Auto Repair Shop Owner's Daily Dose 48: Happiness (Family)

Happiness by Rick White, President 180BIZ

 This is my family edition today and I've got something interesting I want to talk about. In fact, I spent part of the morning this morning sitting down and talking with Brenda about this book I'm reading. I highly recommend it. It's called He Who Thinks He Can by Orison Swett Marden. This book was written in 1909. I have had a problem putting it down. It amazes me how 111 years later everything he has written resonates with me.

The chapter that I read today on happiness. Orison Swett Marden said that most of us live a life in anticipation, not reality. Think about that for a second. We live in anticipation, expectation, not reality. In other words, happiness for so many people is event-oriented. What do I mean by that? Write down the phrase “I'll be happy when” and complete the sentence.  This is an exercise I do with each of my clients.

I believe that our founding fathers got this wrong. They said in the Declaration of Independence that we are all entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Happiness is not something you pursue. Whatever you pursue runs away from you. I want you to understand that whatever you pursue runs away from you.

So, I'm reading this chapter and the author brought up some amazing things like a selfish man will never be happy. I thought about that for a moment. I'm not selfish, but I'm self-centered. I tend to think of myself first and how things affect me. It's just the way I'm wired. The author said that we should be happy all the time. I think that's one of the lessons of this pandemic right now. We should still be happy right now. 

As I read on, he lays out what happiness is. He said that happiness is doing an honest job the best that you can. Something that you enjoy doing, something that serves others and helps you to grow. That’s happiness. He also wrote that happiness hates complexity. Happiness hates pretense. It's really simple. Enjoy what you do. Do it to the best of your ability, serve others, and grow. That is happiness.

There are people out there that are struggling right now.  I’ll share a graphic I thought that helps with this topic.  It’s Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. 

1. We must have our basic needs met before we can do anything else. That's food, water, and shelter. You can't talk to somebody about being a better person if they're worried about where their next meal is coming from. We must help them figure out that meal first.
2. Then we must feel safe. You can't talk about love. You can't talk about connecting. You can't talk about higher level attainment until we have our basic needs met. We must feel secure. And that's one of the reasons why we are having such a hard time right now because we're still consciously working on love and connection and self-esteem and then growing self-actualization. But we're not feeling safe through the pandemic.

I believe that this is a lesson showing us that we have our security grounded in the wrong things. Our security should not be in our acquisitions or our holdings. That's not it. I believe our security is going to come from the good Lord. If we get security from there you get a certain level of peace. And I realized today's not Sunday, so I'm not going to go too deep in that. But we must have our safety taken care of first. Then we can go to love and connect and we can go to serving others. Do you see what I'm saying here? This is why this is the family edition. Why? Because you've got a family that's looking up to you right now.

How are you coming to the day, every morning? How are you coming in where you see the joy in the day? You have food in the fridge, you have a roof over your head. You have power. You have running water. So, happiness must come from enjoying what you do.  I think that's the first thing that I really want to point out. At some point, you loved what you're doing. You got up in the morning excited about the day.  I want you to tap into the joy that you had before.

Just for the fun of it. Take all the crap and the pressure and the stress off yourself and just find your joy. And then do the absolute best job you can. I realized that you're going to say to me, “Rick, my shop, it's really slow. I'm struggling. I, I'm worried about food, I'm worried about security. I'm worried about where my family’s next meal will come from. I'm worried about rent.” If you’re that worried and in trouble, reach out. Talk to people and let them help you. You can still have joy going through what you're going through. Realize it's a journey. Realize that you're growing and getting better and bigger through this.

Some people are going to be unemployed. I want you to find joy in what you do again. And then I want you to do the absolute best job you can. Just give and give and give as much as you can. And then from there, start thinking of other people. Serve them and then feed yourself. Feed yourself. We give and give and give and give and give to the point where our cup is empty. We must fill the cup back up. We must feed our minds. We've must expand our spirits. We must recharge our bodies.

Our core tenant is all about relationships. That is what we coach. We coach on getting you out of the shop and back into your life. Why? Because no one should be so consumed with work that they miss their life. And that's what so many people do. They spend their whole lives chasing after happiness, thinking it's with a bigger bank account or a bigger house or a better car. And let me tell you something, that doesn't work. Happiness is not at the end. Happiness is something you bring with you and I'm telling you how to do it. Find your joy in what you're doing. Do it to the best of your ability, serve others, and grow. And that is what's going to make all the difference in the world.

So I really hope this has been helpful for today. I want to say thank you very much. Think about this and put a comment or something in there about what you want to work on. You got this. We got this. We're going to get through this together. I appreciate you being here with me. If this video has helped you, please share it.

I want you to have a blessed day. Enjoy your family and recharge. Take care. God bless.