APPENDIX A

RINEHART & ASSOCIATES

P. O. BOX 28002

RANCHO BERNARDO, CA 92198-1002

858-335-5624

Website: www.breakthroughexperience.com

E-mail: lynn@breakthroughexperience.com

WHAT WORKS (except when it doesn’t)

What works for what!?  For more than two decades I have asked several thousand co-students, workshop co-participants and co-clients (until I get this life figured out I am the other “co-”), “Is there anyone present who does not want to be at peace?”  So far, the response has been total silence.  I believe we share the life goal of being at peace and are consciously or unconsciously seeking ways of behaving and thinking that produce peace.  We are seeking “What Works” for personal serenity.

What type of behavior and thinking produces peace?  I borrowed applicable criteria from an article on what works in organizations (“Transforming Organizations” compiled and edited by John Poppy, et al.), in the July/August, 1980, issue of The Graduate Review.  Substituting human behavior for organizational behavior, “What Works” is any behavior or thought that (1) assists one to stay on purpose, (2) is viable, and (3) is nurturing.

In my own search, rather than identifying specific behaviors and thoughts, I collected a number of principles of living from a variety of sources.  These evolved into my own frame of reference for behaving and thinking; the paths that I have chosen to explore and follow --- except when I don’t.

If you choose to pursue these principles there is no certainty they will lead you to a condition you will recognize as “peace.”  The only certainty is uncertainty.  However, these principles may improve your odds at experiencing the serenity you seek.  If you choose behavior and thinking contrary to these principles, the odds are very high that you will not experience peace.  AND, it does not work to pursue these paths expecting the behavior and thinking of others to change.  These are principles that work (except when they don’t) when followed unconditionally --- no matter what happens around you.  These principles are not “the answer.”  We are the answer.  If you are looking for an “answer,” it will show up only as a consequence of who you are.

            The principles are:

¨             What You Share with Others, You Get Back, including power.

¨             Establish and Renew Agreements --- it creates flexibility in the context of solidarity.

¨             Keep Agreements --- it establishes confidence and fluent interactions.

¨             Acknowledge and Reward Yourself and Others --- it produces a sense of achievement.

¨             Take 100% Responsibility for creating your life, including your health and what happens

 around you.        

¨             Tell the Truth.  The truth is fact or feeling about yourself.  Judgments, even about yourself,

 are not the truth.        

¨             Don’t Do What Doesn’t Work.

¨             Serve Others, not in the context of sacrifice.

¨             Love and Value Yourself and Others --- it creates the context within which all of the 

            principles can be realized, and within which we can be in harmony and at peace.

                               I. Lynn Rinehart, Ph.D., National Certified Counselor