We are all surrounded by plenty of people in our life. Most of them have your best interest in mind. However there are some not necessarily aiming to hurt or destroy you but will nevertheless cause you to damage your future.
An example can be the friends of your friends. They are the life of the party but they support destructive behaviour. Instead of enjoying your evening the way you want they gently push you towards drinking (more) alcohol then you actually want to drink. They propose to drive the group while having drunk plenty of alcohol themselves or they minimalise the effects alcohol will have on your ability to drive home. Besides the drinking issue an offer will be extended to join them smoking or even to join harassing others verbally or physically.
Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise. – Kobe Bryant
The hard things in life are difficult to obtain. Knowing how to be immune to peer pressure is essential in life. If peer pressure is something you struggle with then you have to work on, if not you could be pressured into doing a lot of painfull and illegal activities. The big step to take is to say no the first time, it will be a battle till the other party accepts your decision. Instead of trying this on a difficult person do this with someone you know well and refuse what they want to do. Your friend may invite you to go to a certain party or drink, instead of accepting search for some other place to go to. If they invite you to go eat at the same place you always go propose something different. See all of this as a pratice run to train your ability to say “no, but”.
From the moment you are able to say “no, but” you are ready to start implementing the “no”. When someone asks you to do something you are allowed to answer “no” to them without having to explain yourself. Ofcourse be carefull with this don’t do this at work or some situations with your parents. Instead first try the next step with someone you are familiar with. If they invite you say you will be busy, this is still an explenation but it doesn’t require you to explain what you are going to do. Obviously to avoid your relationship to suffer you have to find something to do with them next week and invite them. Your relationship will be intact and you have exercised on saying what you really want.
From this point onwards you are ready to refuse peer pressure without further explanation. For example if you have had enough beer for the evening someone will try to force you to take another one. Say no when they offer it. The next step they will take is going to buy one beer for them and one for you. This is where the real pressure kicks in. You said no, stick with it, you don’t want the beer right no so don’t accept it.