What do we do when we feel others try to put pressure on us? Do we resist the pressure, do we ignore it, or do we do what others want us to do anyway? Peer pressure can happen to you at any age. We may tend to think that pressure belongs with people going through puberty. Those are the people that are most at risk. We can get peer pressured by our friends, family, coworkers, etc. It is a part of daily life and if we want to succeed, we need to know how to navigate through it. I try to decide if I feel pressure put on me to think about if this is important or can I ignore it. IF I BELIEVE it is important and worth it then I will have to face it. If it is not important, I will simply disregard it and try to remember the experience of it. Who do we go to when we have trouble facing the pressure? I would tend to believe that I would go to someone that I trusted. I am guessing that is what other people might do as well. The person can be anyone around you if they have a positive impact on you. If you do not have anyone you trust with this then I would suggest that you think about what would work best for you. You will be the one that has to make the decision, so it makes sense to make the best decision you can. What happens if others try to use force and dirty tricks to pressure me? Then you could fall for it and hopefully you will learn something from it. You could push back and set a limit on what you will tolerate. You could ignore others around you and do what you want. Why are we feeling pressured to do certain things? Because it happens from time to time and people usually expect us to act a certain way. They can anticipate how you will act and still try to find a way to pressure you into something you may not want to do. I have found that sometimes I have gone and ended up falling to the pressure. We all make mistakes, and I have made mine. Those times taught me to learn what I did not want and showed a way for me to act if it happened again. What is a scary part of giving in to the peer pressure? You could do something you regret. I know that at certain times we will get tested and must make decisions and our lives will change accordingly. Being brave and strong is not necessarily turning down the peer pressure, because we are all human. Being brave can mean making a mistake, owning up to the mistake, and learning how to move past the mistake. There can be grey areas in life and based on everyone’s choice we could make many different decisions that end up benefitting us. The next time you feel something is not right or that you may have to make a big decision for yourself. Take a deep breath and think about what is best for you. Once you have an idea you can share with the people that support you and take it from there.