Recently, one of my friend advised me to stay cool and not to be under pressure since both of our friends just started their relationship. Until he told me that, I didn’t even think about it (the pressure, not about the relationship). Just because people around us doing the same thing, doesn’t mean we are obliged to do the same thing. What do you think?
Anyway, the conversation inspire me to write about peer pressure this time. Whether we are aware or not, peer pressure is always around us since we were young. When we were kids, if we don’t play the same game as our friends or join certain school club, we are not belong to the society. Or when we’re grown up maybe there is a pressure for you to look for boy/girlfriend from your parents or your friends or even more serious pressure like we have to change our beliefs.
So, if you ever experienced it recently and you want to be free from it, you can try what I did:
1. Know what you want.
Or maybe know yourself well to be more precise. It’s often that we start to feel the pressure when we are in doubt, whether it’s against our value or belief or destination. It’s easier said than done, to know ourselves is a process. I often make stops in my life, to allow me to think over something.
2. Give it a chance.
I’m not contradicting my first point, what I’m trying to say is getting-out-of-comfort-zone and against-our-belief sometimes are separated by a layer that is thinner than we thought. So, it may not be something that you’re doing everyday, but is it because you are lazy to start a new habit or is it because doing it doesn’t suit you. So I still feel, when we are asked to do something new, we can still try it out. If you don’t like it, you can always get out of it.
3. Seek others opinion or advice.
Sometimes we experience pressure at school or office. Our friends asked us to support them and we just don’t want it. So, when in doubts sometimes I asked other people opinions or advice. We may have different point of view about something then we can decide whether it’s good or bad. Or at least to make sure that I’m doing the right thing.
4. Be confident about ourselves.
We are unique being, we have our own way on doing something.
5. Talk it out or say it out loud.
Make our opinions matters.
Those tips work for me, so I hope that it will work for you too. 🙂
Or do you have your own that you want to share?