Pressure to Perform and Attitudes to Learning

Unfortunately, although the topic of learning is such a big and important part of human life, it also has its downsides, which we would like to talk about in this post. What is the connection between pressure to perform and learning?

The Attitude Towards Learning

One point that should definitely not be neglected when learning is the attitude towards this topic.

There are situations in life in which we are told that and what we have to learn. Whether at school, university, at work or at home, we simply can’t avoid some lessons and learning content. Here, the motivation for learning is usually limited. These cases lead to the topic often triggering negative thoughts or feelings in us. We find it exhausting, annoying, time-consuming, feel pressured and resist it accordingly.

But even these situations have their positive aspects somewhere. Because even if it’s not about our favorite topic, we grow by learning something new that educates us and thus enables personal development.

Where Does the Pressure to Perform in Learning Come From?

The causes of pressure to perform and learning are manifold. Here are some of the most common ones briefly explained:

• Demands: Often high pressure comes from the demands you think you have to meet yourself or other people, such as friends, family, teachers or superiors.
• Fear of failure: With the thought of having to meet all demands usually comes the fear of failure. We fear disappointing ourselves or our fellow human beings through poor performance. Most of the time, however, we give exam results, grades or evaluations by others far too much weight for our own lives and make our self-worth dependent on them. But a grade or achievement does not define who you are as a person. Therefore, sometimes it is good to look at the bigger picture and look at the successes that have already been achieved and see what you have already achieved. This can reduce the pressure and anxiety somewhat and increase motivation for the task at hand, so that it can be tackled confidently.
• Comparison with others: Another big trigger for pressure to perform in learning is the comparison with other people. You want to be just as good or even better than the successful colleague, the supervisor or the other family member in order to receive the appropriate recognition or admiration.
  A certain comparison with others can also be beneficial, offer orientation, spur you on or help you to assess yourself better. In extreme form, however, it usually has a negative effect on one’s own self-perception, self-esteem or motivation.
• Procrastination: Due to the permanent postponement and not completing tasks, sooner or later there is great time pressure, especially if there are exam dates or deadlines. This automatically increases the pressure to perform, as you have to perform the same amount of time in a shorter time if you want to achieve the originally planned goal. To avoid this, it is important to create a learning plan and stick to it. You can find more details about the appropriate schedule and other requirements for effective learning in our other blog post.

What is the Best Way to Deal with Pressure to Perform while Learning?

In general, it is important to find the right balance on almost all points. There is nothing wrong with wanting to perform well and spending a lot of work on it when it fulfills you. Nevertheless, you should not neglect your physical and mental health and pay attention to a good balance. Because in the end, our self-worth and our health are always more important than an evaluation of our performance by others. It is normal and important for our further development to make mistakes and experience setbacks in order to learn how to deal with them.

As far as the topic of comparison with others is concerned, the right measure is the crux of the matter. Since it is human to compare yourself to others and often happens unconsciously, you will probably never be able to turn this off completely. But you shouldn’t do it excessively, but focus on yourself, try to become better than you were in the past and take this as an incentive.

Development Instead of Competition

Even if this sounds more like a hackneyed phrase by now, there is a grain of truth behind it. After all, learning should be about developing, educating and constantly improving oneself and not about competing with others.

Breaks also play an important role. When the pressure is great, you have the feeling that you have to learn all the time. In every free minute in which you rest or do something else, you think you are wasting time, because you could and should study. But this only increases the pressure further and leads to the fact that you can no longer relax at all. If you stick to your study plan well, there should be no reason to feel bad. Breaks are important and essential for the effectiveness and success of learning. They should therefore be regularly and firmly scheduled and consistently adhered to.

Cognitive Dissonance

This also plays an important role in the topic of learning, because it usually gets in our way. Basically, as human beings, we always want to live in harmony with our own values and worldviews. However, sometimes it happens that we get information or learn something that does not align with our worldview or values. This leads to an unpleasant emotional state, as you have to question yourself.

Explained here with an example: A person learns that smoking massively damages his health and that it can be fatal. This causes cognitive dissonance, as he likes to do it and now has to question his behavior because of the information.

In this situation, there are 3 ways to bring yourself and your emotional state back into consensus:

1. You can adapt your attitudes, values, views, actions, etc. to the new information. Example: Smoker stops smoking.
2. The new information is relativized or the responsibility is shifted to others. Example: Raucher finds the one person who has smoked all his life and lived to be 100 years old and then says that there are exceptions to which he can also belong. Or he blames the companies and sees it as their responsibility to produce cigarettes with less harmful ingredients.
3. The new information is ignored or denied its accuracy. Example: Smoker claims it is not unhealthy and forgets the information again.

Don’t Worry

The moral of the story here is that we shouldn’t be afraid of cognitive dissonance. It may be unpleasant, but at the same time it is also the key to making immense progress in the area of one’s own further development. To put it more simply: “I would like to learn something, but nothing that makes me question my worldview” is probably not the most sensible attitude when it comes to learning if you actually want to educate and develop as a human being.

In conclusion, we conclude that a positive attitude towards learning itself has a great influence on learning success and on a person’s personal development. So it’s definitely worth thinking about and reflecting on this topic.

Of course, many of the aspects listed here are always easier said than done. But after all, it’s not about doing everything perfectly and implementing every point immediately. This is also a personal learning process that takes time. But since there is no grade here for dealing with pressure to perform and the attitude to learning, you can approach the matter without any pressure to improve for yourself.