With summer holidays starting, it’s high time for many to get their driving lisence. Surely everyone, or at least many people found that their very first time in the car was a completely new experience, whether it may have been exciting or scary. Unfortunately, it had to be the latter for me, otherwise things could have worked out a lot easier.
Every beginning is difficult
It’s nothing unusual to be afraid of the roads the first time you start to drive. I mean you are forcing a ton of metal into motion and have the power to end your own life and those of the people around in milliseconds. Of course I don’t think about this all the time, but unconciously my mind couldn’t help it … which in return caused a lot of actions that were logically not exactly understandable. Let’s just say, when my anxiety kicked in from narrow roads, a higher number of cars, bikers or pedestrians, I got mini panic attacks and the logical part of my brain just shut down. *insert shutdown music from Windows*
I got so overwhelmed by all the things I had to think about and the things I wasn’t allowed to forget since I’m just so terribly forgetful, like slowing down and changing gear while turning the wheel and looking over your shoulder, checking all the mirrors and blinking and and and- just so many decisions you have to make in such a small amount of time, and decision making is definitely not one of my strengths.
And sure with lots of practicing, I got used to driving. Driving seemed fun since I could do everything mechanically, but once the exam came around. my anxiety soared through the roof. The nervousness the exam brings out of me, was unpredictable. But I made it! So here are things that may help you to get through the exam if you are feeling down or anxiety likes to act the f*ck up like mine does, because if it didn’t, I wouldn’t have needed to go through this seemingly endless mental war.
I don’t know what photos to use 
So here’s the beauitful sky
1. Focus on your strenghts, but work on your weaknesses (it’s all in the mind)
It’s all in the mind. One of my friends told me that your mindset is the most important thing. You could have all the skills in the world or no skills at all, but your mindset could change that. So the following will be repetitive but it is just that important.
If you do a mistake in the exam, it’s okay. Everyone does it once in a while, here and there, but don’t let it get to you. Learn from it and move on. The next challenge and opportunity to show that you can do it could be in the next split second. So don’t waste it.
2. Be proud of your achievements!
Reward yourself when you do well. It is actually so important to acknowledge your strenghts. Give yourself a little clap on the back. Because every criticism and negative thought you give yourself, sits with you so much longer than a single positive does. You need at least 3 times more positive thoughts to overcome a single negative one.
So remind yourself of the times you do well and be proud. Don’t think that just because it’s easy for others, you can throw your own achievements away. They may be small to others but every step is a step. So if the achievement meant something to you, it means something! Don’t belittle yourself.
3. There are hundreds of people who fail. you aren’t the only one.
You know when you fail something and you feel like the biggest loser in the world? As if this single failure determines how you will fail everything else and suddenly you remember every single damn time you have failed anything or done something badly. Do you do this? Well I am 400% guilty of this awful habit.
But I would like to remind you, and maybe also myself if I ever come back to read this (because hey this isn’t just about driving but overcoming personaly struggles in general. So hellö there beautiful), that it is so absolutely normal to fail things from time to time. It happens to so many of us, and will happen to so many more of us. But that’s okay! That does not mean in any way that you will never make it. And why should it? This is not the end of the world. You can get where you need to get in your own time.
4. Distract yourself
Honestly, sometimes, it just gets worse the more you think about it. So just let it go. Just for a while. I know it’s easier said than done. But I guess in a society we live in nowadays, we can get so easily distracted whether that is by thinking about how to plan our instagram feed or going on a 3 hour youtube binge watching session. I was visiting my cousins and playing card games, but I guess that is not your everyday kind of thing. But I recommend that if that is an option /awkward thumbs up/.
5. The only person who doesn’t believe in you, is yourself.
My English teacher told me this once, and I have honestly never forgotten this, just because this issue has come up so often. (I’d like to thank my English teacher for giving me strength in times I was struggling more than I had even come to realize. Also would like to apologize for my awful English. This is what happens when you stop taking English classes. So don’t drop out guys lol)
Anyway, so as the title is pretty self-explainatory I’m just going to leave this there for you to think about. Be honest with yourself. If I would ask you who your biggest supporter is, how long would you have to go on until you would list yourself?
I am terribly sorry if this did not help you, at least it helped me.
