can increase when we feel pressure to achieve our goals quickly. Those around us may make us think we should be working much quicker than we are. That, in turn, can feel overwhelming and cause us to try to move more quickly, often making many mistakes along the way. The pace at which we perform tasks is not only different for every task, but also different for each individual, based on their learned skills and given abilities. Feeling pressure to move more quickly can leave us feel stressed and make us wonder why we’re not achieving our goals quickly enough, even when a quick timeline is unrealistic.
Some ways to ward of the pressure to achieve:
- Simple living
- Setting realistic goals and expectations
- Resetting our priorities
- Prioritizing progress over perfection
- Be present and take in the moments of the journey towards our goals
About Therapist Samantha Nolan, MA, LPC, ATR- Barnum Counseling