“Fire fighting. Steady. Expand. Recover. Repeat.”

Thursday, 16 April 2026 – 9:00 am (Sydney)

These are the (4) basic building blocks of the framework for building habits.

Mnemonic to better remember these 4 building blocks

FiSt ExRe

• FI re fighting
• ST eady
• EX pand
• RE cover

FIRE FIGHTING

This is typically the starting point of creating a habit because in order to make space for good habits, bad habits need to be identified and slowly put out like a bad fire causing wreckage. This phase can also be called “Troubleshooting” when creating a process for a business.

• Key:The very first step in solving a problem is ACKNOWLEDGING that there is a problem!

STEADY

Once new habits are created, actions that support the habits need to be practiced in a consistent manner.

• Key:CONSISTENCY of doing or executing the action!

EXPAND

Occasionally, once consistency has found its natural rhythm over a solid period of time, it is time to expand or stretch the habit’s capabilities.

• Key:TEMPERANCE is very important!

Temperance is the virtue of moderation, self-restraint, and voluntary control over behaviors, emotions, and desires to avoid excess.

It can be very common for this phase to be the pitfall or Achilles heel of many people. A lot of people want to run even before they can properly walk. People want to be millionaires even before earning their first dollar on small scale business ventures. Young graduates right away want leadership jobs with managerial or directorial corporate titles even before learning the basic organisational roles and rules. The so-called street-smart people want to skip to learning the “tricks of the trade” rather than first learning the trade itself.

The Expansion phase can be a very dangerous phase because it can literally be fatal. Fatal for an individual, as well as fatal for an organisation. Imagine a person who has never exercised before but decided with an iron will to shift to a healthy lifestyle and right away signs up to run a marathon. Motivation may get that person to the finish line but without the discipline to follow the previous phases, the healthy lifestyle as a goal becomes unsustainable. That person is risking his life running a marathon without training, which is the complete opposite of the goal of creating a healthy lifestyle!

RECOVER

Recover. Play. Have fun. Take it easy. Relax.

• Key:Recovery is equally CRITICAL to all other phases.

Train your brain to FULLY ACCEPT RECOVERY & PLAY as a critical phase! Most people teach about the first 3 phases and completely ignore the Recovery stage. Imagine a high performance car that just keeps going without ever stopping for maintenance. It may run extraordinary speeds at record-breaking mileage but eventually it will breakdown!

Life, as well as organisational excellence, as they say, is a marathon — we’re in this for the long haul. Be smart, learn to recover and play well. As we grow older, it is a disaster that we forget or lose the ability to play properly. We forget how to truly enjoy and play like we used to fell when we were kids.