Is it possible to put too much pressure on yourself?

[ChaoticCrimson]

yes you can put pressure on yourself, get a copy of you and place it on top of you, then feel your own pressure

Kagebunshin as new ninjutsu confirmed for 5.0 :P

In all seriousness though Kaiva, yes I do believe you can overwhelm yourself if you try pushing too hard. Improvement comes at a different pace for all of us. From what I've been able to tell, seems to me like you've been trying out many different jobs trying to find your niche. That's not bad by any means! But it can also be time consuming as well to learn and improve upon so many different things. If my memory hasn't failed me (and correct me if I'm wrong), I seem to recall that across two different toons you've done raid content as an AST, some kind of tank (PLD I believe?), SMN, DRG I think, and now it seems MNK and NIN as well? I might have missed one or two, but either way that seems like it would be a lot to try to learn and improve enough to be raid ready. That you've been able to do savage content using so many different jobs is already fairly impressive in my book, and also it must have taken a decent effort to even gear them all up enough. It took me months to get to where I'm at with just SMN (which can still use work), and it would probably take me more time if I ever wanted to try savage content again with my RDM even though I'd like to think I understand the job well enough. I certainly couldn't hope to try it out with a different role from DPS altogether anytime soon, as I don't have the best handle on WHM yet, haven't even really bothered with my SCH, and barely even scratched the surface on tanking and aren't even leveled up enough with anything to try raid tanking, let alone being decent at it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that once you've settled into a job you feel works best for you in high-end content, you'll likely be able to develop your skills with that job and see more improvement. Take your time, see what works out. I know it probably seems like a cop-out to say to keep practicing and do your research on rotations, but they're pretty tried and true methods all the same. Also don't try to spread yourself too thin either and, as I'm sure you're tired of hearing by now, don't be too harsh on yourself if you're not yet at the level you want to be at. Like others said, setting goals can help. It's good to have a long-term goal, but it's also just as important, if not more so, to set smaller short-term goals to gradually work through over time, even if it's just upgrading a piece of gear during the week or beating a SSS dummy. Every little bit is a step closer to being where you want to be. And keep working on those EX and savage fights. The more familiarity you get with them, the easier things will get for you. It's understandable to get frustrated sometimes, and I know how hard it can be for you not to be critical of yourself. But I still think you have potential as long as you strive to do well and learn to enjoy the small victories on the way to your ultimate goals. Use your mistakes as learning opportunities, but try not to dwell on them either. Learn from the past, work for the future, but don't ignore what you have in the present either, and you'll be in good shape.

[kikix12]

People have ended up in hospitals and in the morgue...as guest of honor. All because they put too much pressure on themselves.

The answer to this question is a resounding and universal "Yes". You can put too much pressure on yourself regardless of what you do.

[KaivaC]

snip

Without looking at my logs, I've done savage raiding as the following jobs: NIN, MNK, SMN, RDM, SAM, DRG, AST, WAR, PLD, and DRK. I dunno if this is so much as impressive as it's an obvious attempt to be a good raider. That's why I'm kinda sticking with solely NIN right now (not to mention my static loves having Trick Attack, so I'm glued to this job). If there are mistakes, I can usually identify what mechanic I messed up on. When I have a smooth run where I've made no mistakes and everything in my rotation is on point, that's where the bulk of my problems come from. For example, I am using the 5th GCD TA for the vast majority of my runs, as are a lot of the other top NINs I've looking up. Yet, they're pulling out about 1.5k or higher DPS than I am. It's very hard to not be critical about myself when faced with this fact.

It's hard to not be critical when there are plenty of forum members here who are absolutely killing it on the current raid. I would know - I often compare myself to them to see if I can be called a raider.

[HyoMinPark]

It's hard to not be critical when there are plenty of forum members here who are absolutely killing it on the current raid. I would know - I often compare myself to them to see if I can be called a raider.

And that’s your problem: stop comparing yourself to other raiders; to other forum members. You aren’t them, and they aren’t you.

You can study the top NINs. You can analyze their logs and their rotations. You can learn from them. But comparing yourself to them? You do this to yourself when you do that. You put this pressure on yourself when you do that. No one else. And how do you get it to stop?

You stop.

And if you can’t stop?
Then you need to step away from raiding until you can.

[KaivaC]

People have ended up in hospitals and in the morgue...as guest of honor. All because they put too much pressure on themselves.

The answer to this question is a resounding and universal "Yes". You can put too much pressure on yourself regardless of what you do.

That's...that's a tad bit grim dark, innit? I don't think I'm close to a point where I'd end up in a hospital lol. This game isn't THAT important in my life.

And that’s your problem: stop comparing yourself to other raiders; to other forum members. You aren’t them, and they aren’t you.

You can study the top NINs. You can analyze their logs and their rotations. You can learn from them. But comparing yourself to them? You do this to yourself when you do that. You put this pressure on yourself when you do that. No one else. And how do you get it to stop?

You stop.

And if you can’t stop?
Then you need to step away from raiding until you can.

What I'm doing probably falls under misusing the logs, isn't it?

I felt that this was what I was supposed to do, just analyze and do this comparison to see if I was good. Can't step away at the moment because it would be unfair to my static. Regardless, stepping away isn't an option yet.

[HyoMinPark]

What I'm doing probably falls under misusing the logs, isn't it?

I felt that this was what I was supposed to do, just analyze and do this comparison to see if I was good. Can't step away at the moment because it would be unfair to my static. Regardless, stepping away isn't an option yet.

There’s a vast difference between objectively comparing your rotation to the rotation of another NIN to correct errors or learn a more optimal rotation or a better way to use your buffs, and comparing yourself as a player to another NIN. And you know it.

You’re doing the latter; you’ve always done the latter. You aren’t using the logs purely to objectively analyze rotations/buff usage and compare. You’re looking at an orange NIN and lamenting why you aren’t an orange NIN. And no amount of people telling you to stop putting pressure on yourself here or in your Discord or in a different Discord will stop it. Only you can stop it.

And you honestly should. Instead of creating more and more threads lamenting the same things. Because people have told you over and over what you need to do. And it’s time for you to listen.

[Vahlnir]

That's...that's a tad bit grim dark, innit? I don't think I'm close to a point where I'd end up in a hospital lol. This game isn't THAT important in my life.

Your obsession, however, is extremely unhealthy. ESPECIALLY for your mental state. So the person you quoted isn't really too far out in left field. Seriously. People are always trying to tell you this but you don't seem to get it. Or you do and your obsession overrides good judgement. There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve, but if this is all you think about and you're dragging yourself down constantly just because you aren't like someone else there's some underlying issues, methinks. So...stop. Just stop. Cold turkey is best turkey.

[Dornob]

I felt that this was what I was supposed to do, just analyze and do this comparison to see if I was good. Can't step away at the moment because it would be unfair to my static. Regardless, stepping away isn't an option yet.

I fully understand where you're coming from. I used to have some of the same issues where I would worry more about how I'm doing in terms of performance compared to everyone else over my own mental health and that was during a time where I was striving hard to improve. However, this is absolutely not the way to do it. If you're starting to compare your own value to others, to the point where you are going to verbally berate yourself over any slight mistake, then it's very likely time to just take a step back and care more about your own health over a number that you can still improve with a healthier mindset.

And I personally can't speak for the whole 'being unfair to my static' thing, but if you told them you had to step away for at least a little bit in order to try and find a better mindset for these types of things, I would imagine they would be okay with that and be more worried for you as a person than as a number.

[kikix12]

That's...that's a tad bit grim dark, innit? I don't think I'm close to a point where I'd end up in a hospital lol. This game isn't THAT important in my life.

Doesn't matter.

Pressure generates stress. Stress causes production of adrenaline and other hormones that affect nervous systems. Adrenaline and other hormones overburden the nervous system. Overburdened nervous system eventually will give in.

[KaivaC]

Okay... Let's switch things around a bit. I think I've been creating unnecessary worry about me. I'm just an anonymous person behind a monitor lol. So, I'm gonna change up the topic... This is hitting a taaddd bit close.

It was my belief that the good raiders tend to push themselves hard in order to get to where they are, and continue to optimize and improve almost every time that they log in. Maybe I've been going about this the completely wrong way. But don't raiders do something similar? When they start to feel that pressure to be better, I'm sure many of them didn't step away in the middle of a raid tier. My methods might be wrong, but my goal has always been the same: to be good. Nothing more, nothing less.

edit: in regards to the whole thing about my static, they didn't have to take me - I showed them my logs when my best was, and currently still is, hitting around 4k on normal Omega v12. So I do feel obliged in a sense - to me, it's just a sign of respect to them for taking me.

edit 2: Bah, I meant to change the lane of discussion away from me.