Auto Repair Shop Owner's Daily Dose 43: Tackle or Get Tackled

Tackle or Get Tackled by Rick White, President 180BIZ

 Are you getting up early enough to tackle your day or are you being tackled by the day? Think about that for a second. I really believe you need to tackle your day and think of success every single day.  Beginning right now from this point forward, no more reacting, think only about creating. If you look at that the words reacting and creating, they're the same letters. They have the same letters with totally different meanings. Here's how you create your day.

END OF THE WORKDAY ROUTINE. When you finish up for the day, sit down, and reflect on your day.

1. What went well?  Celebrate what went well.
2. What can you learn about today?  Write down everything you learned.
3. What am I going to do better tomorrow?
   Write down at least three (but no more than five) different action items that will do tomorrow.
4. Get your calendar out and schedule those three things.  Once they're on your calendar, you have a much better chance of getting them done.
5. Now you go home and relax. Fill the remainder of the day with your family and loved ones.

MORNING RITUAL.  Now the next thing is to have a morning ritual. When you wake up in the morning tell yourself, “I'm going to do this.” And it gets you feeling a little bit better. Each thing you do is a win and you’ll feel even better.  Each small win will help build this feeling of I can do this.

For me, I get up in the morning and take my vitamins, I tell myself I'm going to take my vitamins, I take my vitamins.  It’s a win.  Next, I'm going to do five minutes of meditating. It’s a win. I did it. I'm going to read my devotionals in my scripture for the morning. Another win. I did it. You get the picture.  When I get to work, I’m feeling like a winner ready to rock the day. You need to build yourself up so that you're coming to work feeling like a winner, not a whiner. Remember that you can only control what’s inside of your skin. That's it.

So, figure out what your big three is the night before. Schedule them and have a routine in the morning where you're getting up early enough that you get to create your day instead of reacting.

What does reacting look like? Hitting the snooze button four times and rolling out of bed late, not being able to shower, not being able to get your mind set, not be able to get your intention set and you're just at the whim of the day for the rest of the day. Okay? Darren Hardy wrote this great book titled Become Better Every Day. He talks about book-ending your days and it is one of the most powerful tools I have ever shared with my clients. It helps you go home feeling like a million bucks even if you had a bad day. Set up a routine in the morning that gives you little wins so that when you go into work, you’re ready.

Success is not a destination. Success is not something you own. Success is something that you work at every day. I love this old saying, “Success is never owned, it's rented, and the rent is due every day.” What are you doing to get take care of business?

• Maximize what's in the bays right now. Slow down. Make sure you got the right mindset. Make sure you got the right intention and expectation, and then maximize the opportunities in the bays today.
• Reach out to existing customers. Let them know that you care. Let them know that you're safe and let them know that you're there to help if they need you.
• Grow your audience. That's it. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars on big mailer campaigns. If you've got cash, I'm telling you, keep the cash right now. You can get in front of people another more authentic way that's going to make a bigger difference, a bigger impact than a postcard. Use social media to get people to know, like, and trust you. You want to build credibility. Every bit of your message must have to cover three things. Safety, caring, and credibility. That's it. You must get out there. Have fun with it. Show them who you are. If you've got a warped sense of humor, use it. Let it show as long as it's clean. You don't need to tell dirty jokes. You don't have to make fun of other people. You can fun of yourself.

Remember the big three right now. Maximize your opportunity. Connect with the customers. Stay in touch with them. Let them know you're there. Let them know you care. And let them know that you want to help. And then the last thing is growing your audience. I know I've been saying this, but not enough people are doing it. People are starting to stick their heads out of their shells. Be the first thing they see. So, get out there. Even if you’re not comfortable doing a video.  None of us ever were.

We wanted to do an online advisor academy for two years. That’s right, we thought about it for two years. And let me tell you something. The whole time it was me afraid of being in front of a camera. It doesn't bother me anymore. Your goal is not to get everybody to love you. Your goal is to put your message out and it will attract enough people to you, I promise.

So, are you tackling your day, or is the day tackling you? I hope you're going to be on the tackling part, not the tackled.

Have a great day.  God Bless.