Auto Repair Shop Owners Believe that Life is a Gift

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Life is a Gift by Rick White, President 180BIZ   (Estimated Read Time 4 minutes 32 seconds)

Life is a gift. We hear that all the time and sometimes to the point of nausea. But here's what I want you just to think through for a second. Life is a gift. Each and every day is a gift. We listen to this, and we hear it, but I don't think it penetrates. How fast did your kids grow up or are growing up? I'm watching my grandkids now and I'm absolutely mind-blown at how fast they're growing. Each day when I wake up and open my eyes and that's a gift for me. Why? Because I recognize there are more days behind me than in front of me.

I once saw this meme and I thought it was amazing. It showed a picture of people in a big field standing in line. There was an escalator going up to the sky. The caption was, “Everybody's in line. We just don't know where.” Today is a gift. Life is a gift. And I think we blow it too many times. We are the only creatures in the world who can create our environment. We can create our lifestyle. Every other animal on this planet reacts to the environment and does what it's hardwired to do. We, however, can create. Realize that it is a gift, but we sometimes miss it. Why? Because our hands are full of the baggage that we bring in. The hurt, the failures, etc. How do you grab onto something new if your hands are full? Don't spend your time carrying all that baggage.

I think of Bob Marley, you have seen the Scrooge movies with all the chains he has to drag around with him. I believe that's what we're doing. We must learn to let go so that we can grab something new. But you're probably sitting there thinking, “Yeah, but Rick, sometimes life knocks you down.” Getting knocked down is a given. It happens to everyone. But getting up and deciding how fast you get up, that's a choice. I'll give you a perfect example. It’s a beautiful day right now. It's 63 degrees out here. And it was a little overcast. So, I thought I’d do this video outside. Well, guess what?  It started raining. But I have a covered porch. I decided to do our video from the porch instead of my usual spot in the yard. The point is that you should understand that there are gifts in everything that happens to you.

Here's another example. Friday afternoon, Brenda and I are in the house. We have our three grandchildren with us, five, seven, and nine years old. All of a sudden we get that very acidic smell like electrical insulation burning. Son Brenda goes into fix-it mode and I'm right there with her. She took the kids over to her mom's house who lives next door. I start looking around for what's causing it.  I can't find it anywhere until I walked by an AC register. I could smell it coming up from there. We called the repair man who came out the next day. Guess what? We have a 17-year-old system and it needs to be replaced. He had me turn it on because I shut the power off Friday night. We actually had the fire department come out just to make sure everything was okay. So, Saturday the repairment tells me to turn it on and immediately yells to shut it off.. The circuit board that controls the inside unit literally caught on fire in front of the repair person. I'm telling you right now, Brenda and I, on Friday night, were supposed to go to the county fair with the grandkids. If we had gone our house would've burned down.

This is a big deal. Let go of yesterday. Realize that everything's a gift. I am so grateful that we found that issue. And to top it all off, the guy that comes to work on our air conditioning unit has one arm. He has a birth defect that left him with no left arm. To watch that guy work was absolutely amazing. Everything is a gift. What you decide to do with it, that's up to you. You can create the life you want, the business you want, but you must spend more time looking at it. Be focused on where you want to go, making plans for where you want to go, and then acting on them.

How many of you have been talking about where you want to go for years? And haven't done anything yet about it. When you wait too long, you start to get into the victim mindset. Stuff's not happening to you. It's just happening. And it's what you do with it that makes all the difference in the world. You create your days, you create your life. Where you're at right now is a culmination of the decisions and choices you've made up to this point. Step back and decide to create something today. Step back and look for the lesson. We are here to become the best version of ourselves. We are here to create relationships and memories and to help each other along. I would love to see comments throughout the week about what you created. I'm will create growth and abundance in others. I'm will create a positive mindset in others. What will do?

God bless. Stay safe. Have fun and go make some money.

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