Pressure is imminent for many. Be it a nearing deadline, from a person or simply from wanting to win a game. Pressure comes from every direction in life, and whether or not this pressure becomes a motivation or cause for unhappiness depends on the one facing it.
Pressure as a motivating force
Pressure would become a motivating force on the ones that treat it as an opportunity. According to TIME, while heightened stress can feel overwhelming and decrease motivation, a little bit can go a long way when it comes to kickstarting your work. “Medium levels of stress can enhance our motivation,” Gunthert says.
With the presence of pressure, our fight or flight system kicks in. “The fight or flight response, or stress response, is triggered by a release of hormones either prompting us to stay and fight or run away and flee,” explains psychologist Carolyn Fisher, PhD. This thus causes us to get up and start getting work done.
According to what is known as “The Yerkes-Dodson law,” performance increases with physiological or mental arousal (stress, or pressure) but only up to a point.
Pressure as a cause for unhappiness
According to “The Yerkes-Dodson law,” when the level of stress becomes too high, performance decreases. If one is succumbed to such pressure for a uninterrupted period of time, burnout may be unavoidable. According to Medical Health UK, Burnout is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion. Because of burnout your productivity could diminished and you may constantly have a negative outlook on life.
This is made into a bigger problem especially if you don’t know how to identify growing signs of elevated pressure or are more prone to feeling overwhelmed with augmented pressure. According to Medical Health UK, 46% of UK workers feel ‘more prone to extreme levels of stress’ compared with to March 2020, where only 15% feel ‘less prone to extreme levels of stress’. Furthermore, 1 in 5 told the Medical Health UK they felt ‘unable to manage stress and pressure in the workplace’.
Pressure is substantial
However, to me, pressure is substantial. Without pressure, certain decisions may not be made as one may simply want the best of both worlds without considering consequences that may arise, and certain actions will not be done. In a way, pressure may also arouse fear in one, causing them to spring up to action. However, if one is under constant pressure then pressure may become a negative connotation for that person. That is why sporadic periods of rest is just as quintessential for pressure to be significant positively.
What do you think?
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