Reality Repair Rx Book Outline

Reality Repair Rx Book Outline
By William Cottringer, Ph.D.

In writing books or articles it is always good to stop now and then to question the importance and value of your writing topics and what your truest intentions are. I made a door sign some time ago that reads, “Dr. Cottringer, Reality Repair,” meant to be both humorous and serious. I just like the sound of that phrase as a good description of what I do with my main job of running a security company, my secondary job of writing books and articles and doing on-line coaching, and my hobby of photography.

So I decided to write a book about the subject of the reality repair business. And following the wise suggestions of other more successful authors, I am trying the ideas out first in a test market and targeted seminars and making modifications accordingly to get a really top-class product. That is what I am doing here.

I. My main "problem" thesis is: What reality needs repairing?

Answer: The gap between the correctness and completeness of the consensual awareness of reality that our individual senses, thinking, intuitions, perceptions and experiences lead us to believe as being true, compared to what just IS apart from our personal spin on it. Obviously the wider the gap, the less the current successes in life, work and relationships and the more reality repair work ahead.

II. My proposed solution:

Use our God-given talents to be successful in finding and following “the 7 rules of engagement” to live and share with others to increase everyone's genuine abundance of joy, meaning, wholeness and significance.

The "7 rules of Engagement:"

1. The rules for being successful came first.

a. Proof: The biggest enduring winners in sports, business, arts, acting and personal relationships follow the rules, truths, values, virtues and principles that produce and sustain success. The biggest losers don’t.

b. Application: You just have to gradually realize this ultimate reality by paying closer attention to the results you get from not knowing the rules or knowing them and not trying to follow them or making up your own rules as you go. Learning the lessons from your failures takes time and patience, but there is always a positive lesson to learn in every “failure.” Thomas Edison’s brilliant success (excuse the pun) came after 10,000 failures.

2. Reality is still being created.

a. Proof: The physical universe is expanding infinitely (although this may turn out to be an illusion), knowledge and awareness of reality is constantly evolving.

b. Application: You have to fine tune your sensitivity to recognizing the point of no return in something before it comes and goes, especially distinguishing between moments of opportunity and moments of danger; the real challenge is to expand your comfort zone and ability to adapt to change quickly and effortlessly. Oddly, this all involves suspending pre-judgments about what is okay and not okay and getting rid of the human personalized idea of fundamental “fairness” (or at least the firm expectation other people will deliver it back the same way you give it).

3. Human consciousness affects reality.

a. Proof: Scientific discoveries in quantum mechanics; sound research evidence linking optimism with wealth, happiness, health, better quality relationships and life longevity; experiments proving the effects of emotional stimulation on DNA and the structural changes it produces.

b. Application: Slow down and unravel the knotted pretzel interaction between thoughts, feelings, choices and results; take guidance from positive feelings to continue and negative ones to stop and rethink your approach. Be silent and listen to your emotions for important clues as to what realities need accepting (most) and what realities need changing/repairing (the few tragedies that bring tears to God’s eyes, i.e. wars, violence, environmental destruction, child abuse, laziness, litter, poverty, disease, starvations, homelessness, lack of appreciation, etc.).

4. Personal desire can get in the way.

a. Proof: The more you try to succeed in accumulating personal gain to appease your personal desires, the further you get from enduring success or anyway you define it; the more you take the less you have and the more you give the more you get.

b. Application: Use your ego and pride to brag about what you know to be so and about your grand accomplishments to someone else; then ask for their honest reaction and then note your own negative reaction and defensiveness. The truth will hurt but it will also set you free.

5. Overload is the # 1 public enemy.

a. Proof: People’s offices, desks, mail boxes (both types), closets, attics, basements, garages, pantries, medicine cabinets, back yards, and minds.

b. Application: Learning to use time better by taking more advantage of its fluid psychological nature (more than its fixed, mechanical nature) and being more engaged in the now moment and doing what matters most—the little things (real priorities) that get the biggest results and the least side effects; In other words, reverse the typical 80-20 rule before stress becomes too distressful and locks you into a vicious circle of doom and gloom.

6. Purpose and passion move mountains.

a. Proof: Everyday miracles can be seen for the looking; powerful success stories of people overcoming impossible adversities, the widespread mega popularity of books on these two topics.

b. Application: When you focus on your pure, unselfish intention and purpose in doing anything, it unleashes a passion that can literally move mountains. Try and see. You won’t be disappointed

7. We are headed into the unknown.

a. Proof: The news headlines, The TV show “Lost,” all the current management, leadership, spiritual development and other self-help books and programs, the uncertainty and insecurity of the whole world, the complexity of unseeingly unsolvable conflicts, the harsh divisions between people; the common inability to deal with the overload.

b. Application: It is time to ‘fess up to how little you know, accept the truth of what got you here, won’t get you there, and let go to the wisdom of insecurity by sharing your secrets and suspicions with others to enlarge the treasure map for all; redefine your self to go from the limited success of surviving to the unlimited potential of thriving.

The Good News is that we really do have infinite potential to go from just surviving to abundant thriving. But it is not a simple matter just deciding to do that, although it is an excellent start. What will really help is to take a look at the safe space you may have unknowingly put between the passive, observing and reacting you and the pro-active, participating, and acting you. The more you let go to and embrace the truth of these “7 rules of engagement,” the less safe space you will have getting in the way of your success and all the joy it brings you.

One disturbing either-or dualism that has always haunted me is the one of pre-destination vs. free will. Just how much power do we have to change realities and create better ones? I think I have arrived at a reasonable reconciliation of these warring opposites—the pre-destination part may be the success rules, truths and principles behind life and the free will choices we make every moment to find and follow the rules or not. I know what happens when I make the wrong choice. I fail and have to start over again. I am tired of doing that.