How to Stay Motivated When You're Learning to Drive

If you've become demotivated while learning to drive, you're not alone. Whether it's because you're making slow progress, you're not enthusiastic about driving, or any other reason, a lack of motivation is a common problem that many learner drivers face. Thankfully, it's also a problem that everyone can overcome. If you're sick of cancelling lessons and wasting money or feeling down about driving, here are 3 ways to keep yourself motivated.

Think About Why You Want to Drive

One reason many driving students lose motivation is that they don't have any real reason for wanting to become drivers. Many people take driving lessons out obligation—internal obligation to hit this 'life milestone' and external obligation to parents or family members are 2 of the biggest reasons. If you're learning to drive because you feel you have to rather than because you want to, you'll struggle to stay enthusiastic. If this sounds like your problem, think about ways in which driving will benefit you. Before your next lesson, try to come up with a list of 5 to 10 reasons why you want to drive. This could include reasons as big as 'it will help me get a job' to reasons as small as 'I won't have to listen to my dad's favourite radio station anymore'. Once you have some tangible benefits in mind, you'll find it easier to keep attending lessons and enjoying them.

Track Your Driving Progress

Another common cause of demotivation is slow progress. It's common for learn drivers to hit a plateau while learning, where you feel you're not improving your driving skills at all. You can prevent yourself from feeling dejected over this by keeping track of your driving progress. Make a checklist of all the different driving skills; each lesson, check off the ones that you feel you've improved in. This will help you see that you are making some progress, no matter how small. It will also show you what areas you're least confident in; you can ask your instructor to spend extra time on these skills to help you progress even quicker.

Choose a New Driving School

For some learners, internal motivation isn't the problem—external motivation is. No matter how pumped up you are before a lesson, it's easy to lose your enthusiasm if your driving instructor isn't competent or doesn't have the right attitude. If you've had no luck with the tips above, it could be time to look into booking driving lessons at a different school. There are plenty of instructors out there, so you're sure to find one who meshes well with you and keeps you excited about becoming a driver.