Clammy hands on the steering wheel, turning on the windshield wiper instead of the blinker or a car that turns off all the time; fear of failure during the driving test can create all kinds of funny situations in hindsight, but during the exam it's a little less fun.
Fear not. The examples I mention are of someone who still passed her driver's license in one go despite these problems. So making mistakes during the driving test is allowed, as long as you do it in a safe way.
Fear of failure is something where most people think of school, but it affects so much more than just that. Fear of failure can also prevent you from getting your driver's license because, after all, that's also something you have to take an exam for. Let that be exactly something that can be very difficult to do with fear of failure.
In this blog, we take a closer look at how hypnosis can help people with fear of failure and how driving instructors and even examiners can deal with it.
Fear of failure for the person taking driving lessons
Being able to drive is not always necessary in the Netherlands, but it is certainly useful to be able to for the rest of your life. It makes your life freer. It allows you to live farther away from your job, allowing you to search for jobs in a larger area. It makes for fun road trips vacations. It makes it easier to pick something up when you see a nice bargain on Marketplace for new furnishings.
Getting a driver's license, therefore, has quite a few implications for the rest of your life and how easy it can become.
This is why fear of failure is so annoying when you have to take driving tests or take driving lessons.
What is already good to know is that if you perform below average on an exam and it deviates beyond 10 percent of your average, it is often due to fear of failure.
If you suffer from fear of failure, you are very concerned with the negative consequences of failing a test. This can range from that you can never become an Uber driver, for example, to being very embarrassed because you failed a test. That you then think that people then think you are stupid or something like that.
So you try to avoid situations where something is tested. For example, do you have enough money to pay for driving lessons and driving tests, but keep putting it off? Then chances are it's because of fear of failure.
You can black out during the exam. For example, I know someone who had been driving illegally for years in a souped-up 45-kilometer car, thought she could get her driver's license for a while, and blacked out during the exam so much that she couldn't drive anymore and failed as a result.
Thereby, comments from family and friends such as "do your best" or "you can do it" often don't help against fear of failure either, no matter how well-intentioned they are.
This is then often because you may have a belief that your score on the test says something about your identity and about whether your parents or friends still like you if you are not smart enough to pass something[1].
With hypnosis, you can address these types of beliefs that are not helping you. For example, you can let go of the belief that passing tests is important for love and instead see that people love you for who you are. It's not about the driver's license, it's not about the high grades.
It's all about how social you are. How nice you are as company. That is often ultimately more important for receiving love than having or not having a driver's license.
People who love you don't care. They may even like you more without a driver's license, because at least then they'll have an excuse to help you occasionally when you need to go somewhere or when you need a car.
In addition, you can learn self-hypnosis techniques that will help you stay calm during a driving lesson and during exams.
Eating a banana before the exam can also help, as it contains many vitamins that give you energy and it contains tryptophan. An important building block for making hormones that make you happy. This can help calm your nerves a bit.
Dealing with fear of failure as a driving instructor
As a driving instructor, it is good to realize that someone with fear of failure can also find it very difficult to prepare for an exam. So even the driving lessons can be difficult for someone with fear of failure.
A driving instructor can already pay very close attention to the comments you make. Comments like "you can do it" often work the opposite way for people with fear of failure, because they think that if they can't do it then it means losing face.
It's better to say things like "it doesn't have to work out at once" and "whether this works out says nothing about you as a person." The latter may sound offensive to someone who does not suffer from fear of failure, but can actually have a calming effect on someone with fear of failure.
You can also let the driving student practice sedation techniques ahead of time for the exam. If, as a driving instructor, you have knowledge of self-hypnosis and other calming techniques, this can already be very helpful to your student. Breathing techniques and relaxation techniques can stop the body's fear reaction, so that reaction also gives effect to your student's thoughts.
For example, research shows that people with fear of failure often have higher heart rates during driving tests than in other circumstances[2].
In addition, endless practice with certain activities until it bores the student, so to speak, is important to reduce fear of failure. Especially the sense of ability is helpful to stop the fear of failure[3].
Additionally, in the last few lessons, you can already pretend you are the examiner, as this can desensitize them to exam anxiety (source 1).
If you notice that your student has a lot of thoughts that are very negative, you can also help the student with thinking around.
"I know I'm going to fail," for example, can be replaced with "I don't know exactly what to do, but I'll ask so I'll know later."
Knowledge of hypnosis techniques and giving helpful suggestions that fit your student are good to know as a driving instructor. In the first training of the Hypnosis Institute Netherlands, you will learn to master the basics of hypnosis and giving hypnotic suggestions. A skill that can help you teach people with fear of failure and lead them to a successful exam.
You can therefore apply some hypnosis to the student before the lessons begin, if they give permission, to provide post-hypnotic suggestions about driving, picking up the lesson material and the exam.
Dealing with fear of failure as an examiner
As an examiner, you often encounter people who are nervous about the driving test, but what can you do to ensure that someone drives as naturally as possible? That the person will drive the way he or she would if you were not next to them.
Of course, you also don't want to fail people who actually drive well enough to just get a driver's license.
Knowing signs of anxiety can go a long way, as not every student with fear of failure will come out in front of the fact that they suffer from it.
You can then apply calming techniques, such as when appropriate to the situation saying something about how well things are going.
In addition, the person taking the exam gets to take the time. Just like in the real world, there is no time limit for parking and the like. What matters most is that the final result is good and that the person does the parking, and driving in general, in a safe manner.
Repeating this to the student is what matters most.
Young people especially, due to school exams and any competitive experience, may still feel that there is a time limit on many things in life, but that is not the case and driving is one of those things in life that one is allowed to take the time for, especially if it makes the road a lot safer.
If someone does come forward that they have a fear of failure, you can have a conversation about the exam before the exam and calm the student so they can take the driving test as relaxed as possible.
Then knowledge of conversational hypnosis is helpful to have and giving helpful suggestions is good to do.
Want to learn more about hypnosis and how it can make you help people with fear of failure? Then come to the free online master class for an introduction to hypnosis.
Or enroll in one of our seminars or trainings to learn techniques directly that help people feel better.
You can take the training live online or in class. Choose a method that suits you.
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