The Pressure to Succeed: Self-Acceptance and ‘Productivity’

THE PRESSURE TO SUCCEED:

SELF-ACCEPTANCE AND ‘PRODUCTIVITY’

As summer approaches and deadlines are a thing of the past, many young people - myself included - are faced with the monumental task of building our CV, gaining work experience, and making ourselves more employable (whatever that means). We are faced with the constant pressure to succeed, work hard, and always be looking out for the next opportunity that might help us climb the shining career ladder. Whilst this is not a new phenomenon, as, with many other things, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the difficulty of finding placements seemingly ten-fold. Speaking from my own experience. I have spent many hours trawling through LinkedIn and Google looking for some kind of work experience that I could gain some skills and insight from. I was often faced with replies such as “Sorry, due to the ongoing pandemic, we are unable to offer placements this year.”

I know I am not the only young adult who is facing these issues at the moment. Many of us are wondering how on earth we are ever going to get jobs or land on our feet. This fear - at least in my case - is exacerbated by social media being swamped with people appearing to succeed, having breakthroughs, and bettering themselves.

Indeed, the buzz term ‘hustle culture’ is being thrown around a lot at the moment. This describes the idea that, in the working world, we must be ‘on’ 24/7 and have a side hustle to make us extra money, whilst also holding down a social life and extra-curricular activities. Grace Beverley (fitness influencer turned business woman extraordinaire) has recently published her first book ‘Working Hard, or Hardly Working’ (2021). She describes how she feels hustle

culture has impacted her career journey, and how she has overcome it to create her own work-life balance.

With all this pressure to hustle, improve your CV and better yourself - all amidst a pandemic - is it any wonder that recent graduates are experiencing mass burn-out?

Not wanting to sound like a stereotypically complaining millennial, I think it is important to address some of these issues and try to come up with a solution, rather than wallowing in my despair. The approach I take is two-fold: on one hand, we have to realise that our CV does not define us, and that our mental health and perception of ourselves is more important than our LinkedIn pages. There are also ways to tackle this issue in stages, without suffocating ourselves.

1)  We are more than our CVs

Whilst I am well aware I need to earn a living and, by extension, require a CV, I have found it useful to remind myself that I am more than this brief summary of my working life and qualifications. It is so easy to get wrapped up in a downward spiral along the lines of “How am I ever going to get this job if I can't get this placement, and I will never get the placement if I don't get a good degree and have a list of experiences as long as my arm”; but this kind of thinking never helped anyone. In fact, often  times the most successful people faced rejection again and again and had to build themselves back up each time.

I think the most important thing you can do is believe in yourself, and your own ambition, drive, and determination. Everyone faces difficulties and very rarely does anyone go down the exact path they had planned out for themselves. If we can learn to accept that we are good enough on our own, as a separate entity from our CVs perhaps we will be better equipped to tackle  setbacks and pressure as it comes to us, rather than creating it for ourselves.

In my own progression, I have found it best to view my CV and work experience, not as a representative of myself, but merely as an attachment alongside my actual self. Once I reached that stage, it was easier to believe that even though I could not succeed 100% of the time, I had enough already, even without a placement or volunteering title.

2) There are productive ways to approach the world of work experience

Grace Beverley (2021) describes new kinds

of productivity that have meant she is able to avoid burn-out and stay focused on her own goals. A key takeaway from her book is that productivity is not working as hard as you can all the time or keeping your day busy from dusk till dawn. Instead, it is about finding a structure that allows you to produce work to the highest quality. She describes herself as a ‘lazy workaholic’, a term many of us might identify with - and that has value. Rather than being addicted to improving our CVs and being wired to our computers, it is surely better to learn how to work less and gain more. Unfortunately, this might take a little bit of trial and error. However, once  you have gauged what works for you in terms of finding work experience, studying, and working, it should become a little easier.

3) Continuing to navigate

The upshot of this is that it is basically redundant to consume yourself with self-doubt and worry about your future. I am constantly reminded by those older than myself to ‘not worry’, and that ‘everything will fall into place’, and that I ‘don’t have to get it right first time’. Whilst this can be hard to swallow, given that we are facing a new time in the job market, there is a good point among this advice: your CV will not magically become like Mark Zuckerberg’s if you keep worrying about it.

In my experience, the best thing you can do to navigate these choppy waters is to remember your self-worth aside from a short document. Work effectively for you, and regularly check in with yourself to make sure you aren't falling for the mirage of a ‘perfect’ candidate, LinkedIn profile, or CV.