People sure move when they hear this word. I remember when I was in high school, there was a fight going on in the hallway, and a teacher looked at me and said, “Go get help.” I ran down an empty hallway ‘til I found a room with a teacher in it. In a panic, I ran in the room, and the first words out of my mouth were, “FIRE!”

The teacher literally jumped over the desk, knocked over a few other ones, fell on the ground, got up, and ran past me yelling, “WHERE?!!!”

Then it hit me: there wasn’t a fire. It was a fight. The wrong word came out. As the teacher was running down the hallway yelling, “WHERE and FIRE?” at the same time, I tried clarifying what I meant; but he was not listening. It seemed like a few minutes, but it was more like 30 seconds, but because this teacher was screaming “FIRE!” people were following him, and a panic had ensued.

A part of me wanted to laugh, but then I was like, “I need to fix this mess.” When we got to the hallway where the fight HAD BEEN, it was empty. The fight was over, the hall had cleared, and there I was standing with the teacher who I told there had been a fire, and a few other confused people.

I tried to explain that it had been a fight, but it was gone, and that there was no fire that I knew of. So I got dragged to the main office to explain my behavior to the dean of students. Thankfully, I knew the dean well and he knew my character, and we shared a good laugh.

But when you hear that word “FIRE,” you just don’t sit around; you move!!

I have noticed something of late: some organizations and the people in those organizations need to light a fire under their attitude and actions. Some people are not moving to a positive beat. They are moving, but not with any real sense of purpose or passion for what they are doing. Do you get my drift?

Sometimes we lose that spark in our own life. We just go through the daily grind, get up, go to work, come home, go to bed and repeat.

You can also learn what people think of their jobs when the word “FIRE” is involved. I don’t mean the firing off, but a fire drill. There was a recent fire drill for this one company, and as people were running down the stairs, you could hear the comments fly:

“I hope this building burns!”

“I hope it’s a real fire so we don’t have to go back to work!”

“Thank God, a fire! We need a break!”

You want to discover the deep-down attitude of the people in your organization? Plan a fire drill. Or if you want to light a fire or rekindle a spark of passion and purpose, you have to find a meaningful connection to what you do. So much so that your internal translation changes from, “I do this job for a paycheck,” to, “This an opportunity that will lead to better things!”

Sometimes we need to light a fire under our attitude and actions so we do what we know we need to do. That means doing the little things. Getting off your butt and going to the gym, taking your wife out on date night, and putting on those dancing shoes.

The way I see it, getting that spark has to jolt you to move to a different beat. You need to define what will light a fire under your attitude and actions, so you MOVE!

It’s time to stop living hypnotized, on autopilot, or like you are in a horror film walking around like a zombie.

Get Fired UP! How will you get fired up today?