A THOUGHT FROM ME
“What if the pressure isn’t coming from life? What if it’s coming from the rules you’ve been living by for years?”
DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?
You may constantly feel as though you should be doing more, achieving more or handling things better. Even when you’ve had a productive day or achieved something meaningful, it can be difficult to switch off the voice telling you that you could have done more.
The pressure often follows you everywhere. Work, relationships, family, health, finances or personal goals can all start to feel like areas where you’re expected to perform, improve or keep pushing forwards.
WHAT MAY REALLY BE HAPPENING
Many people assume the pressure comes from their circumstances. What I often see is that the pressure comes from the expectations, standards and rules they’re carrying internally.
The pressure you’re carrying today may have started as a strategy that once helped you succeed. High standards, responsibility, achievement and pushing yourself may have brought positive results in the past. The problem is that what once helped you grow can eventually become exhausting when the standards keep rising and the finish line keeps moving.
Over time, these internal rules can become so familiar that they stop feeling like choices and start feeling like requirements. This is often where stress, perfectionism, burnout and the feeling of never doing enough begin to take hold.
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
Perhaps the goal isn’t to lower your standards. Perhaps it’s to question whether the standards you’re living by are realistic, helpful and still serving the life you’re trying to build.
The people who perform at their best are not always the people applying the most pressure. More often, they’re the people who know when to push forwards, when to step back and when good enough is genuinely good enough.
SOMETHING TO CONSIDER
What expectations are you placing on yourself that you would never place on somebody you care about?
