(Continuing on from last week)
The next thing to realise about pressure is …
Does it actually help?
Does “hurry” mean you go faster? Does it create the internal environment that means the very best comes out of you? Does it assist you in enjoying your life?
A little urgency always helps get things done, yes.
But so often we’re so far in the red with pressure we don’t realise it.
It results in physical and emotional exhaustion, doing and saying things you regret. It means you lose your temper. It means you lose perspective and spin your wheels, giving far too much to the urgent, unimportant stuff and losing sight of what is truly important to you.
It means life is not what you want it to be.
It can be so easy, for example, to give everything to work. To give it 100% day in day out, which naturally means you have nothing left to give to your relationships, your fitness and health, those things that you love, to your spiritual satisfaction and freedom.
But what if you dialled it back and kept some in reserve, kept some for balance?
This may mean you run the risk of not progressing up the career ladder as fast as you might like, as fast as others may seem to be.
Or … it may mean you actually do things better.
Although the feeling of doing less might be foreign and uncomfortable (“I’m slacking, I'm being irresponsible”), it actually means you end up getting more of the right things done, and with quality.
Often too, the way you conduct yourself is noticed by others – and they admire your unflappable calm and clear, creative thinking. They actually want more of you precisely because you’re not sunk in frazzle and struggle.
Pressure, taking care of your responsibilities and going where you want to go is so much more about the inside than you might realise. My question to you is this:
How will you find out exactly how much unless you try a different way from 99% of the world?
It’s worth a shot, isn’t it? After all, you can always go back to the old ways. But I bet, if you embark on this, you won’t consciously want to go back.