Another post to unravel everything you’ve been taught about working on the systems you depend on. From cars to bathroom plumbing, you’ve been told you can’t do it because it’s too complicated. You’ve been told you need to hire someone with a license.
I’m here to tell you you should do it anyway.
A skeptical eyeball
If there’s one thing you walk away with from this article, I want it to be a skeptical eyeball the next time someone tells you that cars are too complicated to work on.
Some select systems within a vehicle, maybe.
But the whole vehicle?
No way.
Try this on for size.
Cars have never been easier to work on.
Yeah! They are so laden with sensors that any Joe Schmoe can get a little adapter to plug their smartphone into their car and know, in some cases, exactly where the problem is.
But it doesn’t stop there
This mindset that things are too complicated has bled over into almost every other realm:
Plumbing, electrical, computers.
What I want you to understand is that this started by design, and propagated because it’s easy.
It started by design…
I can make so much more money, as a vendor of a product, if I can continue to collect money from you after the initial sale. That’s just smart business. I want to sell you a maintenance plan, and extended warranties, and anything else I can think of to keep collecting money from you after the initial sale.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, rather, there’s a lot right with that. I like producers being tied to their products through the end of life.
The unfortunate bi-product is the evolution to this mentality that everything is too hard to do, and we’d better just have someone else do it.
…and propagated because it’s easy
Well if it’s better to have someone else do it, why don’t we just have someone else do everything?
That’s easy.
But what’s the price?
Reasons to try to take care of yourself
Nothing is hard once you know how to do it.
A great friend of my, Nili, sticks out in my life for having worn a shirt that read ‘Actually, I am a rocket scientist’.
Once you take the time, and put in the effort to become a rocket scientist, it becomes much less hard. And this applies to everything else.
If you’ve never turned a lug nut, that flat tire on the side of the road is going to be a real bitch. But if you’ve done your own tire rotations for the life of the vehicle you know the spare tire has pressure in it, you know how to get it, you know how to jack up your car, and you know how to swap out that tire.
Easy day. Only because you took the time to learn how to do it.
Or you could sit on the side of the road for an hour waiting for a tow truck to take you to a garage so that you could call someone else for a ride while they sit on your car overnight and on and on and on.
Most jobs don’t require extensive skills, experience and tools.
I recently replaced a dimmer switch in my entry way. It was acting funny and I was growing concerned that a little sparky spark might pop out of there sometime.
That job did require a few basic tools, a little bit of spare wire, and some wire nuts, but it sure as hell didn’t require a licensed electrician.
I had the tools and equipment to do that job because I’ve taken the time to learn how to take care of myself. To get there you have to start, and that might mean buying a few tools as projects come up. I use the rule of thumb that if the money saved from hiring a professional goes into tools than the job is a wash, and the tools are an investment.
You can’t break something that’s already broken.
This should be more liberating than anything else.
If you’re about to call a pro to fix something broken, what do you have to lose for taking a swing at it first. Worst case, you’re back where you are.
But you can’t research problem solving without learning something. So even if you don’t fix what you’re after, and have to call a pro anyway, you can likely speak more intelligently about the problem and that alone might save you from getting swindled.
The knowledge is available
This is just a reminder. You know this. The future is now. Information is everywhere. Education is on the verge of a major upheaval. In almost all cases, you’re not the first one having the problem that you’re having.
Here are a few sources to research anything you need to fix:
- YouTube – maybe goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. Get the hang of navigating YouTube. While there is a tremendous amount of valuable knowledge out there, just go with caution. Open sourced information receives no vetting.
- Blogs – Lots of DIYers have turned their profession into sharing their skills. The internet is riddled with awesome ideas and projects. Don’t hesitate to go a few pages deep into a Google search.
- Books – Old school but usually contains more thorough and vetted information. Remember the library? They give you free books, and as they race to keep up with the future, most are now doing interlibrary lending so they can get you almost any book you want.
- Mentors – A grossly underutilized resource in this day and age, in my opinion. You need to be plugged into a community (real or virtual) for this to work when you need it, but having a list of mentors for multiple disciplines is essential. Having mentors should be a major goal of yours and is one of many reasons you should be aggressively trying to get involved in your community.
RELATED: Be a SUPER CONNECTOR in your Community
What you get for trying
Before I give you a few examples, I have to keep emphasizing that nothing in life is exclusive of everything else.
Meaning, our life is this epic spider web of connectivity where making a small change on one front can have an equally small, or huge, change on other parts of our life.
So if you do save money doing work for yourself, you can direct that money into any other part of your life having immediate ramifications on whatever else you choose.
But while you’re possibly saving money, you’re almost guaranteed to be acquiring skills. The best part about acquiring new skills is that they are compounding. Meaning, as you acquire a skill set it opens up opportunities to learn additional skills. That can turn into a major upward spiral.
Less tangible, but wicked important, is the self-growth through pride and confidence. It would be nice if we didn’t care what other people thought, but we do, and it can feel good to share stories about how you fixed your car and saved a bunch of money.
Lastly, when you learn to try to take care of yourself you grow your problem solving muscle. When you roll up to a major problem (like a boiler relief valve dripping) you probably immediately think ‘I need to call a professional’. By working that problem solving muscle you learn to immediately start deriving solutions instead.
To solve the world’s problems, start with your own
If we can get this idea to spread we will make the world a better place.
A place where people default to taking care of themselves.
And when we do that, people start to take responsibility for their actions. It boosts pride and confidence. It boosts relationships, because we love to share our stories of success and our knowledge gained.
Do it for yourself, but go forth knowing that it can have a beautiful effect on the world.
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