Recharge, don’t retreat
For most of us, caring about the job comes naturally, until it does not. We are caught off guard when it takes a little work, energy, and effort to care, mistaking the need to recharge with the desire to retreat. One day we find ourselves burrowing the rabbit holes of descent, allowing our failures and shortcomings to define us while ignoring the achievements they have built along the way. We build mountains out of mole hills, then complain about the exhaustion we feel as we traverse them. The ensuing frustration is often derived not from actual events, but the perception of our reality and whether it bypasses or intersects our expectations. Ultimately, there are only two choices when we are discouraged; shit or get off the pot.
“We build Mountains out of molehills, then complain about the exhaustion we feel as we traverse them.”
We must accept that just as every problem is not a failure, there will still be dissent among success. Whether we want to hear it or not, attitude is our responsibility and our responsibility alone no matter how bad our environments might be. When things are tough, we must allow the intangibles of the job to protect us from ourselves by finding SOMETHING or SOMEWHERE in our firehouses that allows us to reset when negativity is strangling our motivation.
Get out of the office, dayroom, or bunk and let the sights, smells, and sounds of the apparatus bay bring us back to that eager kid crossing the threshold of those bay doors for the first time. Connect with our brothers and sisters instead of isolating, using the job as the common ground to build those bonds and enjoy time at the firehouse the way we claim we should. Spend more time grinding, whether that be skills, fitness, or tools, building equity through sweat and discomfort. Get around the kitchen table, bumper, or front apron more often, reminding us why our citizens see our profession as larger than life in the process.
Remember, there is no shortage of hope within our firehouse walls, we just have to want to find it. No matter how bad we think we have it, at the end of that day we are still FIREFIGHTERS, a title many will only dream of achieving…
