How pressure can provide a positive push
Twenty-three year old Jo Oxtoby is no stranger to dealing with pressure.
She has two young children, two jobs and has just started a three year University degree course; but she tries not to let it get to her.
According to Dr. Malcolm VandenBurg there are two possible and distinct ways of responding to pressure and Jo's response to her situation exemplifies one of these.
Jo might be said to represent the type of person who, by taking on more, feels more able to cope. Dr. Malcolm VandenBurg explains that our response to pressure ‘can either be one to encourage you to behave in a way which helps you cope with the pressures and in that way the pressures can be positive, or it may be that body responds in a way you would rather it didn’t and it’s those feelings which I term stress. ‘
Although Jo admits its hard work sometimes, focusing on the achievement in mind keeps her motivated: 'I just have to think at the end of it after University, it leads to better things so it will be a better life for the children…’ Dr. VandenBurg suggests that everybody has their own pressure curve mapping pressure against achievement and up to a certain point pressure can in fact help our performance and make us feel better. However, beyond a certain point we will start to achieve less as the pressure becomes too much and this will make us feel worse.
It follows that in order to effectively manage our own pressure we need to fully understand our individual pressure curves; Dr. VandenBurg stresses that ‘one has to learn when you are getting to your peak because there is a point where the pressure feeling curve gets so bad that one ends up feeling very stressed and then almost everybody at that point begins achieving less.’
Jo too recognises that it is important to be realistic about your targets and not be too hard in yourself: ‘you can’t be superwoman or superman all the time and things like the housework can wait, which I’ve learnt recently…’
