The one about pressure

“Pressure is a privilege”. I’ve been thinking about the word, “pressure” a lot since chatting with my friend, Brendan, about his personal venture. My takeaway from our conversation was “pressure, pressure and pressure”.

Pressure can be controversial. Pressure turns carbon into diamonds. But pressure also causes things to break apart. Pressure can cause us to move mountains. But pressure can also cause us to burn out. Pressure can make change happen in society. But pressure can also make society fall apart.

I can only speak from my own experience.

Recently, I’ve been waking up at 5:00 am for language lessons. While it can seem daunting (and a bit crazy), I am able to do this only because of the pressure of a teacher or a language partner waiting for me. This wakes me up every single time. But if I was left to my devices, I would stay under my bed sheets.

When I was younger, if it wasn’t for the pressure of my mom waking me up in the mornings for swim sessions, I would have slept in. If it wasn’t for the pressure of final exams, I wouldn’t have studied as much. If it wasn’t for the pressure of obtaining a respectable LSAT score to get into law school, I wouldn’t have tried as hard.

But pressure can also break us. The rise in housing prices, the split between the haves and have-nots, and of course, the pandemic have caused enormous pressure on our society. This has resulted in fractures in our society, including the scapegoating of certain races, the rise in anti-Asian hate, and increasing distrust amongst strangers. When I was faced with the pressure of an overloaded schedule, it started to show — I started making mistakes and could have acted with more grace toward others.

But how do we differentiate between good pressure and bad pressure? How do we know when is the right time to apply pressure? And how much pressure do we apply?

I think that the key here is to apply pressure with intention.

This looks different for everyone — it could be joining a 6am accountability group, working with a mentor on your personal goals or even signing up for a local marathon to get yourself off your couch.

Whenever I applied pressure with intention, it led to a whole new level of personal growth and enabled me to accomplish things I never knew I could. So perhaps pressure, when applied with intention, is the accelerant to success.

Pressure it is.