Don’t Rush Into Burning Buildings

This month, I took a CPR and First Aid Training class, and the instructor said something that really stood out to me. Not just in terms of overall physical safety, but in life. He expressed that if when we find someone in a crisis situation that is unsafe in some way, we can often easily let adrenaline take over, and then we immediately move into this tunnel-vision-hero-complex where we just want to rush into whatever the situation is and save the day!

But he cautioned us that when we think like that we often run head first into situations that we are not prepared for at all. Before jumping into these situations, we need to be able to take a step back for a second and assess what we are running into because if we don't, we might actually be creating two victims in the end. The hero of the day is not always the person who rushes into the situation; you need to know what fires you can handle and which ones may require someone of greater expertise.

And I first thought to myself, “gosh, that feels so selfish to do that. Shouldn't we just run into the fire and save people whenever we can?!”

In that moment of questioning, I was reminded in that statement on why airplane safety demonstrations tell you to put your oxygen mask on before you put someone else's on because what help can you really be to anyone if you, yourself are not preparing yourself safely? If you run into the burning building without being prepared, you might only find yourself being swallowed by the fire too.

In life, there are many burning buildings that we may find ourselves running into and I can’t tell you which ones you should and should not run into, but I can caution you to stop and think before you let your hero complex takeover to rush into that burning building that you may not be equipped for.

Please consider the people who care about you and the people who you need to care of that are outside of that burning building. We cannot save everyone if we are unprepared because there is no hero at the end of the day if everyone becomes the victim.

That's all.

Photo by Deborah McDevittt Photography. Edited by me.