Good Pressure, Nice Pressure

  
CAN PEER PRESSURE BE POSITIVE?  WHY OR WHY NOT?
Of course pressure can be positive.  The word pressure, like the word stress, often gets a bad rap (?) in today's world.  it all has to do with our perception of the pressure's source and an analysis of their motives.
This last year, I got a pressure cooker, which had never had before.  It takes a big ole hunk of beef or pork and turns it into very tender, cut-with-your-fork meat and a tasty part of a meal.  That's a good pressure.  But, of course, the pressure cooker is an inanimate object, and I've never felt the necessity to assign motives to its actions in my corner of the space-time continuum.
If we turn to the realm of minerals, there is the fact that pressure and time can turn a hunk of coal into a diamond.  I'd rather have a bracelet of teeny diamonds than of teeny pieces of coal.  Anyone?
How about friends nudging you back into the dating world an appropriate time after a bad break-up?  Depending on how badly you were burned, that first step back can be nearly impossible to take on your own.  (Like the season I worked at an Amazon warehouse and had to slide my feet along the floor because I could not pick them up off the ground.  but that's another story).
So, a little well-intentioned peer pressure can cause us to focus on our project or goal, and get to the pot of gold sooner.  And like some of my neighbors say, "Ain't nothin' wrong with that."