Auto Repair Shop Owners: Are You a Thermostat or a Thermometer?

Are You a Thermostat or a Thermometer? by Rick White, President 180BUZ

In this episode, I’ll talk about temperature. It's really important to step back and look at this, especially at the beginning of the year. I want you to decide for the year 2022, do you want to be a thermometer or a thermostat? This is a very important question to ask. A thermometer reads the temperature. It reacts to the temperature of the room and that's all it does. But, a thermostat, on the other hand, controls the temperature of the room. Do you hear the difference here? Thermostats set the temperature. They control it. Thermometers react.

I don't know about you, but I react too much in my life.  I step back and wait for things to happen, for things to get better, for things to change. And every single time I can get my head out of my butt and realize that if it is to be, it is up to me. That makes everything different because I start moving toward something that I want, something that I can create. There's a really great book out by John Gordon called The Coffee Bean. He co-wrote it with somebody else and I apologize I don't remember who it is. He says that we have a choice of either being a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean. Now let's think about this. What do they do? He says that life is like a boiling pot of water. If you throw a carrot in the boiling water over time that carrot gets soft and mushy. It has no backbone. It has no drive. It's just there. Soft and mushy and gave up. That's it. Now for an egg. You put an egg in boiling water and over time that egg gets hard and crusty and solid and resistant and angry. And that's what happens with the egg. If you're a carrot or an egg, you're reacting to the water, you're reacting to life. But when you are the coffee bean, the coffee bean goes into hot water and the coffee bean transforms the water. It doesn't allow the water to transform it. The coffee bean transforms the water.

My suggestion here is that the coffee bean is being a thermostat. The carrot and the egg are thermometers. They are just reacting to what's going on around them instead of showing up differently, showing up with a destination, showing up with focus and expectation and enthusiasm for the day, for the week, for the month, for the year we are in. And it is time now to decide how you are going to show up for this new year. You decide. Don't let situations, circumstances, events, and other people decide how you are going to show up for the year. Become your own thermostat.

There's another thing I want you to be aware of is that we all have thermostats built in already. We have comfort zones. Have you ever seen someone that really seems like they're taken off and are very successful and then all of a sudden something happens and they're back to where they were before? You have an internal comfort zone. And that internal comfort zone is going to keep you in a box for the rest of your life. You only have two choices. Get used to the box or change the thermostat setting. Look at lottery winners. They've done studies over and over again with lottery winners. And typically, four to five years after winning the lottery, they're at the same financial level that they were or worse than they were before they won it. It doesn't have to be that way. So unconsciously, we self-sabotage when we get outside of our comfort level. So, my suggestion to you is to fill your day, your life with people that are higher up than you. Get yourself a coach if you don't have one already. Surround yourself with people that are doing better than you. If your shop's doing a million dollars a year, by God, surround yourself with shops that are doing two or three million a year. If you're looking at one location right now, surround yourself with shops that have 2, 3, 4, 5 locations. That will help you raise the thermostat in your life and in your expectations.

There's an equation in life. It's cause and effect. When we're on the effect side of that equation, we are reacting. We are victims. We are there waiting for something to happen, praying for something to be better. Taking control of what you do does not ensure success. But imagine you're in a boat going down a river and this river of life will bring you to some good places and some bad places. That's the way life is. If you don't have a paddle or you're not paddling, then you are allowing situations, circumstances, events, the current of life to take you to different places. And you're sitting there like a victim, hoping that it's going get better. Sometimes you’ll land somewhere really amazing. But the truth is if you get out and you paddle you're going get to where you want to go more are often than you will otherwise.

So, here’s my question, my challenge to you. Are you going to show up this year as a thermostat or a thermometer? This is where it makes a difference. It starts up here in your mind. It starts with how you show up.

If this message resonates, please help us spread it. Our goal is to make a massive difference. Will you please help me do that?

This is your choice. If you don't make a decision here, it is a decision. You have to make this decision. Not one time, not today. You must make this decision every moment of every day. Now give yourself the gift of being your own thermostat. I promise you your life will never look the same again.

I want you to go out, have fun today. I want you to stay safe and I want you to go make some money. Take care.