Are You Putting Too Much Pressure On Yourself? Here's How To Stop

Most of our life decisions are based on what we observed our parents or the people who raised us doing “right” and “wrong” in our mind. We can think of it as our little translation.

And as we get older, mature and settle into our own choices and routines, we often tend to think That's just the way I am, without remembering how much of a role our childhood observations played in the equation. I'd argue that we all ought to take a moment to think for a bit, and ask where we stand. Think of your career, your love life, or things you want in the future and consider this: what do I really want?

Let's consider an example: I always felt that my mom was an amazing mother. As a result, the idea of having children feels like a lot of pressure to me; I feel like I have to be the way my mom was. For a while, I wasn't fully aware of this belief, but I've pushed myself to think about it.

When I get really honest with myself, I feel totally satisfied with my life as is. I love what I'm doing, and I don’t want to have to leave that to have kids. Logically, I know that I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do, and that my parenting journey can be unique should I wish to have kids. But something emotionally pulls at me. And I know that I don't want to have kids.

Luckily, I have worked through most of these questions in several conversations with my mom. But many of us never take the time to find our triggers, to discover why we believe what we believe.

In your love life, you might feel pressured to meet someone who is funny, smart, and handsome like your dad or mom, or another figure in your life. You admire this person for who he or she is, and are unknowingly trying to find a mate just like them. Meanwhile, you might be passing by the right person for you by fixating on this "ideal."

Or you might feel pressure to get married and have children soon because you feel like your family was so close and you want to recreate that. This obsessional energy may be keeping you from really connecting with a person to see if they are the right match for you. Isn't self-sabotage interesting?!

Or you might feel pressured to not seem too naggy like your mom was with your dad. So instead you don’t always express yourself and your feelings.

And sometimes, triggers affect us more subtly and indirectly. For example, you might feel pressure to “have it all together” because your dad was able to raise kids, work, and still have a great social life. This may be stopping you from fully connecting with people from an authentic place, because they want someone human, not someone who looks perfect all of the time.

These are just a few of infinite examples. After all, triggers are unique to every individual, and dependent on how you were raised, and the relationships you've had throughout life. So start to think about your specific triggers, what I often like to call "pressure points."

Most of these pressure points emerge either because you want to recreate a dynamic you felt in your family, or you want nothing to do with it (so are striving to be the opposite). Either way, this pattern doesn’t give you the freedom to really know what YOU want. This is especially true in romantic relationships, as they tend to be the most vulnerable of all of our relationships.

So how do we identify and release these pressure points? I challenge you to:

Awareness is really powerful and will start to release some of the pressure you have on yourself to be at a certain place in your life right now.