Tips to help you deal with pressures and responsibilities in high school

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Pressure & Responsibilities

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Read the night before even if you don’t have an assignment for that class. If you’re just one small step ahead of the class, you will enjoy the material more and be able to participate in class.
—Stephen, 22

I try to answer multiple-choice questions in my head before I look at the answer choices. Sometimes one of the answers is the same as what I came up with.
—Michael, 17

Perfectionism and Adolescence

High school is a time of extremes for one and all. Peer pressure is at its most intense. Your physical appearance and athletic ability take on enormous importance. Dating begins and having good grades is essential for getting into a good college (or getting into one at all). Consequently, even if you are already getting terrific grades, wowing them on the football field or soloing with the high school orchestra, you may push yourself even harder, driving yourself unmercifully and living in a near-constant state of stress and tension.
What with early-morning team practices, classes, extracurricular activities, after-school jobs and homework, your schedule is jam-packed, leaving you no time for relaxation. As a budding perfectionist, even dating can seem like a competitive sport. And dissatisfaction with your body may lead to extremes in dieting and exercise, even eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia or steroid abuse.
—Miriam Elliott and Susan Meltsner

Making Choices

Ways in which we make decisions:

By impulse
By procrastinating or “putting off” making a decision
By not deciding
By letting others make the decision for us
By evaluating all choices and then deciding

Explore the advantages, disadvantages and possible consequences of these different ways to make decisions.

Making Choices

The best process to use when you are making an important decision involves the following steps:

Step 1: Name the choices or alternatives involved in your decision.
Step 2: Gather information about the decision. Consider your personal values, your goals and the facts you need to know.
Step 3: List the advantages and disadvantages of each choice
Step 4: Make your decision and list your reasons for this choice.

What if you make a poor choice?

Admit it. Be honest and accountable.
Accept the consequences.
Do what you can to make up for your poor choice and turn it into something positive.
Learn from your choice.
Ask someone you trust to monitor your progress and give you support and encouragement.
Make a personal commitment to make better choices in the future.

Adapted from Carol Cassell, “Making Decisions Step by Step.” Paper presented at the Ben Franklin Institute Summit for Clinical Excellence: Third Conference on Adolescence, April, 2004. Also, Barbara Lewis, What Do You Stand For? A Kid’s Guide to Building Character (Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing, 1998), 30.

Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.
—Norman Augustine

How to engage your brain.

How to “study harder.”

Surviving the tests.

Eating before a test.

Problems with perfectionism.

Relaxation techniques.

Stories about pressures and responsibilities.

Resources dealing with pressures and responsibilities.

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