Human Operating System Software Upgrades by William Cottringer
Today’s VUCA world of volatility, uncertainty, constant change and ambiguity require some serious upgrades to the Human Operating System (HOS). There are four new apps which should be installed for maximum success and happiness in life. These are: Critical thinking, emotional intelligence, mindfulness and psychological power points (“P” Points). These four apps are briefly discussed below:
1. Critical Thinking. Our brains are not hard-wired to find the truth, but rather driven to seek rewards and avoid harm in reaching a perpetual state of homeostasis. If you want the truth, you have to learn how to out-think your brain by engaging in critical thinking. Critical thinking begins with the honest realization that everything you think you know for sure may not be so. From there you start verifying assumptions, questioning sacred beliefs, becoming aware of biases, and digging deeper into problems to get at the core causes well below the noisy symptoms. This is evidence-based thinking that gets the best results.
Benefits of critical thinking:
If you need motivation for installing this app, then here are three good advantages:
· Critical thinking is the best path to finding the truth in any situation by removing obstacles such as irrelevant information, wrong assumptions or beliefs, cognitive and emotional biases and other common thinking mistakes.
· Critical thinking is the only way to discover the absolute moral principles that can change ephemeral beliefs into compelling convictions, worth dying for.
· It is through this type of thinking that the importance and value of these other three skill sets of emotional intelligence, mindfulness and “P” Points emerge.
2. Emotional Intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the second needed app upgrade. EI has been found to be just as important as IQ in general performance. Given the abundance of emotional situations we all face, it is a no-brainer to work on improving EI’s five main components of self-awareness, emotional regulation, empathy, social skills, and intrinsic motivation. The process can start by getting and using honest feedback from trusted others.
Benefits of emotional intelligence:
· Emotional intelligence helps us read people and situations better and control any of our own emotions that would otherwise aggravate the person or situation.
· Intrinsic motivation is always more intense and longer lasting than other forms of motivation.
Knowing how to communicate with a supportive tone and interact interpersonally with likeability will always get good results in the most difficult confrontations.
3. Mindfulness. Mindfulness originally developed in the Eastern traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism as a form of deep meditation. Today, the behavior health services have adopted this approach to deal with problem behavior. The process involves decreasing focus on past memories and future worries and increasing awareness of what is happening right now. This makes good sense because research has found that we normally spend 70% of our conscious thinking time on everything but what we are doing, which lowers performance.
Benefits of mindfulness:
· Mindfulness is an excellent time management tool in saving wasted time mind-wandering and re-investing that time in developing emotional intelligence and improving critical thinking.
· It is also an excellent way to reduce stress, with less negative thinking about past problems or future worries.
Being more aware of what is going on around you right now improves your response, which is the main thing under your control.
4. Psychological Power Points (“P” Points). This novel term is borrowed from structural engineering, meaning the critical perturbation stress points of a building which facilitate implosion. In the new context this “P” Point app means the small but strategically well-timed and well-placed interventions that get the biggest results. Common examples are book titles, newspaper headlines and political sound bites. With the HOS these include: (1) making improvements in developing a likeable personality (2) collecting useful principles about how things and people work (3) discovering more effective problem-solving skills (4) accepting new perspectives by re-arranging traditional paradigms, (5) dissolving polarizations (6) stopping prejudgments (7) correcting faulty perceptions (8) setting urgent and important priorities, (9) escaping from language created paradoxes, and (10) becoming more sensitive to perfection points before they come and go.
Benefits of “P” Points:
· Psychological power points are really the only genuine shortcuts to success and happiness. Discovering them is what takes all the time and effort.
· We are all struggling with the information and misinformation overload and we can use any help we can get in simplifying things for easier consumption. “P” Points are that solution.
· “P” Points offer the best venue opportunity to apply the three other interactive apps to maximize HOS results in having more success and happiness.
William Cottringer, Ph.D., is retired from 55 years of criminal justice leadership roles in law enforcement, corrections, security and mental health. He is currently the Chairman of the Board for the Because Organization, an intervention program in human trafficking. He also serves as a member of the King County Sheriff’s Advisory Board and is Judge Advocate for the local American Legion Post in Snoqualmie WA and a member of the WA Department of the American legion Internal Affairs Commission and National Legislative Affairs Committee. Dr. Bill is the author of several business and personal development books including You Can Have Your Cheese & Eat It Too (Executive Excellence), Do What Matters Most and “P” Point Management (Atlantic Book Publishers), Reality Repair (Global Vision Press), and Thoughts on Happiness, Pearls of Wisdom, Christian Psychology, and Reality Repair Rx+ (Covenant Books, Inc.). Bill can be reached for comments and questions at 206-914-1863 or ckuretdoc.comcast.net
