The pressure to succeed...Stop the ride

Being a small business, I am not immune to the pressures that appear to be built into being self-employed. The pressure to ‘succeed’ can feel woven into many areas of our lives, whether in the workplace, how we raise our children or how we spend our leisure time. We are taught to want to ‘succeed’ from a very early age, and once past infancy, the forces at work driving us forward – our parents, our teachers and our friends – can be powerful influences on how we come to think about success.

Most of us have uttered the plea ‘stop the ride, I wanna get off!’ but seldom do we question that urge.

Life coaching can provide an opportunity to recognise that you do not necessarily have to ask a third party to stop the ride; sometimes the STOP button is right in front of you. The challenge is in deciding to press it. This does not necessarily mean talking about walking away from existing lifestyles, nor abdicating responsibilities; rather, a pause to reevaluate your understanding of your own life, motivations and emotions.

One way of doing this is by asking yourself, how do I personally measure success and why?

Social and cultural messages can sometimes encourage us to measure success by comparing ourselves with those around us. This can lead us to compare ourselves with our peers and compete on that basis. We often fail to explore what success really, I mean really, means to us.

As a result, we can spend our time chasing preset goals that may have absolutely nothing to do with our innermost desires and core values. Understanding how our goals relate to our own desires and core values can help us make choices that feel more meaningful and fulfilling.

Through life coaching, you can take a serious look at what makes you feel happy and fulfilled. What is it you really want? If you take the time to take a look, you may be pleasantly surprised.