Slowing Down to Understand the Real Purpose of Life
By
Bill Cottringer
“The purpose of life is not to be happy, successful and have peace of mind; but rather to learn how to be happy doing the few things that will result in a sense of progress at having greater happiness, success and peace ... Views: 1720
Little Things That Can Help a Good Relationship Stay That Way
By Bill Cottringer
“A man's sense of self is defined through his ability to achieve results; a woman's sense of self is defined through her feelings and the quality of her relationships.” ~John Gray.
...but John Gray’s ... Views: 1555
“BEST RELATIONSHIP SUCCESS: Via Better Thinking and Better Communication”
“Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” ~Henry Winkler
And where do we make and express these assumptions but in our mind and with our mouths? The way to the biggest gains in best relationship success ... Views: 2088
7 Locked Doors to Un-Doing Problem Behavior
By
Bill Cottringer
“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.” ~Mark Twain.
For most of us, we spend half our lives trying to carry a cat by the tail and the other half trying to change the results ... Views: 1647
We are all Prisoners In The Vicious Circle Tit For Tat Bullying Tag Game
By Dr. Bill Cottringer, in association with Storm Door Productions.
“Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.” ~Benjamin Disraeli.
Bullies
Bullies come in all shapes and sizes—
Countries, religions, girls ... Views: 1866
30 Questions
To Help You Find Your Best Self
By
Bill Cottringer
"You were not born a winner, and you were not born a loser. You are what you make yourself be."
~ Lou Holtz.
The self-growth movement is all about people finding ways to help themselves and each other become their ... Views: 2651
The Common Misalignment Problem in Organizations
By
Bill Cottringer
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” ~John F. Kennedy.
Every “group” goes through a similar progression of four stages in its development and maturity:
• Stage One: Members start out interacting ... Views: 1589
SEVEN MANAGEMENT “SINS” THAT WON’T GO AWAY
By
Bill Cottringer
"Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end."
~Immanuel Kant.
There are seven “sins” that plague all managers from time to time and which even the best MBA trained managers ... Views: 1381
Are You Asking The Right Questions?
By
Bill Cottringer
“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.” ~Tony Robbins.
Success in life, in the three primary areas of work, play and relationships, requires getting successful outcomes to solving ... Views: 1368
The Challenge for Returning Veterans
By
Bill Cottringer
Veterans Day is a day we can all be thankful for the men and women who generously and unselfishly served our country, past and present and some with their lives, to keep the rest of us safe and secure in the freedom we cherish. ... Views: 1904
BE YOUR BEST SELF BY NOT TRYING TO BE A BETTER YOU
By
Bill Cottringer
“We discover who we have always been when we stop attempting to become better than who we really are” ~Stephen Levine.
When the positive psychology movement was gaining momentum, Stephen Covey characterized ... Views: 1287
When Ability, Intelligence, Effort, Creativity, Perseverance & Luck Aren’t Enough
By
Bill Cottringer
“Man may have been made in God’s image, but he has been trying to return the favor ever since.” ~Unknown humorous lay philosopher.
Now what? When the above sure-cure success ... Views: 2308
STAYING HAPPY IN HOPELESS SITUATIONS
By
Bill Cottringer
“No situation is completely devoid of all hope; hope is always there waiting patiently for patience to see it.” ~The author.
Staying reasonably happy in hopeless situations is certainly one of life’s greatest challenge. ... Views: 1223
THE TAO OF NEW INFORMATION AGE TIME MANAGEMENT
By
Bill Cottringer
“The challenge today is to catch up to the shift between the manufacturing age goal of squeezing a penny out of a nickel to the new information age goal of squeezing a nickel out of a penny.” ~The author.
We are ... Views: 1341
A Simple Life Gap Map That Makes Sense Of The Ones You Have To Pay For
By
Bill Cottringer
“Life gets to be fun only when we begin to feel free to live it; but there is no real freedom apart from responsibility and ownership.” ~Dr. Henry Cloud.
Here are two important things you know ... Views: 1547
Growing Old Gracefully
By
Bill Cottringer
“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.” ~Mark Twain.
It has been said before that “growing old isn’t for sissies.” The truth be known, growing old doesn’t always have to be a losing struggle against, ... Views: 2345
TWO QUESTIONS WORTH ANSWERING
By
Bill Cottringer
“The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.”
~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
There are two very important questions you should ask yourself. Having the right answers can determine ... Views: 1377
The Best Way To Love
By
Bill Cottringer
“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
The ... Views: 1462
Trapped Under the Middle Part of the Bell Curve?
By
Bill Cottringer
“Refuse to be average. Let your heart soar as high as it will.” ~W.A.Tozer.
Are you one of the “lucky” few people who have used your special talents smartly, worked with persistence in never giving up on ... Views: 1901
Relationship Reality Repair
by
Bill Cottringer
“Man is a knot into which relationships are tied.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Successful relationships are all about keeping things in proper perspective. This is especially true about the different perceptions of the realities of the ... Views: 1375
Managing Towards The Simplicity Just On The Other Side Of Complexity
By
Bill Cottringer
“I wouldn’t give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity just on the other side of complexity.” ~Oliver Wendell Holmes.
The main purpose ... Views: 1394
The Obvious But Most Misunderstood Quality Behind Success
By
Bill Cottringer
“I look for a role that hopefully I feel empathy with and that I can understand and love, but also that has that challenge for me to play - a different kind of role, a different type of character, a different time ... Views: 1477
The World’s Worst War: The Bullies vs. The Bullied
by
Bill Cottringer
“Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.” `Benjamin Disraeli.
The Problem:
Today we are witnessing a major showdown between two failure extremes—the strong vs. the weak, or more in today’s terms, the bullies ... Views: 1923
SUCCESSFUL SUPERVISION: SEVEN SURE SOLUTIONS
By
Bill Cottringer
“You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself.” ~Galileo Galilei.
There is no shortage of information about being a successful supervisor. But, that is a problem in itself—there is ... Views: 1950
Common Sense Time Management Learned The Hard Way
By
Bill Cottringer
“Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn. ~Delmore Schwartz.
Today, given the tons and miles of information overload that the Internet and other technology has produced and the ... Views: 1821
Make Your Point!
By
Bill Cottringer
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” ~George Bernard Shaw.
Consider the beginning of communication: We first invented words to stand for objects we couldn’t carry around on our shoulders to show ... Views: 2131
God’s Five Favorite Hiding Places
by
Bill Cottringer
Sometimes God is hard to find, let alone know very well. Not being able to see God, we have to go places where a God-like presence can be sensed in some distinct way. Here are God’s seven favorite hiding places, where such an ... Views: 1468
The True Master Of The Clock & Calendar Has Neither!
By
Bill Cottringer
“Time is our most important resource which is equally distributed to all, but unequally used by most.”
~The author.
Wasted Time—
Some on past memories,
More on future hopes,
Most on not being here,
Now and in ... Views: 1163
Growing Your Knowing
By
Bill Cottringer
“A huge part of life is to live, learn and leave a legacy of that living and learning.” ~The author.
To be able to leave this legacy of living and learning, you have to successfully navigate a roadmap of four levels of learning so you know ... Views: 1324
Resurrect Your Dreams
By
Bill Cottringer
“Deep down, nobody is ever quite satisfied with the amount of their childhood dreams they have actually realized and we are all disappointed with the amount that slipped away.” ~The author.
I consider myself having lived about half my early ... Views: 1839
A Better Relationship in a Week
By
Bill Cottringer
No matter how good or bad your present relationship is it can always be better with minimal planning, effort, and cost. And in this economy that is a pretty good deal! Here is a very practical and easy way to have a better ... Views: 1817
The Difficulties Of Selecting The Best Of The Bunch
By
Bill Cottringer
“Never make predictions, especially about the future.” ~Casey Stengel.
I won’t argue with Mr. Stengel’s wisdom when it comes to baseball; but in business, employers have way too much to lose without at least ... Views: 1425
Technology: The Ritalin Cure For ADHD
By
Bill Cottringer
“For normal people, the artificial urgency created by today’s hyper-speed technology is a demon to be tamed; for people with ADHD, it turns out to be an angle in disguise just needing to fly itself into being tired.” ~The author.
... Views: 2080
How to keep a Job in Tough Times
By
William Cottringer, Ph.D.
“The quickest way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.” ~Oscar Wilde.
In tough economic times, it is not a good thing to be unemployed. And if you are lucky enough to have a job, you don’t want ... Views: 1907
Are You A Worry Wort?
By
William Cottringer, Ph.D.
“You know you are in big trouble when you start worrying about how much you are worrying.” ~ The Author.
With all the stresses from the overload that now plagues us today, we all probably worry too much about the past, present and ... Views: 1926
How To Not Be Controlled By Fear, Failure, Turmoil & Unhappiness
By
Bill Cottringer
“A life of all positives would be very negative and probably very boring.” ~The author.
A true but unpopular reality is that you really can’t live a life free of fear, failure, turmoil and ... Views: 3004
What You Don't Know Can Hurt You Most.
by
Bill Cottringer
“There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out.” ~ Russian Proverb.
What you don't know about a situation is what usually results in not feeling good about things, especially about the gap between where ... Views: 3624
The Best Way To Thrive Is To help Others Survive
By
Bill Cottringer
“We do not live to think, but, on the contrary, we think in order that we may succeed in surviving.” ~Jose Ortega y Gasset.
The best way to thrive is to help others survive…but first you have to master surviving ... Views: 1902
Do We Have a Common Purpose Here?
By
Bill Cottringer
“Life is a promise; fulfill it.”~ Mother Theresa.
I have been thinking about this question for a long time now during my life’s educational classes—my journey through formal schooling, interacting with a wide variety of people, ... Views: 1601
Welcome Back Kotter (Likeability)!
By
Bill Cottringer
“Welcome back, Your dreams were your ticket out. Welcome back, To that same old place that you laughed about…”~John Sebastian, Lov’n Spoonful.
One of the most popular TV programs of my generation was “Welcome Back Kotter.” I can ... Views: 2085
Why Some Religions Are Dying While Others Are Thriving
By
Bill Cottringer
“Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson.
If you want to know a real secret worth knowing about success, look at the religions today ... Views: 2012
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr. Seuss.
Just like glue appearing to be very smooth until you touch it, communication can seem to be that way too, at least until you actually try to undue miscommunication ... Views: 2818
Uncommon Sense for Work & Play
By
Bill Cottringer
“Success and happiness are a result of using uncommon sense, while failure and unhappiness are the consequence of using everything else.” ~The author.
Success and happiness in life are most often tied to your efforts in reaching a ... Views: 1309
“Success is what you get from using common sense; failure is what you get from using everything else.” ~The author.
Success is built on a firm foundation of good old common sense (which unfortunately isn’t so common these days); failure follows the crumbling of a weak foundation built on ... Views: 2567
Live, Love & Laugh
By
Bill Cottringer
“When done correctly by individuals, living, loving and laughing greatly improve the quality of life for humanity.” ~The author.
The more you do these three things, the more successful and happier you and others will be. But first you have to ... Views: 2170
Common Sense Life Mission-Based Alignment
By
Bill Cottringer
“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same things moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense dancing.” ~ William James.
A few years ago, a colleague of mine wrote an important business book ... Views: 2149
Success Built On Common Sense
By
Bill Cottringer
“Common sense is the simple knack of seeing something the way it is and doing something the way it should be done.” ~Mark Twain.
Is it just my imagination or is common sense being bred out of the human gene pool entirely? Some ... Views: 1883
The Only Relationship Article You Will Ever Have To Read (Really)
By
Bill Cottringer
“Good relationships are when your head, heart and hands agree most of the time and besides it doesn’t matter quite that much.” ~The author.
Centuries of research would agree that relationships fail ... Views: 3546
The Problem That All Religion, Psychology and Spirituality Are Trying To Solve
By
Bill Cottringer
“Should we all confess our sins to one another we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality.” ~Kahlil Gabran.
There is a very large “elephant metaphor” in life’s ... Views: 1263
Going From The “What To Do” To “How To Do It” Level Of Self Growth
By
Bill Cottringer
“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.” ~anonymous.
The common purpose of life for us all seems to be ... Views: 1334