Nervous about life on the road

lol @ can do the gps. Nothing you really can do until you do it. At least as far driving goes.

 

There's a couple things you could do, but they're illegal..

Just relax a little. Being nervous when confronting unknown events is normal.

 

The only way to get over it is to get in and drive, and drive, and drive.

All it takes is experience.

 

Personally I think that being nervous is an indicator that you actually understand and respect the job. If you had an, "I GOT THIS!" attitude I would personally be scared to be on the road with you. I've been around the industry my whole life and I'm nervous as all get up. You veterans of the trade out there might disagree with what I am saying but I would guess that some of your best students started off nervous.

 

My trainer told me (and I've posted this on TTR before):

"Remember....there isn't a mistake, boo-boo, error, screw-up, or other such thing that you can make that hasn't already been made a million times before."

For me, that cut right to it. I hate looking like an idiot in any situation...personal hang-up.

But once I understood what he said, I did relax. Some.

 

xtexasbabex, here's what I did. I felt the same way when I started. At one point I just got DETERMINED, "angry" at the truck, if you will. In other words, I decided to view the truck as just a piece of machinery and I was *not* going to allow it to control *me*, ####it. After copping this attitude, things seemed to really click. It really is "mind over matter" in this case. And while I agree that the more practice you get the less 'nervous' you'll be, in my opinion, you'll always be 'nervous' if you don't cop this superiority complex with the truck.

Driving a rig can be intimidating, for sure, especially at first (and being cautious should be FOREVER). But there has to come a time when you decide to take the bull by the reins and just RIDE. After your first "rodeo" you'll start enjoying it a lot more as well.

To further expound, I've seen guys in truck school who drove just as well or even better than me, yet fail their driving test 3 or 4 times. I passed the first time. They drove the truck like they were 'nervous' and didn't pass until they convinced the tester that they were driving with confidence.

It's the same thing with archery. You envision the arrow going into the bulls eye before you release it. Get the mental image of your goal. Now drive the truck the same way, like you mean it. Picture success and success will come.

Hope this helps.

 

Take it easy......dont take these 4 wheelers personal when they cut you off at 65 mph.good luck

 

learn the atlas, gps is nice until it decides the road you're on isn't designed for your weight. Same goes for height.