During the season break, we've pulled out a bonus short from one of our early episodes. This one is from Episode 20, Practice Makes Better.

So when it comes to confidence, there are a few different factors that are well-researched as showing that they make people feel more confident within a task. One of those factors is achieving success. So when somebody has had past successes, that makes them feel more confident when they repeat those tasks or do them again. So clearly if somebody is practicing their driving. They've got more opportunity to have success in those practices and the more success they have, then the more confident they're going to feel. So would you say that they practice everything or is it about choosing what they don't feel confident in to practice? I guess it's starting where you are. Okay. So starting with, the things that are in your comfort zone. But it's no good. Just keeping on practicing what's in your comfort zone and not going near the other tasks. So, really acknowledging what's in your comfort zone and what things are more challenging? And making sure that your practicing the things that are more challenging because gradually the more you practice those things. Then the more they are going to slip into your comfort zone as well. So the idea actually is practising so that you're gradually working your way through all of the tasks, so that they're in your comfort zone. And thats not to say that you don't continue to practice the things that are in your comfort zone, but I guess I'm just saying to keep an eye and make sure you're not solely practicing those things and ignoring the things that you find more challenging. So, yes, practicing everything. So one of the tools I use is the driving wheel. And on that people have a list of tasks or a syllabus and they use the coaching wheel to actually find out what they need to practice, so I think that's a great tool for people to come out of their comfort zone, and work on things that they aren't necessarily confident in, but notice that they need some work on or something that they haven't even done yet. So I think that's a great way of doing it and finding out what you need to practice. So how long do you practice something? So you mentioned practicing until they become more confident in it or practicing until it becomes in their comfort zone, so, how would they know that it's in their comfort zone now, if they're practicing that task, Yeah, I think that is, well, certainly the people that we work one-to-one with, that's something that we encourage them to really think about and to group tasks into what are they comfortable with? What's challenging. What makes them feel more panicky or fearful for example, so actually thinking about it. One of the great things about practicing is that it helps tasks, Daisy chain together and become more automatic. You'll probably be able to give a better Daisy chain example of driving than me Kev, but I'm thinking along the lines of when you're first approaching a roundabout as a learner, then I'm guessing that's made up of lots of little tasks. So managing your speed is one thing. Changing gear is a task all on its own, or even putting the clutch down it's all made up of these little individual tasks. But the more you practice, the more those individual tasks become automatic. They Daisy chained together until it becomes a situation of, you're not thinking of all the individual little tasks. You're just approaching a roundabout, so a bit like as toddlers, when you're first learning to get dressed as a toddler. Then it's all about trying to get your arms and legs in the right place and trying to get socks on as individual tasks. But as an adult, we just go and get dressed. Now the really important thing about Daisy chaining tasks together is that once they become automatic, several tasks grouped together in one automatic action. They're less influenced by stress. So they take up less space, less cognitive load for us to do and carry out. They take the less thinking about, as individual tasks it becomes one bigger task. And that means that when you're in a stressful situation, actually, they're less impacted by stress. They're easier to do. That's really interesting. So it's like, taking bits of what they've done previously so even if it was just moving off and stopping so you're noticing how they move away, how they stop a car, how they change gear. When they become better at that, they can put two tasks together. They can move away and change gear. And then they can slow down change to lower gear and stop. So you you're quite right. What you're doing is you are putting lots of little tasks together to make one big task. But doing it in such a way, it becomes easier, but noticing how you're doing it so you can put that task into a different task again, you can use that same task over and over again. In different situations. And again, if you realize what you're doing and why you're doing it, what that does is that's got to give you confidence if you just repeat it in a different situation. So that's exactly what we're after isn't it? So I've got a question we've called this podcast practice makes better, but the phrase people use is practice makes perfect. What's your thoughts on that? I don't think perfect is what we're aiming for. I've had lots of practice at driving and my driving certainly isn't perfect and we're not really aiming at perfection we're aiming at safe, confident competent driving. Let's try not to be perfectionist about this. For me, aiming for perfection is always a bit of a danger signal it just brings in so much stress and anxiety perfectionism is loaded with anxiety. So yeah, we're not aiming for perfection. We're aiming for better.

I'm just gonna jump in here to let you know about our drive calm journal. We've created a 12 week prompt journal to support our listeners to take action and improve driving confidence. The journal includes questions, prompts, and exercises to create an action plan and an opportunity for reflection afterwards. Search drive calm on Amazon to take a look. We hope it helps.