Speaker:
00:00:33
In this episode, we're going to talk about practicing your driving.
Speaker:
00:00:38
It's a theme that came up after the last episode where somebody was saying
Speaker:
00:00:42
that it felt like it was going to take them for ever to learn to drive.
Speaker:
00:00:46
And it got us thinking about how actually that just meant
Speaker:
00:00:49
that somebody had more practice.
Speaker:
00:00:51
And what were the benefits of that?
Speaker:
00:00:53
Yeah.
Speaker:
00:00:53
So what we're going to do today is let's talk about what you're going
Speaker:
00:00:58
to practice and when do you practice and how long do you practice it for.
Speaker:
00:01:04
So, Tracey, tell me a little bit about the theory behind practicing.
Speaker:
00:01:09
So when it comes to confidence, there are a few different factors that are
Speaker:
00:01:14
well-researched as showing that they make people feel more confident within a task.
Speaker:
00:01:19
One of those factors is achieving success.
Speaker:
00:01:22
So when somebody has had past successes, that makes them feel more confident when
Speaker:
00:01:28
they repeat those tasks or do them again.
Speaker:
00:01:31
So clearly if somebody is practicing their driving.
Speaker:
00:01:36
They've got more opportunity to have success in those practices and the
Speaker:
00:01:41
more success they have, then the more confident they're going to feel.
Speaker:
00:01:45
So would you say that they practice everything or is it about choosing what
Speaker:
00:01:50
they don't feel confident in to practice?
Speaker:
00:01:54
I guess it's starting where you are.
Speaker:
00:01:57
Okay.
Speaker:
00:01:57
So starting with, the things that are in your comfort zone.
Speaker:
00:02:01
But it's no good.
Speaker:
00:02:03
Just keeping on practicing what's in your comfort zone and
Speaker:
00:02:06
not going near the other tasks.
Speaker:
00:02:08
So, really acknowledging what's in your comfort zone and what
Speaker:
00:02:13
things are more challenging?
Speaker:
00:02:16
And making sure that your practicing the things that are more
Speaker:
00:02:20
challenging because gradually the more you practice those things.
Speaker:
00:02:23
Then the more they are going to slip into your comfort zone as well.
Speaker:
00:02:27
So the idea actually is practising so that you're gradually working
Speaker:
00:02:32
your way through all of the tasks, so that they're in your comfort zone.
Speaker:
00:02:36
And thats not to say that you don't continue to practice the things
Speaker:
00:02:39
that are in your comfort zone,
Speaker:
00:02:40
but I guess I'm just saying to keep an eye and make sure you're not solely
Speaker:
00:02:44
practicing those things and ignoring the things that you find more challenging.
Speaker:
00:02:48
So, yes, practicing everything.
Speaker:
00:02:51
So one of the tools I use is the driving wheel.
Speaker:
00:02:54
And on that people have a list of tasks or a syllabus and they use the coaching
Speaker:
00:03:02
wheel to actually find out what they need to practice, so I think that's a great
Speaker:
00:03:06
tool for people to come out of their comfort zone, and work on things that
Speaker:
00:03:11
they aren't necessarily confident in, but notice that they need some work on or
Speaker:
00:03:17
something that they haven't even done yet.
Speaker:
00:03:19
So I think that's a great way of doing it and finding out what you need to practice.
Speaker:
00:03:24
So how long do you practice something?
Speaker:
00:03:27
So you mentioned practicing until they become more confident in it or
Speaker:
00:03:33
practicing until it becomes in their comfort zone, so, how would they know
Speaker:
00:03:37
that it's in their comfort zone now, if they're practicing that task, Yeah,
Speaker:
00:03:42
I think that is, well, certainly the people that we work one-to-one with,
Speaker:
00:03:46
that's something that we encourage them to really think about and to group tasks
Speaker:
00:03:51
into what are they comfortable with?
Speaker:
00:03:54
What's challenging.
Speaker:
00:03:55
What makes them feel more panicky or fearful for example,
Speaker:
00:04:00
so actually thinking about it.
Speaker:
00:04:03
One of the great things about practicing is that it helps tasks, Daisy chain
Speaker:
00:04:08
together and become more automatic.
Speaker:
00:04:11
You'll probably be able to give a better Daisy chain example of driving than me
Speaker:
00:04:15
Kev, but I'm thinking along the lines of when you're first approaching a
Speaker:
00:04:20
roundabout as a learner, then I'm guessing that's made up of lots of little tasks.
Speaker:
00:04:26
So managing your speed is one thing.
Speaker:
00:04:29
Changing gear is a task all on its own, or even putting the clutch down it's all
Speaker:
00:04:34
made up of these little individual tasks.
Speaker:
00:04:37
But the more you practice, the more those individual tasks become automatic.
Speaker:
00:04:43
They Daisy chained together until it becomes a situation
Speaker:
00:04:47
of, you're not thinking of all the individual little tasks.
Speaker:
00:04:51
You're just approaching a roundabout, so a bit like as toddlers, when you're first
Speaker:
00:04:56
learning to get dressed as a toddler.
Speaker:
00:04:58
Then it's all about trying to get your arms and legs in the
Speaker:
00:05:00
right place and trying to get socks on as individual tasks.
Speaker:
00:05:04
But as an adult, we just go and get dressed.
Speaker:
00:05:07
Now the really important thing about Daisy chaining tasks together is that
Speaker:
00:05:12
once they become automatic, several tasks grouped together in one automatic action.
Speaker:
00:05:20
They're less influenced by stress.
Speaker:
00:05:23
So they take up less space, less cognitive load for us to do and carry out.
Speaker:
00:05:30
They take the less thinking about, as individual tasks
Speaker:
00:05:34
it becomes one bigger task.
Speaker:
00:05:36
And that means that when you're in a stressful situation, actually,
Speaker:
00:05:41
they're less impacted by stress.
Speaker:
00:05:43
They're easier to do.
Speaker:
00:05:45
That's really interesting.
Speaker:
00:05:46
So it's like, taking bits of what they've done previously so even if it
Speaker:
00:05:51
was just moving off and stopping so you're noticing how they move away, how
Speaker:
00:05:56
they stop a car, how they change gear.
Speaker:
00:05:59
When they become better at that, they can put two tasks together.
Speaker:
00:06:03
They can move away and change gear.
Speaker:
00:06:07
And then they can slow down change to lower gear and stop.
Speaker:
00:06:11
So you you're quite right.
Speaker:
00:06:12
What you're doing is you are putting lots of little tasks
Speaker:
00:06:15
together to make one big task.
Speaker:
00:06:18
But doing it in such a way, it becomes easier, but noticing how you're doing
Speaker:
00:06:22
it so you can put that task into a different task again, you can use
Speaker:
00:06:26
that same task over and over again.
Speaker:
00:06:29
In different situations.
Speaker:
00:06:31
And again, if you realize what you're doing and why you're doing
Speaker:
00:06:34
it, what that does is that's got to give you confidence if you just
Speaker:
00:06:38
repeat it in a different situation.
Speaker:
00:06:40
So that's exactly what we're after isn't it?
Speaker:
00:06:42
So I've got a question we've called this podcast practice makes
Speaker:
00:06:46
better, but the phrase people use is practice makes perfect.
Speaker:
00:06:50
What's your thoughts on that?
Speaker:
00:06:53
I don't think perfect is what we're aiming for.
Speaker:
00:06:56
I've had lots of practice at driving and my driving certainly
Speaker:
00:06:59
isn't perfect and we're not really aiming at perfection we're aiming at
Speaker:
00:07:05
safe, confident competent driving.
Speaker:
00:07:09
Let's try not to be perfectionist about this.
Speaker:
00:07:12
For me, aiming for perfection is always a bit of a danger signal it just
Speaker:
00:07:17
brings in so much stress and anxiety perfectionism is loaded with anxiety.
Speaker:
00:07:24
So yeah, we're not aiming for perfection.
Speaker:
00:07:27
We're aiming for better.
Speaker:
00:07:29
And that makes so much sense.
Speaker:
00:07:30
And for me when we're training people
Speaker:
00:07:34
it's how long do people practice the same task?
Speaker:
00:07:37
Well, think of it this way if you had to do parking for instance,
Speaker:
00:07:42
are you confident parking in a car park where it's fairly empty?
Speaker:
00:07:48
Or are you confident parking in a car park where there's only one
Speaker:
00:07:53
space left and it's really busy.
Speaker:
00:07:55
How confident would you be doing that task?
Speaker:
00:07:58
Or would you be happy at parallel parking on a quiet road.
Speaker:
00:08:04
Or are you confident parallel parking on a busy road?
Speaker:
00:08:08
So again, rate it yourself how high are you at completing a
Speaker:
00:08:12
task in different situations.
Speaker:
00:08:14
And I think this is where the practice makes better
Speaker:
00:08:17
comes into its own really finding out for yourself, how confident am I at
Speaker:
00:08:24
completing a task in various different situations rather than one area where it's
Speaker:
00:08:30
quiet so staying in your comfort zone.
Speaker:
00:08:33
Come out of that comfort zone and ask yourself how confident am
Speaker:
00:08:37
I to do this task in this area.
Speaker:
00:08:40
Yeah and
Speaker:
00:08:41
I'm guessing automatically the more you practice, the more you're
Speaker:
00:08:44
driving, the more you're naturally just going to come across different
Speaker:
00:08:49
situations and different scenarios.
Speaker:
00:08:52
That you might not have experienced before.
Speaker:
00:08:55
So those little things that as a driving instructor, you can't set up
Speaker:
00:08:58
for somebody you don't know when there's going to be blue lights behind you.
Speaker:
00:09:03
You don't know when somebody is going to step out in the road in front of
Speaker:
00:09:07
you, all those little things that you can't actually plan to practice.
Speaker:
00:09:12
The more you practice your driving, the more driving experience you
Speaker:
00:09:16
get the more likely you are to come across those different situations.
Speaker:
00:09:21
And that's all going to build your confidence.
Speaker:
00:09:24
And, the more practice you get, the more experience you're getting on the road.
Speaker:
00:09:28
So I think the more experience you have on the road, you're going to
Speaker:
00:09:32
become a more confident driver because you've experienced more situations.
Speaker:
00:09:36
Yeah.
Speaker:
00:09:36
Now, definitely on that one, because when I was doing my research for my degree,
Speaker:
00:09:41
I did my study around driving.
Speaker:
00:09:44
And so those people that I surveyed for my research, I found that the
Speaker:
00:09:49
people who drove more frequently where, the more confident drivers,
Speaker:
00:09:55
but also they were the people who had less negative thoughts about driving.
Speaker:
00:09:59
So there was a little questionnaire that I used about how often do you
Speaker:
00:10:03
think these thoughts while you're driving and the people who drove more
Speaker:
00:10:06
frequently pretty much had never, or rarely as all of those answers.
Speaker:
00:10:11
Whereas the people who drove less frequently started to go higher up
Speaker:
00:10:16
the scale and say that they were having more negative thoughts about
Speaker:
00:10:20
their driving while they were driving.
Speaker:
00:10:23
So, yeah more experience is going to make for a more confident
Speaker:
00:10:26
driver in most scenarios.
Speaker:
00:10:28
That's generalizing a little bit, but yeah, and I think it's not just
Speaker:
00:10:33
for people learning, to drive at the moment people that have passed their
Speaker:
00:10:36
test as well, carry on practicing.
Speaker:
00:10:39
And practicing will make you better.
Speaker:
00:10:42
Yeah.
Speaker:
00:10:42
And we're all still a practicing.
Speaker:
00:10:44
After we had that conversation with Matt and we were talking about
Speaker:
00:10:47
bubbles again, and we've talked about having our driving safety bubbles
Speaker:
00:10:51
a couple of times in podcasts.
Speaker:
00:10:53
And shortly after that, I had to drive
Speaker:
00:10:55
up the M6 a four hour journey with our grandson next to me.
Speaker:
00:11:00
And I was really focusing on my safety bubble.
Speaker:
00:11:04
So still practicing, still learning new things trying new things.
Speaker:
00:11:09
So we're all still practicing.
Speaker:
00:11:11
Exactly.
Speaker:
00:11:11
And even if you get a new car.
Speaker:
00:11:13
Oh, yeah.
Speaker:
00:11:15
And that's again, something that's going to be different.
Speaker:
00:11:17
So practice.
Speaker:
00:11:19
Take time, be kind on yourself notice what you notice and then enjoy practicing.
Speaker:
00:11:25
Great.
Speaker:
00:11:25
Well, hopefully you found that helpful.
Speaker:
00:11:28
How much do you practice?
Speaker:
00:11:30
Do you feel that you haven't had enough practice and you need more?
Speaker:
00:11:33
Let us know if any of this resonates with you and all of our contact details
Speaker:
00:11:37
are in the show notes as always.
Speaker:
00:11:39
We'd love to hear from you.
Speaker:
00:11:41
And so until next time, have a great day, whatever you're doing.
