Managers and Firefighters

Listen as I read and talk about this article.

It's important sometimes to know the difference, whether it's a firefighter or a manager, but what's most important is to recognize that you have a protector that's influencing you. You have a protector part because something has happened presently in your life that's activated this protective part. When it gets activated, it influences you in some way to think, feel, and act in ways that it wants you to, or that it would if it had your body, so that it can protect that exile. It can stop you from having to feel that pain.

The manager is future-focused, meaning that it's thinking about making sure that in the future, this bad thing doesn't happen again. What do I need to do now to make sure that a bad thing doesn't happen in the future? Once something that's perceived by that manager as bad begins to happen, it's beyond its capacity. It's run out of capacity to respond. Its job is to prevent, so it focuses on the future.

A firefighter is present-focused. What I mean by that is the firefighter is reacting to what's happening right now. Don't get that confused with self-presence, like, "I'm present, I'm here, I'm smelling the roses, I'm appreciating the sunshine, I'm feeling blah blah blah." It's none of that. The firefighter is focused on the pain and discomfort that's being experienced right now and whatever needs to be done to stop that.