Improvement versus Control

In college, I thought my career would revolve around mathematics and statistics. Looking back at my career, a great deal of it is in analytics. What has entered into my career that I didn't think would be so influential is a focus on business excellence. This methodology is an approach to analyzing a process or product, identifying a weakness, researching how to improve it, implementing the improvement, then monitoring what has been implemented to really identify the actual benefit. It's a fascinating study that requires as much business acumen as data analytics and statistics experience.

During my studies of business excellence, I came across an idea that really impressed me. There are two competing forces in business excellence: improvement and control. These forces often limit the growth of the other. When a process has been identified for improvement, the team approaches the owner of the process and asks for control. The reason for this is that team needs to make an implementation. If the owner doesn't give permission and hand over control, the improvements will be severely limited. It's a previous balancing game of when to focus on improvement and when to maintain control of the process.

This same philosophy is true in addiction recovery. Addiction has a large component of control in it. We, as addicts, want to control the outcome. We want it our way and by our design. Many of us, myself included, tried to barter with God that if we did something we expected the outcome we wanted. What we didn't understand, myself included, is when we don't hand over control of our lives to God, improvements that God can make in our lives will be stymied.

The thought might arise that if God is all-powerful, why doesn't He just change me? Here is the reason why: God respects our use of agency. We can choose to use our agency in any way we want. What we cannot do is choose the consequences. In modern revelation, God taught Joseph Smith that "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21) What do we learn from this? If we choose to not do as God wants, God cannot bless us. In fact, it is ourselves limiting God from blessing us.

So, what can we do? What do we need to do to find improvement? We just have to listen to and accept a simple invitation Christ himself offered: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) That’s how anyone can see improvement. We give control our lives to Christ, yoke ourselves with him, and work with him.

I know, it’s a lot harder than it looks. The natural tendency will be to take control back. It’s a tendency I have felt many times and experienced in many ways. The wonderful thing is Christ is patient and will wait for us to come back to him. When we do, it is a celebration and he gladly accepts us back into the fold and we again work with the Savior!

If you want improvement, you have to give up control. You give up control by giving your life to Christ and letting him lead and improve you!