Why is Frustration is a Gift for Auto Repair Shop Owners?

The Gift of Frustration by Rick White, President 180BIZ

What I want to talk to you about what I call the gift. Yes. The gift of frustration. I've been frustrated about some things in my life lately.  So, I took a step back and I started to analyze it to fully understand it. First, what is frustration? This is important because I’ll tell you how to apply this to your business. It will be one of the best tools you’ll have in your toolbox.

Life is all about growth. It’s about wanting to be at a certain place at a certain time. Life is about the gap. That's what jazzes us up. That's what gets us excited. It’s that gap. It’s that ability to get there. Frustration is when there's no progress. It’s when you don't sense progress between where you're at and where you want to go. But most of us want to avoid frustration. We don't like feeling frustrated. It's a negative emotion. Instead of feeling frustrated, we pull away from it. We try to not think about it. We stop pushing hard. We tell ourselves stories that stop us from feeling that frustration.

Frustration comes from a lack of progress, a lack of movement. But here’s the key, frustration is a tool for you to know what to work on in your business.  A lack of movement is going to come from four basic things. Let's talk it through.

1. NO GOAL. In other words, you don't want to be where you're at, but you really don't know where you want to go. That's going to cause frustration because you want progress. You want movement, but you haven't defined what that looks like. You are waiting for something to happen externally to make your life better. But you are not put on this earth to be the manager or the spectator of your life. You are the creator of your life. If you want something more in your life, you must identify it and make it powerful.  So, the first thing that causes frustration is no goal, no destination.
2. NO PLAN. Let's say we create a gross profit goal in our business. Then, we just wait for it to happen. And it doesn't. That is so frustrating.  We must make it happen. So, need a plan. If you don't have a plan, you're never going to get to where you want to go. That's like getting in the car and just driving.  You may want to go to California, but you don’t know how you’ll get there. You just drive. That doesn't work. You must have a plan, a roadmap.
3. NO ACTION. The third thing that causes frustration is when you have the goal, you have the plan, but you take no action.  You keep putting it off. Why are you putting it off? You're putting it off because you are afraid. You are afraid to take action. You're afraid that it won't be perfect. You're afraid that it'll be a mistake. You'll be afraid that you're going to fall down. We all fall. It's okay. That's how we learn. You must act on your plan to be able to see progress toward your goal.
4. NO RESULTS. Let's say you have your goal. You have your plan. You took massive action. And now there are no results. And that is so frustrating. The problem with that is what I call binary thinking. It means that I set my goal or destination, identify where I am now, and see only one way to get there. If that one way doesn’t work, you give up.  That’s very frustrating. But I’m here to tell you that there are a million different ways to do it.  We just need to get better. The plan that you’re working and the actions that you're taking aren't working.  The frustration is feedback, not failure. That's feedback telling you to try something different. This isn't working, or this needs to be tweaked.

I'm telling you right now that you will be at your happiest feeling, the most alive, the most jazzed, and juiced when you see progress in any area of your life. This completely fits business, but it also fits every relationship in your life. Your spouse, your kids, your grandkids. Let's face it. They can all be better. Can't they all be better? Remember, your frustration isn't a feeling to be avoided. It's a feeling to be analyzed. It's a feeling to question what is frustrating you.  It will be one of those four things, no goal, no plan, no action, no results. The gift that frustration gives you is a flashlight, a beacon that shines right on the issue you need to work on.

So, I'm going to ask you today, we're coming into the last quarter of the year. This year has been filled with so much uncertainty that it's been easy to get frustrated.  We're not getting what we want and we're blaming it on the pandemic, the riots, the racial issues, etc.  And none of that is true. Are those factors affecting our reality? Yes, but they are not creating our reality. We respond or react to them. I hope that you heard that. That's powerful. So, here's what I want you to do.  Decide how you can make the last quarter of 2020 a springboard for 2021 to take off? It is never too late to get started. It is never too late to push forward and start that growth to get that gap closed.

Don't avoid your frustration. Embrace it, listen to it, and let it show you what you need to work on in your business. If you need some help, reach out. Thank you so much. God bless go make some money.