Joanne the Coach

TV company seeks people with fear of driving

 For those who have been asking, yes my book about fear of driving is almost

finished. I have about 45,000 words written and am just doing a final check that they all make sense. Then it goes off to the publisher to see what they think.

If you need some help with your driving right now, you might be interested to know that the AA is offering 2000 free two hour Drive Confident courses. Just fill in the form to apply.

Also, the TV series Dangerous Drivers' School is coming back to Channel 5 and is looking for participants. Here's a message from the production team:

"Do you have a son with a need for speed, or is your mum petrified at getting behind the wheel? Does your friend drive so badly you refuse to be their passenger, or are your grandparents housebound because they refuse to use their car? Do you suffer from road rage and think everyone but you should get off the road? If yes, then help is at hand.

Channel 5’s Dangerous Drivers’ School is back and continuing its mission to make our roads safer.

Last year the series turned 18 drivers from ‘accidents waiting to happen’ into safer drivers. In just two hours highly qualified AA instructors rectified a multitude of driving sins. They helped a mum get confidently behind the wheel after 20 years, a joyriding dad slash his speed so he could safely take his kids to school, and a motorway phobic join the rat run with confidence.

The new series wants to find vibrant, outgoing people of any age, from anywhere in the UK, who would like to take part in this great documentary. If you or someone you know needs to kill speed, gain confidence or banish bad habits, then get in touch with the team now.

Email: casting@matchlight.co.uk or call: 0141 342 2055"

Writer's woes

So that writing two books business, how's that going Joanne?

Actually, not so great. Have you ever tried to eat two elephants? That's what it's like. Or giving birth to two babies (I don't mean like twins. At least twins have the decency to queue, not both rush the exit at once).

And I didn't help myself at all by being so overwhelmed by the task in hand that that I achieved very little for weeks on end. Writing a book seems so much more permanent, and by implication important, than the online writing I've done.

But that's not even true - many more people have access to work that's published online than will ever pick up a book and read it. But still, it felt like A Bigger Deal than anything I'd done before, so I panicked a bit and hid my head in the sand. For most of May.

Book Two - The scary one

Yesterday I told you about the first book I'm working on, so now let's look at the other one. And this book, well, let's just say it's more of a challenge in many ways.

Scared to Drive

Essentially, this is a book about fear of driving and how to overcome it.

I had a very bad driving phobia and didn't drive at all for around seven years. I've written about it before, both here and for the Daily Express. Since then I've had so many people approach me to tell me that they've been afraid to drive too. But for something which seems so common - experts rank it up there with fear of spiders - it's surprising that there's very little help around. I would have loved a book to help me conquer this fear, but as it turns out I'm going to have to write it instead.

How you can get involved

Even if you have never felt anxious about driving then I am sure you know what it's like to experience fear. If you can do anything to spread the word - perhaps by blogging or tweeting about this project - then I would be very grateful. A portion of the book's profits will go to a mental health charity so please support us.

If you've had any type of anxiety about driving - from a full blown phobia to fear of certain aspects of driving, such as motorways or bridges, then I would love to hear from you , in confidence - the email address is ScaredtoDrive@gmail.com . I am assuming that most people will want to be anonymous, but you don't have to be, and I am happy to feature your blog or business if you want.

Also if you are a professional - perhaps a therapist or driving instructor - who has helped people tackle fear of driving, then please also get in touch on ScaredtoDrive@gmail.com .

Lastly I would like to talk to a few people who are, and have always been, naturally confident drivers. I'm interested to see what we can learn from your attitude.

 

So now you know the subjects of Book One and Book Two. All I have to do now is write them.

Away we go.

 

picture: Flickr, Viernest

Driving Away From Home

So I did wear my magic shoes to the MADs, and it will appease your sense of all being well in the universe to know that yes I did take them off to show people the velvet insoles. And the people didn't mind, they were all merry as ferrets.

And I drove there and back. To be fair, so did most people, but my journey was a little different. I have written quite a bit on here about my battle with driving phobia, which kept me off the roads for around 7 years. Quite a few people have emailed me about it, I think it's one of those secret fears that doesn't get talked about nearly as much as it could.

Anyway, by the time I wrote about it for the Daily Express, I thought I had it pretty much licked. But I have found that vamoosing the last little bit of fear has taken far longer that I would ever have expected. So whilst I have been tootling around the roads of Brighton with increasing confidence, I would still feel a rising panic attack when it came to anything faster, like a dual carriageway.

But something about the journey to the MADs was different. I was really excited about attending the awards and meeting lots of people I'd only known online. Before I started, I could see myself making the journey and handling it well. This is a fairly well known NLP confidence technique - to visualise yourself doing something, and in doing so trick your mind into thinking that you really can do it.

So I drove, even on the big roads, all the way to Bognor Regis and back again the next day. I did feel a bit of panic starting when I got on to the A27, but I gritted my teeth and took deep breaths until the panic went away. It's not a long journey or an achievement of any great note. But it means a lot to me.

MADness, They Call It MADness

Radio silence due some cove thinking it was a good idea to let the little blighters have two and a half weeks off school. So now you find me broke and broken by an overdose of Total Wipeout on CBBC.

I did venture out on to Hove seafront last week, and was planning an assault on Marrocco's Ice Cream Parlour, when suddenly the hazard lights started flicking on the Mini. Not being very vehicle savvy, at first I thought it was a victory wave in honour of my securing the last parking space in the kingdom.

When the lights were still flashing 10 minutes later, I realised that this was perhaps not the case. A quick call to the Mini Hotline extablished that there is an enormous button on the dashboard that you can use to turn the hazards off. Well I never. You learn something new every day.

And in the middle of all that, a bloke from The Metro newspaper rang up and interviewed me about happiness at work. See, I can do an interview and panic that I've broken the car at the same time. Multi-tasking, piece of pish.

But just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean I haven't been reading. In fact I have been reading more blogs than ever, and have even invested in special specs to fulfill my duties as judge of The MAD Awards.

In case you've been stuck in a cloud of volcanic ash, these are not awards for degrees of sanity (though some would argue otherwise). No, they are a celebration (NB not a competition) of Mum and Dad blogs. Mum And Dad = MAD. See? Makes perfect sense.

So far around 1500 blogs have been nominated, and there's still a week to go if you have a family blog you want to nominate (yes you can nominate your own). After that the shortlist will be announced, and the heavy campaigning will really begin. This is possibly the only voting process where SEO and paragraphs about potty training will be a factor.

I am part of the judging panel which will be choosing the Butlins MAD Blogger of the Year. I'm looking forward to reading the shortlisted blogs. I'm totally open-minded about this and don't have any criteria in mind, though as a terrible pedant will be deducting points for poor use of apostrophes. But apart from that, anything goes.

Driving Phobia Exposed and Expunged

Apologies for the break in transmission, but I have been buried under an Easter Egg mountain, and have only just eaten my way out. Never thought fresh air would taste so good.

For those who wanted to see it, here's my piece about overcoming driving phobia which appeared in the Daily Express. After all that palaver over the photo, it isn't even included in the online version.

Which is a shame, because the graphics department have gone to a lot of trouble to photoshop in an extra chin, specially for me. I love those guys. To you, I dedicate my next gym session. Maybe the next forty.

Driven By New Year Intentions

You know, perhaps the best thing to do with these pesky New Year resolutions is to scrap them altogether.  Who 'resolves' to do things these days anyway? (I resolve to answer my emails...I resolve to go to the pub...Here I am resolving not to faff about on Facebook all day..) Maybe in the 1800s, but time and language moves on.

So let's replace these outmoded resolutions with some sparkling New Year Intentions.  Saying 'I intend to do..' something feels a lot like something that's actually going to get done, doesn't it?

This time last year, my intention was to kick my 7 year driving phobia into touch once and for all.  Having a random fear is all very good for striking up conversation at parties, but after a while it does become kind of boring.  You know the woman who drove at 10mph on the motorway?  I dreamed of being able to do that. Come to think of it, perhaps it's better that I didn't.

So last January I booked driving lessons, gritted my teeth and got out there.  Now, I would say I am about 60-70% of the way there when it comes to driving confidence (on good days I will even permit the children to speak whilst we are on the road).  My intention is to get that up to 100% by the end of this year, and I will know that I've got there when I'm driving happily along some as yet undetermined motorway, with the radio on.  Hopefully at slightly more than 10mph.

So what do you intend to do with 2008?  And what does 2008 intend to do with you?

Public Speaking etc...More on Scary Situations

Ah yes, public speaking, the topic, along with driving, which is virtually guaranteed to give me the willies.

A while ago I started a thread on Ecademy about public speaking nerves.  I was surprised that after about four years of speaking professionally to groups, I still get a minor case of the heebeejeebees before almost every event.  The replies were interesting - many people thought that pre-performance nerves were an essential part of being a good speaker, but some felt that getting nervous was the preserve of the big fat girlie wuss who should just clear off and leave it to the professionals.  Though they did put it a lot more politely than that.

Years ago I used to work on This Morning, a UK TV chat show beloved of actors with a project to plug.  It was surprising to see many of the most famous faces on TV absolutely crippled with nerves before an interview.  Some of the most apparently-confident performers you will ever see may well have been throwing up in a bucket just minutes before going on air.  So maybe nerves can be OK sometimes - part of the process of getting your energy going.

This week's speaking engagement also had the distinction of being preceded by a nightmare drive to the venue.  Just as I had got up to speed on a fast road, biblical quantities of rain started pouring on to the car.  Wow - Driving fast in the rain - well that's gonna feel easy to a nervous novice driver.  Thanks a lot, clouds. 

Then I got stuck behind a truck which had obviously come straight from the set of Looney Tunes.  It was loaded with 20 foot pieces of wood, slimmer logs at the bottom, great big fark-orf redwoods at the top, no discernible ropes keeping it all together.  I fully expected to see Wile E Coyote in the driving seat.  Imagine being stuck behind that lot in a mini. 

I realised we were approaching a hill and my brain started clocking through 'Logs...unattached...slope..slide off...squashed Joanne' .  However, all was not lost, because as well as various irrational fears, I also have quite a strong Ridiculo-Magnet and have a history of attracting ridiculous situations.   So whilst I was scared of the Looney Tune log lorry, I wasn't exactly surprised at its appearance.  And of course everything was fine in the end, as it generally is.  Mr Coyote turned left, I turned right, everybody happy.

I have written before about comfort zones, and the importance of challenging yourself in order to grow as a person.  That's basically the reason why I put myself in situations like this that scare me.  It's good to do something scary.  We find out more about ourselves in uncomfortable situations.  It shows us that we can do more than we thought we could.  And that we're not neccessarily going to get squished by a big log.  Not today anyway.