A lot of things are inevitable in the world we live in today, and as horrible as peer pressure sounds, it is one of them. Many people wouldn't admit that they feel pressured to do the things their peers are doing, but if it's possible to see through their minds, we will discover that every human has one or two things they wish they could do because their mates are doing them. A lot of people would deny being pressured because we think peer pressure is only attributed to terrible things.
Peer pressure isn't as bad as we categorize it, and we are the ones who always attach it to terrible things all the time. Whenever someone does a terrible thing and confesses to being influenced by their peers, we easily say it's peer pressure, but when someone's success or breakthrough is inspired by his or her peers, we don't remember to use the word peer pressure.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, peer pressure can be defined as the pressure from people of your age or social group to behave like them in order to be liked or accepted.
Many of the definitions out there sound negative, but peer pressure can come from a positive angle if we look deeply.
Over a decade ago, I felt left out among my friends. Imagine being the only one among your friends who hasn't seen the four corners of a university. You will definitely not be happy when all your friends are close to graduating from the university.
When they started chatting about school whenever we hung out, it always felt like I was left out since I don't have any university experience. Slowly, the bright kid among them was losing his reputation, and I didn't feel good about it.
I was pressured into doubling my efforts to save money just to further my education, and it happened. I was able to get into school not just because I wanted to feel relevant among my classmates but because it was my dream, and the pressure from them fired me up to bring that dream to reality.
It is sad that a lot of people feel pressured into doing negative things when they can actually do good to catch up with whatever it is they are missing out on, or isn't it weird when someone is pressured into becoming a criminal just to make money when you can actually do legal things to make that same money?
Due to my poor background, feeling pressured isn't always far away from me. I have a lot of things on my to-do list, but I would rather take them one at a time than do them inappropriately. Staying content has helped me control peer pressure, and it has worked for a whole lot of people as well.
Instead of allowing peer pressure to control me, I channel the pressure into strength to pursue whatever it is I am pressured about. I learned quite early in life that all fingers are not equal, so there is no problem when others are doing better than me, and what I do is draw some inspiration from their success to fuel my desire to do pretty well in life as well.
I don't engage in the comparison challenge and just focus on my journey. A lot of people we compare ourselves with most often have resources that have made their journey easier, while we don't have those resources. Comparing ourselves with others would only frustrate us because it would eventually become an unhealthy competition.
We are meant to run at our own pace and not at others pace. Peer pressure shouldn't always inspire people to do evil, as we can always get positive inspiration or channel the pressure positively. Thanks for reading.
This is my entry for today's prompt, and the initiative is open to every member of the Hive community, so feel free to check the announcement post.