Driving Tips: When Is Good Enough Actually Good Enough?

As you go through your in-vehicle checklist in each area, it may look as though doing each skill until the point of mastery is going to take some time. You might even think "What have I got myself into? We're going to be here for a while? Is there going to be a light at the end of this tunnel?"

Relax. Take a deep breath, let it out slowly (repeat this as needed) and realize that teaching (and learning) the process of becoming a collision-free driver is a journey, not an event.

Also, driving a vehicle is not a "natural" experience - it's a learned one. Because your son or daughter is processing a lot of information and creating new neural pathways, this is going to require time - time to observe, time to demonstrate, time to practice, time to master the skills so that eventually much of what they do is on "auto pilot" (so to speak).

So be patient and avoid the temptation to rush through a particular skill just because you might be tiring of the repetition. That's the challenge. Keep your practice sessions interesting by praising your student often, tell a relevant story from your own experience, feel free to laugh and have fun (but never laugh at your student - laugh at yourself, a mistake you make or a situation or laugh with your student).

Yes, this is serious business, but you can still keep the atmosphere light.

Because you're outcome is mastery of the skill, partial or occasional correct performance may be progress and should be recognized, but you stay in that "Area" (Parking Lot, Neighborhood, etc.,) until all the skills in that area are mastered.

Since there are a multitude of skills in each area of drivers education if you're not making the progress you expected, you have options:

1. take a break and talk about what's happening and how you might approach it differently or

2. have the student diagram the process on paper and explain it to you or

3. practice a different skill in the same area (if they are having trouble with the controlled sliding on the recovery during right turns, go back to the figure 8 exercise and repeat that process or do some backing up straight just to interrupt the pattern).

The main thing that you want to stick to is the notion that "Good Enough" is true mastery, not occasional correct performance, not 7 out of 10, not 8 out of 10 not 9 out of 10. It's 10 out of 10. Stick to that standard. You'll be glad you did.

Remember what Jim Rohn used to say: "Every discipline has multiple rewards."

Patrick L. Barrett is a nationally known expert in training for collision-free driving. Pat owns Driver Ed in a Box LLC, a company with a mission to provide families with the knowledge and tools necessary to build the habits of safe, collision-free driving through their parent taught drivers education course.

For more information on Patrick Barrett or Driver Ed in a Box LLC please visit: http://drivecollisionfree.com/