COMMON SENSE WISDOMByWilliam Cottringer To get the best results in doing most things, you have to gradually learn how to apply an oxymoron—common sense wisdom. What is common sense wisdom? The answer may surprise you. CSW is just a collection of the basic governing principles of life that you already know intuitively, but usually waste much valuable time trying to deny, disbelieve or disprove. Common sense wisdom is the simplicity just on the other side of complexity that Oliver Wendell Holmes dedicated his life to remembering. After all, the obscure takes a while to see; the obvious even longer. This is why these seven governing principles are worth understanding and applying. THINGS ARE RARELY AS THEY FIRST APPEAR. Al Pacino was actually practicing this principle when he spoke it in The Recruit. He was divulging who he was, because he knew they wouldn’t believe the truth at first. Problems can appear to signal failure and failure is generally seen to be undesirable. But problems can also be opportunities to learn how to be successful, which is very desirable. Appearances are closely linked to location and timing—where you are standing and looking from at any given time. When life is burdening you with unpleasant hardships that is what you see at the time, not having a view of better things coming right around the next corner. The problem is that we only get to see parts of the whole picture at any given time and have to gradually make the connections. THINGS ARE MORE RELATED THAN NOT. This second principle is another good example of the first one. Just because things seem to be unrelated on the surface doesn’t mean that is the way they really are “underground.” After all, the more you dig, the more connections you find. One of the most powerful common sense wisdom discoveries is the connection between your dreams and reality. Another powerful relationship is the one between what you expect and what happens. Gregg Braden’s discovery of the God Code reveals that everything in the universe is related. All DNA is made up of four basic chemical elements, the representative numbers of which coincide exactly with the number values of the ancient Hebrew letters of God’s original name—“I am what I am.” KNOWING IS JUST REMEMBERING Nothing is new; it is just old and retold. The human growth process involves shifting all this common sense wisdom from where it already exists in the unconscious mind to your conscious awareness. In this sense, you are not really learning as much as remembering what you have forgotten. Things are not as they first appear. Stop and think about how you best assimilate new information. This “new” information has to be meaningful to you and it has to fit neatly with what you already know. Are your really learning something new and different, or just making an old connection? The turning point to real learning is when you realize that what you think you know may not necessarily be so. First appearances can be deceiving until the connections are made.WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. All of us get caught with this one. The ultimate “punishment” is bad Karma. But it’s only bad until you wake up to the truth that there are consequences of every single choice we make—when you make the right choice you get the consequence you are looking for and you get everything else when you don’t make the right choice. That is a neutral reality, no a bad one. Oddly, the right choices are easy to make, not difficult. Take the Golden Rule for example. You already know it is the single best rule for living that always gets the best results. What could be easier than treating others the way you want to be treated—with respect, fairness, kindness, honesty, sensitivity and all the other things we all want. The validity of this truth is proved by all these other principles. These governing principles are all related to one another. THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS. Even if you are “lucky” enough to win the Lotto, all your problems are not going to be solved. In fact your real problems may just appear. The more money you have, the more you will spend and the less you have the more you need. Besides, money has serious obligations that come with it that you may not be prepared to accept. Moreover, there are many bankrupt instant millionaires. There is always a big difference between what you want and what you need and knowing the difference helps you get both. We all follow the fantasy of trying to get something for nothing until we wake up to the harsh reality that there are no free lunches. Thousands of good self-help books have simple prescriptions for curing human ills, but why should they work in a short week when they took years for the author to discover? The only way to achieve lasting happiness and success is to start the long and difficult process of growing forward by remembering all that you have forgotten. If other people’s clues help, then by all means listen and learn from them. Those people have, but not overnight.USEFUL TRUTHS ARE OFTEN HIDDEN IN PARADOXES. Paradoxes challenge our creative thinking and stimulate problem-solving abilities. When you can solve a paradox such as, “How can you have your cheese and eat it too?” you can double your happiness, success and contentment. To find yourself, you have to lose yourself first. Things are not as they first appear, knowing is remembering and what goes around comes around. The trick in solving most paradoxes is in not letting the words that make them up hold you hostage. When you apply rubber band thinking, you can redefine the words in new and unusual ways and see all sorts of solutions. What does it mean to “find” or “lose” yourself? Or to “have” your cheese and “eat” it too? Your definitions determine how long such a paradox remains unsolved, until the moment you unlock another valuable truth, such as understanding what I am saying here. CREATION IS GOING FROM ONE EXTREME TO THE OTHER TO GET TO THE MIDDLE. The world is made up of “opposites” and real growth is moving to a balanced position between extremes. Take our basic approach to people as an example. We can lose by being passive in letting people use and abuse us, we can lose by being aggressive and steam rolling over people, or we can gain by being assertive—standing up for our rights without trampling on others. With parenting, we have seen a shift from a strict disciplinarian approach to permissiveness and now to democratic tough love. Even our system of government is an ideal balance between political parties and branches of government. Personal, professional and spiritual growth are all part of the same process and involve the striving to get to the “golden mean”—a temperate, balanced place in the middle where you can see in all directions and have more choices. You can see what choices are most likely to result in what consequences, so that you can make the best choices to get the best results. You are already moving in the right direction. Just slow down long enough to see where you really are and all that it means. That is losing yourself to find yourself.William Cottringer is President of Puget Sound Security, college teacher and writer from Bellevue, WA. He is author of “You Can Have Your Cheese & Eat It Too.” He can be reached at (425) 454-5011 or bcottringer.pssp.net