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Life is full of challenging and complex situations.

Pressure can indicate things are expected of you.

Learn to adjust to the situation!

I recently was reminded about a quote in the sports world that I believe resonates with our demanding and stressful work, school, family, and social lives today. It comes from tennis great Billie Jean King, who said to a younger player she was counseling, “Pressure is a privilege, and champions adjust.” This observation is so powerful that it appears on a permanent plaque at the the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which hosts the U.S. Open champtionships. I offer this as something to think about today.

As individuals managing our mental health and as family members, school and work colleagues, we assume a role to interact with others who rely on us in sometimes potentially complex situations. This includes caring for ourselves. Pressures and stress are built into the role as we strive to do our best. We work to meet the best interests of our relationships and any situation, which requires balancing life and other pressures. It’s a task that is constantly evolving and in need of adjustment as relationships and life circumstances change and are redefined. We can sometimes feel squeezed and overwhelmed by having to do it all.

What does “Pressure is a privilege” mean in our lives? Pressure is defined as a force coming from outside of us, from the environment (our surroundings), that is applied to us. It can also come from within ourselves, from an internal drive to meet high expectations we place upon ourselves or that are placed on us by our health situation or by family members, friends, coworkers, associates, classmates, and teachers.

Feeling pressure can be a sign of being in a position in which high expectations are placed on you by others, of having an opportunity to meet a challenge and do something meaningful. The challenge can be the effort you assume to manage and take care of your mental health.

You have worked hard and earned the right to be in such a position, to be in a demanding situation and be expected to provide competent actions and interactions. Your performance matter; in fact there might be something at stake if you don’t deliver. You might unintentionally offend or lose a friend, job position, or be perceived as not caring or delivering what you presented yourself to do. Or your lack of active participation in managing your mental health might lead to persistent symptoms and lack of improvement, prolonging your emotional pain and suffering.

If not managed well, the experience of feeling and responding to life’s pressures can lead to stress, which is our internal reaction to that outside force. We experience stress when the demands of our environment outweigh our ability or perceived ability to respond to them, to cope. Our task is to be able to manage the pressures, manage stress and try to avoid burnout, and to maintain our emotional health.

King's words inspire us to adopt a positive mindset towards high-pressure challenges. They suggest that we reframe pressure as a positive, see it as a privilege, an opportunity to embrace challenges and transform them into achievements. She encourages us to see high-pressure situations as opportunities to do something meaningful rather than as burdens.

Instead of viewing pressure negatively, we could consider it a sign of potential, something to rise up to. It can allow us to discover our untapped resilience, to prove what we are capable of, to develop new skills, and to find creative solutions in challenging situations while at the same time being under stress. If we can see pressure as a privilege, we can see obstacles as opportunities to do something good with our relationships, work, social, mental health and personal skills.

Take our Burnout Test

Find a therapist to overcome stress

How do you turn pressure into a positive? One way is to believe in yourself and your hard-earned skills, including those that you learned in psychotherapy, and know that you are doing your best, giving your best effort. This can be motivating. In King’s words, be a champion. Adjust to the situation! Consider other effective ways to try for yourself.

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