There’s a hidden safety feature that not all drivers enable when beginning to drive on the road, no matter if they ride a motorcycle, drive a car, or maneuver a HGV. It’s a safety feature that is free to gain, but you must develop it yourself. It’s also a safety feature that can be easy to forget if you’re in a rush, or if you lose your cool when experiencing negative driving habits from other road users that day.
This safety feature is your attitude. It’s a malleable object very easy to lose control of or ignore, but doing so will only lead you to be ever-more-likely to encounter trouble when driving. However, carefully curating it, and following important guidelines to this end will allow you to become a safer driver no matter what age you are or how skilled you may be.
We all know that refreshing our road theory knowledge (such as reminding ourselves of obscure road traffic signs from time to time) is worth our attention, but every time we drive it can also be worth taking a few seconds to get your headspace calibrated for your upcoming driving pursuit.
Here are the four attitudes you may wish to keep hold of to keep you safer on the roads:
You Can Never Predict Other Drivers
Unfortunately, no matter how careful you are, accurately predicting the driving habits of other road users is nigh-on impossible. A driver you have been traveling behind for five minutes may have kept exemplary road practice only to fall asleep at the wheel at the last moment you are expecting it, causing you to veer off course to move out of harms way. You simply cannot predict when and where something will happen. Traveling on the highway safely for three hours could be perfectly fine, only to have a truck in front of you blow a tire, forcing you into defensive driving procedures to get around them.
This fact is not intended to scare you, but to keep you alert. Prepare for the unexpected. Rest well before driving. Never drive with alcohol in your system. Ensure your vehicle is well maintained before setting off. This will help you when you need to be the most careful, and you’ll thank yourself for doing so. Even if you never encounter so much as a incompetent driver on the roads (unlikely), this lifelong effort will have been worth it. After all, financial insurance is important, but physical insurance is priceless.
Road Rage Is Never Worth It
Road rage is never worth the cost of venting your emotions. It just isn’t. Even ‘flipping the bird’ or shouting in your car can escalate the situation. Not only may this leave you arguing with someone in a live driving situation, but it will take your eye off the road. Who knows if someone cutting you up has also affected another road user, and they’re now annoyed and angry, contributing to your lack of safety on the roads? It’s worth asking these questions because we can never really understand how or why certain scenarios may get out of hand. To that end, don’t be the cause of that scenario.
Financial Security = Peace Of Mind
It’s important to protect your financial wellbeing when on the roads, not only because it’s a legal requirement, but because knowing you’re well-covered will grant you appropriate peace of mind on the roads. Perhaps being well-covered is an essential component fundamental to driving law, but it’s also nice to know that you haven’t been price-gouged when finding a package to suit you. A little research can be worthwhile. For instance, it’s worth knowing who has cheap motorcycle insurance appropriate to your particular needs and driving requirements, as you may be able to avoid paying over the odds for being protected. While careful driving can pay dues in regards to your safety, financial diligence and research can positively affect your driving budget.
You’re Only As Skilled As Your Last Drive/Ride
Remember that you’re only ever as skilled as your last drive or ride. It only takes one accident or one mistake to cause mayhem or put yourself in harms way. Each day you drive, and each driving session you have, you must recommit yourself to these principles. You may view yourself as a great driver, but how well will you drive today? That’s all that matters, and all that will ever matter.
With this advice, we hope you can adopt the best four attitudes that will keep you safe on the roads.
Sometimes when you run your own business, you will need to travel for various meetings, conferences, and industry trade fairs. It’s a good sign if you are busy with traveling for all these kinds of things as it shows that you are in demand! However, you might be a bit worried about how all of this travel is going to impact your company. After all, you will be leaving your team without their leader!
There isn’t too much reason to worry about trying to run a business while on the road, though. There are plenty of things you can do to ensure it goes as well as possible. Read on to find out more!
Do Manage Your Time Well
First of all, you need to know just how important it is to manage your time well. Sure, you are away so that you can attend various meetings and conferences, but if you are clever with your time, then you should be able to squeeze in a bit of work as well. The best way to figure out when you can do some work is to write a plan for every day. Figure out when you are booked up with meetings, and you should see how much free time you have. See if you can fit in an hour of work into this free time.
Don’t Forget To Keep In Touch With The Team Back At The Office
It’s really worth trying to keep up to date with everyone back in the office. That way, you can tell them how it’s been going with you in your meetings, and they can update you with news from the office. They might tell you of some developments that mean you need to change a pitch for a meeting slightly. Not only that, though, but this will give you peace of mind knowing that everyone is still working hard even in your absence!
IT networks have a tendency to go wrong at the most inopportune moment. You can guarantee that your office will experience some technical issues while you are away and aren’t able to fix things. To make sure that doesn’t happen, you could pass over your IT network to a firm that offers managed IT services. They will be able to offer an around-the-clock helpdesk support service, so your employees can call them for help and advice if anything should go wrong.
Don’t Neglect Being Transparent With Employees And Clients
It’s important that you are open with your communication while you are away. That counts for both clients and employees. You need to let your clients know that you will be traveling so you might only be checking your emails sporadically. It’s also important to keep your employees up to date with everything that happens in your meetings and when you are on the road, just in case you learn something that could impact the projects they are working on.
Hopefully, all of these tips make it easier for you to run your company on the road!
You would think that drivers are less likely to grab the headlines due to a collision as they gain more experience, but older motorists are actually more at risk.
shows that 20 American adults aged 65 and over die everyday in motor vehicle crashes in 2016, which is 14 more fatalities than the daily average among teenagers in the same year.
To be clear, time makes senior drivers far wiser than younger motorists. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, older adult drivers tend to use seat belts more frequently, to avoid hitting the road when the conditions are less safe, and to steer clear of drunk driving more often. And yet, nearly 800 senior drivers suffer from injury in traffic-related accidents on a daily basis. Why is that? The Insurance Information Institute (III) has an explanation.
The III, as per the Governors Highway Safety Administration, believes that older drivers are involved in higher crash rates because of impairments in vision, cognition, and motor function. The eyes go bad as a person ages; cognitive processes, such as attention and memory, decline as a person develops more health problems and deals with the side effects of medication; and decreased flexibility and slowed reflexes are the consequences of the physical changes an aging person experiences.
Since the number of senior drivers has been increasing over the past decades and is expected to retain its upward trajectory in the foreseeable future, TRIP, a nonprofit focusing on national transportation research, is calling for roadway safety improvements to allow older American drivers to contend with fewer hazards when traveling behind the wheel. Ride-sharing services and self-driving vehicles are also holding a lot of promise for mobile non-driving senior individuals.
Will transportation policies evolve soon enough to address the unique needs of the fast-growing road user population before more senior drivers lose their lives in car crashes? Hopefully, American regulators are not too old to learn new tricks.
For now, check out the following infographic to learn more facts about motor vehicle accidents in the United States.
It doesn’t matter whether you are fresh out of college, whether you have recently been made redundant, or whether you have had a high flying career for the past two decades, you should never stop learning. The quest for knowledge and renewing your skills is vital if you are to remain at the forefront of your chosen industry sector. You may choose to specialize, work towards an MBA or seek out a new talent wholly unrelated to your current work skill set. Consider your interests, professional acumen and goals in life to set a course for lifelong learning.
If you are wallowing on the middle management rungs of the career ladder, the chances are that your resume is looking a little stale. Without upskilling and partaking in some professional development, you may find that the most recent training you took part in was over five years ago. Employers seeking new members of staff want people who are fresh, full of innovative ideas and have a firm grasp of the latest methodologies appropriate for their jobs.
Think about enrolling in an evening class to brush up on your cybersecurity credentials, take some time out to study at uni part time, or think about reaching for an MBA. With a proven commitment to study, you are showing any potential employers that you are eager for a promotion. Apply your newfound skills in the workplace, and you could become an invaluable asset.
It’s not always our jobs that dictate how and what we should learn. By looking at the career of a person like Philip McTigue, you can see just how varied life experiences can be. At all points throughout his career, learning was very much at the forefront of his motivations. He undertook a masters degree later on in his career, and is still hungry for a doctorate. You could choose to follow a formal learning path, or you could choose to learn experientially.
Traveling to new countries, meeting new people, observing new cultures and conversing in a different language is learning. You will understand more about the world, have a deeper appreciation for the people and things in it, and you will have changed as a human being. You could choose to take a sabbatical from your job if you feel like you are becoming stuck in a rut, to scratch that wanderlust itch.
Some people don’t want to travel but do have a yearning for more simple pleasures. If you’ve ever fancied trying out a new team sport, go for it. If you want to learn the piano, book yourself a taster lesson. And if you want to become an origami master, enrol on a course. Whatever you want to learn, there will be a way of achieving this. Learning fosters respect, is enjoyable and can make even the drabbest of days feel more worthwhile.
If, after reading this, you are inspired to take a look at your resume, get yourself out of a rut, or phone up your local adult training college, then you are taking your first step along the path of lifelong learning.
Having a job is a privilege for many, and we often put up with a lot of stress traveling to work, just to arrive stressed and drained, instead of making the most out of our work-life balance. Cities and suburbs are getting more and more congested, and it is almost impossible to avoid traffic in the peak hours. If driving to work and being stuck in traffic every day is taking too much out of you, it might be time to think about new ways to get to your workplace and improve your health and wellbeing. Below you will find a few tips on how to get the most out of your commute.
Start Off Early
The earlier you start off the better you will get through traffic. You can spend the extra time you have in the morning to visit the gym near your workplace, or to listen to a podcast before work. You will save fuel and time, and spend the morning without rushing, so you might even reward yourself with a few minutes sitting down and having a nice breakfast in peace, instead of trying to munch on your toast while queueing in traffic.
Plan Ahead
You will need to keep an eye on the roads in your local area to be the first to know about roadworks and accidents. If there is a planned road closure on your regular route, you will need to find an alternative way to get to work, or even start off early. Take the stress out of your mornings and peak night traffic by being informed of the things that might affect your commute time. Some satellite navigation systems will give you information on the speed and volume of traffic automatically.
Learn Your Escape Routes
It might also be a good idea to learn some alternative routes, in case you learn that there is a roadblock or accident. You will need to know which turn to take to avoid queueing up for hours. There is nothing worse than not moving anywhere and worrying that your boss will get angry with you for not being on time. Just imagine if you had a meeting first thing in the morning and you turned out 30 minutes late? It would certainly not help you achieve your career and promotion goals.
Cycling
If you often face standing traffic on the roads, and there are bike routes that are safe enough for you to use, you can start cycling to work to save time and stay fit at the same time. However, if you have any respiratory illnesses, you might want to ensure that you are avoiding highly congested and polluted areas. If there is a country lane or a cycle road that is away from the main highway traffic, even a shortcut, you will be able to make the most out of your time and combine getting to work with your morning exercise.
Having a motorbike in the summer can be great fun, and you can explore much more than from a car. If you don’t share a ride with anyone, you can jump on the bike, take on an advanced rider course, and simply filter through traffic to save time. Not to mention that you will have much more fun and save money on fuel at the same time. You will, however, need to ensure that you can stay safe on two wheels before you attempt this technique.
Your Electric Scooter
If your workplace is too far to walk or cycle, or you want to have more fun, you could also get a scooter. Read some of the latest electric scooter reviews to find out which one is the most suitable for your needs. The range and the wheel size of the different models will vary, so you have to take into consideration the distance you have to travel, the weight limit, and the road or pavement you are going to use. Make sure that you can charge up your scooter at work every day and keep it safe.
In case you cannot avoid sitting in traffic, you can team up with some of your coworkers and share the cost and responsibility. No matter if you only carpool once a week, you can take a day off stressful traffic and simply sit back to have a relaxed chat or listen to the radio without having to worry about what people around you will do. Some companies encourage and reward carpooling, so you can join a scheme and get discounts or health club vouchers.
Working from Home a Few Days a Week
In case you have a reliable computer at home, you might also be able to do your job from your office without going to work. No matter if you are preparing a presentation or using the cloud technology to catch up on projects or follow up client orders, if you never ask, you never get it. You can save a few hours and even have a lie in if you want to, get more done in a day, and hit your targets without getting stressed.
Changing Your Shifts If You Can
If you have a job that requires you to be physically present at the office or workshop, you can ask for a shift change. Even a 30 minute early start and finish will make a huge difference in your commute time and help you arrive calmer and more prepared. Of course, if you have to do the school run, you might not be able to get to work early, but you can always ask for a later shift that will also make a difference. Most of the traffic disappears by 10 a.m., so you can get to work twice as fast.
The stress we face every morning and night commuting to and from work can have a negative impact on our work performance and long term health. If traffic is stressing you out, make sure you find a solution and discuss your options with your employer.
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