What's your Score?

The wonderful thing about drivers is that we are all delightfully different. What motivates some of us will be a turn-off for others. Some prefer more carrot and others more stick. However, the best form of motivation – for which expert driving is no exception – is that which ‘comes from within.’

If you are, as I am, self-motivated, you will work towards your goals and aspirations without relying on anyone else. Some drivers are motivated by their performance (for example a driver wanting to pass an advanced driving test) and some by order of the court (for example – a training course as an alternative to longer term punishment, such as penalty points on their licence). With most people however, it has to come from a simple, self-driven desire to be a better driver.

No matter how motivated you are there will be times when your enthusiasm will wane, only for it to magically recover in a day or two. This Blog seeks to reassure you that you can reach your ‘goals and aspirations’ of becoming a great driver, even though the journey may at times, be difficult.

Checking progress

If you’ve been motivated to improve your driving through reading my weekly Blogs, your driving will hopefully by now be different – very different. If you continue to assess your driving and yourself, you will be aware of the progress you are making and judge how to improve still further.

Some (but not all) instructors or mentors can prove hugely beneficial in ‘tuning’ your driving mindset and skills but your actual progress and perseverance is largely down to yourself.

Acknowledge your achievements when things go right and fight harder when they do not. Believe in your abilities and persistence that you can achieve whatever you want - if you want it that badly. It will be the continual self-assessment and analysis of your driving performance on every drive that will count in the end. Many of our clients do this. You can too.

Score your performance

One way to assess your progress is to score your overall driving performance and its constituent parts on a scale of one to ten. Go as far as making notes on the various driving skills and attitudes that you feel are important and, place your own score next to it in terms of ‘poor to near perfection’ from one to ten.

You must be self-critical and honest, otherwise this task is futile. It's important that your score accurately reflects your abilities and behavioural approach at that time.

If for example, you’ve been working on cornering skills, you may feel you warrant a score of seven. But as you’ve shown impatience recently you may only score yourself at four for that area of your attitude, emotional stability and behaviour.

These things make great sense as the results stare back at you and you know exactly what needs further dedicated work.

Rating improvement

Rate yourself every week and see how you have progressed in the areas you have chosen. Remember that you are scoring yourself against a ‘near perfect drive’ rather than a rating improvement.

Whilst rating your current performance, be careful to hide the previous scores, so they do not influence the new ones. You can easily do this by covering them up before you start that scoring session. Resist any temptation to score yourself higher than you deserve as the value of this exercise depends on how honest you are with yourself. You will never have to reveal your ratings to anyone else, so you can afford to be totally truthful.

Develop responsibility

After six weeks or so, review your overall progress and see whether you wish to change the areas you are assessing. You may have started to develop a new skill and want to add it to your list.

You may also feel that other areas have been developed as far as you can for the time being, so give them a rest until the time is right to concentrate on them again. The choice is yours; it is your development and you are responsible for whatever you achieve.

Never give up

Make no mistake, maintaining your expert driving enthusiasm is difficult at times. Some driving days you will have the motivation and practicing your skills and techniques will be a joy. On others you’ll find it difficult to apply yourself to the task, but irrespective of how you feel, always keep safety your prime goal as that’s what truly counts.

Never get desperate or despondent – on the good days enjoy yourself and on the poor days, do your very best to ensure safety prevails. Indeed, a bad day can be turned round is you manage a noticeable improvement in something you are working on.

Further to this, every time you get into the car, use it as an opportunity to improve and set achievable goals, not simply as a form of transport.

Training your mind and skills

Sometimes your pace may seem slow but at others, you’ll leap ahead. Remember that you are also training your mind as well as your skills. It’s easy to monitor your progress when working on a technique as you can ‘feel’ the improvement. Improving your attitude is more difficult in the early stages, both to achieve and to monitor.

Behavioural change can take considerable time but stay on the case as it will come with diligent practice.Your passengers may comment on the improvements they notice and nothing motivates as much as recognition from your peers. Great driving demands your innermost spirit of adventure, dedication and achievements.

Motivation comes from within, but driving improvement is within us all. Find a way to think about what driver you’d love to be and make an effort to work on your driving safety, skills and a healthy and forgiving attitude, every time you can. And you can!

Editor's Note

If you're unsure how you should be scoring yourself, please let us help with some coaching to frame what 'good' is. Details here.