Forged by FIRE with Ryan Rodriquez

Getting hired on with a fire department is a gauntlet of a process.  It’s set up to test your mental faculties, your physical ability, and your interpersonal communication skills.

Holding yourself to a high mental and physical standard and knowing who you are puts you in the top bracket of candidates; this goes for getting hired AND getting promoted.

The idea of “upper limiting” kicks in when you are in your comfort zone and don’t want to move out of it.  It’s a mental block that would have you sit where you are and never progress.

In today’s episode, I will explain how upper limiting is keeping us down and what we can do to remove it from our lives so we can be the best people and firefighters we can be.

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IGNITEd Firefighter Podcast Facebook Group

IGNITEd Readers Book Club

Zoom Link - Tuesday Dec 28 @ 8pm AZ time

“If you’ve got time to lean, then you’ve got time to clean”.  This was a slogan of one of the managers of the first job I ever had, working at a movie theater.  I understand that he was dealing with teenagers who wanted to just hang out, watch movies, and snack on popcorn all day, and in that situation he had the right approach.

That phrase still haunts me to this day and as a result, when there’s downtime at the firehouse, I tend to pick a project and plug in some headphones, listen to a podcast, and get to work.  There is NO shortage of projects or cleaning around a firehouse.

But even though we may have some downtime at the firehouse, that doesn’t mean we have to fill every moment with menial tasks for the sake of being “busy”.  Believe it or not, it is OK to take a real break from time to time.  And I’m not just talking about while at the firehouse.

In today’s episode, I will talk about why it’s important for us as firefighters and EMS providers to take actual breaks sometimes and I will give you 10 reasons why you should start implementing conscious breaks into your life.

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IGNITEd Firefighter Podcast Facebook Group

IGNITEd Readers Book Club

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.  We have plans when we are approaching fire and EMS scenes.  Once we get on scene, we put that plan into action and make adjustments as needed.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Bill Dungey, a guy who's just got his feet wet in the fire service, but is making a big splash.  He’s personally put together a system of goal-setting and accountability called “The Wedge'' that he’s willing to share for free.

Take a listen to what he has to say and get some perspective from a guy who is fired up and just getting started!

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The Wedge

Mike Dugan: Why Are We Here? (YouTube)

IGNITEd Shop

Raise your hand if you’re a firefighter.  Now, keep it raised if you’ve ever done yoga.  I’m guessing the majority of you had to put your hand down.  I was once one of those people too!  So, don’t feel too bad.  The statistics show that being a male firefighter makes me HIGHLY unlikely to ever do yoga.  However, years ago I signed up for some classes at my local gym and when I was several classes in, I realized that not only did it help me with my core strength, but it helped my mobility, and my conscious awareness when it comes to breathing.

My guests today are Olivia Mead and Eric Brenneman, husband and wife team behind Yoga for First Responders and their mission is to support, protect, and prepare first responders by providing tools for movement, mobility, and conscious breathing.  Today we talk about all the benefits that yoga provides and more specifically, the unique benefits to us as firefighters.

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Yoga for First Responders

YFFR YouTube

YFFR CBS This Morning

Great Books for Breath Work and Neuroscience:

The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeown

The Breathing Cure by Patrick McKeown

Breath by James Nestor

Neuroscience of Leadership by Dr. Tara Swart

IGNITEd Resources:

IGNITEd Shop

Reading List

I say this just about every episode that I publish, “our career is unlike any other on the planet”.  We spend at least a third of our lives at the firehouse and we love it!  One of the things that I really love about this job is that I never have to take work home with me, there aren’t any deadlines that I need to meet.

The corporate world works on a system that breaks the year up into quarters.  There are quarterly performance reviews, quarterly financial reports, and quarterly goals set by CEOs and the board of directors.  Not to mention the expectations of the investors.  That’s a lot of external pressure to perform.  We don’t have those quarterly benchmarks in the fire service.  Oftentimes we don’t even get an annual performance review that lets us know where we’re at on the performance standard, if there even IS one that’s clearly identified by our organizations.

In today’s episode, I will talk about how we can leverage the system of breaking our year into quarters and how that will advance our personal and professional lives into lives of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment.  This will help us maintain a high standard for ourselves so that it shows when we put on the uniform.

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IGNITEd Firefighter Podcast Facebook Group

IGNITEd Readers Book Club

The 12-Week Year

We all know that a career in the fire service and EMS is unlike any other career out there.  That’s why we tried so hard to get hired and worked so hard at going through fire academies and paramedic school to get here.

We see a lot of things that people may never see in their entire lives.  We all have our own ways of coping and compartmentalizing.  However, sometimes we allow the dark things that we see and the dark feelings that may come as a result to bleed over into our personal lives; manifesting as sadness, anger, depression, and isolation.

In today’s episode, I will share with you a powerful little habit that I utilize to not compartmentalize but to help me walk through the things that I may experience on duty, whether they be related to the gnarly things I may see or the frustrating bureaucracy I may be subject to.  I will share with you some strategies that I incorporate, and I will challenge you to find a journal that will help you start a habit that’s been proven to positively affect your mental health.

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IGNITEd Firefighter Podcast Facebook Group

Best Self Co.

Full Focus Planner

High-Performance Planner

Pilot G2 10 Ballpoint Pens

One argument that I am constantly hearing at the firehouse is education vs experience.  There seems to be two camps of people; you either believe that experience should be what matters most or education should hold the most weight.

When it comes to hiring and promoting, we should be taking BOTH into consideration.  Not one or the other.  We should be seeking out individuals who have harnessed a good balance of the two or are at least working toward it.

In today’s episode, I will talk about the benefits as well as the drawbacks of both, why we shouldn’t discount education right off the bat, and what we can do as individuals to harness an education that not only interests us, but establishes us as an asset and not a liability.

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IGNITEd Firefighter Podcast Facebook Group

Chris Ruano works in the southern California region as a Captain, where he is dedicated to the tactical approach to firefighting and doing what it takes to be physically capable to do the job.  

Being a firefighter in southern California offers a dynamic challenge of not only being well-versed in structural firefighting, but there is a BIG emphasis on and a need for wildland firefighting tactics and strategy.  With "seasonal" fire threats that demand firefighters to have dynamic resiliency when it comes to physical performance, Chris offers some insight as to how we can individually approach answering the call.

In today's episode, I talk with Chris about what drives him, his approach to physical fitness, how he structures his workouts, and his no-excuses  perspective to firefighting and the dynamic challenges that lie therein.

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Prep & Defend (IG)

Prep & Defend Podcast

VenturAthlete

Train Heroic with Chris Ruano

IGNITEd Firefighter Podcast Facebook Group

In FIRE and EMS, it’s our job to respond to other peoples’ emergencies regardless of their nature.  We all know that people call us for some very serious and sometimes very crazy things, but ultimately, we are the ones charged with adapting to the situation and providing help.

We’ve spent hours training for any possible situation.  We train on the fireground.  We train in the EMS skills lab.  And we train online.

But what are we doing to make sure that we’re doing right by ourselves?  Are we investing the time we should into our own health and well-being?  Are we ready to take a first-responder role in our own lives?

In today’s episode, I will talk about how we can be our own first-responders, what exactly that means, and I will provide you with some ways we can actively take on this role in our own lives.

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IGNITEd Firefighter Podcast Facebook Group