Peer Pressure

SRIRAM RAGHAVENDRAN shares some wise words and his personal experience of managing peer pressure when he was at college.

There is this beautiful story of two men sawing a large log of wood. As they sat on the shores of a river, one man on each side of this log, pushing and pulling at the saw for a long time, for the log was a large one.

A passer-by stopped to watch what was going on, observed for several minutes, and suggested, "You know, if I may say so, I think your saw is blunt. Why don't you take a few minutes to sharpen it?" The men looked up at the onlooker with incredulity and said, "Can't you see how much work we have? How can we afford to take time off?"

Life today is increasingly demanding. The pressures of our environment relentlessly bear down upon us, but do they have the same effect on everyone? Why is it that one person buckles under pressure, whereas another copes well? It is a moot point.

Strain is what a given environment imposes, but stress is what is felt by the individual. For the same level of strain, one person handles it with aplomb, whereas another is completely stressed out. The environment is the same, the levels of strain are the same, but one person is better equipped to deal with it. How to develop this inner ability? The answer is simple - sharpen your saw!