I LOOKED LEFT, RIGHT, AND LEFT AGAIN AND WAS READY TO PULL OUT. BUT THEN I REALIZED THAT I WAS UNSURE OF WHAT I HAD SEEN.
Yes, this could be related to ageing or changing memory.
I work with many clients who struggle with this in their twenties. So maybe it’s not ageing. Often it is a thought, emotion, or fear replacing the visual information! Maybe it’s just me not driving professionally for several decades! Maybe it is a past standard, a habit, that I cannot let go of!
No matter which it is, there is a solution.
Start with a list of Things to Consider
- Everything is changing at every moment. So too, are you, your vision, your brain, everything. So it’s a normal state of how things are. And because of this, your solutions must also be continually evolving and changing.
- You can change to adapt to these new changes no matter what they are.
- Comparing your today’s performance to that same level as when you were 20 or 30 years may not be an intelligent standard to measure against.
- However, you can still achieve mobility by developing new strategies to compensate for the changes you are experiencing.
Several decades ago, I was a senior assessor for the Transport Canada cell phone studies, which followed more than a decade of working with many corporations and thousands of drivers.
When I retired and returned to driving buses, I noticed that I was not as sharp compared to my skills when I was 30 years old.
I LOOKED LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT AGAIN, AND WAS READY TO PULL OUT. BUT THEN I REALIZED THAT I HAD FORGOTTEN WHAT I HAD SEEN, OR WAS IT FEAR OR SELF-DOUBT?
I was measuring myself against a high standard from my past. I had never thought about content in my short-term memory. I had lost some of this sharpness from sitting at a computer for a few decades. Previously this information was always ‘just there, automatic, not needing any direct attention.’
So what did I do?
Maybe my memory was not as sharp. This bothered me for a while. But then I persisted in finding a new strategy to produce the same fully aware result when driving. I also note that many of my physical abilities were not as sharp! Oh dear, I am aging!
What could I use to compensate for my less-than-optimal memory, or was it a vision change?
Despite these changes, with some practice and repetition, I dug into my teaching experiences and found a solution – called eyes.
Yes. Vision over Memory. Eyes over Brain became my solution.
I started to focus more on vision and repeating visual scans, adding in more visual checks and scans earlier, during and after each manoeuvre.
Before scans gave me more time to read control symbols.
Earlier and multiple scans assured me that I was correct, current and on top of things.
And Post scans confirmed that my decisions were correct and accurate, which boosted my confidence and soon had me realizing that I didn’t need that once super-sharp memory to be able to drive super safe.
I must here thank my mind even though it’s maybe not as sharp or fast as before. It is still great at solving problems and developing new compensatory strategies.
Thanks also go to my eyes and my brain.
Happy Driven.
P.S. We all know the high-risk drivers; well published. But do we know the safest drivers? I’ll show you here…
THE SAFEST DRIVERS 🙂
It’s gotta be more complicated than this simple 60-69 category. Well, it is. Much more complicated. Come, let us talk about it.
You will hear me refer to Eyes versus Memory during our training regularly.
“I thought it was ok to turn!”
“I thought it was going to turn yellow!”
“I thought the car would move by the time we got there!”
OK, BUT WHAT DID YOUR EYES SEE?
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