Say This To Overcome Peer Pressure
Overcome peer pressure by saying "No!" to your friends and "Yes!" to your future.
Watch the video and have a discussion with your class or someone you know. Below, there are some suggested questions or writing prompts.
We have all struggled with peer pressure.
There is the pressure to fit in and sometimes there’s the pressure to stand out.
Whatever kind of peer pressure you face, remember this:
“Sometimes saying ‘No!’ to your friends means saying ‘Yes!’ to your future.”
I’m not saying this will always be easy. But stop and think about what you really want for yourself.
I’ll share a statement that worked for me when I was growing up and wanted to avoid giving in to peer pressure:
“No, I’m good.”
After a while, people respected that I would say “No” to certain things. I had to choose BEFORE I got into a peer pressure situation that I was going to say “No” somehow.
It’s the difference between drifting in your life or driving in your life.
Are you drifting and going along with what other people are doing? Or are you driving your life in the direction that you want to go? Even if you don’t know where you want to drive to, like me, you can know where you don’t want to go. I didn’t want to end up on drugs or on the streets.
If you drift, you can end up anywhere.
I had to choose not to drift through life and be taken off the path that I wanted to be on. The choice is the same for you. Will you drift or will you drive?
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
What do you think of the quote, “Sometimes saying ‘No!’ to your friends means saying ‘Yes!’ to your future.”
What kind of peer pressure impacts you the most: trying to fit in or trying to stand out? Why do you think that is?
What do you think of the analogy about drifting in life versus driving in life? How does it relate to peer pressure?
My go-to statement when I faced peer pressure was, “No, I’m good.” Could that statement be helpful for you when facing peer pressure? Why or why not?
Can you think of some other go-to statements for avoiding peer pressure? Tell me about them.
