Pressure (a high school student's view)...

This was sent to me by a high school student of mine, who wishes to remain anonymous. She's light years ahead of where I was at this age... probably most of us, yeah? There's no doubt in my mind she'll be an amazing success on whatever path she chooses to create for herself! 

"Practice makes perfect." 

I grew up with this phrase drilled into my head that anything I do, no matter what it is, I can succeed as long as I put the effort in. However, recently (within the past few years) the first 'P' of this innuendo transformed into: "Pressure makes Perfect". 

As strange as this may appear, perfect and pressure can coexist in the same phrase and actually compliment each other is a difficult concept. Shouldn't pressure be something that breaks confidence, increases nerves, and squashes the ability to preform at top notch? 

To be honest, I hadn't thought of pressure as this horrible cloud of nerves until someone told me to. Pressure is all around you just in different doses. It could be as simple as the pressure of putting your money back into your wallet when you're done paying for something, or making an appointment on time; to having "more" pressure of presenting a job pitch, or a final serve in a volleyball match. Each form of pressure remains THE SAME. The only difference is how aware of it we are. 

Imagine for a minute that everything anyone had no pressure, everything anyone did came easily and stress- free. Sound nice? WRONG! Everything would stop at a standstill. There would be no competition, and businesses would collapse because there would be no driving force or ambition to succeed to higher levels than those around you. 

To "have a handle" on pressure is completely different than "handling" the pressure. By having a handle on it, you are controlling it - you have the power to manipulate it to become that driving force that can push you higher than those who are handling it. 

By creating a negative relation to the P-word, you are setting yourself up to merely handling it, rather than controlling the correct dosage of dedication, drive and opportunity to become the one everyone asks "How?" How did they become so successful, rich, positive, etc. 

Figuring out how to focus on the task at hand rather than the situation surrounding it, which is what creates the awareness of pressure, is the key to mastering and controlling "pressure-filled" situations. 

So the equations should really be: 

Pressure + Practice = Perfect!