#111 How Firefighters Manage Pressure, Master State Management, and Frontload for Performance – Sam Monaghan

Performance Intelligence Podcast

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Ever wondered what it's really like to be a firefighter? Station Officer Sam Monaghan is here talking about Firefighting Tactics for High-Stakes Moments, The Art of State Management, and Upregulating Under Pressure.

"A chaotic incident will control you until you can take some kind of decisive steps to control it...and calm sounds like you're being passive...but to me being calm is a very proactive state, to me being calm means I'm going to do what I want when I want..."

Sam is a dedicated firefighter and Station Officer with Fire and Rescue NSW, known for his leadership in both daily operations and high-stakes emergencies. Sam was part of the Australian Taskforce deployed to Türkiye in 2023, where his focus on process and resilience was key.

In this episode Andrew and Sam discuss:

3:30 How Sam moved from a career in finance to firefighting, dealing with risks in finance compared to risks in firefighting and how similar real world firefighting is to the movie backdraft.

8:15 Shifting your state in a matter of minutes from sleep to fighting a fire, how Sam downregulates and trains real skills with practiced rehearsals.

16:40 How widespread mental skills training is in the fire brigade, the importance of triaging information and how people deal with their own issues their own way.

21:30 Frontloading mental skills in the fire brigade, how Sam trains his imagery and visualisation, and the importance of understanding your team in a high-pressure environment.

30:40 Learning from post-fire reviews, practicing imagery after a fire while it’s still fresh and shifting back to a normal state after stress.

36:20 Journalling or reviewing your day however works best for you, using breathwork in the fire truck to and from a fire and the average day for a firefighter.

42:40 Mark Dobson changing the landscape for first responders, being intentional in switching modes after work and the role of the organisation in helping their workers.

50:30 Being open about seeing a psychologist, the culture change in first responders over the decades, and the shift to more brain training.

56:40 Sam’s experience working rescue in Lebanon after the earthquake, how Sam dealt with the mental strain of a tough environment, and the importance of having a mental support network.

1:07:15 Firefighting being more than just a job to Sam, what a world-class firefighter would look like, and how you recruit for a firefighting job.

1:12:45 how firefighters educate themselves, dealing with imposter syndrome, and Sam’s moment of realising how far he had come in his skills.

1:19:00 Andrew and Dr Tom's reflections.

Follow Sam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-monaghan-1a68b1207/?originalSubdomain=au
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