The Best Auto Repair Shop Owners Know How to Balance

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Balance by Rick White, President 180BIZ  (Estimated Read Time 5 minutes 10 seconds)

Today is about balance. Why am I talking about balance? Because I think there's so little of it going on in our lives. I think we're lopsided. I think we're driving around on flat tires. What do I mean? We put air in half the tire. The other side of the tire is flat. So why am I saying this? Because I think there's too much emphasis on one area of your life. You must recognize that your life is like a wheel with many spokes. And each one of those spokes represents a different area of your life.

You have your family, your relationships with your kids, your wife or girlfriend or boyfriend, and we have friendships. We have social interactions. We have physical health, mental health, emotional health, and spiritual health. We need to have all these things in play. Zig Ziegler said it best. He said, “if home base ain't right. Ain't nothing else right. Why? When home base isn't right, you end up in a situation where nothing else is. We can't pretend that this area of our life isn't there. And we pretend it's not there. That doesn't work. It permeates everything you do.

Instead, I want you to think about where you're putting too much time. Now, for most of us, it's work. We're spending too much time at work and we're lying to ourselves.  We're telling ourselves that we are there to provide for our families and to take care of them. But in reality, your shop has become your mistress and your family is seeing the shop as competition.

That's one of my core values. Getting you out of the shop and back into your life. I want to get those other spokes out. I want to get the air in the complete tire, so you're not going around going blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub. You're going around on a full round tire. And you're cruising.

I want you just to ask yourself a very simple question right now. I want you to ask yourself, “Why am I working so hard?” I know you will give yourself some lame answer like, “I want to provide for my family.”  Now ask you a different question. Why are you doing it? What is the life that you want to create with your shop? I think this is such an important question to ask because you get stuck in the trees and you can't see the forest anymore. A lot of people started their shop to get more free time, to be the captain of their ship, to have more vacation, or to have more control. You need to understand what you want your life to look like. We tend to lose sight of that.

You lose sight of the fact that you wanted to be there for your kids and their ball games, but you're at the shop. You wanted to see your daughter's ballet recital, but you're at the shop. Your wife wanted to do something with the ladies and she couldn't go because you're at the shop. Do you see what I'm saying? You work to live not live to work. There isn't one person on their deathbed that said, “I wish I worked more.” It’s usually regretting what should have been our priorities.

So I want you to step back and I want you to ask yourself, “What kind of life do I want?” What does it look like? What does it smell like? What does it sound like? Visualize this picture so clearly in your mind. So clear on what it is. Visualize going on trips with your family and doing activities with your kids. How's that going for you so far? And if it isn't working for you, maybe you need some help. Maybe you need to find that balance. Maybe you need to put your kids first. Maybe you need to put your spouse first.

One other thing I want to talk to you about. Typically full on at work, or you're trying to get some time with your family. I want you to understand this one simple concept. You can't feed others with an empty cup. You must recognize that your cup must be full. That you need to take care of yourself emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually, so that you can come into each day, ready for the day, ready to give of yourself, ready to fill others’ cups, and fill them with encouragement, love, and support, challenge and growth.

But that doesn't happen if you're running on empty. So when you're getting out of the shop and you're creating balance, remember that you need time. You need to figure out what it is. I have a morning routine. The book The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy is where I learned this concept a long time ago. It’s called bookending your days. There are only two parts of the day you can control. At the beginning and the end. So I get up in the morning and I control how my day starts. Then at the end of the day, I control how it ends. And by controlling those, by setting intentions on each of those and working on them, I'm feeding myself and I'm creating a situation where my cup is full so that I can give to others. When their cup is a little low, I can fill it for them because I have an endless supply. Remember the airlines say that before you help someone else put on an oxygen mask, put yours on first.

Let's just do a quick recap. Number one, why are you at the shop? Where are you out of balance? I guarantee you are out of balance somewhere. Typically, it's either going to be at the shop, which isn't usually the case. It's going to be with your family. It's going to be with your friends. It's going to be with you. Step back, look at where you have a deficit, and work on filling that. Let's get it so that you have a nice round and full tire.

Thank you for being here. God bless, stay safe. Go have some fun and go make some money.

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