Changing a culture and building a flow-based organization requires vigilance, deliberation, and attention to detail. Learn to recognize when you have normalized unsafe practices for the sake of tradition.101 Often tradition is perpetuated by ostracizing anyone who is different or doesn’t conform.
Firefighters know who they are at their core and understand their life purpose and mission. When you purposely live your life with this knowledge, you live authentically. You also take care of yourself—not in a narcissistic way, but in a way that recognizes that you cannot help others if you are not healthy in all aspects of your life.
When we separate ourselves through stereotyping and simple abstractions about others, “we’re in danger of losing touch with the reality of our actual connections.”102 We cannot effectively live with each other and effect the social changes that need to happen when we live in isolation. When we are out of touch...