GREEN, YELLOW & RED LIGHTS
By
Bill Cottringer
“Three things cannot be long hidden: The sun, the moon, and the truth.” ~Buddha.
The sheer power of the number three, or dividing things into thirds, is probably one of the first governing principles of the universe discovered and ... Views: 950
FOUR CRUCIBLES OF SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP
By
Bill Cottringer
"A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better." ~Jim Rohn.
The four crucibles of successful leadership include: Becoming an expert at ... Views: 1074
Modernize Your Mind
by
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:
1. Meta-thinking. ... Views: 945
A Belief Worth Questioning
By
Bill Cottringer
“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.” ~John F. Kennedy.
All the world’s dreadful problems and the unwanted miseries they bring, are caused by one ... Views: 904
Better Time Management for 2020 and Beyond
by
Bill Cottringer
“Time is the one resource that is equally distributed, but unequally used.” ~The Author.
This combining millennium will likely just continue to overload us with more and more information, where we end up never having ... Views: 1245
A Few More Thoughts About Happiness
by
Bill Cottringer
“Breathe in common sense and breathe out nonsense.” ~The Author.
Happiness has as many different definitions and ways to get it as there are people on the planet. Here are a few more thoughts about happiness I have had recently, ... Views: 905
DO WHAT MATTERS MOST
By
Bill Cottringer
“There's a mess inside you: You clean the outside.” ~Anonymous, The Dhammapada.
Do what matters most. I once wrote a book with that title. It took me more than 600 pages to wade through some extreme complexity to get to the profound ... Views: 1070
Having Enough Hope in Motion for Success
By
Bill Cottringer
“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world's problems at once but don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be ... Views: 733
Train Your Brain in Mindfulness
by
Bill Cottringer
“Mindfulness is a way of befriending ourselves and our experience.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Why train your brain in “mindfulness?” Because mindfulness is what facilitates the other major components of emotional intelligence—self, ... Views: 1054
Our Common Denominator
By
Bill Cottringer
“Men go to far greater lengths to avoid what they fear than to obtain what they desire.” ~Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code.
One of the more important common denominators people have is: (a) being unique and different on the one hand with personal ... Views: 735
Ten Tips for Successful Presentations
By
Bill Cottringer
Successful selling is often preempted by the requirement of giving a formal presentation to convince the customer to go with your product or service. These presentations require some sensible prep work to result in successful ... Views: 1300
Some Uncommon Sense Needed today
By
Bill Cottringer
“You can see a lot by observing and hear a lot by listening.” ~Yogi Berra
Originally back in the day, common sense was the useful knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA’s) people needed to use to survive the challenges of living day ... Views: 961
Ten Easy Ways to Increase Your Common Sense
By
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, ... Views: 1040
Exercise Your Thinking Muscles
“Sometimes you must give up the good to get to the great. The key is knowing what to keep and what to discard from your mind.” ~The author.
Success today requires proper diet and exercise in both the physical and mental realms. Here are some healthy ... Views: 845
The Baker’s Dirty Dozen Gaps Between What’s
By
Bill Cottringer
“The main challenge in life is to close the gap between where you are now and where you really want to be.” ~The Author.
We all have much work to do to close the above gap. Here are a Baker’s Dirty Dozen Gaps we need to ... Views: 891
Successful Thinking Tipping Points
By
Bill Cottringer
“Successful people are just those with more successful habits than others.” ~Brian Tracy.
Success today requires more than just raw IQ points in pure brain power. To achieve success today, you must develop and practice ... Views: 1021
Re-Braining for 2020
By
Bill Cottringer
“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” ~Albert Einstein.
2020 brings a new decade of Information Age challenges, requiring some major transformational re-braining to navigate the mine fields ahead hidden away in the ... Views: 1089
Taming Our Terrible Twin Within
By
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.
We are all on a mission to become our best selves and to help ... Views: 673
Ten Team-Building Essentials for Leaders
By
Bill Cottringer
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” ~Ryunosuke Satoro.
There is a sure prescription for effective team-building for leaders to be successful in their efforts. Here are the ten essential ingredients ... Views: 964
The Compromise Imperative
By
Bill Cottringer
“I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle. ~Andrew Carnegie.
Our main thinking paradigm today is still stuck somewhere between a ... Views: 1082
The Main Challenge for Leaders Today
By
Bill Cottringer
“Diversity: The art of thinking independently together.” ~Malcolm Forbes.
There are two sound reasons for diversity: (a) It is the right thing to do from a human-kind perspective, and (b) the differences brought by diversity ... Views: 1132
The Two Main Goals of Personal Development
By
Bill Cottringer
“Small daily improvements are the key to staggering long-term results.” ~Anonymous.
Our personal development efforts in learning, growing and improving are aimed at increasing two very important capacities: (a) our ... Views: 1063
Three Key Success Factors in Effective Management
By
Bill Cottringer
“The effective management of others always starts with effective self-management.” ~The author.
There are libraries of books on how to manage effectively, but since there is already too much information and too ... Views: 1052
GAP-CLOSING
By
Bill Cottringer
The most serious problem we have today is the growing divide/gap between this and that group of people and the ineffective gap-closing activities we waste valuable time engaging in. The gaps and divide just keeps getting wider and wider, creating more ... Views: 1179
A Disturbing Reality
By
Bill Cottringer
“Logic will never change emotion or perception.” ~ Edward de Bono.
After studying things like success, happiness, failure, frustration and anger for several decades now, I have come to the conclusion there may be a very disturbing reality too ... Views: 1401
Furiously Frustrated
By
Bill Cottringer
In my previous article, “Seeds of Anger,” I think I overlooked the main problem with which we should have more empathy for ourselves and others. The real problem of our day is the frustration that leads either a quiet life of desperation or ... Views: 1292
Seeds of Anger
By
Bill Cottringer
I think most people would agree that the main problems of our day are: (a) the artificially dualistic, unfair sharp divide between those who have abundance, power and all the other desirable things in life, and those who don’t have enough of these ... Views: 1619
WHY PRISONS DON'T WORK (AS WELL AS THEY COULD)
By
William Cottringer
“Men simply copied the realities of their hearts when they built prisons.” ~ Richard Wright.
I do not want to offend all the good people who have devoted their entire careers to positive prison reform, but the very ... Views: 1429
LIFE”S HARDEST LESSON
By
Bill Cottringer.
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.” ~Rick Warren.
A doctor and her patient were having a defining-moment discussion about life’s hardest lesson. “So tell me what it is, said the impatient patient to ... Views: 1825
The Only Unwinnable Conflict Worth Trying to Win
By
Bill Cottringer
“There is one conflict that will never go away until we either figure out how to communicate past it or die trying. This conflict involves arguing for the beliefs and truths we are most certain about.” ~The Author.
... Views: 1419
Three Beatitudes for Better Communication
By
Bill Cottringer
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” ~George Bernard Shaw.
I first heard this simple but profound prescription for better communication below, used as a beginning and ... Views: 1668
Are You Smart Enough?
By
Bill Cottringer
“Half of being smart is in knowing what you are dumb about.” ~Solomon Short.
I have been an avid researcher of the connection between intelligence and success for several decades now, and am finally ready to release my short list for ... Views: 1592
Managing vs. Coaching
by
Bill Cottringer
“You must always be the apprentice, even when you become the master.”
~ Christopher Cumby.
A common problem with new managers is starting out with the wrong perspective, or as Stephen Covey would say, “getting to the top ... Views: 1475
Game Plan For All Seasons
By
Bill Cottringer
Psychology has one principle that can be applied to any interpersonal interaction to get the best results. This is the very fundamental principle of human behavior which recognizes that both our commonalities and our differences have to be ... Views: 1211
7 SURE BUILDING-BLOCKS OF SUCCESS
By
Bill Cottringer
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.” ~ Bill Gates.
Having both attempted and researched the phenomenon we call “success” now for nearly 7 decades, I have reached the conclusion that ... Views: 1201
Choosing the Right Side
By
Bill Cottringer
An elderly Episcopal priest once gave a simple sermon with a single message that makes too much sense to disregard, even for non-religious people. The message was this: There is one main choice in life and that is which side are you on—the ... Views: 1193
WORDS ARE WICKED
By
Bill Cottringer
“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends,” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
For over 50-years now, I have worked in criminal justice as a law enforcement officer, prison warden and a security manager, and ... Views: 1339
The Power of Awareness
By
Bill Cottringer
“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.” ~Abraham Maslow.
Focusing on one thing in life being more important than any other is a common mistake we often make. This usually results in over-embracing a ... Views: 1425
DO OR DIE
By
Bill Cottringer
“Conflicts give rise to villains, heroes, victims and bystanders. Which are you willing to be, in doing or dying for? ~The Author.
We are all chasing after things we think we want because of how they make us feel—happiness, success, peace of mind, ... Views: 1526
An Epiphany About Intentionality
By
Bill Cottringer
“All things considered, the concept of willfulness loses sight of too many of them.” ~The Author.
I am proposing that our entire justice system is built upon a highly questionable basic assumption—that all wrongdoers are ... Views: 1395
WORK SUCCESS
By
Bill Cottringer
“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” ~Vince Lombardi.
Success in today’s work place involves a commitment to ... Views: 1364
The Paucity Paradigm
By
Bill Cottringer
“Usually the first problems you solve with the new paradigm are the ones that were unsolvable with the old paradigm.” ~Joel A. Barker.
Way back in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve did something that contaminated our thinking and the language ... Views: 1196
AN ATTITUDE FOR ALL SEASONS
by
Bill Cottringer
“The amount of success you have or don’t have, is more related to how you define success, than all you talents, efforts, motivation, timing and luck combined together.”~ The Author.
I have been an avid student of human behavior and ... Views: 1364
What Employers Need
By
Bill Cottringer
“The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.” ~J. Paul Getty.
Knowing what employer’s need—not necessarily what they think they want (or what they deserve?)—can greatly improve job success in the organization for both employers and ... Views: 1289
How to Get a Job in Today’s Marketplace
By
Bill Cottringer
“People will try to tell you that all the great opportunities have been snapped up. In reality, the world changes every second, blowing new opportunities in all directions, including yours.” ~Ken Hakuta.
From all my ... Views: 1180
Too Much Familiarity Can Breed Contempt
By
Bill Cottringer
“Familiarity breeds contempt, for others at first, but then inwardly, contempt towards ourselves.”
~Oli Anderson, Synchronesia: A Depressing Existential Novel.
Most relationship experts agree that contempt can creep into a ... Views: 4089
What To Focus On?
By
Bill Cottringer
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” ~Alexander Graham Bell.
Regarding the title question, the answer in a word is—NOW. One very popular view of life is that we are all pawns ... Views: 1300
TWO KINDS OF BELIEFS
By
Bill Cottringer
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” ~Philip K. Dick.
Beliefs are what drive and explain human behavior. They reassure us the truth of something and justify our thinking, feeling and acting in our minds, ... Views: 1375
HEALING THE DIVIDE
By
Bill Cottringer
“The belief that there is only one truth, and that oneself is in possession of it, is the root of all evil in the world.” ~Max Born.
Last Month, I published an article in Security Management magazine, entitled “The Two-Way Manager.” This ... Views: 1338
Managing Life’s Five Great Illusions for Better Sports and Law Enforcement Performance.
By
Bill Cottringer
As I have already mentioned in a previous article, performance in sports and law enforcement have a lot in common. For one thing, both require a healthy mixture of individuality ... Views: 1186