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Browse published articles attributed to William Cottringer, with full-archive search.
UNLOADING THE MANAGEMENT OVERLOAD PROBLEMnBy Bill Cottringe nn“I have a theory about the human mind. A brain is a lot like a computer. It will only take so many facts, and then it will go on overload and blow up.” ~Erma Bombeck. Is it just my imagination or do other managers feel ...
SUCCESS BY PERSPECTIVEnBy William Cottringer, Ph.D. Success—What you get from doing what you do to get it; acquiring any or all of the following: Having an abundance of health, wealth, power, influence, friends and wisdom; gaining a sense of satisfaction from achieving your goals, being ...
The Two Main Goals of Personal Development Byr Bill Cottringer “Small daily improvements are the key to staggering long-term results.” ~Anonymous.
MANAGING GAPS By Bill Cottringe n Much of the management role involves the important process of identifying critical gaps, understanding the details of what is in between where things are and where you want them to be, and then managing to close these gaps quickly and cost-effectively. Here ...
Ten Easy Ways to Increase Your Common Sense Byr Bill Cottringer “Commonsense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.” ~Rene Descartes. If this quote were true, we wouldn’t have any of the challenges, problems, mistakes, conflicts and failures that overload us today. The best version of common sense that is not so common today belongs to Mark Twain. He viewed common sense as “the simple knack of seeing something the way it is and doing something the way it needs to be done.”
“P” Point Management: Simple Clues for Closing Gapsnnnnn“When you want to fool the world, simply tell the truth clearly” (Otto Von Bismark). Here’s the simple and clear truth: The biggest problem we have today in managing our lives and our organizations is the prevalence of gaps. Success ...
Communicating with Today’s Workforce Byr Bill Cottringer “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.” ~Peter F. Drucker.
ACCESSING THE SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS CONNECTIONnBy Bill Cottringe n“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” ~Herman Cainnn Success and happiness definitely reign as King and Queen of the worlds’ mind, at ...
FirefightingnBy Bill Cottringe n Are you part of an organization where everyone is in a perpetual firefighting mode, spending most of their day scurrying around putting band-aides on ruptures? As the direct Dr. Phil would ask, “How is that working for you?” Not very well I would imagine. I ...
PRETZEL MANAGEMENT OF THE VICIOUS CIRCLE OF UNHAPPINESSnBy Bill Cottringe nn“Life probably gets annoyed at us for thinking too much. It’s like going to a great theatre production on Broadway or music concert at Carnegie Hall with virtual earphones, books, cell phones and DVD’s.” ~ The author.nn ...
THE REST OF THE HAPPINESS STORYnBy Bill Cottringe n“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. nn ...
Unhappiness/Happiness Reality Repai by Bill Cottringe n“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 ...
There Is Nothing Wrong With Seeing Things The Way They ArenBy Bill Cottringe n“Common sense is the simple knack of seeing things the way they are and doing things the way they should be done.” ~ Mark Twain. Here are two important clarifications that I think Mark Twain would have agreed ...
DECODING CONFLICT By Bill Cottringer nnnn Organizations today are faced with inevitable conflicts in team-building that will require creative resolutions that may be just slightly outside the leader’s toolbox. Even the most experienced leaders have to approach each new conflict with ...
Psychological Power Points of Effective Writing byr Bill Cottringer “Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” ~Virginia Woolf.
THE REAL SOURCE OF CONFLICT WITHIN ANY CONFLICTnBy William Cottringer, Ph.D.nnn“Differences in thinking about problems and solutions cause great conflicts; but the way we communicate about these differences is the source of continuing the conflict.” ~ The author. Conflicts are a frequent ...
Three Key Success Factors in Effective Management Byr Bill Cottringer “The effective management of others always starts with effective self-management.” ~The author.
THE ONLY WAY TO THE TOP IS ALWAYS AN UPHILL CLIMBnBy Bill Cottringe nn“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 ...
Is It Important To Have An Accurate View Of Reality? BynBill Cottringe n“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: ...
Training ROInBy William Cottringe nn Today, employee training has to be more cost effective than ever. Your tight bottom line can't afford the luxury of huge training expenditures without a serious return on investment. Below are the most important goals to focus on achieving in order to ...
LIGHT THEIR FIRESnby William Cottringe nn Knowing how to motivate employees is an important part of any supervisor’s toolbox. Fortunately you don’t have to be a psychologist to be an effective motivator. All you have to do is apply practical people principles in a common sense way. Below ...
ONLY TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE? By Bill Cottringe n Getting along with other people and working together cooperatively is the fundamental foundation of successful outcomes in the workplace. This is true teamwork at its best. Organizations without this foundation don’t grow or prosper, at least ...
Two Burning Questions That Keep Popping Up Like the Gopher-Bopping Game at Carnivals By Bill Cottringe n“Bold questions deserve bold answers.” ~ The author.nnn There are two burning questions that keep popping up in my life, just like the gopher-bopping game at carnivals. Bop them down ...
Successful Thinking Tipping Points Byr Bill Cottringer “Successful people are just those with more successful habits than others.” ~Brian Tracy.
Basic Beliefs that Block SuccessnBy Bill Cottringe n“It is my belief, you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you understand the most amusing.” ~Winston Churchill. Sara is a very positive thinker, John is as smart as a whip and they are both very happy and ...
Isn’t It Time To Agree Upon The Important Stuff—Doing What Matters Most? BynBill Cottringe n 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 ...
Ten Team-Building Essentials for Leaders Byr Bill Cottringer “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” ~Ryunosuke Satoro.
A SIMPLE BUT PROFOUND LIFE-CHANGING CHOICEnBy Bill Cottringe n“The difficulty in life is the choice.” ~ George Moorenn Several years ago one of my best friends had a small piece of granite on his desk with some words that impressed me so much I made mention of the object several times. He ...
Describing the Indescribable Feeling We All Want: Peace of HeartnBy Bill Cottringe n“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 ...
Why Is It So Hard To Talk About The Elephant In The Room? BynBill Cottringe n“Two cows were talking in a pasture. One says to the other, “Are you worried about catching mad cow disease?” “No” said the other, I am an elephant.” ~Bad joke. A work colleague of mine, Bob Bennett, is quick to ...
TEACHING RESISTIVE OLD DOGS NEW TRICKSnBy William Cottringer, Ph.D.nnnn“The best way to teach something is to share a story of your own failure, tell what happened to help you get past it, and offer some helpful hints to succeed.” ~The author. A common problem in management and training is ...
BEING CERTAINnBy William Cottringer, Ph.D.nnn“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” ~Philip K. Dick. The other day my daughter Abby was given a question to answer by the instructor of her epistemology class as a high school senior. The question was ...
Modernize Your Mind byr Bill Cottringer The year 2020 might be a good time to think about modernizing your conventional mind, that is, if life hasn’t already forced you to do this. Here are some low-resistance, practical tips on facilitating mind- modernization:
GREEN, YELLOW & RED LIGHTS Byr Bill Cottringer “Three things cannot be long hidden: The sun, the moon, and the truth.” ~Buddha.
PASSWORDS TO THE LAND OF PLENTY By Bill Cottringe nn In spite of the fact that far too many people are just surviving un-plentiful lives of quiet desperation, a thriving ride to the Land of Plenty does exist for us all. However, long ago when we decided to come to this life, we hid away the ...
WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONEnBy Bill Cottringe n What remains when all is said and done? Take away all the additions, subtractions and changes we make to life with our thinking, perceptions and reactions and what remains is the 5% truth making up our personal success quest. Hidden away in that ...
REALITY INSTRUCTIONS FOR KIDSnBy Gandpaw Billnn“One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade” ~Chinese Proverb. My oldest granddaughter, Hannah Banana form Metropolis Illinois (the real home of Superman, no joke!), reminded me (and I have to remind her she did this) that nobody ...
Finding The Purpose Behind Your Purposenby Bill Cottringe nnn Finding the real purpose to our lives can provide us with valuable meaning. Such meaning can give us the right direction and structure we need, which will eventually lead to the success and contentment we want. I have discovered ...
TWO PATHS TO KNOWING BynBill Cottringe nnn“A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” ~Ansel Adamsnn 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 ...
The Imaginary Walls Between Religion, Spirituality And Psychology BynBill Cottringe n “There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.” ~Alfred North Whitehead. Why do religion, spirituality and psychology try to tell ...
Reality Repair RXnBy Bill Cottringe n“Reality does not conform to the ideal, but confirms it.” ~Gustave Flaubert. This is a good question: What is reality? Reality = “Anything about the past, present or future you believe to be actual and true because it comes from trustworthy sources such ...
What’s Behind the Curtain of the Political Divide in America? Byr Bill Cottringer “We divided ourselves among caste, creed, culture and countries but what is undivided remains most valuable: a mere smile and the love.” ~Santosh Kalwar.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOWnBy William Cottringer, Ph.D.nnn“My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional and back...~John Forbes Nash. I am sure you all remember the powerful move, “A Beautiful Mind” (a great movie and book title!) in which the Aussie ...
Dealing With Early Negative Downloads That Now Control Most of Your LifenBy Bill Cottringe n 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 ...
SUCCESSFUL REALITY REPAIR OF TWO COMMON MENTAL MISTAKESnBy Bill Cottringe n“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” ~Philip K. Dicknn What life is all about is fixing realities that we don’t like and creating new and better ones we want. We do this because ...
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 ove ight or learn from a book. It takes great thought, patience and ...
SELF-GROWTH REALITY REPAI By Bill Cottringe n“Common sense is the simple knack of seeing something as it is and doing things as they should be done.” ~Mark Twain. This article has been written for both self-growth writers and readers. Having been an avid student, teacher, practitioner, ...
BynBill Cottringe n“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 ...
What is Love?nby William Cottringer, Ph.D.nnn I have studied the "love phenomenon" personally and professionally for over 40 years now and would like to share a few things I have discovered in my studies. First, it may be that we are being artificial and limiting in trying to describe and ...
Seven Simple Reality Repair RulesnBy William Cottringer, Ph.D.nnn“Reality is what persists and accumulates when you finally see past what you think you are looking at.” ~The author. The modern science of quantum physics have proved a remarkable paradigm-shifting truth that has enormous ...