INTRODUCTION
Peer pressure.
The name is usually associated to bad behaviors and waywardness. It is the only explanation why that child suddenly began a journey on the wrong path. It has to be why the wife stopped being respectful or why the husband stopped being faithful or why that child bound for heaven suddenly left the straight and narrow for the highway leading to hell.
But I came to realize it doesn't have to be bad. Peer pressure can be good too.
EXPERIENCES
I am a very laid back person, or at least I used to be, and except for my short bursts of displeasure where I speak my mind and leave you to decide if I am really angry, I could always understand your point. Always.
Now why that may sound to be a good thing, it also meant I also didn't push myself to achieve much. I mean, I had nothing to motivate me and no I was not fighting depression, I just didn't see a need to pursue excellence and so I lived a comfortable average life. I was no failure, but I was also not successful.
It also meant that I could not be affected by peer pressure. No matter how bad (or good) you were, you can't affect my behavior. I had to be involved to be influenced, right? I was just cocooned in a world in my head. Thinking about it now, I still can't explain it.
Well all these was so until I met my friends.
My Bible Study Group.
I met this group in church and when I spent time with them, argued, debated, shared, studied, ate and prayed with them, I began to crack. The constant pressure of their presence cracked the unexplainable walls I had around my mind. That was when I began to attempt great things.
In months, I became a ghostwriter, a blogger and a began actively thinking about my finances and my future.
PEER SUPPORT
Okay, maybe I should call it Peer Support and not Peer Pressure, but supports also apply pressure if you ask me. These friends of mine never spoke about my life, but listening to them share their life experiences and daily struggles with work, relationships, career goals and other things, I began thinking like them. The pressure was not blatantly obvious, and had I not been self-aware, I wouldn't have pinned down what happened.
My Peer Pressure
Peers are great, they are necessary, just surround yourself with peers worth emulating. Someone said
show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are
Maybe that's not always the case, but it is many times the case, at the right temperature and pressure.
The Bible says
... Evil communication corruption good manners.
This is obvious and it's probably the reason the phrase 'peer pressure' is considered bad. But the Bible also says
We should not forsake the assembly of brethren.
MY POINT
Peer pressure does not have to be bad. It is a law of nature that we become more like what we behold. You want to excel, find and make peers who are actively pursuing excellence. You want to be more loving, find people who believe the solution to the world's problem is love.
You get the drift.
Community makes the world go round. Communities are made up of categories of peer groups which support each other in their own way.
To the parents, except your children are in their own world like I was, pray and maybe direct them towards the 'right' peer groups, and the need to worry will be reduced.
Finally, the way I learned a language (Yoruba) was by walking back home with girls from that tribe for three years. I didn't even know I learned it, until I had to speak it. It just came out.
Someone said...
You stay long enough in a barber's shop, and you'll get a haircut.
Go be great!
Djoi Writes
