What have you learned out of Love?

“We learn so much faster out of love than out of duty.”

Do you love being in the car business? How about on the service drive or in the shop? Do you wake up and say “Oh crap, I gotta go in today?” or do you wake up and say, “I’m ready for the day and the challenge.” 

Let’s face it. Service can be lonely, tough, frustrating, and even un-thankful sometimes. 

Not to put too fine a point on it, but some of you are in a self-fulfilling prophecy that never ends.

You don’t like what you are doing therefore everything must be terrible and therefore everything is terrible. 

I get it. Once I left this business in search of better times because I began to believe that all customers were devil spawn and demons put on this earth to torture me. 

I lost my perspective. I wish someone had talked to me before I lost my mind and said to me what I’m about to say to you. 

Take some time and break down your job into 3 lists. 

Love it.

Like it.

Hate it. 

Before we go straight to Hate, let’s look at “Love it” first. 

I have been in many dealerships that people were working together, happy (reasonably speaking), enjoying the role they were in. 

I will say 99% of that comes from culture, communication, and commitment. 

Everybody working in those stores was completely focused on working together as a team and not worried about who was doing what. There was trust. There was esprit de corp. There was a swagger.  

On your Love It list, are there any responsibilities that you are willing to give away? Try and find one or two. Why, do you ask? 

Because if you Love one of those tasks, chances are someone else will too. And, by designating those for assignment, you will increase your power base, train others/grow others and show them that you trust them. And it gives you more room to add to the Love it list! 

I’m sure there are some things you like about your job. It can be anything from there is a great place to eat lunch nearby, to I work with good people, to the dealership management is really good.

Your Like it list is the area that has good potential for growth. Chances are the list contains some “duties” that are somewhat cool, somewhat needed, and somewhat tedious. If that is the case, identify what you can do to bring that task into the Love it list. Can you change/add a task or challenge to make it fun or interesting? 

It’s a good idea to have a long Love it and Like it list. It means for the most part things are pretty good where you are. 

Now the Hate it list. 

1st, there are no perfect jobs. 

2nd, Hate is a pretty strong emotion.

3rd, maybe Hate is really dislike. 

This list has the most potential for growth. 

I know, you might think I’m nuts. I’ve been in this business for a while, so it is possible. 

Most likely there is some reason that this thing, task or duty is on the Hate it list. 

Maybe it’s tedious or boring. Maybe it’s repetitious. Maybe it is not challenging. Or maybe it is one of those little annoying things you must do in the performance of your job. 

Whatever is wrong with it, your goal is to change it to something that is a Love it. 

Check out this list of suggestions; Try to change the frequency, training, assignment, thinking, steps, completion date, break it into smaller parts, break it into different steps, break it into different assignments, do it more frequently, change the time of day you do it, change the day of the week you do it, ask someone to review your efforts other than your supervisor, have someone else look at it, try to learn one new thing when doing it, train someone else to do it…basically do ANYTHING to change your perception of that particular task or duty. 

This act of trying to think of it differently is called growth! And when people feel like they are growing they come to love what they are doing. Love what you do and you will learn and earn more while doing it.

Hate what you do, and you only learn what is necessary to do it and you only earn the bare minimum. 

Do only what you Hate enough of the time, and life becomes one long, dull, boring, cloudy series of days that never seem to end. 

Do that long enough and true-life ceases. It becomes existence. 

None of us want to just exist. 

So, start working on your 3 lists. 

Love it.

Like it.

Hate it. 

And start moving items from Hate it to Love it and you will soon be doing what you Love instead of existing.