Stress Management Essay: The Pressure to Succeed in Life

Stress Management Essay: The Pressure to Succeed in Life

The Pressure to Succeed in Life

In the contemporary world society, everyone wants to keep up with other people, particularly those strange people found in the internet whose lifestyle, jobs, and relationships appear to be better (Whitfield, 2015). To some extent, it can be pointed out that this stressor comes as a result of incongruity between the expected perfect self and the reality. This essay will, therefore, look into “the pressure to succeed in life” as one of the top stressors that needs scrutiny. Also, the paper will try to point out some possible intervention measures or precautionary measures that can be taken by an individual suffering from this stressor.

What the Stressor Entails

It is everyone’s desire to succeed in life. The fundamental questions that, therefore, preoccupy mind is; what can drive an individual towards success? Is an individual driven towards success due to societal pressure or it just come from their passion? In most cases, when an individual is trying to be a successful man or woman, society can be the biggest obstacle that holds them back (Whitfield, 2015). In this world that we are living in, almost everybody wants an immediate result, and perhaps, this is what drives those that we do not know much about. It therefore takes long time, mostly years and decades for an individual to reach the so-called successful life.

It is also important to note that not all men and women started from a humble background, some just inherited their parents properties. In most cases, writers have tried to sugarcoat life stories of the most successful people in the world such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Joabs, and Jeff Bezzos among many others. What they fail to understand is the fact that success only follows people work so hard to achieve that which they are more passionate about (Van der Riet et al. 2015).

Demographic Mostly Affected by the Stressor

In most cases, this stressor affect the youths, especially in the contemporary world society where opportunities for employment are scares. Whether people have a source of income or not, life must continue (Whitfield, 2015). However, what becomes more stressful is the fact that an individual’s age mate may have got lucky to have got employed somewhere while he/she is still agonizing with life, trying to make ends meet but it proves difficult. Another demographic affected by this stressor are students.

In most cases, parents want good life for their children. As a result, they may end up dictating what profession they would want their children to pursue, despite the fact that their children may be interested in other areas such as sports or music (Kightlinger et al. 2009). In such a case, forcing the children to take a career path that is different from their favorite may be stressful to them to an extent that some leave school while others commit suicide. Finally, the other group that may suffer as a result of this stressor are those that have lost their jobs. They suddenly become afraid that their lives will be pathetic since their only source of income is gone ((Van der Riet et al. 2015).

Intervention of the Stressor

People face much stress in their lives without putting the blame on themselves. Essentially, this is what many people do without even recognizing it. Perhaps, the first step that an individual may take to ease himself or herself from such unnecessary stress is to recognize the fact that he or she may be the cause of stress (Tough, 2012). For this reason, this paper recommends the following intervention strategies in the attempt to control the stressor:

Recognize the Difference between Meticulousness and Success

Many individuals indulge into perfectionistic conducts without recognizing the fact that there is a proper way through which the can get their best without disturbing themselves along the way (Van der Riet et al. 2015). To some extent, several perfectionists have got themselves into believing that their desire to attain perfection must be effectuated, without which they consider themselves as failures. Such a belief, not only leads to stress, but can as well hinder an individual’s success compared to the attitude of high achievers. Considering this idea, it is therefore, important to recognize the difference between these two things and understand the fundamental reason why meticulousness is more of self-sabotage than the success itself. An individual who wants to control this stressor must therefore recognize that there is always a better way of doing things (Kightlinger et al. 2009).

Balance between having Type-Personality and Hard work

Being a hard worker can be a great remedy to stress if it is associated with some sense of achievement or considerable resources. However, it is important to note that the first type of behavior that is closely related to extreme work ethic, can be disastrous to an individual’s physical and mental health as well as their relationships. People with this kind of behavior normally experience health problems to an extreme extent compared to an average hard and enthusiastic workers. According to Whitfield (2015), People may be unable to change their personalities, however, they may harmonize the edges and turn their concentration towards a relaxed condition, thus making the difference.

Differentiate between Being Overwhelmed and Leading a Full Life

There is nothing great like leading a full life, however, if an individual chooses not to live a balanced life, he or she becomes stressed all the time. The question, therefore, is; is it possible for an individual to draw a line between a state of being overwhelmed and a state of being enthusiastically busy? According to Linden (2014), an individual can do this by first figuring out his or her feelings after daily duties, during the weekends, and his or her life in general. This will help the individual to see whether he or she have enough time to engage into normal exercise, nurture relationships, keep other self-case activities, and get enough sleep. It is very important for an individual to take care of himself or herself for an effective stress management process, and other objectives ought to be prioritized, otherwise, chances of achieving the desired ends may become hard due to the loss of momentum.

Have an Optimistic Thinking

Many individuals fear having an optimistic thinking, and have always associated it with a mental trick where some very important life issues are ignored, and end up causing more troubles in their lives. Essentially, an optimistic-kind of thinking can help an individual to build his or her effectiveness in life, thereby reducing chances of stress on their life path. One of the most outstanding optimistic thinking strategies is do adopt a positive view of life (Sievers, 2014). This will definitely allow the individual to pay more attention to his or her achievements, thereby maximizing his or her self-confidence on his or her future.

Admit your Weaknesses and those of Others

An individual may have recognized through some other people’s books that the best way to manage stress is to ease up on oneself for just to have a break. When put the other way round, an individual can as well ease up from stress by just giving other people in his/her life a break (Van der Riet et al. 2015). This means that an individual ought not to view things at personal level, sometimes they should just let things go, or try to understand people by accommodating their viewpoints. In this regard, it is important for people to forgive one another for the mistakes they may have done towards one another (Sievers, 2014). This can be done through many strategies, however, it is important to note that love and kindness supersedes them all. It is a way of getting relaxed.

Conclusion

The pressure to succeed in life can be so stressful, especially if an individual keeps on thinking about how their life will be as they compare themselves with others. Essentially, instead of thinking about how to control the pressure, people affected with this stressor should try not to keep it in their minds if at all they want to succeed in their life pursuits (Tough, 2012). Living up to some people’s expectation is in most cases a misleading idea. The very common situation that happens is; parents want their children to be engineers, doctors and even lawyers, while their children is only interested in music or arts. Their children may try as much as they can to live up to their parents’ expectations but they end up failing. The question is; who said that people must be like others? Life success is a very simple thing: it is just involves appreciating who you are and living by it (Van der Riet et al. 2015). For instance, who can be a poor philanthropist? Never! People become philanthropists because they are rich. This is the only way to attain a successful life.

References

Kightlinger, A. English 101. NH (May 3, 2009). Seminar Essay 1 in Response to William Zinsser.

Linden, W. (2014). Stress management: From basic science to better practice. Sage Publications.

Sievers, B. (2014). Work, death, and life itself: Essays on management and organization (Vol. 51). Walter de Gruyter.

Tough, P. (2012). How children succeed: Grit, curiosity, and the hidden power of character. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Van der Riet, P., Rossiter, R., Kirby, D., Dluzewska, T., & Harmon, C. (2015). Piloting a stress management and mindfulness program for undergraduate nursing students: Student feedback and lessons learned. Nurse Education Today, 35(1), 44-49.

Whitfield, C. L. (2015). Stress management and spirituality during recovery: A transpersonal approach: Part III: Transforming. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 1(4), 1-54.