The Power of Thought Can thinking something make it happen?

I was walking through the local Asda supermarket the other day, and I noticed a shop assistant nursing a very wet and damaged box containing glass drinks bottles between his hands. The box was so flimsy it was difficult to say whether he would be able to make it all the way to the warehouse. The interesting thing was that his fear of dropping the bottles was making him carry the bottles differently and this very process was making the task even more precarious.

It reminded me of an experience I had not so long ago.

During the nicer months I like to get out with my caravan. Before I got the caravan, I had never camped before, let alone used a caravan. I had done some towing before, but my towing experience was limited, and I had never towed a caravan.

The first long trip out on holiday, not really knowing what expect. Noises and feelings all heightened my anxiety for the first trip out. About 2 hours into a 5 hour journey I heard a horrible scraping sound and felt a bit more drag on the car. I didn’t know what it was, and unfortunately I was not in a place where I could stop to investigate. A quarter of a mile later with my heart in my mouth I found somewhere safe to pull in. I discovered that the jockey wheel ( the little wheel at the front of the caravan, normally up when towing) had dropped to the floor. With a sense of relief and anxiety I put it back in position and fastened the bolt. Relief because I had found the problem, anxiety because I was worried it could happen again. So in an effort to reduce my anxiety I tightened the bolt hard. Problem solved?

A number of trips later, no more problems with a jockey wheel, this was down to me ensuring that it was really tight of course?

One day I was getting the caravan into position to leave a camp site, and as usual expertly tightened the jockey wheel, it was then I heard a ‘snap’ the jockey wheel fell off and the front of the caravan hit the floor.

I wont go into the details of how it was all fixed , because it took a while and covid also got in the way. But rest assured the caravan is fit and healthy and providing trouble free holidays.

The question I was left with was, had I caused the problem due to anxiety about it happening again or would it have failed anyway. Being honest with myself I am pretty certain that the day the jockey wheel dropped set an anxiety in me, in motion, to course a more catastrophic outcome.

So because I took action to prevent something happening I actually caused it. I suppose thats not a fair statement, it should read because I became overly anxious about a situation I over reacted to it. There by causing the problem.

I see this regularly in nervous drivers, because they are worried about a situation, they actually make it happen.

An example would be ( and this happens a lot) A nervous driver driving down a road sees a car appear in a side road to their left. Their anxiety kicks in and tells them that the car is going to pull out on them. So they slow down. Because the driver of the car sees them slow down, they think the other car is waiting for them, so pulls out. The nervous drivers anxiety is fired even further, because they knew that would happen. Negatively re-enforced by the situation. But they created it.

We all know, as drivers, that sometimes people do pull out in front of you, but it’s not a common situation. The nervous driver however makes it one because of their actions. Over reacting like I did with my caravan.

The fix for this is to make sure the nervous driver feels in control of the situation. So when they see a possible threat , like this, they cover their foot brake, this way they are ready to act if they need to. The car will also lose a little bit of natural speed to make the task of stopping easier, but more importantly, the car in the side road will not notice the reduced speed and so will not pull out.

Our emotions shape our actions, our goal is to recognise these emotions and create an appropriate response to the perceived threat. We do not want the thought to create the situation or even escalate it.

I am not sure whether the assistant in Asda made his way safely to the warehouse without incident. But I do not tighten my jockey wheel so much these days.