The Tyranny of the Shoulds
When Your Own Expectations Become Your Prison Have you ever caught yourself saying, “I should be stronger,” “I should be further along in life,” or “I should be coping better by now”? Those little words — I should — may seem harmless, but sometimes they become the loudest voices in our minds. They turn our expectations into rules, our mistakes into failures and our struggles into reasons to criticise ourselves. In life coaching, we call this the tyranny of the shoulds . When “I should” becomes “I am not enough” The tyranny of the shoulds refers to the pressure we place on ourselves to live up to rigid expectations of who we believe we ought to be. We tell ourselves we should always be strong, always be productive, always be available for others, always have the answers and always keep moving forward, but what happens when life doesn't cooperate? What happens when you are emotionally exhausted, when your plans fall apart, when you experience disappointment or when you simpl...
