How Do Auto Repair Shop Owners Regain Their Passion?

Passion by Rick White, President 180BIZ

It seems like the word PASSION is the one word that is conspicuously absent from our industry. It just seems like we are just not passionate anymore. I was flying back from Florida yesterday, and I know I have this Just One Thing to do. I thought to myself, “Where's the passion in our industry? What's going on?” So, how do you find the passion that you might be missing?

Let’s talk about the first thing, which is fear. It amazes me how many people are afraid to be passionate about something. But that is absolutely not true. If you're trying to grow a business afraid it can't work. Biologically, physiologically, and psychologically, it can’t work. Like it will jinx it. That’s because when you're in fear, you are withdrawing. You are constricting. You are pulling in, protecting, and curling up. You cannot grow when you're doing that. And let's face it. Fear makes do that physically, mentally, and emotionally. So, the first thing I really want you to understand is having passion for your day is going to help you create the life you want, the business you want.

What I want you to do is to breathe and start to dream again. Start to get excited again. I want you to write this down for me, please. It's two things. It's a compelling future and focus. The first thing you need is a compelling future. You must have something that you are going after that excites the crap out of you. Now, for some people, that's more money. For others, it's freedom or less stress. It's more time with the family. It's being able to help and serve their community. It doesn't matter what lights you up, as long as it's legal, ethical, and moral. As long as it lights you up, go for it. So have that compelling future.

I'm here to tell you that there are too many of you getting up in the morning and your only goal is to get the end of the day, the end of the week, or the end of the month. Please stop doing that. Create something bigger for yourself, for your life, for your team. Make it something that people can get behind and that really makes a difference. Make it something that just lights you up and gets you excited. Something that puts some jazz in your step. So, the first thing we need is a compelling future.

I will tell the compelling future for me as a business coach is this. And I joke with clients when I tell them. I want them to put a little lawn statue, a lawn jockey statue outside of their shop. That’ll be the Rick White Memorial statue. And the reason for that statue is so that when I die and I hopefully go upstairs I can look down and see a nation filled with these lawn jockeys outside of auto repair shops. That will tell me that I helped people make a difference, that I lessened their pain. That I helped them create a business in a shorter period of time than they ever thought was possible. That's my compelling future. It's about helping other people.

Yours can be anything you want it to be. So the first thing you need is a compelling future. Something that will get you out of bed the right way. Richard Flint once said, “You have three choices when you get out of bed in the morning. You can hop out of bed. You can roll out of bed, or you can fall out of bed. Which are you doing? Are you hopping out of bed saying, “Yes, I've got this, and I can do it!” Or are you falling out of bed thinking, “Oh God, what will go wrong today?” It will make all the difference in the world. So have that compelling future. That's the first thing.

The second thing is focus. Most of you are not focused on where you're going. You're focused on the unhappiness of where you are and what's holding you back. Think about that for a moment. You're waking up and your initial thoughts are on the unhappiness of where you're at now. You’re feeling like a failure. You’re feeling like you're not making any headway and blaming it on others. Excuses, denial, and the whole nine yards.

But it's not real. Where you're at is not who you are or your final destination. It is simply a mile marker of where you're at right now. But as long as you're focused here, this is what you get more of. Wherever your focus goes, energy flows. You must hear me here on this. If you are focused on the unhappiness of now, you will get an abundance of the unhappiness. If you're focused on what it's holding you back, it's going to continue to hold you back. You're staring at the problem, not the potential.

You can get your passion simply by creating a compelling future. You are not a character in your story. You are the author. You get to decide what your story is about. Stop waiting for someone else to write it. You create that compelling future. And then focus on that future. Know where you're going. Know what you must do to get you there and then take action. Focus on your abundance. Focus on gratitude in the morning.

That's how I start every morning. I thank God for another day to mess with their minds. That's what I say every morning. And then I think of five things for which I am grateful. The first one on my list every day is my wife, Brenda. And I mean that with every bit of my being. And it's the truth. She is the best thing that's ever happened to me. So I want you to focus on your abundance in the beginning, gratitude, and then say your focus and your intention for the day. Create that little space where you create your day, where you're writing your day, where you're writing it as your author.

Take care. God bless, stay safe. Go make some money!