I’ve been driving on the “wrong” side for so long that I’m beginning to forget what it’s like to drive on the “right” side.

We spent 10 weeks in Ireland and now four weeks in Scotland. The left side of the road is starting to look right. My brain is a mess.

This experience, by far the longest I’ve ever driven on the wrong side, has taught me a few things. Some of them apply to practicing law.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. Change is difficult and exhausting.

My fingers ached for the first week from the death grip I had on the steering wheel and the shifter. I had to keep cracking my knuckles and stretching out my hands. My left wrist was exhausted from all the shifting. I was using muscles that I’d never used for driving before, and it was an awkward mess.

The exhaustion in my arms and hands was nothing compared to the exhaustion of my mind. One roundabout flowing into a second roundabout flowing into a third roundabout followed by more roundabouts was normal. When will it stop? It never stopped. Roundabouts on highways at high speeds were a special treat. The other drivers appreciated my maneuvers and honked their gratitude for my gracefulness.

Overcoming my patterns—my temptation to shift over to the other side or to turn into the wrong lane—was especially challenging. Every move required focus and a commitment to keep my task front and center in my mind. After a few multihour drives, it was tempting to drift back to my old ways as I relaxed. The honking from other drivers jerked me back to reality.

2. It’s better to have help.

For three months, I was rarely in the car alone. Lisa was my trusted companion, and she handled the navigation as she has no experience with a manual transmission. My frugality required that I book a manual transmission because it was dramatically less expensive. Lisa kept Google Maps open on her iPhone and helped us find our way down some incredibly narrow “roads” up in the northern parts of Ireland. Unfortunately, Google Maps isn’t able to factor in the delays caused by sheep congregating in the roadway.

Having someone else to handle the map made it possible for us to keep moving while skirting the edges of cliffs, avoiding the drop into the bogs, and sliding by the aforementioned sheep. Having someone with an extra set of eyes who can occasionally shout “stay on the left” comes in handy. Of course, she may never recover from the psychic impact of hitting the curb while flying through some village at 100 kilometers per hour. Thankfully, we didn’t damage the car.

3. Backing up is especially awkward.

Going forward is tough. We can all relate to the challenges of getting moving and keeping ourselves going. But sometimes we’ve got to back up. The act of moving the vehicle backward is easy. Knowing where to look for oncoming traffic is hard. It doesn’t help that I also had to remember to look over my left shoulder instead of my right. My 55-year-old neck isn’t so sure that’s a good idea.

Going backward is unfortunately something we all have to do sometimes. It’s important to put the car in the right place in the first place so that backing up will be easier when it’s required. I quickly learned to contemplate my exit strategy before entering a particular space.

4. Instinct takes over in a crisis.

Bad things happen on the road. Some of the time I caused the problem. Sometimes it was the other driver. But, in that moment of crisis, when it’s clear that immediate action is the only way to avoid disaster, it’s likely that instinct will take over. We reveal our true selves in an emergency. Panic brings out the old stuff that’s deeply embedded in our core. When we get stressed, we behave as we’ve learned over long periods of time to behave.

When things are spinning out of control, it’s hard to do what we know we must do. In the trickiest of situations, mostly going up and coming down mountains, I talked to myself about what I’d do if things went awry. My little conversations with myself attempted to anticipate the unexpected. “Stay left,” I told myself even when I could feel my body wanting to shift the car to the right. Old patterns fight for their opportunity to take over again.

5. The brake is sometimes the best option.

I’ll admit that, when I’m comfortable driving in a place I know, my solution to most problems is to accelerate. I rarely had to replace brake pads on my vehicles. I like to go, not stop. My reaction to a tight spot is nearly always to accelerate away from it. When things are going wrong, I like to speed away from the chaos. I don’t mind making a quick decision and hitting the gas (petrol to some of you).

But, going faster, especially when things aren’t going exactly as planned, increases the danger. The safer move is to slow down or stop. Once you’re stopped and can assess the situation, come up with a plan and then you can go. Hitting the gas pedal when things are going wrong is likely to make things worse instead of better.

Driving on the wrong side of the road requires some rethinking, reorganizing, and reorienting. It’s not unlike lots of situations we face. Most days we get to drive on the right side. But sometimes we’re expected to thrive even when we’re forced to do the opposite of what we’re used to doing. Sometimes we’ve got to adapt. Sometimes we’re forced out of our comfort zone. It’s hard, but in the end, it’s good for us.

See you in the roundabout.