Ever been in a situation where people around you tend to push you into doing something? I think everyone can agree. However, i think, given proper pressure management, this is actually good. Pressure, to be precise, is a state of action applied or influenced in a specific person to create results. Lets talk about this in a more simpler term by an example.

You buy food in a local restaurant and the staff is so slow in getting your order. What do you do? You follow up and this will likely get things moving faster. This is what we occasionally do because of reasons.

Reasons mainly like following:

1. Time constraints
2. Public Standard/Expectation

When this is applied, you’ll likely get what you are looking for – FASTER RESULTS.

So how can we just define that Pressure is Good?

For starters, it gives you Results. Sometimes, its faster. But lets look at the reasons for now:

Time Constraints

This is a common reason for all of us. Maybe you have an appointment and you cannot afford to wait for a task to be done, or maybe you have a deadline and people should start finishing their deliverable. This is a valid reason that gives other people a mild kick in their behinds, telling them to move.

Public Standard/Expectation

Well, if other people says that “it should have been done by now”, you will probably think of the same thing. This is the case because the public, or other people, had better experiences with the event that you are having a part with. So if they said that a meal at a local Restaurant-A should be served within 10 minutes only, then it will be our standard as well.

What’s the point for these reasons? It just implies that Pressure will never be given unless there is a valid reason. As for me, this is actually good.

People tend to slack off if no one else is looking (including me), and most of the time, this results in giving poor performance or output. On my case, when pressure is applied, I tend to realize my mistakes, and I move faster, as not to disappoint anybody. Thus, making someone happy because of my improved performance.

This is why I think that pressure is good. However, I also implied that it is good, when managed right. Most of us, since we are used on (1)giving pressure, tend to unreasonably overdo it in a way. Its like following up on an order that was taken just 5 minutes ago, and your order was 10 boxes of unique platters in a small and local restaurant.

For the people who is (2)under pressure, we also should manage it properly. We can do a pause-think-do routine, where we pause for a minute or even half of that, think of what should we prioritize, then do. Its not as easy as it looks but given time in practice, this will improve how you accept pressure and how you can use this to your advantage.

James 1:3-8(MSG)