Auto Repair Shop Owners: Know the Four Sights

by Rick White, President 180BIZ                                                            (Estimated Read Time 5 minutes)

What I want to talk about today is SIGHT. Think about this for a minute. When it comes to your sight, where are you? I'm going to give you four areas. There's OBLIVIOUS, there's DISTRACTION, there's FOCUSED, and there's AWARENESS.      

1. OBLIVIOUS. This is where we're just doing stuff and are completely unaware of what's going on around us. That's a scary place to be. I'm telling you, there is a fair amount of us dealing with that issue. And it may not be just at work. It could be at home, it could be with a relationship.
   
   
2. DISTRACTED. I got to tell you something. It is so easy today to get distracted. Distracted by our phones, the bells, the whistles, the dings, the television, etc. It's like our brains need constant bombardment. One of the hardest things to do, today, is give ourselves some quiet time to think, to reflect, to plan. But we don't. We fill our days with so much activity. You're doing everyone else's job because you don't know how to delegate, because you don't trust them, because you're afraid of letting go.
   
   
3. FOCUS. Think about that. That is where we all want to be, right? We want to be focused. People tell me all the time that they can't focus. That is completely false. You are one hundred percent able to focus. You're focusing on what you want to focus on. You're not focusing on what you feel like you should be. You're focused on shutting down. You're focused on playing with angry birds on your phone. Focused by itself is dangerous. Even if you're focusing on the best thing. What you're doing is you're creating a tunnel vision where all you have is one thing. And if you drove a car like that, at some point, you will hit something.
   
   
4. AWARENESS. You need to be aware. Some people are just aware and nothing else. Sometimes that awareness, if we're not careful, creates distraction. That awareness, if we're not careful, can cause us to become oblivious. So we must be focused and aware. Yes, you might have a team member that's struggling.  Let them struggle. Let them figure it out. Give them the bandwidth. Give them the room to make a mistake. Give them a chance to learn.

I believe you must have double sight.

I believe that you must have double sight. Be focused and aware. Be focused on what you’re doing, Make sure that the effort you’re putting out is the very best that it can be. But then be aware. See what's going on around you. See the energy of the people around you. Be aware of what's coming up. What could be coming up? Not from a fear perspective, but from a planning perspective. Some of y'all, you have issues where at the beginning of the year you're going to slow down. This is where you should be planning for that. This is where you should be aware of that coming up.  Then start putting things in place with your marketing so that you have a better first quarter.

It's okay to be distracted. A little bit.

Being oblivious is no bueno. You don't want to do it. You want to stay away from oblivion as much as you possibly can. It's okay to be distracted. Harness it. Give yourself different periods in the day when you can just let your mind go. That's okay. At lunchtime, I'm going to give myself a gift of stepping away, unplugging for a half hour to an hour where I can recharge. Maybe it's reading a book or playing Angry Birds on my phone. Whatever's going to fill you up. Keep it within boundaries. We can't just keep going and going and going and going. Start your day with intention. That intention creates focus. But then at regular intervals, step back and look around. Am I making progress?  Is my focus working? How are the people around me doing? How's the day going? How's my week? Look at what's coming up in the next three to six months.

How can you be aware and have more focus this week?

When you are aware, it protects you from reacting. When you are aware and focused, it keeps you moving forward. It keeps you from getting out. You create a life that you want. Do you want to be oblivious? No. Do you want to be distracted? A little bit, but it's planned. I want to be focused with intention and awareness. How can you be more aware this week? How can you have more focus this week?

Please share this video.  We have our Shop Owner’s Round Table, on the second Thursday of every month, 7 p.m. Eastern, and we would love you and your friends to drop by. Shop owners only. And then we have our upcoming Pocket Business Genius webinar on the second Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern time. 

God bless. stay safe, have some fun, and go make some money.  Take care.

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