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Browse published articles attributed to William Cottringer, with full-archive search.
Accidental vs. Intentional Careersr By Bill Cottringer “Our strongest gifts are usually those we are barely aware of possessing. They are a part of our God-given nature, with us from the moment we drew first breath, and we are no more conscious of having them than we are of breathing.” ~Parker J. Palmer.
Taming Our Terrible Twin Within Byr Bill Cottringer “I have noticed that even people who claim that everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.” ~Stephen Hawking.
ARE YOU LUCKY OR UNLUCKY? byr Bill Cottringer “Good luck is when opportunity meets preparation, while bad luck is when lack of preparation meets reality.” ~Eliyahu Goldratt.
A big challenge in life is to fix the broken realities you don’t like and to create newer and better ones you want. Unfortunately this is much easier thought about in our heads than done with our hands. Most of us are still stuck trying to deal with undesirable realities that are getting in ...
Benefits & Callenges of Diversity Byr Bill Cottringer “Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.”rn~ Mahatma Gandhi.
The Truth Shall Set You Free Byr Bill Cottringer “The beautiful irony about the truth is that it hates dark places. It despises being hidden. It loves the limelight, and it always forces itself out.” ~Mitta Xinindlu. From my research, there seem to be two main opposing sources for interpreting the true literal and the intriguing metaphorical meanings of the biblical passage from John 8:32: “The truth shall set you free.” The Bible
Human Capital Leadership Essentials Byr Bill Cottringer “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” ~Jack Welch. If the dreadful COVID-19 pandemic taught the gamut of private business world, non-profits, and public government organizations anything, it is two critical things: (a) the need to be more people-centered, and (b) the requirement to be more agile and adaptable to change. Today, these two realities are widely acknowledged but unfortunately not so widely applied in actual practice.
Writing Options Byr Bill Cottringer “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” ~Ernest Hemingway. Writing is both an art and science involving both the right and left hemispheres of the brain, including the thinking and feeling brain functions. Many great writers feel that they didn’t intentionally choose the profession of writing, but rather writing choose them as its available conduit. The better writers have lost their egos along the way.
Hopelessness: The Only Real Enemy Worth Defeating Byr Bill Cottringer “Hopelessness is a feeling. It's not a fact.” ~Anohni Hopelessness is the main cause of all the world’s problems and hope is the only real antidote. Thank heavens for the reality of the quote above, that hopelessness is a feeling rather than a fact. This reality alone is worth having hope about in joining forces to defeat the common enemy of us all—hopelessness—or call it by any other name…anxiety, nilism, fear, lack of trust, pessimism, depression, existential terror, war, or whatever else seems to fit.
The ABC’s of Success Byr Bill Cottringer “Success is what you do to get what you consider to be a success.” ~The Author. The only “luck” that is involved with success comes from two sources: (a) You are lucky enough to be among the few to be born into an established success environment with all the necessary assets present, or (b) like most successes, “luck” is when all your arduous efforts meet the right opportunity, seemingly ove ight, but gradually.
The four Crucibles of Success Byr Bill Cottringer “The ‘luck’ of success is when your talents and efforts meet the right opportunity to apply them.” ~Anonymous.
The Truth Will Set You Free2 (John 8: 31-32) Byr Bill Cottringer “The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.” ~David Foster Wallace, author. From my research, there seem to be two main opposing sources for interpreting the true literal and the intriguing metaphorical meanings of the biblical passage from John 8:32: “The truth shall set you free.” The Bible
A Baker’s Dozen Classic Ah-Ha Moments Byr Bill Cottringer “We often get the thinking-feeling-behavior sequence mixed up. It is important to understand that it is behaviors and actions, not thinking, that result in our feelings, which in turn often prompt problem behaviors.” ~The author.
Some Uncommon Sense We Should Teach in Schools? Byr Bill Cottringer “Common sense is the simple knack of seeing something as it is and doing something as it should be done.” ~Mark Twain. During my last seven decades of living, I accidentally stumbled upon some uncommon sense which I wish had been taught to me earlier in school. Here is the uncommon sense that is better to learn, sooner than later, but better later than never.
The ABC’s of Success in Anything & Everything Byr Bill Cottringer “How much or how little you have of something, depends mostly on how you define that something.” ~The Author.
Challenges in Virtual Communication byr Bill Cottringer “Texting is a brilliant way to miscommunicate how you feel and misinterpret what other people mean.” ~Anonymous. Face to face (f2f) communication itself has many challenges but communicating in the new virtual world surrounding us has just worsened these communication challenges. Below are the ten biggest challenges to work on overcoming. 1. Words.r
The Wisdom of Insecurity byr Bill Cottringer “Uncertainty is the only certainty there is and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” ~John Allen Paulos.
Two Illusions That Spoil Reality byr Bill Cottringer “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” ~Søren Kierkegaard.
Ten Life Lessons You Can Only Learn the Hard Way Byr Bill Cottringer “âThough nobody can go back and make a new beginning, anyone can start over and make a new ending.” ~ Chico Xavier.
Divide and Conquer Byr Bill Cottringer “Divide and rule, the politician cries; Unite and lead, is watchword of the wise. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gedichte. In war, the divide and conquer rule has always gotten the expected results. Ironically though, this same principle can also be useful in bringing peace to the Divide in our country. The conquering of the Divide requires more dividing to understand the real problem. The Divide
Understanding Extreme Behavior Byr Bill Cottringer “Human behavior flows from three main sources—desire, emotion, and knowledge.” ~Plato. Is it my imagination or is extreme behavior becoming more commonplace these days? Is the incident rate of extreme behavior actually increasing or is the ubiquitous internet access and pervasive social media coverage giving an exaggerated boost to that perception? A fellow truth traveler friend of mine asked me why extreme behavior occurs. Here is my current understanding of the psychology of extreme behavior:
What is Our Basic Nature? Byr Bill Cottringer He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts. ~Samuel Johnson.
Seven Crossroads byr Bill Cottringer “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” ~Yogi Berra.
Conflicts and Heartaches byr Bill Cottringer “Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.” ~William Ellery Channing.
The Dynamics of Trust byr Bill Cottringer “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” ~Ernest Hemingway. Trust is an essential ingredient to successful resolution of the three main conflicts which we all must deal with in life: (a) us vs. life (b) us vs. them, and (c) us vs. ourselves. In a sense, our lives are a series of these three main conflicts in various forms. Much of the problem of distrust in these conflicts comes from the traditional competitive, win-lose mentality, whereas more trust seems to follow the newer cooperative, win-win approach.
Spiritual Intelligence byr Bill Cottringer “Spiritual Intelligence is seeing past what you are looking at; or better yet, it is seeing the unseeable and knowing the unknown.”
The Tao of Teams byr Bill Cottringer “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” ~Helen Keller, activist.
Peace of Mind byr Bill Cottringer “When you've seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there.” ~George Harrison. The amount of peace of mind we have, like happiness, contentment and other states of mind, depends largely on who we define the concept. It may be easier to state a few examples of what we all know is not peace of mind: • Mental turmoil from unresolved conflicts. • Unwanted, painful interactions with family or friends. • Defensiveness from exposure of vulnerabilities and insecurities.r
The Problem of Our Time Byr Bill Cottringer “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” ~Albert Einstein.
Commonsense Solutions to Our Three Main Conflicts Byr Bill Cottringer “Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.” ~Eugene Ionesco.
Reality is Not What it Seems byr Bill Cottringer Every once in a while, I stumble upon a book that helps me reconcile harsh polarities into a bigger, better, and more useful truth, usually emerging from somewhere in-between the given opposite possibilities. Such is the case with the quantum gravity researcher, Carlo Rovelli’s book, in Reality is Not What it Seems.
Today’s Primary Problem: Commonplace Evil Byr Bill Cottringer “The way in which you define something has a lot to do with how much or how little of the thing you have in hand, both quantity and quality.” ~The Author.
Reality is Not What it Seems byr Bill Cottringer Every once in a while, I stumble upon a book that helps me reconcile harsh polarities into a bigger, better, and more useful truth, usually emerging from somewhere in-between the given opposite possibilities. Such is the case with the quantum gravity researcher, Carlo Rovelli’s book, in Reality is Not What it Seems.
Reality is Not What it Seems byr Bill Cottringer Every once in a while, I stumble upon a book that helps me reconcile harsh polarities into a bigger, better, and more useful truth, usually emerging from somewhere in-between the given opposite possibilities. Such is the case with the quantum gravity researcher, Carlo Rovelli’s book, in Reality is Not What it Seems.
Reality is Not What it Seems byr Bill Cottringer Every once in a while, I stumble upon a book that helps me reconcile harsh polarities into a bigger, better, and more useful truth, usually emerging from somewhere in-between the given opposite possibilities. Such is the case with the quantum gravity researcher, Carlo Rovelli’s book, in Reality is Not What it Seems.
Be a Winner of the Conflict Trifecta Byr Bill Cottringer Conflict is the beginning of consciousness. ~M. Esther Harding.
Reality is Not What it Seems byr Bill Cottringer Every once in a while, I stumble upon a book that helps me reconcile harsh polarities into a bigger, better, and more useful truth, usually emerging from somewhere in-between the given opposite possibilities. Such is the case with the quantum gravity researcher, Carlo Rovelli’s book, in Reality is Not What it Seems.
Unifying the Divide byr Bill Cottringer A house divided against itself cannot stand. ~Abraham Lincoln.
Two Serious Problems We were Warned About in 1970 By Bill Cottringer “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything” ~George Be ard Shaw.
A Serious Limitation with Words byr Bill Cottringer “Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.” ~Rumi. Ever since being a young acolyte in the Episcopal Church studying the Bible and doing a book report on it for English class in high school, I have always been intrigued with the literal and metaphorical meanings of two declarations in the book of John. The first fiat is “In the beginning, was the Word”) (John: 1:1) and the second is “The Truth will set you free” (John 8:32). I’ll start things off with the Word and end with the freeing Truth.
Ten Teaching & Training Tricks That Stick byr Bill Cottringer “No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it.” ~Peter Drucker. Although Peter Drucker has a good point, having a full bag of teaching and training tricks can certainly help improve the learning for everyone involved. Below are ten tried and true teaching and training tricks that stick like duct tape. This short list is just from my experience and so if these don’t have any resonance value for you, I challenge you to make your own list!
7 Pillars of Character Power byr Bill Cottringer “Be more conce ed with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”rn~ John Wooden. 1. Openness.
“P” Point Power byr William Cottringer, Ph.D. Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you. ~Aldous Huxley.
The Pursuit of Happiness byr Bill Cottringer Words can rarely capture the essence of an experience in life, especially common or over-used ones. Oddly though, the way you choose to define things like success, happiness, justice, freedom, and love, can often determine how much or how little of these things you actually have in hand. ~The Author. Happiness Lost What is happiness? Easier to say what it’s not— Not frustration, failure, or fiction, Or suffering, sadness, or sorrow, Have we hidden happiness, Just to enjoy finding it more? Seems harder to find,r
Problem-Solving in Our VUCA World byr Bill Cottringer “I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” ~Alan Greenspan.
Reality is Not What it Seems byr Bill Cottringer Every once in a while, I stumble upon a book that helps me reconcile harsh polarities into a bigger, better, and more useful truth, usually emerging from somewhere in-between the given opposite possibilities. Such is the case with the quantum gravity researcher, Carlo Rovelli’s book, in Reality is Not What it Seems.
Reality is Not What it Seems byr Bill Cottringer Every once in a while, I stumble upon a book that helps me reconcile harsh polarities into a bigger, better, and more useful truth, usually emerging from somewhere in-between the given opposite possibilities. Such is the case with the quantum gravity researcher, Carlo Rovelli’s book, in Reality is Not What it Seems.
Repairing Virtual Communication failuresr Byr Bill Cottringer “In a world that is constantly changing, it is to our advantage to learn how to adapt and enjoy something better.” ~Kenneth H. Blanchard. Live, face-to-face (f2f) communication has always been difficult, unfortunately with miscommunication being the norm. Now that we have quickly transitioned to a largely virtual world, good communication has become even more of a challenge. Below are a few useful tips to improve virtual communication. 1. Use Likeable Words.
Reality is Not What it Seems byr Bill Cottringer Every once in a while, I stumble upon a book that helps me reconcile harsh polarities into a bigger, better, and more useful truth, usually emerging from somewhere in-between the given opposite possibilities. Such is the case with the quantum gravity researcher, Carlo Rovelli’s book, in Reality is Not What it Seems.
GAP-CLOSING Byr Bill Cottringer Life is all the stuff that happens in between acknowledging our gaps and trying to deal with them. ~The author.