What Working on Cars Taught Me About Taking Care of Myself.
By: Chase Bridwell
Tags: Self Care, Self Care Tips, Resilience, Cars, Self Improvement

Most people wouldn’t think much of a car. They hop in, go to where they need to, and get out. Simple right? And when the car has a problem or it starts making a funny sound, you just take it to a shop and they fix it. Well, I for one don’t have the money to do something like that. Coming from a poor family, you find out pretty quickly that taking a car to get fixed is not an option most of the time. So what do you do? You fix the problem yourself!

I remember when I got my first car. It was an old 1997 Ford Escort and from the moment we bought it, it had issues. First, the front end had a problem with the suspension, then the rear. To top it all off, the entire brake system needed to be replaced. It was one thing after another, and who was caught repairing all of it? Me. That was the first time I really learned how lucky some people were to just take their car to a shop and have it fixed. Now don’t get me wrong, some issues were too big for me to handle, such as needing a specialty tool I didn’t own. However, for the issues that didn’t need a specialty tool, you bet the first two things under that car were me and a wrench.

That was until the day that I wrecked the car. I was crushed. That car had cost me nothing but time and money since the day that I got it. After the fact, I realized just how much that car meant to me. I had put so much time into it that I hadn’t noticed how attached I had gotten. Sure, it wasn’t the most glamourous vehicle but it took me on some of my first dates, toted my friends around when they didn’t have cars yet, and drove me around when a lot was on my mind. I had loved that car and I took it for granted.

Since then, I’ve had two more cars. The second one’s engine quit on me only six months after I bought it (I never liked that one anyway). Then there’s the car I have now, a 2003 Toyota 4-runner. It’s the sturdiest, most reliable car that anyone could ask for. You bet that she gets regular maintenance and is always looked after. On top of that, any problem that she’s had I’ve taken care of personally. She’s never even been to a shop! Almost two years later, she still runs like a champ.

Working on all these cars over the years has taught me something as well. It’s that cars and people are not too different when you think about it. We both have our issues and breakdowns. Most of all, we both need regular maintenance. We have the tendency to run ourselves dry without even noticing. We might not take the time to do simple things, such as eating and sleeping. We deprive ourselves of our basic needs just by not paying attention.

But like cars, we need to take time to understand and take care of ourselves. Life is so fast and sometimes we forget to take the time to check-in. You wouldn’t run your car 24/7 without turning it off, right? Eventually, the gas would run out or something would break down in the car. We have to take the time to understand ourselves and address the issues in our everyday life.

When a car starts to make noise, you find out where it’s coming from. We need to be able to recognize what those noises are and what kind of warning signs our body is giving us. We might not make actual noises or have a light that comes on when we’re hungry, but there are other signs we might want to take notice of. These can come in many forms, such as feeling sick, having headaches, or a grumbling stomach. We then check on why it’s making that noise, like how a mechanic would trace a noise back to the issue of the car.

We have to be careful of looking out for these issues. If you don’t, then before you know it, you’re broken down on the side of the road, and your phones dead. This is where regular maintenance comes into play, like how you would change oil in a car every 5,000 miles. You have to sit down with yourself every once in a while and ask yourself questions like, “Have I been feeling ok lately?”, “How are my relationships with my coworkers and friends?”, or “How am I doing financially?”. Regularly answering these questions can lead you to live a happier and healthier life in the long run.

Now that you’ve found the issue, it’s just a question on how to address it. Like going and picking out parts for your car, you’ll have some decisions to make. What parts should you use? What tools do you need? Do you pick the cheapest part or the more expensive one? There’s been many times where I’ve bought a cheaper part because I didn’t have the money for the more expensive one. I put things together with the items I had around me instead of doing it the correct way. Know that this is ok, but when you have the time and resources to put the quality part in, do it. That jerry-rigged cable tie will only last so long before it causes more damage than it fixed.

Always understand that it’s ok to have a breakdown once in a while. Sometimes we forget to check-in or we’ve left a light on for a bit longer than we should have. In the end, it’s not about how much you’ve broken down, but how many times you’ve fixed yourself and gotten back on the road.