Why Somebody Else Can’t Tell You How To Be Successful And Happy.
By
Bill Cottringer
“Success and happiness are what you get from doing what you have to do to get them.” ~The author.
What do you suppose all these folks have in common?
• All the present living presidents.
• All the academy ... Views:883
The least Applied Solution to Relationship Conflicts Worth Considering
By
Bill Cottringer
“The only way to mange the destructive affects of anger and hatred are to cultivate the positive antidotes of patience and tolerance.” ~The Dalai Lama.
In any intensely close personal or work ... Views:760
THE ONLY WAY TO THE TOP IS ALWAYS AN UPHILL CLIMB
By
Bill Cottringer
“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing all the hard work you already did.” ~Newt Gingrich.
This morning I was driven to write this article after initially responding via e-mail to an ... Views:992
Five Ways to Keep Your Perspectives Flowing Forward
By
Bill Cottringer
“In anything, perspective is everything.” ~The author
Perspective: Personal point of view; how you view something; different aspects of an object in thought from a particular standpoint.
I hope Lao Tzu doesn’t ... Views:819
Reality Repair Rx: A Critical Time for Thoughtfulness
By
Bill Cottringer
“You can’t behave your way out of a problem that you thought your way into.”
~The author.
This quote is a re-arrangement of an earlier one by Stephen Covey, “You can’t talk your way out of a situation you ... Views:853
THE “WORST BAD HABIT” YOU CAN GET CAUGHT UP IN
By
Bill Cottringer
“The obscure takes a while to see and the obvious—even longer.” ~Anonymous.
What is the worst bad habit you can get caught up in? One that is hard to see because it is so much of who we are on this human journey. As it ... Views:839
AN IMPORTANT “YES, BUT...” CAVEAT OF BALANCE BEING AN ASPIRATION POINT
By
Bill Cottringer
For much of my life I have faithfully bought into the total virtue of the ‘golden mean’ of balance between extremes being the only way to go. This safe road has generally worked out to my benefit, ... Views:862
THE MOST IMPORTANT YES, BUT…IN ACHIEVING SUCCESS IN ANYTHING
by
Bill Cottringer
“One quality is worth more than four quantities.” ~The author.
Although it may seem as though the quantity of your efforts are what lead to success at doing something your are trying, it is rather the quality of ... Views:1034
TEN SUCCESS PRINCIPLES TO IMPROVE TRAINING RESULTS
By
Bill Cottringer
Here are the ten best common sense principles to understand and apply in order to improve the quality of your training efforts and the actual results you get:
1. Separate “training” from “teaching” in your mind and ... Views:1076
BEST 10 CUSTOMER SERVICE TIPS IN THE BUSINESS
By
Bill Cottringer
“Good customer service is 90% listening and follow-up and 10% talking.” ~The author.
1. Leave your bad moods, frustrations and other agendas at home or at least put them aside and out of mind and heart when you are engaged with ... Views:2264
Unhappiness/Happiness Reality Repair
by
Bill Cottringer
“There is only one cause of unhappiness: The false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.” ~Anthony de Mello.
Your reality repair results—decreasing ... Views:1010
Ten Important ‘Yes, Buts…’ of Happiness to Keep in Mind
By
Bill Cottringer
“The good ole days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.” ~Billy Joel.
The path to the most rewarding things in life always seem to be singular, but they do have some “yes, but…” side paths ... Views:864
What Causes Unhappiness? (And Why This Question is Important)
By
Bill Cottringer
“An unanswerable question: Are good vs. bad and fair vs. unfair dualistic, subjective judgments a human invention just to know one from the other, or do things actually have an innate positive vs. negative flavor ... Views:4073
Success In The Tit For Tat Relationship Game
By
Bill Cottringer
Success in relationships is based on accurate information used in the basic cooperation vs. antagonism tit for tat game we all play. The tit for tat game typically goes like this. If I choose to do this then I expect you to do ... Views:6666
Love-Hate Relationships Are Fertile Ground For Learning & Growing
By
Bill Cottringer
“You know you are in deep trouble when you learn to either love to hate a person or hate to love them.” ~The author.
In looking back over the many relationships I have had at work and domestic ... Views:898
Four Important “Yes, Buts…” About Success to Keep in Mind
By
Bill Cottringer
“Success is often what is left when you empty your toolbox of the failed solutions that are past their opportunity, but hard to give up.” ~The author.
Two very good cases have been made about our main purpose for ... Views:834
THE REST OF THE HAPPINESS STORY
By
Bill Cottringer
“Unhappiness is just the accumulation of an unwanted feeling arising from incorrect thoughts about and the anxiety of not being able to remove the source of the unhappiness and the increased unhappiness to which all this leads.” ~The Author.
... Views:1005
Isn’t It Time To Agree Upon The Important Stuff—Doing What Matters Most?
By
Bill Cottringer
In making the long, bumpy and winding way home in my own reality repair journey, I have finally discovered answers to the two most important questions I imagine we all have. These are:
• What is ... Views:974
21 EASY WAYS TO HAVE MORE PEACE OF MIND, HEART & SOUL
By
Bill Cottringer
A worthy growth goal and improvement strategy, which builds a valuable sense of general wellness that leads to more success, is to carry out an action plan to give your mind, heart and soul more peace. Hear are 21 ... Views:5455
SHORTCUT TO HAPPINESS
By
Bill Cottringer
“Happiness is merely what you get from doing what you do to get it.” ~The author, not being facetious.
Or put another way…
Shortcut to Happiness
Want more happiness?
Slow down & do less,
Unload the overload;
Listen to what you want,
Hear what you ... Views:879
Four Places To Be On The Growth Continuum And Three Of Them Are Bad
By
Bill Cottringer
“If we are growing, we will always be out of our comfort zone.” ~John Maxwell.
Sorry about the gloom and dome title, but it’s true, just like throwing a pass in football—three things can happen and two ... Views:865
HOW TO BE DEMOTED GRACEFULLY WHEN YOU ARE A GOOD PERSON
By
Bill Cottringer
One of the realities of today’s economic downturn is a hard one to swallow, at least with any honorable degree of courage, humility and gracefulness. This is the reality that you can still be a good person, and an ... Views:8721
REALITY REPAIR OF THE HUMPTY DUMPTY FALL
By
Bill Cottringer
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King's horses, and all his men,
Couldn't put Humpty back together again!
~Well-known nursery rhyme.
This well-known children’s nursery ... Views:1070
By
Bill Cottringer
“Faith doesn’t fixate on the ownership of absolute truth of the mystery of life, it allows our experience and understanding of this mystery to grow as it may, with or without our belief and consent.” ~The author.
One process seems most real to me—the creative movement ... Views:873
A PERSONAL CHOICE: PRETEND OR PLAY?
By
Bill Cottringer
“A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.” ~Henry David Thoreau.
For a long time now I have gradually realized ... Views:797
WE MAKE HELPING TOO COMPLICATED
By
Bill Cottringer
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” ~Anne Frank
We tend to make things much more complicated than they need to be. I am not sure why we do this. Maybe out of boredom and ... Views:793
Two Burning Questions That Keep Popping Up Like the Gopher-Bopping Game at Carnivals
By Bill Cottringer
“Bold questions deserve bold answers.” ~ The author.
There are two burning questions that keep popping up in my life, just like the gopher-bopping game at carnivals. Bop them down ... Views:979
Dealing With Early Negative Downloads That Now Control Most of Your Life
By
Bill Cottringer
What can you do about all the negative, unconscious downloads that occurred before age six, that now flood your mind with overwhelming self-sabotaging beliefs that you are not even aware of? This ... Views:907
Describing the Indescribable Feeling We All Want: Peace of Heart
By
Bill Cottringer
“Words are the voice of the heart.” ~Confucius.
I feel rather foolish. I have been barking up the wrong tree for a couple of decades. I imagined that the end goal of all our reality repair efforts—fixing ... Views:921
TEN SIMPLE TIPS TO AVOID TERRIBLE TALK
By
Bill Cottringer
"It is usually impossible to get a conversation going when everybody is talking too much." ~Yogi Berra
If you want to avoid terrible talk, improve your communication skills and get better results with people, try these ten ... Views:1031
LIKABLE COMMUNICATION
by
William Cottringer
“Our brains quickly perceive others to be likeable, neutral or unlikeable; the words that follow verify that initial perception.” ~The author.
Ron and Jennifer are both successful professionals. Jennifer is on the top of her career as a CEO ... Views:2063
POWER COMMUNICATION
By
William Cottringer
“Good communication is when an artist conveys the message of his images to a musician who correctly translates them into the musical notes she plays.” ~The author.
Today being a good communicator is not enough. Professional success requires ... Views:1234
THINK IT BUT DON’T SAY IT
By
Bill Cottringer
As a kid I never bought into the infamous playground chant, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. Just re-look at my last name above. Now let your imagination run wild, empathizing about all the possible hurt and ... Views:1323
MENTAL SLICING & DICING YOUR WAY TO HALF-HAPPINESS
By
Bill Cottringer
“All colors are friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.” ~Marc Chagall.
I am well into the second half of my life and in looking back I think I can openly admit that I goofed greatly in the first ... Views:819
TRUE BALANCE: WHEN TO BE EVEN-HANDED AND WHEN TO GO FOR IT WITH ALL FOURS
by
Bill Cottringer
“Genuine happiness and true peace of mind only come about when you begin to make progress at knowing when to be even-handed and when to close your eyes, hold your breath and jump in with all fours.” ... Views:719
Good Decision-Making
One of the most important skills in life and work to perfect is decision-making. Successful outcomes are always based on good decision-making but good decision-making is not a skill you can learn overnight or learn from a book. It takes great thought, patience and ... Views:893
Why Do Bullies Bully?
by
Bill Cottringer
“Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.” ~Benjamin Disraeli.
I am beginning to think that a very widespread problem today, especially with youth, is the problem of perceiving you are being bullied (by life, parents, teachers, peers, employers, ... Views:10525
THE FIVE C’S OF SUCCESSFUL REALITY REPAIR
By
Bill Cottringer
There is a mighty roadblock in the way of successful reality repair—fixing broken realities (social problems, economy crises, wars) and creating new and better ones we want (equal access to and enjoyment of abundance and ... Views:812
IS THERE A POINT OF NO RETURN IN RELATIONSHIPS?
by
Bill Cottringer
“There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. This is life's point of no return.” ~Dag Hammarskjold.
I have ... Views:2210
TWO PATHS TO KNOWING
By
Bill Cottringer
“A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” ~Ansel Adams
A few years ago, my youngest daughter Abigail asked for some help writing a research paper as a requirement for transferring credit from her Epistemology class to a new high school for ... Views:894
FROM KNOWING BETTER TO DOING BETTER
By
Bill Cottringer
This title is a logical progression from the last article—“Decreasing Uhappiness To Increase Happiness.” Before we can do this, we need to learn how to move from knowing what to do and how to do it, to actually doing it. And, the ... Views:865
DECREASING UNHAPPINESS TO INCREASE HAPPINESS
By
Bill Cottringer
“There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.” ~Anthony de Mello.
More and more people are ... Views:876
Is It Important To Have An Accurate View Of Reality?
By
Bill Cottringer
“How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.” ~Abraham Lincoln.
I suppose some people would pose slightly different versions of this title question: ... Views:982
GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED:
Maneuvering Through The Self-Improvement Overload
“The more you know, the less you have to say.” ~Jim Rohn.
I was very encouraged to read some recent research on the younger post-MTV consumer generation. The good news is that this younger generation is fed up with ... Views:1293
NO-NONSENSE “P” POINT MANAGEMENT
By
Bill Cottringer
"A shortcut is the longest distance between two points." ~ Annonymous.
Management information, like everything else today is on overload, so here is a quick system of No-Nonsense “P’ Point Management to help you accomplish a lot by ... Views:775
Trust: The # 1 Issue In Living, Relating, Working & Even Sleeping.
By
Bill Cottringer
“Trust is the secular version of religious faith and faith is the growing belief and comfort in the truth and certainty of something you can’t see or otherwise prove.” ~The author.
Why is trust such an ... Views:1114
YES…THE MORE PLAN B’S AND C’S THE BETTER!
By
Bill Cottringer
“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” ~Henry David Thoreau.
This is an interesting quote unless you have read an even more interesting one by Søren Kierkegaard. He maintained that “Life has to be lived ... Views:809
How to Have a Near-Perfect Marriage Or Not.
By
Bill Cottringer
“The happiest marriages are 75% right selection and 25% effort; choosing the right person and devoting the rest of the time being the right person.” ~The author, with the right person, being the right person.
Let me begin by ... Views:838
What We All Want and The Simple Game We Play to Get It
By
Bill Cottringer
“Life is very simple; men insist upon making it complicated.” ~Confucius.
It has taken me 4 decades of self-improvement giving and receiving, but I think I finally understand the penetrating meaning of the above ... Views:789
Undoing The Things In The Way Of Successful Reality Repair Rx
By
Bill Cottringer
“What we call reality is an agreement that people have arrived at to make life more livable.” ~Louise Nevelson.
What life is all about is successful reality repair—fixing the realities we don’t like and ... Views:724