I volunteered to help an addiction treatment center to look over their program for anything they might have missed, or for any useful ideas from outside the usual orthodox treatments world that could help them.
The first question was about their recidivism rate (that means patients going back on drugs or alcohol), and it was industry standard.
Speaking with a few clients who had gone back to drug or alcohol use but then returned for further treatment revealed some interesting ideas.
One alcoholic who had returned for the second time but who claimed he had his treatment plan in the bag, and everything was under control. He went on and on about how everything was under control and fine.
I asked, “Well how did you manage to fall off the wagon (his term) then?”
He said, “falling off the wagon happens to some alcoholics, but it’s not like I planned to fall off the wagon again. It just sort of happened.”
We had an interesting discussion about if you know something is going to happen; then you can plan for it.
Think of some of the predictions you can make about your own behavior. You even know under what circumstances you will tend to achieve less optimal results.
Knowing yourself as you do… when will you tend to screw up, do less well, not achieve the desired result, etc.?
What are your common screw ups?
Pick one and write a scenario for how it happens. Start at the beginning and lay out the scene for what you are trying to achieve. Then, as in a good drama, tell about how you make things head south, and then what the results are.
Read your work… and have a good laugh (one of the great change tools)… we can be so… predictable sometimes.
Now rewrite the story but with the plan for making things better – better results, better process, more enjoyment, etc.
Really… you already know what you are up to, you’ve just been pretending it was … something else.
Go on… change your reality right now.
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