Forged by FIRE with Ryan Rodriquez

If we don’t have things to anchor us to who we want to be, then we won’t be able to achieve the goals we have for ourselves and our futures. We can anchor ourselves to our principles, our procedures, our attitudes, anything and everything that makes us who we are.

I know you may be thinking, “how is an anchor, something that holds you down, going to help you get to where you want to be?” 

In today’s episode, I will answer that question and provide you some strategies for anchoring yourself in order to accomplish those lofty goals you’ve been keeping in your back pocket.

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SHOW NOTES/LINKS:

Join The Forge! (Application)

IGNITEd Podcast Facebook Group

Buy my book!

Own It!: Build a Fire Service Culture of Trust and Integrity Through Accountability (Book)

ARTICLES/TOOLS:

FREE Personal Values Assessment

VIDEOS:

Build your Life with your Values | Simon Sinek | TED 2015

The most valuable commodity that we have on this planet is our TIME.

What we DO with that time determines our experience while we are alive on this earth. If you aren’t consciously managing or utilizing your time in purposeful ways, then you aren’t taking advantage of the God-given gift you’ve been given and will ultimately find out that you’ve wasted that gift.

In today’s episode, I will talk about what we can do to make sure our time counts and moves us toward becoming the person that we want to be.

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Join The Forge! (Application)

IGNITEd Podcast Facebook Group

Buy my book!

Own It!: Build a Fire Service Culture of Trust and Integrity Through Accountability (Book)

If you aren’t growing, you’re dying. You’ve heard me say this before, but I thought that as we come to the end of 2023, I just reiterate my point because as you all know; with a new year comes a new quarter and a new cohort to my coaching group The Forge.

The concept of having a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset is what separates the DO-ers from the dregs. 

In today’s episode, I will reinforce the importance of what a growth mindset is, why harboring a growth mindset will propel you toward success, and some things that we can do every day to make sure we are staying on track.

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Join The Forge! (Application)

IGNITEd Podcast Facebook Group

Buy my book!

Own It!: Build a Fire Service Culture of Trust and Integrity Through Accountability (Book)

As we go throughout our lives, we will find ourselves in situations where we are in direct competition with others. Sometimes competition presents itself through a game of pickleball and sometimes it presents as testing for a promotion at work.

Regardless of how the element of competition shows up in our lives, it’s important to remember that just because we have an opponent, does not mean they are our enemy.

In today’s episode, I will dive further into this idea and provide some perspective on how we can maintain a growth mindset while still aggressively competing for victory.

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Join The Forge! (Application)

IGNITEd Firefighter Facebook Group

Buy my book!

Own It!: Build a Fire Service Culture of Trust and Integrity Through Accountability (Book)

You’ve heard me talk a lot about several different Japanese cultural concepts throughout my podcast. The reason for that is that I feel like Japanese culture is very conscientious and purposeful. From “Kaizen”, the practice of continual improvement, to “Ikigai”, the concept that everyone has a purpose and a reason for living and it is our responsibility to find out what that is, and dedicate our lives to it, I am continually  enthralled by Japanese culture.

I recently learned of a concept called “Naikan” and this is a self-reflective practice that can not only help us to become more self-aware, but grateful, and conscious in our effort to contribute to the well-being of others.

In today’s episode, I will dive deeper into the concept of Naikan, share with you what its three elements are, and provide you with strategies for implementing its practice into your daily life.

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Join The Forge! (Application)

IGNITEd Firefighter Facebook Group

Buy my book!

Own It!: Build a Fire Service Culture of Trust and Integrity Through Accountability (Book)

Naikan Therapy: Applying the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection (Positive Psychology)

What is Naikan Therapy (Mental Health Match)

Naikan - Reconnection to ourselves | Johanna Schuh | TEDxLinz (YouTube)

With staffing at an all-time low among fire departments and other organizations across the continent, strategies for recruitment and retention have gained the spotlight. It seems organizations are more interested in scooping the proverbial water out of the boat rather than stopping the leak; and even then, some people are choosing to ignore the problem altogether. What those people don’t realize is that they are sitting in the same boat.

One of the ways we can address this issue that’s becoming more prominent is to assess our cultures. I will speak to the fire service culture specifically, but ultimately, the principles can be applied to a multitude of different organization structures.

In today’s episode, I will talk about what we can do when it comes to having an effect on our culture that can have a huge impact on recruitment and retention.

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Join The Forge! (Application)

IGNITEd Firefighter Facebook Group

Buy my book!

Own It!: Build a Fire Service Culture of Trust and Integrity Through Accountability (Book)

You’ve heard me say it again and again, if you want to accomplish something big, break up the task into smaller sections. By doing this, we can take small but effective steps toward the bigger goals we have established for ourselves (or the goals that our organizations and leaders have established for us).

I show people how to do this inside my coaching group, The Forge, through a framework of planning quarterly goals as well as daily primary tactics they can accomplish in order to achieve amazing things.

In today’s episode, I will show you how this practice can be applied to our daily lives to make those large tasks seem smaller and much more manageable!

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Join The Forge! (Application)

IGNITEd Firefighter Facebook Group

Buy my book!

Own It!: Build a Fire Service Culture of Trust and Integrity Through Accountability (Book)

When we apply for a job, we typically do some investigating as to what the job entails. A great way to learn about the details of the job is by reading the “job description”. A job description informs you of all the tasks and roles that you would be responsible for if hired for the job. From there, you can decide if that’s something that sounds good to you or if you should look for something else that’s a better fit.

But what about the roles we inherently have currently in our lives? Are we clear on what it is that we are supposed to do as well as the things we are responsible for?

In today’s episode, I will challenge you to write your own “job description”, not just for your career but for several categories of your life. I will encourage you to be proactive in this process and I will provide you with a step-by-step plan to make it happen so you can be clear on what others expect of you as well as what you can expect from yourself.

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Join The Forge! (Application)

IGNITEd Firefighter Facebook Group

Buy my book!

Own It!: Build a Fire Service Culture of Trust and Integrity Through Accountability (Book)

“Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning.” - Viktor Frankl

One of my all-time favorite books is Viktor Frankl's book “Man’s Search for Meaning”, but something recently stuck out to me in that title; the word “search”. Then it got me thinking, “why spend so much time searching for meaning when we can create it ourselves?”

Meaning can come in many different forms. With how diverse we are as humans, there are an equal amount of diverse ways we find meaning. But, how do we create it? In today’s episode, I will talk about a practice called “constructivism” and how we can be an active part in our own quest for meaning by creating it ourselves.

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SHOW NOTES/LINKS:

Buy my book!

Own It!: Build a Fire Service Culture of Trust and Integrity Through Accountability (Book)

IGNITEd Firefighter Facebook Group

Join The Forge! (Application)

ARTICLES/TOOLS:

What is Meaning? And How to Create a More Meaningful Life (Psychology Today)

Are You Feeling Lost? Here’s How To Find Meaning In Your Life (BetterUp)

VIDEOS:

How Should We Define Meaning? (YouTube)

Communication is HUGE. Not just the fire service, but the world. Almost everything we do is to improve our ability to communicate with others through language or technology. Even as I sit here and record this podcast from a small town in Arizona, I’m reaching people all over the world and I make an active and conscientious effort to be clear in what I’m saying.

Understanding whether someone is of a high-context culture or a low-context culture can really help in bridging the gap of what it is you’re trying to communicate and what is actually received. 

In today’s episode, I will talk about the spectrum of high-context and low-context, how to recognize it in the real world, and how to make sure that you can be aware of this so you can understand where people are coming from.

Buy my book!

Own It!: Build a Fire Service Culture of Trust and Integrity Through Accountability (Book)

IGNITEd Firefighter Facebook Group

Join The Forge! (Application)

ARTICLES/TOOLS:

High-Context Culture: 4 Characteristics of High-Context Cultures by MasterClass

The Culture Map by Erin Meyer (Book)