Have you ever met someone (or been someone) who used the phrase “putting out fires” regularly for, let’s say, 10 years?
I’ve definitely been in this mindset of “putting out fires” at seasons of my life.
Until I got tired of it.
And started asking myself: How am I setting my life up so that there are constantly fires?
I decided to hold myself responsible for the fires. NOTE: Not because it was necessarily “true” - but because it is more resourceful to see the world this way.
Seeing myself from a place of ownership allows me to see things I haven’t seen before. Here is a bit more about that and how to create a new system in your life with fewer fires.
Choose an ownership mindset. I.E. Stop using disempowered phrases such as “I need to go put out some fires.”
Utilize curiosity to explore and wonder about “if I am creating the fires, how am I doing this?” - and then write out 10 bullet points of how you might be creating these fires.
Get clear and frank feedback from people close to you (ask them to be 100% honest with you) - and ask them how you might be creating the fires.
Invest 2 hours pulling all of that data together and pull insights from it.
Implement the insights by creating commitments and actions to take.
Follow through on your commitments.
Do a “lab analysis” (like Chemistry class in high school) - ask yourself:
What worked?
What didn’t work?
What could I continue to experiment with that might get new results?
Repeat all of the above steps on a regular basis until the fires are gone.