Your mindset plays a large role in your life, and this is true in any field or facet of life, including trucking. How you approach challenges, what your priorities are, and your general way of viewing your role as a trucker all influence your ability to succeed in the industry. It’s worthwhile to take the time to develop a positive “trucker mindset” even before you hit the road in order to set yourself up for the best possible experience.
Here are some mindset tips for truck drivers:
1. Know Why Trucking Is the Path For You
Trucking is a career path that offers excellent pay and benefits, the opportunity to see more of the country, and the ability to enjoy the freedom of the open road. However, like any career path, it’s not without its challenges. Having a clear sense of what’s most important to you will remind you of what makes trucking worthwhile for you specifically, even when things are tough. This may be a motivation to provide for your family, a love of the trucking lifestyle, or a sense of independence.
2. Prioritize Safety
Your specific list of priorities will be unique, but no matter what, safety needs to be on the list. Driving such a large vehicle is a big responsibility. From your first day in training to your last day behind the wheel, keep safety at the front of your mind. In addition to protecting yourself and others on the road, prioritizing safety can also help put things into perspective. Even if you didn’t get as many miles in a day as you wanted or if you had to get out of your truck several times when backing, you can remind yourself of your commitment to safety and why this matters.
3. Set Goals For Yourself
Having goals to work toward gives you a sense of purpose and a feeling of accomplishment when you reach them. Try setting a mix of long-term and short-term goals. This can help you map out the path you’d like to take for your career. Then follow through on this plan.
4. Stay Positive
In trucking, just like in any career, you’ll have good days and bad days. It’s not realistic to assume you’ll feel great 100% of the time, but you can work toward focusing on the positive when you can. This doesn’t mean you can’t acknowledge when something upsets you, but it’s helpful to separate what you can and can’t control and to move on once you’ve worked through the initial problem. If you focus too much on the negative, it can start to affect your well-being and even make you a less safe driver if you’re distracted by your emotions.
5. Keep Learning
Once you earn your commercial driver’s license (CDL), you’ll have a foundation of knowledge to enter the trucking industry. After this point, you’ll also go through on-the-job training in most cases. However, even once you complete your training and hit the road on your own (or with your trucking team), you shouldn’t assume you know everything. Each day is a new opportunity to learn and grow as a trucker. The first year is often particularly full of learning opportunities, but no matter how long you’re on the road, there’s still more you can learn.
Start Your Trucking Career
Are you interested in earning rewarding pay in an essential industry? If so, Phoenix Truck Driving School can help you get started. Our program allows you to get your CDL in as little as four weeks and we offer job placement assistance to help you start earning as soon as possible.
