Mindset

As people progress through life, their mindset will change a bit depending on their circumstances, but mindset is not something that just happens to you.  Mindset is something that you work at every day of your life whether you realize it or not.  As a teen, your body and mind are going through some formative changes right now.  You can have an effect on some of the changes in your body by watching what you eat, getting enough sleep and getting proper exercise, but for the most part the changes are out of your control.  You can’t control many of the changes occurring in your mind either, but the one thing that you have full control over, even as a teen when oftentimes you feel like you don’t control much, is your mindset.  Being able to control your mindset is one of the most powerful tools that you have and it will have a dramatic affect on the rest of your life.  Your mindset toward driving and your mindset while driving are perhaps the most important part of your driver’s education training.

Your mindset affects every moment of your day, makes a dramatic difference in your entire life and really shapes who you are in this world.  Mindset can be thought of as your attitude, your outlook, your insight and your depth.  In short, it is the way you look at life.  In long, it is your life.  The way that you think about and perceive what is happening to you every moment of every day will shape your mindset.  When something undesirable happens to you, you can think “why do bad things always happen to me?” or you can think “That wasn’t so good, how can I make sure that doesn’t happen again in the future?”.  These are two fundamentally different ways of thinking about your world and how you allow it to affect you.  Consider this saying “Rain can make you wet, but it can’t make you angry.”.  This sums up your mindset in a nutshell.  Mindset is how you view life.  You can go through your life seeing things form a negative point of view or a positive point of view.  You can decide to be happy, sad, angry, stressed out, irritated or any number of different emotions.  The point is that all of your emotions come from inside of you and they shape who you are.  Everyone has good days and bad days, but if you make a conscious decision to control your mindset, you will control your life.

This is true for driving as well.  You were probably wondering when this would get back to driver’s education weren’t you.  The way that you think about your driving will have a huge impact on it.  You must have the attitude that you are going to be a safe and effective driver that is in control.  In control of your car, your emotions, your passengers and your future.  You are not simply driving, you are in control of your future when you drive.  Never before have you held so much power in your hands as you do on the first day that you take control of an automobile.  The average car might weigh about 4,000 pounds, and you are in total control of that.  You now decide how your life and everyone’s life around you will progress.  At least while you are behind the wheel.

To drive well you must clear your mind of all of the clutter and concentrate on driving.  You can’t be thinking about your math homework while driving, you can’t be carrying on a deep and meaningful discussion with someone while driving.  Driving is important enough and complex enough that it should command all of your concentration.  Your mindset needs to be that you are alert, prepared, in control and positive.  Do not let emotions affect your driving.  Driving sad and driving mad can impact everyone around you.  When you are overly emotional whether positively or negatively, you are not an effective driver.  You need to be clear minded.  One of the quickest ways to mess up your mind is by using drugs and alcohol.  Never, under any circumstance, get behind the wheel when you are under the influence and never get in the car with anyone under the influence.  That needs to be a hard and fast rule in your life, but that is a discussion for another page.  OWI, DWI, OUI

As with your mindset in the rest of your life, you control your mindset while driving.  An inconsiderate driver who cuts you off in traffic can cause an accident, but they can’t make you angry.  You must choose to be angry, and, as is true with most of your life, choosing anger is not a good idea while driving.  It will cloud your judgement and you will lose your effectiveness.  If you find yourself unable to control your emotions while driving, it is probably a good idea to park and take a walk until you regain control.

You must drive defensively (be in a defensive mindset) while driving.  Always remember, you can be doing everything correctly and still end up in a terrible car crash.  You must always be of the mindset that the other driver might do something wrong or the pedestrian might run out in traffic or the tire might blow out or road might be slippery or your engine might quit working, etc..  You can’t obsess over all of the potential things that could go wrong while driving, but you must be prepared for everything.  You must always be scanning all around to be sure that nothing catches you by surprise, you must always be aware of the cars nearest to you so that you know how to react in an emergency situation.  When driving defensively, not only will you be watching out for what other drivers might do, you will also be planning for what you might do.  Let’s say a deer ran into the road in front of your car.  What would you do?  The inexperienced driver might say “hit the brakes” or “swerve around it”.  The correct answer might be one of these, or it might be “do nothing”.  We have no way of knowing what the safest alternative is in an emergency situation if we aren’t aware of our surroundings.  If there is a car right behind you, hitting the brakes is probably not the right answer.  If there are cars to the right or left of you or if it would cause you to go off of the road, swerving is not the right answer.  We must know our surroundings to know how to react, and in an emergency situation we have only micro-seconds to react.  Once the emergency presents itself you may not have time to look around, you must know your surroundings.

You must control what is happening inside of your car.  You must have the mindset that you are responsible for this car and anything that goes on inside it.  Never let things get out of control in the car you are operating and if things are getting out of control and you are a passenger, asked to be let out of the car immediately.  Insist on the proper behavior while you are driving.  Insist that everyone have their seat belt fastened every time, before the car even moves.  Some people may think that wearing a seat belt should be a personal choice and that they should be able to do what they want, and they may be correct, just not in a car that I am driving.  I am in control of this car and I know that seat belts save lives, so you are wearing one or you are not riding with me.  I will not be responsible for someone’s death due to an unfastened seat belt.  Life is far too important and valuable.  This also goes for loud yelling, obnoxious behavior, grabbing the wheel, hanging out the window, doing drugs or alcohol, jumping around, poking the driver, throwing things in the vehicle or any other dumb little thing that might distract the driver and cause an accident.  You may be a shy person who would never think of telling others what to do, but when you are driving, you must.  It is your responsibility.

You must set and control your mindset while driving.  Driving is not a popularity contest and it is not something to be taken lightly.  You control your vehicle and your passengers will respect you for it and will appreciate getting home safely.  Don’t ever let shyness or peer pressure force you into driving with the wrong mindset.  Don’t ever let poor mindset or lack of control be the death of you, whether you are the driver or the passenger, never willingly let yourself be put in a dangerous situation.  Insist on safety, insist on life.