The fear of getting it wrong

I think the older we get the more we worry about getting things wrong. Understandably we don't want to look stupid, or not know something that we perhaps feel we should know. But sometimes this fear of getting things wrong actually does slow our progress and this is evident in driver training. 


Consider all the people who actually have a vested interest in your driving lessons, there is you, your parents, your friends your instructor and at some point a driving examiner. That is a lot of people that you may feel you need to be getting it right for. 


A student this week who is also taking private practice said to me that she couldn't drive with me like she does with her sister. Her understanding was that she had to drive 'properly' in her lessons but her sister who didn't say anything whilst she drove it didn't really matter.


I guarantee her sister currently observes a better more comfortable drive than I currently do. Why? Well my student is driving for herself during her private practice, she is monitoring what feels right, what feels uncomfortable and making decisions and adjustments accordingly. 


However something I need to work on changing quickly, during her lessons she is ignoring her own thoughts and feeling (to a certain extent) in order to drive the car the way she perceives that I would like her to drive and ultimately the driving examiner. Her fear of getting things wrong, i.e. failing the driving test is actually stopping her from developing her own very important self evaluation skills.


This skills are far more an important tool that the official driving test and examiner who observes driving for only about 30 minutes. Because these skills are the ones that my student is going to use beyond her driving test, when there is no one else to evaluate her driving. 


If you are learning to drive consider how you are feeling when you are driving, are you driving the way you would like to drive or are you driving for your instructor/ examiner? If its the latter consider how you are going to choose to drive after your driving test and if you have enough skills to evaluated your driving and be aware of any weaknesses.