The 95th Edition

Is pressure something to avoid, or something to learn how to carry well?

Something to Think About

Pressure only becomes a problem when it’s applied without awareness.

Something to Ask Yourself

Am I choosing this pressure, or is it being placed on me?

Personal Lesson

There have been periods where I’ve felt completely overwhelmed by pressure, and if I’m honest, most of it was self inflicted. When you’re training a lot, you have loads of work, creating content, trying to show up consistently, it can be hard to still be present. 

It’s not always easy to notice it stacking up until it feels too late, affects sleep, mood, and day to day anxiety.

But what I’ve realised is that I used to treat pressure as something I had to constantly rise to. If I wasn’t pushing, I was falling behind. So, I’d keep adding more. That sort of works for a bit, but it doesn’t last.

Lately, I’ve started to try and pay more attention to how much pressure I’m under and whether I actually have the capacity for it. Some weeks, I lean in and train hard, work hard, I push hard. Other weeks, I deliberately take my foot off. Not because I’m weak or soft, but because I understand that pressure only works when it’s applied and released. Like training itself, it’s a cycle.

Running – Life’s Metaphor

Running teaches you this better than anything. You don’t run hard all the time. You apply effort, then you recover. You build stress, then you absorb it. The progress isn’t in the pressure alone, it’s in how well you manage it.

Final Thoughts

Pressure doesn’t have to always be a bad thing. It’s actually necessary. It can really help to sharpen you and keep you moving forward. It can also reveal to you what you’re capable of. 

But only if it’s used properly.

The problem is most people either avoid it completely or live in it constantly. Both lead to the same place eventually, stagnation or burnout. 

I really believe the skill worth learning is knowing when to turn it on and when to ease off.

You have to be honest with yourself. You have to know yourself well enough to recognise when you’re pushing for the right reasons, and when you’re just caught in momentum. More isn’t always better. Sometimes it’s just more.

The last thing I’ll say is, there’s a confidence that comes with being able to handle pressure. It’s a powerful thing to apply pressure and withstand it. But there’s also confidence in knowing you don’t always have to. That you can step back, recover, reset, and come again. 

The best kind of confidence is knowing that you’re playing the long, smart game and you know when the pressure is just EGO.

So learn how to use pressure. Apply it when it serves you, release it when it doesn’t, and trust that both are part of moving forward.

RUN THE RUNNABLE 😉