The BIGG Successs Show
The Riskiest Thing Most of Us Do Every Day
We think this makes us more productive, but are we really just playing the odds? Find a written summary of today's show along with links to the statistics we mention at BIGGSUCCESS.COM.
Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today, we'll talk about the riskiest thing most of us do every day. The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. We saw a great post over at the Sykes Central the other day, and it's by John Grohl. The post is called Distracted While Driving, and what really caught my eye was he talks about the fact that most of us think we're playing this race against time, we're always trying to be more productive and get more done in the same amount of time, but when we drive with distractions, we're really playing against the odds. Okay, and just a little bit we're going to talk about this because I don't know how you avoid it, but we'll get into that. We looked a little bit further into some statistics and found a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That's a mouthful. Yeah, I know, jeez, and we do have a link to that on our site today, but they showed that about 80% of crashes and 65% of near crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds of the event. And Mary Lynn, I don't know about you, but I was startled by that statistic. I wasn't really that surprised. Wow, that's just a huge number when you think about it, and I'd have to say I'm guilty as charged because I've often kind of used my car as a sort of roaming second office. You know, I would accumulate my phone messages, for example, and if I knew I didn't need my computer or if I wouldn't have to look something up, I'd just take my messages with me and start making phone calls when I was on the road, and I thought it was saving me time. Yeah, I mean, it's easy to do. I've done the same thing, or how about this, I'm in the car, and I've got a busy, busy day, and I've got all of these things rolling through my mind, and that's one of the distractions that I think we often don't take into account. And that's when you're zoning out, not really paying attention, and you're just kind of in your own world there. Is that where you go from place to place, and then you get to see your destination, and you start thinking, "I don't even remember what route I took to get here." Or, "I missed my turn," yeah, something like that. Well, on speaking of distractions, Mary Lynn, psychologists say there are actually four types of distractions while driving. One is visual. And so that's when you're checking out an accident as you're driving by, or there's a big billboard that you're paying attention to. Yeah, and the second one is audible. Yeah, you're talking on your cell phone, or you're talking to a passenger in the car, or you're just jamming out to the radio. See now, I know, Mary Lynn, when you're driving, and I'm talking, you're not distracted at all, because you never listened to me. What? What'd you say? Exactly. Well, the third distraction psychologists have identified is physical. That's right. So that's when you're eating, maybe flipping around the dial, or you're shuffling your iPod to get the next song on, putting on makeup, those types of things. I never do that. Just for the record. And the fourth one is, and this is the zoning out when Mary Lynn, the cognitive. That's right. And that's, like what I said, your daydreaming, or you're thinking about other things that are going on in your life. And of course, a lot of these can be multifaceted. For example, using the cell phone, you know, what we hear about, there's all these new regulations about not using the cell phone, you have to have a hands-free cell phone. But even with that, we still face audible distractions and cognitive distractions with the cell phone. And if you aren't hands-free, then you can add the physical to that as well. But to play devil's advocate here for a second, I mean, I really do think it saves time, and we've got a friend who we consult with, and he talks with us when he's on his hour and a half commute home. You know, so I can understand why you would use your phone when you've got that long drive. Well, and it is understandable, Mary Lynn, and certainly, you know, I'm not disputing that at all. It's just, I think that what this article made me aware of was the fact that while I'm trying to save time, I also have to recognize the odds of something happening and take measures to try to minimize the distractions. Okay, coming up, we're going to talk about how we are going to make some changes. Today, we're talking about the riskiest thing most of us do every day, and of course, that's driving while distracted. And Mary Lynn, I think we're committed to making some changes after reading some of these statistics. Yeah, we're going to do what we can to try and minimize those distractions. So one thing that we're guilty of doing is eating in the car, especially if we have a trip, and usually it's because we have to grab something real quick because we've left at the last minute. Right, because I'm waiting on you. Okay, you didn't have to go that far, but it may not be that. So we're going to try to make sure we leave 15 to 20 minutes earlier so that we can actually stop and eat in the parking lot. And something I'm going to do, Mary Lynn, is when the phone rings, I'm going to just flat out, ignore it. That's hard to do, but I'm going to do it. Here's something I think you could do even better, because when I was reading the article from Psych Central, it said that we just really can't resist either answering our phone or checking to see who's calling. To just turn off the ringer. Turn it off that way. That means you won't be able to get a hold of me. That's okay. You can call me when you pull over. See, because that's another thing. That's what I'm going to do is if I'm going to be on the road and I know I'm expecting a call, I could just change my greeting. Hey, I'm on the road, but I'll be checking my voicemail at 3.30 and then people know why I'm not answering my phone. Absolutely. And then the one more thing we're going to do, Mary Lynn, it's kind of funny. Most of these involve our cell phone. Well, that's the culprit for us. Well, and I guess the final thing is whenever I can, I'm going to pull over. If I get a phone call that I have to take, although I guess I won't because I've already turned my ringer off, but if I absolutely have a phone call that I know I have to take, and I'm going to be away from my phone long enough that I know I have to let it ring through, I'll just try to pull over. Well, that's reality. I mean, you can't always just turn off the ringer. You can get a written summary of today's show on our site at Big Success. That's bigwith2gsuccess.com. Also links to the studies we referenced too earlier. Next time, we'll talk about the secret to action. Until then, here's to your big success. The Big Success Show at B-I-G-G Success.com. [MUSIC]