Forged by FIRE with Ryan Rodriquez

Success is something that we all have to define for ourselves. We need to take a step back from what we’re doing, look at the road we are on, and ask ourselves if it will lead us to what we ultimately believe success to be. However, we need to identify the things that would keep us on the right track or throw us off course. In today’s episode, I will share three questions that will help you stay a...

Welcome back to another episode of Forged by FIRE, where we turn the heat up on self-improvement and accountability. I'm your host, Ryan Rodriquez, a seasoned firefighter and paramedic, here to share my experiences and insights to help you forge a better version of yourself.  Today, we're diving into a concept from the EMS world—the pain scale—and how you can use it to measure and improve...

Today we are diving into the heart of what separates the dreamers from the doers: taking risks. Are you ready to step out of your comfort zone and embrace the unknown? Do you have the courage to chase after what seems impossible and turn it into your reality? In today's episode, 'No Risk, No Reward!', we're going to explore how taking calculated risks can transform your life, unloc...

Welcome to the Forged by FIRE Podcast, where we ignite your potential and help you forge the life you desire. I'm your host, Ryan Rodriquez, and today, we're diving into an essential topic: setting and achieving your goals. In this episode, we'll explore a powerful framework to help you turn your dreams into reality, focusing on four key elements: Motivation, Action, Time, and Results....

When it comes to relationships, the quality of people we keep in our circle has an effect on our progress or lack thereof. It’s been said that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. So why wouldn’t we want to spend time with amazing people? By curating our network of friends and acquaintances, we can improve the quality of our lives and in a reciprocal manner, improve the...

In the fire service, we are often heard telling each other to “suck it up” or “deal with it”. And while these phrases might seem harsh, there’s a lot of truth to them. Many people hear these phrases and think it means that they just need to ignore their problems and keep going despite any pain or trauma they have endured, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. One of the ways that this is ma...

The whole process of refinement is all about continual improvement. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for any amount of time, you’ll know that the way I started is a bit different than where I am now. And in my opinion, much better. My goal is to focus on the FIRE framework that I’ve developed to help people from all over the world gain insight into what lights them up. I’m acting as your gu...

As May marks Mental Health Awareness Month, it's crucial to emphasize the significance of prioritizing our mental well-being. Whether you're a first responder or not, neglecting mental health can have profound effects on our lives. If your head isn’t right, nothing else will be either. In today's episode, we'll delve into what mental health entails, offer a self-assessment through...

As we go throughout our lives, we more often than not feel a sense of belonging at our places of work, within our families, and the people we choose to spend our time with. But sometimes we just don’t “fit in”. That can make things awkward, it can stifle us and it can impact our mental health in some seriously negative ways. But what’s the difference between belonging and fitting in? And what can...

We hear the term “resilience” a lot lately; mental resilience, emotional resilience, and physical resilience. Sometimes we don’t know what that means. I’ve heard people describe resilience as a person’s ability to “take a punch and get back up”. But what about being able to see the punch before it happens and dodge it? Today I’m going to talk about how we can embrace resilience proactively and giv...

Sometimes it can be difficult to stay on track when it comes to achieving your goals. Discipline is the name of the game; doing a repeated behavior day in and day out until you achieve your desired outcome. This process can be monotonous which can lead to you falling off your desired path. One of the ways that I stay on track is by gamifying my goals. What this does is help me stay mentally engage...

How do you define “wisdom”? Is it the practical application of knowledge? Is it simply the curation of information? There are lots of different ways to define the term “wisdom”, but I think my favorite way to describe the difference between knowledge and wisdom is this; “knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is understanding that it doesn’t belong in a fruit salad.” As I go through...

Have you ever approached an escalator that goes up only to see an out of order sign that says, “Out of service, take the stairs”? What did you do when you saw that sign? Was it ever an option for you to just accept the fact that the fast and easy track to the next level was out of your reach and just decided to NOT take the stairs? You can probably see where I’m going with this. In today’s day and...

I’m an inquisitive person by nature. I ask a lot of questions. The more knowledge I have, the more I can make an informed decision.  My curious nature has led me down the path of becoming a coach. I’ve obtained certifications in personal training, nutrition, peer support, and last year I obtained my master health coach certification which incorporates all of that, but also incorporates aspects of...

200 EPISODES!!! If you would’ve told me 10 years ago that I’d be writing, producing, and publishing my own podcast, I’d tell you that you were crazy. Telling me that I’d get to 200 episodes would be even further from what I thought I could do! Not only did I not have the confidence in what I had to say having any value, but I didn’t have the technical know-how either. But oftentimes when we feel c...

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...

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 abo...

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...

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 ar...

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 l...

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 i...

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 pla...

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...

“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 cr...

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...