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Efficiency or Effectiveness – Which is Better for Recovery?

11/20/2014

"Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things." – Peter F. Drucker, American educator and writer (born 1909)

In today’s society we hear a lot about efficiency. There’s fuel efficiency with respect to cars, efficient ways of getting work done, highly-efficient air conditioners, efficient gasoline-powered lawnmowers, efficient calorie-burning activities and so on. Efficiency is often touted as the Holy Grail for the practical, capable, jack-of-all-trades type of individual. In essence, we’re told that efficiency should be at the top of our list. Getting things done in the right way is what counts. It has to be done a certain way in order to maximize our efficiency.

But when it comes to recovery, efficiency takes on a little different meaning. Sure, we want to be efficient in how we approach our recovery, how we create and revise our recovery plan on an ongoing basis, how we construct our daily schedule, even the manner in which we go about working the Twelve Steps.

But we should be careful not to interpret efficiency in recovery as doing whatever it is in the right way. There is no one right way to go about recovery. It’s different for each person. What works for one may not work for another, or may need to be paired with something else or done in a different order.

Instead of efficiency as a be-all and end-all in recovery, it may be better to consider effectiveness as the barometer of what works in recovery. After all, effectiveness is doing the right things. Let’s look at this for a minute.

We know that to remain clean and sober we have to abstain from all drugs and alcohol, or gambling or compulsive sex or overeating or workaholism. We also know that we need to have a workable plan of our own to help us navigate our way. We know that we may need to try many different approaches to find what works in our recovery toolkit. We know that we need to be resilient, adaptable to change, seek new clean and sober friends, and keep ourselves busy – the whole gamut of the right things to do.

When we spin our wheels and go off in all different directions, that is when we are likely to get into trouble. That’s when we aren’t acting effectively. If we’re so rigid in our approach that we believe that there’s only one way to do things and they absolutely have to be done in a certain way, our very rigidness is setting us up for a less-than-hoped-for outcome. We should strive to be flexible, keeping our minds open to the possibility of different approaches that may prove effective, and learn from whatever outcome we experience. This helps us gain in knowledge and strengthen our recovery. This is doing the right things. This is effectiveness in recovery.

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Self-Determination and Recovery

11/13/2014

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"Each of us makes his own weather, determines the color of the skies in the emotional universe which he inhabits." – Fulton J. Sheen, American archbishop of the Catholic Church, best-known for his preaching on radio and TV, especially the long-running TV series, Life Is Worth Living (1895-1979)

Can we just will ourselves into recovery? If it were really that simple, it’s likely that everyone would be in recovery. Unfortunately, recovery is a little more complicated than that. Just as there’s no single solution that works for everyone, there’s also no single timetable that’s universal.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that we’re each capable of recovery. We do, however, need to galvanize our self-determination and make things happen. That requires action, consistent and constant and forward-moving action.

When it comes to figuring out what it is that we want out of our new life in sobriety, however, many of us falter. Whether we’re unsure or afraid of the future and what we want or should be doing for our recovery, this is a normal feeling – especially in the early months of recovery when everything is so new. We have so much to learn that we may feel inundated and a bit overwhelmed at times, but this is also normal and nothing to worry about.

The key is to find something each day that we can do that helps further our recovery plan. It doesn’t have to be a big thing to be meaningful. In the beginning, when we have just begun recovery, simply attending 12-step meetings on a regular basis will help ground us in recovery principles and help us maintain a solid and consistent schedule, so important to regaining balance in our lives.

Gradually, we can add more items on our to-do list, but we should never put too much on our plates at once. That’s tantamount to fueling a sense of inadequacy and may lead to us abandoning our plans and goals altogether or in part. Not a good thing. Instead, try to balance out each day so that there’s adequate time to rest and recharge. Keep some time to ourselves so that we can analyze what went right today, what we did that was successful and/or helped us achieve progress toward our goals, or what we did that somehow fell a little short of our expectations. In other words, we need to take the time to look at what we do each day to see how we can learn from it. In so doing, we need to revise or alter our action plan for the coming day so that we can take advantage of what today’s actions have shown us.

Of course, we can look at each day in two diametrically opposed ways. We can look at what we’ve done and beat ourselves up about perceived failures or shortcomings or we can maintain a positive outlook, acknowledging the effort we put into our actions today and learning from whatever the results may have been. Which do we think helps motivate us to keep moving forward in recovery?

The answer, undoubtedly, is the positive outlook. When we can take our emotional temperature and decide for ourselves how we are going to address challenges and issues that crop up, we are better able to navigate what may be stormy weather. There will be times when we need to pause and reconnoiter our position, to adjust our plans, possibly even alter our course for a time. How we tend to look at our life is purely up to us. No one else can do this for us.

So, since we make our own weather, so to speak, we can create the emotional universe within which we choose to live. Given this analogy, who would ever choose to live in a non-stop atmosphere of turbulence, constant storms and perilous floods? Rather, we can choose to inhabit our own universe that accommodates sunny skies (positive outlook) and calls up the wind when needed (motivation) so that we can make progress toward our destination (recovery).

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Keep Going Despite Setbacks

11/6/2014

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"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way." – Babe Ruth, legendary American major league baseball player whose official name was George Herman Ruth, widely regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture whose hitting prowess helped the New York Yankees win seven pennants and four World Series titles during his tenure with them (1895-1945)

Is recovery too tough for us to handle? Are we experiencing just too much for us to be able to bear? If we give in to this kind of thinking, one thing is certain: We’ll be sabotaging our recovery efforts.

Fear of failure, fear that we don’t have what it takes or that we lack the courage and determination to do what’s necessary is at the root of many a relapse. When we allow our thoughts to go down the path of no return, as in telling ourselves that we’re a failure, we’ve never been able to accomplish much and we may just as well go back to our addictive ways, guess what? We go down that backsliding street and wind up in the same neighborhood we formerly inhabited: using our drugs of choice.

But recovery doesn’t have to be like this. Sure, we’re afraid of the unknown. Definitely, we’re going to come up against some tough roadblocks. Maybe they’ll set us back a bit initially, but we can get past them. We don’t have any lock on success, but what we can take comfort in knowing is the fact that many others have gone through the rough times in recovery and have been able to come out on the other side. And we can, too.

Think of it this way. If we never try, we’ll never know if we can succeed. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. We’ve all heard that one, right? What the saying means, in the simplest terms, is that we can only achieve success if we take action. We will never know accomplishment by looking at what others do. That’s their success, not ours. In order for us to achieve the goals that we set out for ourselves, we have to create a plan of action and then – we have to actually act.

There will undoubtedly be times when we’d much rather crawl back under the covers than face a difficult situation. We may agonize over a decision for days or weeks before we finalize a plan to deal with it, but this is still a sign of progress. It means that we’re focused on the best way to manage the issue or problem or situation. This is us becoming more grounded in healthy behavior in recovery. This is a very good thing. It means that we are looking forward, not backward.

Of course, we still may harbor lingering fear that we’ll fail. But when such thoughts creep into our heads, acknowledge them for what they are and then remind ourselves that we have a plan of attack, we are taking action, and we are responsible for our life in recovery. We can either look at the kind of life we want for ourselves and take the steps to achieve those goals, or we can give up and give into fear of failure. We know the outcome of the latter. If we think we’re going to fail, we’ll wind up failing.

On the other hand, if we believe that we will succeed, we will succeed – and we’ll do so despite the obstacles or challenges that may come our way in the interim.

Remember, it isn’t what happens along the way, but how we deal with it that counts. Choose the positive outlook, adopt a cheerful attitude, and never give up. These are good attributes to adopt and incorporate into our daily lives and will continue to serve us well today and every day in our life of recovery.

Besides, where would any of America’s or the world’s heroes or inventors or most-admired leaders be if they gave up at the first slight hiccup along their path? We’d never have the light bulb. We’d never have someone who scaled Mount Everest. There’d never be the Internet. We wouldn’t even have an automobile.

Closer to home, then, get on with our plans in recovery. Craft new goals, revise old ones, and envision the life that we want for ourselves. It is all possible, but it begins with us taking action and keeping our belief in ourselves. We can do it.

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Efficiency or Effectiveness – Which is Better for Recovery?

Self-Determination and Recovery

Keep Going Despite Setbacks

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