As A Man Thinketh

Sometimes when I read a good book, I find it helpful to underline or highlight the main points which are being made or which speak to me personally. I did that with this book. As I look these over I realize that I could write a very long book myself just as a commentary on each of these points. But time and space do not permit that. I have included each of these points and then given my commentary at the end.

Foreword
* Mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance.

Thought & Character
* Every Act of man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. p. 2

* As a being of power, intelligence and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation and contains within himself that transforming and regenerative agency by which he may make himself what he wills. p. 4

Effect Of Thought On Circumstances
* Every man is where is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err. p. 9

* Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grows, he then becomes the rightful master of himself. p. 10

* The outer world of circumstances shapes itself to the inner world of thought, and both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which make for the ultimate good of the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss. p. 11.

* Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals it to himself. p. 11.

* Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. p. 12

* What is the meaning of 'fighting against circumstances'? It means that a man is continually revolting against an effect without, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart. p. 13

* The sole and supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure. Suffering ceases for him who is pure. p. 17

* Let a man radically alter his thoughts and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life. p. 19

* A man cannot choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances. p. 20

Effect of Thought On Health & The Body
* Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure foods. p. 25

* There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body; there is not comforter to compare with good will for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow. To live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy is to be confined in a self-made prison. p27

Thought & Purpose
* They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all of which are indications of weakness which lead, just as surely as deliberately planned sins, to failure, unhappiness and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving universe. p. 30

* To put away aimlessness and weakness and to begin to think with purpose is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly; attempt fearlessly and accomplish masterfully. p 32

The Thought Factor In Achievement
* All that man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thought. p. 36

* His suffering and his happiness are evolved from within. As he thinks, so he is. As he continues to think, so he remains. p. 36

Vision And Ideals
* The dreamers are the saviors of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men are sustained by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. p. 42

* The greatest achievement was at first, and for a time, a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn. The bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of reality. p. 43

* Into your hands will be place the exact results of your own thoughts. You will receive that which you earn; no more, no less. p. 45

Serenity
* The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. p. 51

* The strong, calm man is always loved and revered. He is like a shade-giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a storm. p. 51

My Comments
There are very few books which have so much information and wisdom in so few pages. That's why it remains a classic even though it was written in the early 1900's. The primary point of the book, as I understand it, is that our thoughts create our circumstances in life, and if we wish to change our lives, then we must change our thoughts. This basic idea is reflected in the title of the book.

If we truly believe this idea it can be both VERY empowering and VERY bewildering! Most people in the world blame their problems on others, whether they be individuals, other ethnic groups, government, politicians, Satan, etc. Such a belief is totally disempowering because it means that we are nothing more than puppets controlled by circumstances beyond our own control. However, when we believe that we are the product of our collective thoughts and attitude, then we assume full personal responsibility for our life. Once we do this, then we can change it. When we are victims of forces outside ourselves, then we cannot change except through the collective force of violence. History has shown that this seldom brings real change in fundamental circumstances. Instead, it tends to repeat those circumstances with different people in control. Why? Because we have changed the outer without changing the inner.

This book suggests that the way to change the world is to change ourselves - our consciousness. If we don't change our consciousness then we may change circumstances but only temporarily. Eventually our old consciousness recreates the old circumstances. This is what happens so often when the revolutionary philosophy overthrows the dictator, and then becomes a dictator committing all the same crimes.

One of the most interesting statements in the book was on page 12 where the author states "Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are." It really isn't the individual thoughts that create our circumstances in life. It is our collective thoughts over a period of time which create a certain 'frequency' which we carry. Then as we go through life, we attract to ourselves those circumstances which vibrate at that particular frequency. This is why we tend to repeat the same lessons or life situations over and over. It is also the reason why we can change our thoughts and not see an immediate change in our circumstances. There is usually some time lapse between changing our thoughts or consciousness and experiencing a change in our frequency.

I have been working with these ideas now for many years and perhaps I am a slow learner. I do believe that some people can experience this change overnight, but that wasn't my experience. I had certain deep seated thoughts and ideas which have existed for many lifetimes. It has taken a lot of hard work to discover these and then to replace them with thoughts that would take me where I wanted to go in life. I have noticed tremendous change as I have worked to change my thoughts and my attitude over the years but it took some time, and I am still a 'work in progress'. I see this as a lifelong process.

There is one point on which I disagree with the author. On page 17 he says, "The sole and supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure. Suffering ceases for him who is pure." It may be true that suffering can be USED to purify. We can use anything in life as a vehicle for growth and self-improvement. However, I do not think this is the PURPOSE of suffering and I certainly don't believe that suffering ceases for the person who is ‘pure’ unless he has a different meaning for 'pure' than the standard one.

It is a common idea in many religions that "pain purifies." Because of this, many religions have sanctified suffering as something noble and good. While good may come out of suffering (as with anything), suffering itself is neither good nor noble. While 'purification' may be a byproduct of suffering, it is not the reason for it. Suffering and pain are messengers. They are messengers that something is out of harmony, out of sync. It's like when you car makes funny noises to let you know something is wrong. So it is with pain and suffering. Physical pain is a messenger to tell you to pay attention to some physical situation with you body. Mental or emotional pain is calling you to pay attention to your ideas, beliefs and thoughts and how they may be out of harmony with your circumstances. We can learn a great deal from suffering if we know how to understand what it is telling us.

So much from such a small book! I look forward to the time when I can sit down in person with other students and discuss some of these ideas in relationship to our personal experiences. I would close with one of my favorite quotes:

"If you continue thinking what you have always thought, you will continue getting what you have always got."

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

This is a great story that probably has many different levels of meaning that one could explore. I will admit that I read it in less than an hour and my reflections are mostly from the obvious points the author was making.

JLS isn't your average seagull. Unlike most gulls, he was not directed or controlled by what others thought; the flock mind. His direction came from somewhere deep within himself, like a part of himself that still remembered who he COULD be rather than who he SHOULD be, according to the rest of the flock. Whereas others lived to eat and squabble, he lived to fly and to perfect his flying technique and speed. At one point, after a miserable failure, he almost gave up, deciding it was much easier to just live the life of a normal gull. And then he accidentally discovered the wonder of the night, something that gulls didn't do, and he was re-inspired.

So he spent less and less time with the flock and more time perfecting his flying. He continually competed against himself until he reached the incredible speed of 214 miles per hour. He was so excited about this breakthrough and thought the flock would be equally excited. Instead, he was shamed before the whole flock for being reckless and irresponsibility and for violating the dignity and tradition of the gulls. They reminded Jonathan that a gull’s purpose was twofold: To eat and to stay alive as long as possible.
For breaking the tradition he was made an outcast and sent away.

He didn't really mind being alone because it gave him more time to work on himself. What sadden him was that the rest of the flock could not see the incredible things that they were capable of and the joy they could experience in discovering their true nature.

And then one night, while he was flying, he was approached by two shimmering seagulls. Although the author doesn't say it exactly, he indicates that these are 'seagull angels.' They tell him that, if he wished, he could even fly higher than he had ever flown before - into heaven.

And so he follows them to this new level and there he meets 'Sullivan' his new instructor. This was a new and interesting experience for Jonathan but he was curious why there were so few seagulls there. He asked Sullivan who told him "Do you have any idea how many lives we must have gone through before we even got the first idea that there was more to life than eating or fighting or power in the flock? Sullivan went on to tell him: 'We choose our next world from what we learn in this one. Learn nothing and the next world is the same as this one; all the limitations and lead weights to overcome."

Jonathan goes on to meet a wise elder Seagull in 'heaven' called Chiang. Although Chiang is very very old, he is a master of flight, the very best in fact. But he doesn't teach Jonathan about flight techniques. He teaches him about the inner wisdom. For example, he teaches that:"Heaven isn't a place or time. It is perfection."

Chiang is like a Zen Master when he tells Jonathan: "To fly as fast as you thought, to anywhere that is, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived. The trick is to know that your true nature lives everywhere at once across space and time."

Chiang tells Jonathan that there is something beyond mile-per-hour speed. You can learn to fly into the past and the future. And then you will be ready to fly the most difficult, most powerful, most fun: to fly up and know the meaning of kindness and love!

Then, disappearing in a burst of light, Chiang leaves Jonathan with this final instruction: "Jonathan, keep working on love..."

After his instructions, Jonathan decides to return to Earth where he encounters another young gull 'Fletcher lynd seagull' who has been cast out of the flock. Jonathan becomes his instructor teaching him such things as "Your body is nothing more than your thought itself in a form you can see. Break the chains of your thought and you break the chains of your body."

As time goes by, Jonathan ends up with seven students, all of whom have become outcasts from the flock. At one point, one of the outcasts with a broken wing was miraculously healed. At another point, one of the outcast flies directly into a cliff, died, and then woke up to the amazement of the flock. As a result Jonathan gained a reputation as being a miracle worker, some seeing him as a god and some seeing him as evil. But he saw himself only as a teacher. His primary teaching was that "Any rules that stand against our true nature of Freedom must be set aside, whether they are rituals, superstition or limitations of any form." He told them that the only difference between himself and others was that that he understood the true nature of being a seagull and operated from that knowing.

When Jonathan felt he had done all he could, he left the flock in charge of Fletcher, his first student, and he disappeared in the Light.

Commentary
If there was ever a good story about leadership, this is it. There are many different kinds of leadership. Political leadership, for example, is simply a matter of getting out front, assuming power, and leading people in the direction they are already going. It is really more about power than leadership. A political leader is usually the reflection of the mass consciousness of the people.

Jonathan represented a different kind of leadership. He was directed from within, not by the consciousness of the flock. His life and actions point to a different, higher option. This is generally reflected in true spiritual leaders or political/spiritual leaders such as Ghandi, who were directed from within.

Wherever we are in life and whatever level of leadership we have to offer, I think it is important for us to be inner directed by the highest and best part of ourselves. When this is done, you are simply true to yourself and your highest knowing. You don't try to become a leader or assume power for ego reasons. You simply 'live your truth' and in so doing, you become a living example of self-fulfillment. Such people are rare and others aspire to be like them or to learn from them. These become the true leaders who inspire us out of mediocrity and our personal prisons and into greatness and becoming all we can become. That is the message that Jonathan tried to convey.

Awaken The Giant Within

I have heard that to really master or comprehend the material in a book, one must read at least six times. I can easily believe this. I read Awaken The Giant Within nearly ten years ago. And yet, when I read it again just recently, I realized how much I still have to learn.

Robbins points out that in order to tap into the potential we all have, we must raise our standards, change our limiting believes and change our strategies. The biggest thing which holds us back is the image we have of ourselves. Our beliefs are like a wall. We can never go farther than what our beliefs consider possible, and this is because of our self-image. So first we must raise our standards or broaden our belief as to what we consider possible. We can no further than the limit of the goals we set for ourselves, and the goals we set are based on our belief in what we really think is possible. And this, in turn is based on our self-image, or who we think we are.

There are many stories of poor people who suddenly become rich and within a short time they are poor again. Unless we can change our self-image and "Awaken the Giant Within" we are doomed to slavery of our past. Fortunately there is a way out of this, and the "way out" is the "way in" or the way within.

It is coming to understand ourselves, our strengths and weakness, and learning to work with these to use them for making the changes necessary in our life to reach our goals, whether they be personal, physical, mental, social or spiritual.

Robbins holds that to bring about this change requires that we gain mastery in five primary areas of our lives: physical, emotional, relationships, financial and time. If we are weak in any of these areas, we will be out of balance and won't be able to reach our full potential.

Everything we are experiencing in the present is the result of decisions we have made in the past and the decisions we make today are creating our future.

Like many people, I once thought I was the victim of circumstances or the conditions I found myself in. It took me a long time to see how my decisions (or lack of decision) had created my circumstances. It took even longer to understand that my decisions were the result of my beliefs and attitude. Let me explain.

There is the proverbial story of the partial glass of water. One man sees it as half full while the other sees it as half empty. And yet it is the same. Each man has decided to focus on one aspect or the other based on his beliefs and his past experience.

I have found this true in my own life. Experience or situations and conditions in life are ultimately neutral. I give them meaning by what I decide to focus on and how I decide to interpret the situation or events. Recently I lost my wallet, along with my ID, my drivers license and my credit card. Once I got home and discovered I had lost it, I called the businesses I had visited after I last remembered using it. But no one had seen it. Then I sat down to meditate and calm my mind and to see if I could remember what might have happened. I couldn't, but I did start thinking how fortunate that I was to have credit good enough to have a credit card; how fortunately I was to have a car to drive and a drivers license to lose. I remembered how most people in the world don't have either of these and how fortunate I am. Then I started thinking about all the things I have to be grateful for and I went into a very deep state of gratitude for all the blessings in my life.

At that point the phone rang. It was the last store I had visited. One of the customers had just turned in my wallet and everything was still in it, including the money. Was it only coincidental? Did you deep gratitude and joy cause this to happen? I really don't know. But I do believe in frequencies. When we create certain frequencies in our lives we draw to ourselves people, situations and circumstances that are on a similar frequency. This is what is meant by the saying "What You Think About, You Bring About" or "As a man thinketh, so is he." It really isn't the belief or thought itself but the frequency you create by having the same thoughts, beliefs and attitudes repeatedly. Now I admit that I don't always remember to go to the highest frequency in challenging situations, as I did that time. But when I do focus on the positive, I notice that I tend to draw more of that into my life.

Our decisions are not made in a vacuum. They are made within a mental framework based on our core beliefs, our values, our past experience and the questions we ask ourselves.

If I believe that people are basically good, I will always be looking for the good in them. If I believe that human nature is fundamentally evil and people are basically bad, then I will always be look for their faults and always fearful and seeking to protect myself or judgmental and constantly criticizing. I am not saying that either perspective is "right" or "wrong." I am only saying that when I our beliefs become strong enough to create a certain frequency in our lives, they will create our experience.

It could reasonably be said that both perspectives on human nature are true (another belief). In this case, what we experience will depend on which part we decide to focus out attention on.

So the question I have for myself is this. Is there a recent experience in my life that I found unpleasant and consider "bad" that I could look at differently by changing my focus? Can I look at that experience as valuable curriculum for personal growth instead of blaming others who were involved and could I bring my self to actually thank them for helping me to grow deeper in my understanding? It is my decision.

Robbins goes on to say that there really isn't such a thing as failure. There are only results. We give those results meaning by defining them as success or failure. The important thing is not the definition that we give them but that we decide to use the results to our own benefit. So, for example, what might be considered "failure" could also be seen as a valuable lesson which helps us to grow and learn.

There are three kinds of decisions which really control our lives. The first is what we decide to focus on. Whatever we focus on (the positive or negative, for example) will determine the meaning we give to it. This is the second decision: what meaning we decide to give to an experience or situation. The third decision is what we decide to do about the situation. In other words, what will we do to create the kind of results we desire.

So the first decision determines what we see in the first place. The second decision determines the meaning we give to it and the third decision determines what we will do about it. These three create the framework for our ongoing experience in the world.

So what really determines what we see, how we see it and how we respond? The framework for each of these decisions is based on our core beliefs, our personal values, our past experience (references) and the questions we habitually ask ourselves. So our decisions are not made in a vacuum. They are made within a mental framework based on our core beliefs, our values, our past experience and the questions we ask ourselves.

In chapter three, Robbins reminds us that we actually make decisions based not on reality but on our perception of reality. In other words, we make decisions based on our belief about things, and these beliefs are the product of our experiences, our values, etc.

The two primary forces which shape our lives are pain and pleasure. All biological creatures have a tendency to move away from pain and toward pleasure, including humans.

While pain is uncomfortable it can be our greatest friend. It is a messenger that something isn't right; something needs to be changed. When we figure out that message and make the necessary change the pain goes away. This is true whether we are talking about physical pain, emotional pain, financial pain, relationship pain or the collective pain of a social group. It is said that "if you keep on doing what you have always done, you will keep on getting what you have always gotten." Most of us operate unconsciously until pain comes in and disrupts our behavior pattern. Pain calls us to be conscious, to consider that something isn't working. Is it our behavior? Our beliefs? Our values? Our decisions? What we are deciding to focus on?

Pain, whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, calls us to live more consciously. When we are confronted with a decision, we should ask ourselves; "which direction will bring more pain and more pleasure? But when we do this, it is critical to see that some decisions may bring short term pleasure but long term pain -- or short term pain but long term pleasure. Once we become aware we can more consciously choose the kind of future we want, both individually and collectively.

If you were to speak with dictators, politicians or "terrorists" who have caused unbelievable human suffering with their decisions, you might be surprised to find that most don't see themselves as evil. To the contrary they often see themselves as heroic defenders of freedom, righteousness, justice, martyrs or the benevolent "father of their people."

The decisions these people make is based on their perception of "reality" which in turn is based on their beliefs, self-image, past experiences and values. Does this make them right? Certainly not in our minds. But their decisions are based on their perception of reality.

Two good examples of this are George Bush and Osama Ben Laden. For some, Bush is a great leader of democracy who is standing up to the "axis of evil." For many others he is a war criminal who has brought destruction and immense human suffering to the people of the Mideast. To some, Osama Ben Laden is a heroic freedom fighter for the Arabic and Islamic world. To others, he is a terrorist. The list of such examples could go on and on. The main point here is that it is all a matter of perception, based on our beliefs. These form the foundation of our action. And the most important belief is the one we hold about ourselves.

In Chapter four, Robbins goes into more detail about the power of our beliefs. He contends that they have the power to create and the power to destroy. It is not the events of our lives that shape us but our beliefs as to what those events mean and how we interpret them. Most of our beliefs are generalizations about our past, based on our interpretations of painful and pleasurable experiences. Our interpretation of an event or experience can create a core belief that can either save or destroy us.

There are personal beliefs and global beliefs. Global beliefs are those core beliefs we have about our identities, people, time, money, life, etc. They go like this: "Life is...." "I am....." 'People are..." A belief is a feeling of certainty Whether it is an idea or belief depends on the level of certainty we have about it. Beliefs are based on supportive ideas. You can find support or references for any belief, based on what you decide to focus on.

We should look at each of our beliefs. Does a particular belief empower or disempower you? Where did these beliefs originate? They usually develop out of past experiences, other people, books, your imagination. He refers to these as 'references.'

Our beliefs change over time, base on our experience and what we learn from many different sources. The important thing, says Robbins, is not to simply judge a belief as right or wrong, but to look at it closely and which whether it is empowering or disempowering you. What is the cost of this belief; emotionally, physically, financially and to your relationships? The other thing is to find others who embrace this belief. Is it working for them? Is it producing the kind of results in their life that you wish to produce in yours?

Everything hinges on our beliefs. How we interpret our experiences or events, our attitudes, everything. Most of our beliefs are based on our past experience and how we interpret those experiences. Our interpretations created core beliefs which define how we see and experience the future.

Our beliefs are feelings of certainty based on "references," these references are like the legs of a table they support the belief. The references may be past experiences, other peoples beliefs, books, even our imagination. I have found many times I have made relationship decisions based on a belief that turned out to simply be a fantasy in my mind. How many of us have done that?

Some of our most important decisions are products of our self image; beliefs about who we are and who we are not; what we can and cannot do. More often than not these beliefs are products of our imagination and too often they are also disempowering. Sometimes it takes someone else to believe in us before we can believe in ourselves.

We all have "belief barriers." We cannot go beyond these barriers until we have expanded our beliefs and we often share these beliefs as if they were real. For hundreds of years people believed that a human being couldn't run faster than the 4 minute mile. Then in 1954 one man broke the 4 minute mile belief barrier by running faster than that. Within a year, 37 others had also broken the 4 minute mile limit. It only took one man to show that the 4 minute mile limit was not a true limit but only a belief that everyone shared. How many other "belief barriers" do we have in our personal lives. What IS our real potential? This is the difference between leaders and followers; For the leaders the past does have to equal the future.

Are beliefs bad? Of course not. But there are beliefs which empower us and beliefs which disempower us. Empowering beliefs can give you he absolutely sense of certainty which can cause you to accomplish anything, including those things that other people think are impossible.

Beliefs come in two varieties: empower and disempowering. It is our decision as to which we choose to use in building our future.

Beliefs & Leadership: The difference between leaders and followers is that for the leader, the past doesn't equal the future. All great leaders, all people who have achieved success in any area of life, know the power of continuously pursuing their dreams. If you develop the absolute sense of certainty that powerful beliefs provide, then you can get yourself to accomplish virtually anything, including those things that other people are certain are impossible.

The author speaks a great deal about the importance o feelings. He says that ultimately, what each of us wants is to feel good. That is the ultimate goal. Everything else is only a vehicle to get us to that place. What we do however, is to place conditions on how we will feel. In other words, we think such things as "I will feel good when..... "The 'when' usually has something to do with an event or a possession. In other words, we are only willing to allow ourselves to feel good when something happens or when we get something material. The truth is, as long as we structure our lives in a way where our happiness is dependent upon something we cannot control, then we will experience pain.

However, he reminds us that all feelings are available to us at all times. We decide how we are going to feel about a particular event or situation. It is not determined by others. Of course this is much easier said than done. So how do we change the way we feel? The first step is to decide what we will focus on. We all live with a constant set of options as to what we could focus our attention on. Like a television, we can choose which channel to watch. There are comedy channels, horror channels, and many others. We decide which to watch. Most of us would not choose to return to see an awful movie, but how often do we return to the awful movies in our head? We can change how we feel in an instant by changing our focus.

He also uses the metaphor of a camera. A camera lens is not large enough to see everything at once. It can only focus on one thing at a time. The picture it gets will only be a reflection of a small portion of the whole and what that picture will be will be dependent on where we decide to focus our attention. Our minds are also like this. We see what we decide to focus our attention on.

Not only do we see what we focus our attention on, but our lives tend to move on that direction as well. For this reason it is extremely important to focus on what we want and not what we fear. We should focus on solutions and not on problems.

It's not the events that shape our lives or determine how we feel and act, but rather it is the way we interpret and evaluate these experiences.

So what determines what we focus on? It is the questions we ask. Our Questions define our lives. For example when something "bad" happens we can ask: "Why did this happen to me?" or we can ask "How can I use this to my benefit?" But it isn't only the questions we Ask, but also the questions that we fail to ask. Questions concentrate our focus and determine what we feel and do. The Questions we ask ourselves can shape our perceptions of who we are, what we are capable of and what we are willing to do to achieve our dream.

In chapters nine and ten, Robbins talks about the importance of our vocabulary and the metaphors. The words we use to describe our experience actually defines our experience. He suggests that we look at our words very carefully and chose words that are transformational rather than words or cliches which keep us locked into old behavior patterns. For example, instead of saying "I am sick and tired of......" one can say "I'm a bit frustrated with...," or even better "this situation has really presented a challenge for me....." Instead of describing something as a "problem" you can call it a challenge, etc.

The metaphors we use are as powerful as the vocabulary we use. Our metaphors define how we see a life, a person, a set of people, a situation, etc. We use metaphors to represent things to ourselves. He suggests that we look at the metaphors of all the major or important areas of our lives and choose to use them or change them according to how they serve or empower us. This includes such areas as life itself, relationships, our bodies, family, men, women, etc. For example, the person who sees life as "an adventure" will have a very different perspective than one who sees it as "a vale of tears."

In Chapter eleven, the author talks about the power of emotions. Emotions play a number of different roles in our lives. Among other things, emotions are messengers and it is very important to pay attention to them and to the message they are giving us. What are our emotions trying to tell us? So first we must identify exactly what or how we are feeling. Then we should look for the message that this emotion is offering us. They are also action signals. If we feel bad, it is usually because something is not right in our lives. What is it? Why is it? What can we do to change it? These are the kinds of questions negative emotions raise. They are signals that we need to do something different. He points out ten different emotions which he refers to as action signals: fear, discomfort, hurt, anger, frustration, disappointment, guilt, inadequacy, overwhelm, loneliness. There may be many more but these are the primary ones.

Robbins goes on to say, in chapter twelve, that to create the kind of future we want, we must have goals. Goals focus our intention and create an inner commitment. We should have goals for each area of our life. These include personal development goals, career and business goals, leisure time goals, material goals, and contribution goals, or what we want to contribute to the world. At some point we must decide whether we are willing to settle for simply "making a living" or "designing a life."

As we move forward toward designing the kind of life we want, it is important to look closely at our thinking patterns. The kind of thinking that has gotten us to where we are will only take us further along the same path. If we are happy with our present circumstances, then our present thinking pattern, thoughts, beliefs and attitude are serving us well. If we are not happy with our present circumstances it is critical that we understand we must change our minds (attitude, beliefs, thinking pattern) if we wish to change our lives. Put simply, a new level of thinking is required in order to experience a new level of success. A good beginning point for change is to change our focus. To be successful, we should never spend over 10% of our time on a problem. We should be spending at least 90% of our time on solutions.

To create a new mental pattern, he suggests four rules to follow for ten days.
* Refuse to dwell on unresourceful thoughts and feelings
* Focus on solutions instead of problems
* Redirect your focus to empowering questions
* If you fall into negativity for a whole day, start over again

Doing this will have several important effects. It will make you acutely aware of your habitual mental patterns. I will make your brain search for empowering alternatives. It will inspire confidence born of success and it will help you create new habits, standards & expectations.

In chapter fourteen he reminds us that we all have an unconscious procedure we go through in order to determine what a situation or event means to us and what we need to do about it. There are five elements which influence our evaluation. They are:

1. Our mental/emotional state at the moment
2. The questions we ask
3. Our hierarchy of values (move toward and move away values)
4. Global beliefs (our rules about what has to happen for us to feel good)
5. Reference experiences

A single shift in one of the five elements of he master system will powerfully affect the way we think, feel and behave in multiple areas of our life simultaneously. Working with these allows us to eliminate the cause instead of exhausting ourselves fighting the effects.

Each of us has what Robbins calls a "personal compass." These are our life values which unconsciously guide us to our ultimate destiny. What is a value? It is anything we value or hold dear. He divides these into two categories: ends and means. The ultimate end value for most people is to be happy or to feel good. The means to this varies from person to person, but some common ones are love, money, personal fulfillment, harmonious relationships, etc.

While many people may share the same value, they may have very different priorities. Money, for example, is a necessity of life. For some people it is by far the number one value in their life. Money might represent power, prestige, freedom, security, etc. For others, money is only a necessity with very little importance beyond taking care of basic needs. The same is true for cars. For some people a car is primarily a symbol that represents who they are. For others, it is merely a vehicle of transportation. The important thing in all of this is to be very conscious or aware of what our ultimate value is. Too often we become so busy pursuing means values that we don't even look at ends values. Our hierarchy of values (what we value most) controls the way we make our decisions each moment.

How do we discover our own personal compass? The best way is to make a list of what's most important to us in life and to list these in order of priority. These make up our personal compass. These values give direction to our life. Do we want to change our life is some way? If so, are we willing to change our order of values? So we need to consider several important questions:

1. Are my current values (personal compass) taking me in the direction that I want to go?
2. Does a particular value bring me more pain or more pleasure? Is it empowering or disempowering me?
3. Are there values which should be added, removed or re-priortized on my list to take me where I want to go?

He concludes by saying that it is not only important to understand our own hierarchy of values, it is equally important to know the values of the persons we are in a relationship or business with. This gives us an understanding of their inner compass and insight into their decision making.

Rules (chapter sixteen) are very similar to values. Each of us have rules. These are our beliefs about what is good and what is bad; what we should do and what we must do. Do your rules serve you? Are your rules empowering or disempowering? He points out three different situations in which a rule might be disempowering.

1. It's disempowering if it's impossible to meet.
2. It's disempowering if it's something you can't control.
3. It's disempowering if it gives you only a few ways to feel good and lots of ways to feel bad.

Our rules determine everything: where we go, what we wear, who we are, what's acceptable to us, who we have as friends and whether we are happy or sad in virtually any situation. At the base of every emotional upset we have ever had with another human being is a rules upset. It is because they didn't live up to our "rule" or expectation. However, when we are angry or upset with someone, it is important to remember that it is our own rules that are upsetting us, NOT their behavior. Then we must ask: What's more important? My relationship or my rules?

Are rules bad? Of course not. We all have them and they are an important part of our lives. The important thing is to be conscious of them and to see if they are serving our best interest. Some of the rules that served us in one stage of our life, may in fact work against us in another stage of life. So the important thing is to evaluate these closely and live consciously.

One of the things I have noticed, for example, in many traditional societies, is the value of family verses the desire for personal improvement. A young person may have a deep desire for personal fulfillment via education, a fulfilling romantic relationship, travel, etc., but there is a very firm rule about fidelity to the family and culture and the expectations which both have. This creates a value or rule conflict which can be very disempowering until the individual decides on his or her priorities and the outcome of each potential direction.

Much of what we believe about the world and about ourselves is based on our experiences of the past -- and not only personal experiences, but the experiences of our culture, religion, country, etc. Robbins calls these 'references' and says that they are the 'fabric of life." References are all the experiences of our life that we've recorded within our nervous system; everything we've ever seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelled -- stored away in the giant filing cabinet of our brain. These experiences are the fabric from which our core beliefs and values are cut. They are the building blocks for our beliefs, rules and values. Our reference experiences are charged with certain emotions, feelings & sensations we have stored.

Having said this, however, he goes on to say that it's not really our reference experiences as much as it is our interpretation of them, the way we organize them, that determines our beliefs. How we interpret & organize these references determines our beliefs/values and these become the lens through which we view and experience life. This being true, then when we expand our references (experiences), we will immediately expand our lives.

In chapter eighteen he goes on to talk about Identity. He contends that we can never be more than who we identify ourselves as. Our belief about ourselves is what we use to define ourselves; who we are and who we are not; what we can do and what we cannot do, etc. Our actions, even our efforts, will be a reflection of and consistent with our view of who we truly are, whether that view is accurate or not. We have an inner drive to be consistent with our self-image.

Have you tried to change your life and failed to do so again and again? Perhaps you were trying to create a behavioral or emotional shift that was inconsistent with you belief about who you are. And what is your identity? It is nothing more than the decisions you've made about who you are, the label you give yourself. Whatever you call your identity is simply what you've decided to identify with.

If you are happy, fine. If you are not, change IS possible. By changing your questions you change your focus. Changing your focus can your life.

Summary
Each of us are prisoners. We are prisoners of our personal and our collective history. I am a prisoner of my beliefs, my self-image, my attitude, and, to a lesser extent, my culture. I can go no further than the limit of my beliefs about the world, my personal circumstances, my abilities and my attitude. At the same time, each of these can be a vehicle for carrying me to great heights of achievement and to liberation. Why? Because I am not the victim of my beliefs. I may be a prisoner, but I also have the key to liberate myself and become something much greater. And what is that key? It is "consciousness" or awareness. Once I become conscious or aware of the things in my life that limit me, I have the ability to change them. Once I become aware -- and motivated - I can analyze my beliefs, my attitude, my self image, and see how these either serve me or imprison me. It's all a matter of awareness. This books gives me the tools to do that. It shows me how the questions I ask myself, what I focus my attention on, my vocabulary, the references or past experiences I use to give things meaning determine the decisions I make and how those decisions determine my experience in life. This is a really a text book for personal success.

Like everyone, I have had many challenges in life. Some of them have been financial, some have been in relationships, some have been physical. Over the course of a lifetime, I have grown in self-awareness. My beliefs have expanded as I have been exposed to other people, other cultures, other religions, other ideas. I have sorted out those things which served and empowered me and those things which did not. Sometimes this growth has been painful, but it has been valuable. I have come to see that I am not only a prisoner, but I am also the warden. I hold the key to unlocking the door to freedom. Have I 'arrived?' No. I am still a student. I will always be a student. I will always be growing and learning and changing. To me, that is a part of the purpose of life. I am grateful to have books such as this one and others like it which help me to become more aware and more conscious of how I can design the kind of life I want. I believe with all my heart that it is more important to light a small candle than to curse the darkness. This books shows me how to do that. This little candle is my own life. It is the only one that I can truly light.

As Anthony Robbins says "All of the worlds problems are the result of actions that people have chosen to take. So if people created them, people can solve them. We may not be able to control our outer world, but we can control our inner world. Only we can decide what things means to us and what to do about them. The only limit to our impact in the world is our imagination and commitment.

The Magic Of Thinking Big
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver

The Magic of Thinking Big is one of the first personal development books that I read many years ago when I began my self-improvement journey. Reading it again, after so many years, was interesting. It reminded me of how much progress I have made over the years by employing the MTB principles and it also reminded me that I still have lots to learn -- or at lest to put into practice.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand the basic principles it teaches are excellent and, for the most part, universal to becoming successful in any endeavor. On the other hand, the examples he uses to illustrate these principles are very cultural and time bound to the USA business world of the 1950s. If you are a businessman, and especially a salesman, living in the USA, these examples are great. However, they may not be so relevant if you are a young adult in another part of the world and not involved in the business world. Reading this book has reminded me of the importance of finding curriculum that teaches the same principles but is more relevant to contemporary global culture.

Chapter One speaks about how your belief determines your success. It reminded me of how often I have 'settled for less' when perhaps it wasn't necessary. I place a high value on frugality; accomplishing a great deal with very few resources. Also, because of my simply lifestyle, I have been called a 'minimalist.' I have realize that I have taken a certain personal pride in this. This chapter reminded me that all of my limits begin with my limited thinking.

Chapter Two is about excuses, on of the thing which really blocks success. I had to look closely at my life to see where I make excuses. The examples he gave were good but I didn't relate to most of them. I'm a "go-getter." I don't tend to make excuses or procrastinate.

Chapter Three is about fear and confidence. Most people see me as a very confident person and, for the most part, I am. But I have not always been this way. It has been a long journey. I am very confident in the area of work. I assume I can accomplish anything I set out to do. However this chapter reminded me that I am less confident in relationships, especially large groups. I realize that I have some personal work To do in this area to overcome some fear in being the first to speak and greet in public situations and large groups.

Chapter Four talks about how to think big and the importance of the pictures we hold in our mind and the words we use. It was a good reminder to me and it also helped me to see that I have indeed come a long way since I first read this book. I am basically very positive and I tend to see what is possible rather than was is current. I also tend to focus on the big picture rather than the petty or trivial.

Chapter Five is supposedly about creative thinking; but in fact it is about much more. It is really about breaking barriers in our thinking. Most creative innovations have been the result of putting two unrelated things together to come up with something entirely new. I actually have a habit of doing this, much to the amusement of my friends. I enjoy experimenting and trying new things. However this chapter did speak to me because, like everyone, I fall into habitual thinking and routine. Sometimes I force myself to break these routines just to gain a new or different perspective on things. I am fascinated by the creative way people have found to make money. Recently while visiting another city, a young man and his friend had teamed up to offer something different to tourists visiting the historic part of the city. One was dressed up as batman and the other was taking polariod photos of the tourist posed with batman.

Chapter Six is titled "You Are What You Think You Are." Over the course of my life I have really found this to be true. There was a time, much earlier in life, when my self esteem was not too high. I have noticed that others tend to regard me very similar to how I regard myself. Our attitude about ourselves, our self esteem, etc., creates a frequency which affects the way we carry ourselves. Our level of self-confidence is visible in our posture, our voice, etc., and others react to us accordingly. The author suggests doing a personal audit and honestly looking at all our assess; physically, personality, etc., and to focus on these, rather than our liabilities. Too often we have trained ourselves to be self-critical and always looking at our faults. This locks us into a negative self image that is hard to escape.

Chapter Seven. While I understand the ideas the author is promoting here and the fact they are valid for a certain segment of the population, I realize that I have a lot of difficulty with most of his examples. Essentially he suggests that we associate ourselves with positive and successful ideas, thoughts and people which will help elevate our minds, thoughts and lives. I agree with this. However, the whole focus of his book is to become "successful" as defined by corporate America. Since I don't accept that definition, I have some problems with his examples.

Chapter Eight is about making attitudes your ally in life and again he stresses the importance of focusing on the positive and especially on appreciation and showing attention to others. In reading this chapter I was reminded of a friend who is always talking about herself; her activities & her accomplishments. It actually seems like she really has a poor self image or is constantly seeking the approval of others by talking about herself. This has caused me to take a close look at myself to see where, with certain people especially, I have either a special need for approval or even a sense of competition and am trying to inspire envy.

Chapter Nine. The ideas he writes about in this chapter are not new but they are still valuable reminders. I was particularly struck by this statement that the person who does the most talking and the person who is most successful is seldom the same person. He also mentions that our minds have two primary broadcasting stations. He calls these channel P and channel N for positive and negative. Recognizing this has helped me to monitor my thoughts to see which channel I'm on. Like most people, I switch back and fourth. The challenge is to gradually manage my thoughts so that I am primarily using channel P.

Chapter 10. The essence of this chapter is about taking action and not procrastinating. I tend to be very action oriented in work related matters. In personal matters I can sometimes be lazy and have to force myself to take action. Some of the things he mentioned were good reminders.

Chapter 11. In this chapter he talks about how to turn defeat into victory. While I understand what he is trying o say and the point are well taken, I really don't see 'failures." For me everything is simply 'curriculum' for personal growth. Whether or now we succeed in something we are doing, there is always the opportunity to learn. With that attitude we are always successful.

Chapter 12 is about goals; setting and reaching them and the things which sabotage them. Each of us have certain lessons in life which are unique to us. I have always been a goal setter and very focused and structured in reaching them. In the conventional world this is a valuable asses to success as commonly defined. But a one point I realized that one of my lessons in life was to be less structured, less goal oriented, less 'doing' and more 'being.' So, while this chapter was interesting, I didn't find it personally that helpful.

Chapter 13 is about how to think like a leader. This was interesting in that I found that I am already doing naturally the things he writes about; things such as seeing the world through other peoples eyes, being very personal in relating to others and spending a great deal of time with myself and listening to my own inner Guidance.

Conclusion
In conclusion I would say that most of the principles which the author espouses in this book are good, though elementary. They offer a great foundation for beginners and a good reminder for those who are further along the path of self understanding and self-improvement. These principles make up maybe 25% of the book. The rest are examples taken mainly from the American business community of the 1950s. For this reason I'm not sure that this is an appropriate book for a contemporary international audience.

Change Your Mind, Change Your Life
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver (USA)

Part One - Change Your Mind
This section, divided into four chapters, is all about attitudes and how they shape our lives. The authors speak a great deal about healing attitudes and focus on three areas: (1) death & dying, (2) health and (3) relationships. I personally found the section on relationships as the most helpful since I did not relate as personally to the chapter on death and dying and I was already familiar with the ideas on the impact of our thoughts and attitudes on health.

Although the authors only touched on relationships between people and, to a lesser extent, to animals and the earth, the truth is we are in a relationship with everything, including our bodies, our heath, money, etc. In one sense we can see everything as a relationship.

As I read this section it reminded me of some attitudinal healing I still needed to do. One involved a family member, another involved an organization and the third involved a friend with who I have totally opposite political views. It has been my experience that healing our attitudes or resentments toward those closest to us is often the most difficult. Also, I have found that such healing is a two step process; mental and emotional. I completely agree with and embrace everything the author says. But I find that while I can be in complete mental agreement, clearing the emotional resentment isn't as easy, especially when I feel and injustice has occurred.

I know that each of these situations offer me powerful lessons. The lesson of the first situation is to rise above what appears and take a 'higher view; and see the attack of the other person as an act of pain and a cry for healing. I initially took this higher view and was surprised to later experience outrage and anger in my dreams. My mind could see the bigger picture but my emotions were still angry. Apparently I had dominated my emotions with my mind and had not integrated the two.

The last incident involved a friend who I admired and had know for several years. During the USA invasion of Iraq I found that she totally supported the president and does so even after find out about all the lies we were told. I was shocked by her sense of narrow nationalism. I know that many Americans feel this way but I couldn't imagine this being consistent with everything else I knew about her.

This situation has show me several things. First it has shown me how narrow minded I am politically while being very open minded otherwise. Though I don't see her as narrow minded, I see the political party she supports as being controlled by narrow, extreme right wing and myopic politicians. So this has definitely shown me that I have some attitudinal healing to do!

Part Two - Change Your Life

This section is divided into nine chapters with each chapter except the first one devoted to specific areas of life such as education, the physical body, sports, law, health, business, aging and peace. Obviously there are innumerable areas of life to which the principles of attitudinal healing could be applied. I think perhaps the authors chose these because they are the areas in which he had the most experience and examples to draw from.

Like much of my reading for Level One, the ideas are more of reminders than new information since I have been familiar with these ideas for more than 20 years. However, it is one thing to know about ideas and a completely different thing to fully incorporate them into your life. So though the information is not new, it is a constant reminder of the gap between the ideas and the practice.

I think one of the biggest questions I have is how to implement some of the ideas presented. I would like to find more information on this. For example the whole emphasis is on forgiveness. I understand and accept this but as I explained earlier, it is one thing to change our mind but something else entirely to release negative emotions. How do we know that we have really released a feeling and aren't simply denying it or surprising it? To answer my own questions I suppose it is when we reach the point that the though of a situation or incident no longer carries any negative energy or 'charge' for us. In the best possible situation we wouldn't even remember it.

I'm not thinking of several examples in my own life. One of the most painful and negative things which I experienced was in 1979. It included a job loss in which I felt a great injustice had occurred. Even though I still believe that from the view of the 'small picture' a great injustice did occur, I can also see that from the bigger picture how I unconsciously created the situation and how much it has benefited my life and understanding.

Perhaps anger and resentment, which are products of the ego, simply need time to heal. This is an interesting point since this book is about attitudinal healing. When an injury or illness begins to heal it really represents only a turning point from getting worse to getting better. It is usually a process.

So maybe the same with our mind and attitudes. Once we change our thoughts and attitudes we only begin the healing process (forgiveness). The pain we feel may continue for a while during the healing process. I think I know understand. Perhaps I have been too hard on myself and expected instant change instead of recognizing it as a process.

At this point I would like to depart from what the book teaches and take it another step. Forgiveness is based on the idea of guilt -- that someone did something wrong. There is another perspective which I tend to believe; that is that everyone is an actor in our drama and that, symbolically speaking, we hire them to play in our drama. The whole purpose of the drama of life is to be curriculum for personal growth; to learn, grow and evolve. In this system of thinking our soul or higher self is constantly up opportunities (challenges) for us to learn more about ourselves and especially those areas in need of "healing' or at least 'educating.' This is actually the understanding of the higher self or soul-self. It is only the ego self that sees blame, guilt, etc., which needs forgiveness. If this is true than there really isn't anything to forgive. All we need to do is shift our perspective. This is similar to what the authors are saying (changing perspective) but carries it one level higher.

If this is true, then the transformation of consciousness is really dependent on shifting our consciousness from the 'micro-consciousness' (small picture) perspective of the ego-self to the 'macro-consciousness' (big picture) perspective of the higher self. That shift of perspective changes everything. Suddenly everything changes. We are no longer the judge and jury. Rather, we become the investigator. Instead of judging and condemning, we simply ask 'why?' Why did this happened? What can I learn from this? How can this contribute to my personal evolution and growth? We leave the world of "good & bad" and enter the world of endless possibility for growth, self-understanding and personal empowerment.

But what about human suffering, injustice, etc. Should we ignore them? Of course not. We are actually called to live in multiple realities simultaneously; to be in the world but not of the world. It is as if we are called to fully engage in the ego world of day to day living while remembering who we really are. This of course is our greatest challenge. Even the few people who remember that they are more than the ego-self find it very difficult to maintain an ongoing awareness from the perspective of the higher self. I know that at this point in my life, this is my greatest challenge.

Pulling Your Own Strings
Assessment by Michael Lighweaver (USA)

Part I - Review Of Contents

This book is about taking charge of your life and not allowing other people to run it for you. The author focuses primarily on the idea of 'victimization' and how we allow ourselves to be 'victimized' by others, and what we can do about it. In the ten chapters he goes into detail about all of the circumstances in our lives which may be the source of victimization.

In chapter one the author discusses what it means to be a victim and some of the behaviors which define victimhood. He also discusses typical victims. He defines a victim as one doesn't have control over his/her life, while freedom, he says, is the ability to rule our own life.

He describes the most typical victimizers in our life as a) the family b) the job c) authority figures d) bureaucracies e) clerks and f) ourselves. In this later category he includes our training, our personal history, our values & beliefs, our behavior toward our bodies and our self image.

He goes on to explain in chapter two that it is important to operate from a place of strength. What he is really focusing on here is the importance of overcoming fear and self-doubt. When one is fearful or in self-doubt, one is a prime candidate for victimization.

In chapters 3 & 4 he talks about the kinds of things that others will use in their attempt to control us. For example, others may try to use the past to put us down. We can't change what has happened and it is important, he says, not to let others use this to victimize or control us. Another common control mechanism is making comparisons. Victimizers often try to compare us or our behavior with someone else. He reminds us to be aware of this and not allow others to use it as a control tool.

We also victimize ourselves, as he points out in chapter 5. One of the ways we do this is trying to impress others. This is a sign of both weakness and lack of self-worth. A self confident person doesn't need to impress others. It is important, he says, not to feel like you have to explain yourself, apologize for yourself, or make yourself responsible for situations or other peoples behavior that is beyond your control.

Ultimately, others will treat us according to how we allow or to teach them to treat us. We are the ones who set the limits and establish the boundaries of what is and is not acceptable. In chapter 6 he describes several ways to teach others how to treat us with respect.

The author devotes chapter 7 to institutions as victimizers. He describes the kinds of victim behaviors that people adopt within institutions, the most common victimizing games that institutions play and strategies for eliminating these.

One of the best chapters is number 8 where he describes how we victimize ourselves with our attitudes and beliefs. He contends that we seldom deal with reality - things as they really are. More often than not we victimize ourselves with our own judgments, not only about ourselves, but about circumstances and situations which occur in life.

In chapter 9 he goes into some detail about creative ways to deal with victimizing situations and in the last chapter he offers a survey of 100 questions to help the read determine the degree to which he/she plays the victim.

Part II - Personal Impact

This wasn't one of my favorite books and very little of the information was new to me. However I will admit that much of it served as a good reminder of things I already knew.

This book would have meant a great deal to me when I was in my 20's. I had much more of a victim mentality then than I do know. At that age I did not have the self-confidence and tried far to hard to please others and to do whatever was necessary to make myself more acceptable.

There are very few circumstances in my life today where I am victimized by other people or outer circumstances. However, one of the things this book has helped me to see is how I am still very much the victim of my self. He mentioned five different way in which we victimize ourselves. I could relate to all of them but in particularly to the one about 'personal history' and the one about self-portrait or self-image. I believe that all of us are victims of these two to some extent.

My personal history and past experiences colors and conditions my expectations in the present and for the future. My past experience is the 'lens' through which I see the present and anticipate the future. These expectations are like a fence beyond which I cannot move. For example, if I allow a broken heart in the past (or any experience) to cause me to fear to ever love again, then I have become the victim of my personal history.

The same is true about self-image. If I tell myself over and over again that I am not good at something, this becomes a part of my belief of who I am and I become a prisoner or victim of my belief or self-image. This book has helped me to look at which of my self-image beliefs are self-defeating, where they originated, whether they are really true and how I might eliminate them.

This book has also reminded me is that people will generally treat me just about how I demand to be treated. And how I insist on being treated is a reflection of how I really feel about myself. Where there is utter self-confidence and a sense of self worth, there is strength which others pick up on and treat me accordingly. One of the most interesting things I have learned from this chapter is the to look closely at the payoffs I might be getting from being or acting weak. That was an eye-opener!

Part III - Summary
In summary I would say that this book has helped me to see how far I have come over the years in gaining personal control over my life and really learning to pull my own strings. I can look with some satisfaction at the progress. On the other hand, it has helped me see how far I still have to go, especially in the area of self-victimization with my beliefs and attitudes.

A final comment I would make is that, to some extent, I think the author pushes the reader to sometimes go to almost the opposite extreme which I felt bordered on rudeness or total self-centeredness. None of us are an island. It is important to honor our own needs and rights. But it is also important to realize that we live with others and must also consider them and their needs. It is a continual balancing act of respecting and responding to our own needs without stepping on the rights of others and ignoring their needs.

Psycho-Cybernetics 2000
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver (USA)

1. Discuss the main ideas that you found most important in this book and discuss why they were important to you.

I read the original PsychoCybernetics book in 1980 and it was one of the turning points in my life. I was very happy to see it updated appropriately for more contemporary readers. As far as I’m concerned, the wisdom in this book is ageless. Even though I had read it many years ago, and the ideas were not really new, they gave me valuable reminders. Regardless how many times we read books such as this, we will always have room for growth.

Here are some of the concepts and ideas that I feel are most important:

“Everyone always acts, feels and behaves in a way that is consistent with their self image, regardless of the reality of that self-image.”

The author explains that our self image is the mental blueprint that we have of ourselves. Both our beliefs and our behavior are determined by this blueprint.

Any image that we hold of our self in any area of our life such as relationships, finances, education, employment, etc., creates a template or blueprint which will set the limits of what we experience.

For example, if we see ourselves as poor it will be impossible for us to experience real wealth. Even if we suddenly won the lottery, we would likely quickly spend or lose the money because our self image is so firm that we are poor. He states that our belief about our self (our self-image) will work unconsciously to bring about those conditions in our outer life which confirm to our inner life and our beliefs about our self.

“Our actions, feelings and behavior are a result of what we imagine to be true. We can change these actions, feelings and behavior by changing our mental pictures. We do this in the “theater of the imagination.”

This is a really interesting idea. What he is saying is that we our actions, feelings and behavior are not necessarily the result of “reality” but of our perception of reality; what we imagine to be true. They are the result of our mental pictures and the mental pictures are the result of our interpretation of what has occurred. The important thing here is that if this is true, then we can change or manage our actions, feelings & behavior (our reactions) by changing our perception or interpretation of an event or situation. The bottom line here is that WE are in charge, based on our perception, rather than the actual circumstances determining our reaction/response.

“We all possess a built-in guidance system that moves us toward the things we think about. If we watch limits instead of destinations, we bump up against those limits.”

It has been said that “what you think about, you bring about.” Most people’s minds are like a boat without a rudder, floating this way and that way, aimlessly. Whether we are floating in a small pond or a great ocean is determined by the limitations we set on our thinking.

He states that the antidote to floating aimlessly is to focus on our goals – i.e. having a clear destination. Having goals gives us both a destination and a rudder for guiding us to that destination.

“Fake it till you make it. An imagined experience is perceived and acted upon by your subconscious mind exactly the same as if it were a real experience.”

When I originally came across this idea in 1980 I found it very difficult. For example, I was in a very low period in my life – everything was going wrong with my relationships, employment, finances, etc. The person who taught me these principles suggested that any time someone asked me how I felt, I would respond “Great!” I started dong this and WOW, I felt like a real fake; a liar. Because that was the opposite of the way I really felt. But after about three months, it begin to change. Every time I said “Great” I was really sending a message to my subconscious mind and, you know what? Everything really did begin to change. I really did start feeling great. It was kind of crazy, because on the outward level, I really didn’t have any good reason to feel great. So, although I was very skeptical at first about this technique and even though it was really hard to do, I stayed with it and it really proved itself true.

The reason it proved true is that the subconscious mind really can’t distinguish between something that is true and something that is strongly imagined. There are many examples of this in real life. Probably the easiest one that most people can understand is the kind of physical reactions we experience during an intense movie or even a dream at night. If it is scary, maybe our heart beats faster, we begin to breathe differently, etc., even though it is only a movie or dream and not ‘real.’

“Identify who owns the problem.”

This is another concept that I learned many years ago, originally from another book called “Parent Effectiveness Training.” When problems arise, it is so important to make a clear and conscious decision as to whether or not you choose to own that problem or whether it belongs to someone else. So much of our stress in life is because we adopt others problems and then get very stress out over them. It is one thing to be understanding, loving and compassionate with others who have problems. It is something else entirely to own the problem yourself.

“Determine what you want to Be, Do & Have.”

He discusses this idea in chapter seven, dealing with goal setting. I find it to be an excellent reference point for setting goals. There are certain things we want to BE, certain things we want to DO and certain things we want to HAVE.

He continues on in chapter nine discussing how to create a blueprint for change. He states that the first step is to be aware that something isn’t working and needs to be changed. This leads to setting a goal.

The three essentials for goal setting are
1. Have a specific goal with specific date for achieving it.
2. Determine how you will measure your progress
3. Develop an action plan.

I think all three of these ideas are really important in creating a workable plan for making change or attaining a goal.

“Listen to your inner dialog.”

This is the last concept that I want to list as really valuable to me. He says that our inner dialog not only tells us what we really think or feel about things, including our self, but our inner dialog also determines what we experience. It is a great way to reveal our innermost thoughts and ideas to ourselves. He suggests that we monitor our inner dialog around specific subjects such as money, relationships, our body (looks), etc.

2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.

I can certainly see how my self-image, coming from a very modest family, has shaped my personal blueprint about money. This is an area that I have had to work on a great deal in this life. The same has been true about self-concept regarding relationships, etc. Now these are mostly negative, or what I consider negative. On the other hand, I have many positive images of myself and these create the boundaries of my life.

3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain.

Well, none of the concepts in this book were really new to me, since I had already read it. However, just because I knew them doesn’t mean that I have totally mastered them. So reading these has been a really good reminder and has helped me to refocus on some of the weaker ones. I think the one I need to look at the closest is my inner dialog, especially related to my body/looks as I age. So mostly, these were all just good reminders.

4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?

Because these ideas aren’t really new to me, I can’t say that they have actually changed my thinking. However, I can say that they have strengthened my thinking, as I mentioned above. They have been really good reminders of what I still need to do in perfecting some of the ideas which were raised.

5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?

Not really. Over the course of the past 25 years I have found these ideas to be practical and that they really work. Ideas are good but experience is the best teacher. My own experience has proven to me that these ideas work.

6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?

The thing I found most helpful in the book was the way he laid it out in brief sections that highlighted each point. It made it easier to read. I also like books like this which give the read a summary of the main ideas at the end of the chapter. I didn’t find the latter chapters as interesting or as pertinent as the earlier ones.

7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.

This book is about the power of the mind and ones self image in shaping ones life and experiences. It includes tools and techniques for personal transformation.

Please Rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10.

A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9

Comments - Feel free to share any additional comments about the book or about the ratings.

Your Sacred Self
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver (USA) 

What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples. 

The main point that the author speaks about throughout the book is leading a soul centered rather than an ego dominate life.  This is probably the most important part of the book for me.  Most of us, myself included, are dominated by the illusions of this third dimension that we live in.  This dimension is dominated by the ego and it's needs.  As we become aware (conscious) we begin to realize that there is more to life than what we have been led to believe by 'consensus reality.”  For example, we are generally taught that More is Better.  Because of this we spend much of our life in the pursuit of “more.” It might be tangible things such as a better education, more material possession, etc., or it might be the intangible things such as more love, more security, etc.  He contends that these are false ego needs.  In a soul centered life which is aware of other realities, this isn't necessarily the case.  In my own life, this is certainly the case.  I find myself continually struggling between the ego need for 'more' and the soul's understanding that - with such a mentality - the more is never really enough.  As soon as we acquire what is desired, then we still want more of whatever. This has caused me to probe deeply into my own life to sort out what is really needed as compared to the constant ego's demands for more. 

Another point he makes is that the ego is always looking outside for it's source of good as well as it's source of frustration.  This leads us to blame others when we don't get what we want in life instead of looking within ourselves and taking personal responsibility for our life and it's current conditions. 

He speaks to this in many different ways.  For example he begins by speaking about becoming self-aware and the things one can expect (he lists 14) in the process of becoming self-aware.  He goes on, in the first chapter, to speak extensively about freedom and how a Spirit centered life leads to freedom.  Although I have, for many years, been aware of this, I am still prone, from time to time, to blame external conditions for my situation in life.  The author reminds us that our outer reality is simply a reflection of our beliefs, attitudes and thoughts - most of which are the product of our ego and it's needs.   

The ego would have us believe that there is only one reality, the physical world, and that we are in a 'dog-eat-dog' world in which only the fittest survive. This creates a continual state of mind (consciousness) of “us versus them” which leads to an unnatural competition and individualism that is the root of all conflict, wars, etc.  Soul-consciousness, on the other hand, brings us to an understanding that we are all part of One Unified Reality - a perspective which is now being understood by the science of quantum physics.  Everything is inter-related.  We are indeed a great hologram in which everything is related to everything else.  This is something that mystics have always known because, for the most par,t they live outside of 'consensus reality.' 

When all of the labels we wear are stripped away, who are we really?  This has always been a big consideration for me.  Like everyone else, my ego teaches me that I am the sum total of all the labels I wear or use to define myself.  These are related to my accomplishments in life, by beliefs, my relationships, my possessions, to name a few.  But when I remove all of these labels, who am I really?  The answer to this is found at a soul level, because the ego does not have an answer. 

One of the ways the author suggests using to find this answer is to “cultivate the witness.”  He says that we each have a part (the Soul) which stands outside of our daily ego dramas.  When we acknowledge and cultivate this 'witness' we can actually step outside of this drama and observe ourselves - or at least that part of ourselves that is still caught up in the daily drama.  I speak of this as the Macro-cosmic (Soul) perspective as compared to the Micro-cosmic (Ego) perspective, or the big picture as compared to the little picture.  When I remember to do this, I have found that my perception of everything changes.  It does indeed, as the author says, “free us from ego bondage.” 

But all of this is easier said than done.  This is most difficult when we are facing challenges.  At such times the ego is it's strongest and we tend to think and respond from the micro-cosmic or ego perspective - especially when our ego needs are threatened.  And yet, it is precisely at those times when we most need to shift our awareness to the big picture and see the situation or challenge from the big picture. 

For me personally, this is a dance.  It seems that - at this point in my life - I go back and forth, shifting from one perspective to another.  I believe that this is a major part of our curriculum for personal growth in life; learning and remembering to take the macro-cosmic / Soul / big picture perspective in life.  

What are the results of such a shift? The author contends that, as we make this shift in our lives, we move from personal chaos to inner peace.  We move from deception to true authenticity.  We move from fear to love.  We move from an emphasis on outward appearances to inner substance.  We move from trying to dominate to learning to appreciate differences, from striving to arrive to realizing that at each moment, we have already arrived. 

Well, I will admit, I am not there in terms of having completely made this shift in my own life.  But I am becoming more and more aware.   

He concludes the book by saying that as individuals change and become more Soul centered and Soul directed, the world changes.  It all begins with us individually.  Too often we have tried to change the world without changing our own ego dominated lives. 

2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc?   Please use personal examples in your explanation. 

From my personal experience, I noticed that the ego is strongest when dealing with relationships.  The ego would have us believe that we own other people, be it our spouses or our children. For many years I was a counselor and much of my counseling dealt with relationships.  This is something I have probed very deeply.  While I feel that I have graduated from this ego demand to own another person, I realize that some of my biggest challenges are still related to relationships, especially those who are closest to me such as family members.  Secondly, I find that I have a very strong ego attachment to my beliefs and ideals.  I can mostly quickly lose my soul-centered perspective when it comes to discussing ideas related to politics or ideas that I feel are destroying our world or perpetuating injustice.  I still have lots of work to do on myself in this area. 

3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain. 

I can't say that there is anything really new that I learned from the book.  It was just a great reminder of a lot of important ideas that I already knew, but haven't necessarily integrated into my life.  It has been said that one needs to read a book at least six times before fully understanding what is being said.  I have come across most of the same ideas in previous books and many of the same ideas are repeated over and over again in different ways in our IIGL curriculum.  But until we have really implemented them in to our lives, they are important to read again and again. 

4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way?  If so, explain how? 

The book hasn't really changed my thinking but it has challenged me.  The challenge has come in the reminders I received.  I need to be continually reminded in different ways of the things which the author writes about until I have really implemented them.  The journey from the head (understanding) to the heart (implementation) is a long one.  We continually need to refer to a good road map to remind us where we are going and how to get there. 

5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with?  If so, why? 

There are two ideas which the author presented that I take issue with. For example, he says that we should abandon goals.  I realize that, in saying this, he is saying that the Soul Centered life is one based on inner Guidance more than outer goals.  Although I do agree with this, I think the discipline of learning to set concrete goals is an important first step in personal growth.  The world is so full of aimless, unconscious people.  There is an irony here.  We start from a place of unconscious aimlessness.  Then we may move to a self-directed life based on goals we have set for ourselves.  But eventually, as we become more soul centered, we may move back into what appears to others as aimlessness - but it is a conscious aimlessness that is actually soul-centered.  We learn that the most important thing in the world is not what we do, but who we are - the 'beingness” of existence. 

The other thing I disagree with is his statement to “banish all doubt.”  Perhaps I misunderstood what he was saying, but for me personally, I think that it is vitally important to question and inquire.  Tyrants and all kinds of human misery has resulted from people following leaders or embracing ideas without question.  I personally believe that healthy skepticism is good.  The bible says “test the spirits.”  To me this means to question, inquire and then decide. The Creator gave us both a left brain and a right brain. The left brain is designed to help us reason and analyze. These are important but we should also use our right brain, or intuition, to feel what is valid and invalid.  Sometimes something sounds right and makes sense, but it doesn't feel right.  So we should use all the faculties the Creator gave us in considering any matter. 

6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book? 

For me, the most helpful thing was the reminder that our ultimate goal is to lead a soul-centered life and where this will lead us, both individually and as a species. 

7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey. 

This book is about moving from an ego-dominated life to a soul-centered life; the pathway for doing this, the pitfalls and the rewards. 

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10.  Ten is good and one is poor. 

A. How interesting was it to read? 7

B. How helpful were the contents? 7

C. How easy was it to understand? 9

D. Would you recommend it to others? 7

E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8 

Success Through Positive Mental Attitude
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver (USA)

1. What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples.

This is one of those books that is full of great ideas and concepts, but, as requested, I will only touch on those which are most important to me.

In Every Seeming Adversity Is The Seed Of An Equal Or Greater Benefit
I came across this idea when I first read this book in 1980 and is was one of the key concepts that led to a big turn around in my life. Until that time it had never occurred to me that there was opportunities hidden in problems and adversity. Like most people, when If faced adversity I felt like a victim. This new idea caused me to become a detective. If it was true that every adversity or problem held a potential opportunity or benefit, I wanted to find it. This one idea was one of the biggest building blocks which help me turn my life around at that time and head in the direction that has brought me where I am today, in a deep state of contentment and happiness.

Inspirational Dissatisfaction
This is an interesting concept that raises a lot of interesting questions. How does one ever really find 'peace' within or without if he or she is continually dissatisfied. I'm not sure that I can really answer this but I feel that I am experiencing it. To be it means that the successful person cannot settle for the mediocre or the rat maze that most people live in, often without questioning. To me, inspirational dissatisfaction means that a person knows at a deep level that there is much more to life than what most people settle for. Such a person will ask hard and deep questions and will not be satisfied with simple, pat answers or platitudes that most people tend to settle for.

PMA Verses NMA
This, of course, is the essence of what the whole book is about; the importance of a positive mental attitude in accomplishing what one wishes to do in life and to be happy. In essence, what this says to me is that everything is a matter of attitude. Our attitude, whether positive or negative, provides us with a lens or set of glasses for seeing and interpreting the world around us. This was another corner stone idea that played a pivotal role in my life during a personal family & career crisis in 1979. I came to see and realize that - as one author puts it - we are just about as happy as we decide to be. I cam to realize that happiness isn't really the result of what happens around us or what we have materially. It is the result of how we interpret the events around us and our place in the world and that this interpretation is based on our attitude, whether positive or negative.

What The Mind Can Conceive & Believe, It Can Achieve
This is another one of those transformational ideas that I learned when I first read this book in 1980. If you have the ability to conceive an idea and if you truly believe it, you can indeed achieve it. It has been almost 30 years now since I first read this book and I can say that I have indeed proved this to be true. I am know among my friends as a master manifestor - one who can get things done. Why? Because I know from experience that if I can create the idea with my mind and if I truly believe it and am willing to put the necessary energy into, I can accomplish it. Jesus said it another way; "he who has the faith of a mustard seed can move mountains."

Magnificent Obsession
What are you living for? One of the things I have noticed is that those who are truly successful in life - in whatever way they define success - are those who have a real passion for something. A good example is Jonathan Livingston Seagull who had a magnificent obsession for flying. All of the other gulls were satisfied with just eating, sleeping, etc... daily routine. They really didn't live for anything. It does appear that most human beings are the same; no passion, no focus, no vision.... But those people who do have a burning passion or magnificent obsession for something, quickly stand out as real leaders.

2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Please use personal examples in your explanation.

As I said, I went into a deep, dark place in my life in 1979. I lost my job, my marriage was on the rocks and I had hit a deep place of fear and despair. It was at that point when I was first introduced to this book and ones like it. I came to understand that I was NOT a victim of circumstances (which I believed). I cam to realize that I had the power to truly change my life and that this power resided in my ATTITUDE. If I wanted to change my life, I had to change my mind. That was the beginning of a whole new life for me.

No, it didn't happen overnight. Old habits (mental or otherwise) don't die in an instant. They can only be replaced with new habits and new ways of thinking and that takes practice, practice, practice. But gradually I did change. Gradually I moved from focusing my attention on what was missing in my life, to focusing on the incredible blessings I had. I moved from feeling sorry for myself to living in a profound state of gratitude.

My circumstances at that point had not changed. Only my attitude and thus my focus. But as my attitude and focus changed, I changed as well. And as I changed within, my external circumstances began to change. That's when I began to realize how very powerful these principles were if people would only use them. Many years later, as I continued to read and study books of a similar nature, I made a commitment to myself that I would one day set up some kind of school which would teach these principles to any person who desired to transform their life and experience greater joy and happiness.

3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain.

Because I had read this book previously, I can't say that I actually learned any new ideas or concepts. However, I was definitely reminded again of the power of the principle concepts in the book and especially those which I have touched on in question #1

4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?

Rereading it has not changed or challenged my thinking at this point in my life. Just an excellent reminder. However, when I first read it, it was a major challenge to my thinking. At that point in my life, my thoughts were very negative. They were negative about my job, my personal relationships and most especially about myself. At that time I thought that my negative feelings were the result of the unpleasant situations in my life. What I didn't realize was that it was the other way around. My unpleasant situations in life were the result of my negative thinking! Wow! For me that was a major lesson. I can't say that I automatically believed it but when I gradually started changing my attitude I did notice that my circumstances change. So eventually I proved these principles to be right.

5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?

I can't say that there was anything specific I disagreed with. My only concern with a book like this is the presentation. The principles and essence are universal, I believe. But it was written in 1960 by an American author and thus, most of the stories and examples date from the USA at that time. Times have changed. It would be good to see a book such as this written from a more modern international perspective that would have greater appeal to today's readers.

6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?

I think the points I wrote about in question one are what I found most helpful in the book and the point I wrote about in question five was the least helpful.

7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.

Attitude is everything! Whether you succeed or fail in life ultimately depends on your attitude. A positive mental attitude is the road that leads to success in any endeavor one undertakes.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10

The Law Of Attraction
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver

1. What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples.

I found this to be a very interesting, valuable and easy to read book. As with many of the books so far, it wasn’t really new information but it was a valuable reminder and was helpful in terms of how the information was arranged. It’s one thing to read a self-help book and it’s quite another thing to complete the exercises and put the principles in to action.

Here are some of the most important ideas

You Are Already Experiencing The Law Of Attraction
This was a very valuable idea because the author showed that the Law of Attraction isn’t something that you need to learn because we are doing it all the time – unconsciously. He gave a number of good examples of how we can identify this at work in our lives. He explained that the law works to create both what you want and what you don’t want, according to your language and your vibration. This was particularly helpful to me in that it caused me to look at the things in my life that I don’t want or the things that I do want that haven’t manifestated yet, and to track them down to my words and and thoughts which might be creating the frequency that is attracting things I don’t want or preventing me from attracting the things that I do want.

The Law of Attraction Has A Scientific Basis
This was very interesting to me because it explained in left-brain, logical terms how and why the law of attraction works. This makes it much easier for me to see this in light of ‘fact’ as compared to ‘opinion’ and thus makes it much easier to accept.

Reality Cycle
I found this four step process of unconscious or non-deliberate attraction very helpful. For example, If I observe that I have a lot of debt the I have a negative feeling about this and this in turn produces a ‘debt frequency.’ The law of attraction responds to this frequency and brings me more of what I’m vibrating at – in this case, debt. It’s a vicious cycle.

The Three Step Formula for Deliberate Attraction
How to break this vicious cycle. That’s what the author addresses with his three step formula of 1) Identifying your desire, 2) Raising your vibration and 3) Allowing. This section was particularly helpful to me as a reminder of the importance of each of these three steps. The exercises he offers toward the end of the book were able to help me clarify some of my own desires and move them through these three steps.

Don’t, Not, No…
This is one of the most important ideas he brings up in the book and one that is so often overlooked by other authors. He explains how important it is to phrase things in the positive instead of the negative because of the way the mind works. The unconsciousness mind doesn’t see or hear ‘no.’ A good example is being told “don’t think of a pink elephant!.” Of course you can’t not think of it without first thinking of it! So it’s always important to focus your attention on what you DO want, and not what you DON’T want. He goes into some detail explaing how to do this.

Clarity Through Contrast
I find this to be another very helpful idea. I says that the best way to be very clear what you do want is to be very clear about what you don’t want. For this reason, every experience, even so called negative or unpleasant ones, offer you an excellent opportunity for contrast and becoming clearer in what you do want. In my own life, I can certainly see this in terms of relationships. This is true with most of us. By being clear about the things we don’t like in our relationships, we can pivot, or turn these around and become quite clear about what we do want.

Allowing
The last point which he makes is the importance of allowing. So often we become very clear about what we want and we start the manifestation process, only to sabotage ourselves with the things we say. Even if such statements are said in jest, they are taken seriously by the subconscious mind. One of my personal challenges (in the past) was my issue of not having enough time. I would tell other people how busy I was, how there was just not enough hours in the day, etc. etc. with lot’s of similar statements. And of course, it because a vicious cycle. My subconscious mind made sure that it was true. Now that has changed and I have plenty of time. But I do have to continually guard or watch what I’m saying to see if it is a reflection of what I deliberately want to create.

2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Please use personal examples in your explanation.

I have already touched on this to some extent in the examples I’ve given above. Certainly relationships and finances are two areas of concern for most people. These are the two areas that I decided to personally work on, using the exercises in the book. For example, I will look back at the challenges I have had in any relationship or the things I have not been pleased with in a relationship and I will use this as a point of contrast to become very clear about what it is that I do want. The same is true with finances. I have become very clear what I don’t want, which has helped me to clarify what I do want. All of this, of course, has helped me to become much more aware of the language I use and the thoughs I have and how these play out in creating my circumstances.

3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain.

As I said, I was already familiar with all of the ideas generally, but the way he explained some things, like the reality cycle, was really helpful. This gave me insight as to what happens at an unconscious level, step-by-step.

Perhaps the most important teaching in this book, and one that sets it aside from many similar type books, is his emphasis on the idea of vibration or frequency. While other books stress the important of one’s thoughts, attitude, beliefs, etc., they seldom talk about frequency. So, for example, a person who has a challenge with finances may begin to change their beliefs about money and begin to articulate the right words of abundance, etc. but if they are still vibrating a ‘poverty mentality’ nothing will really change. This is why he says that affirmations so often don’t work. It’s not just enough to change our words, beliefs or attitudes. We also have to change the frequency we carry.

4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?

Reading this book has renewed my comittment to take personal responsibility for consciously creating what I want. It hasn’t really changed my thinking but it has challenged me.

5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?

While there is nothing that I really disagree with, I will say that I personally believe that there are other factors involved in creating positive change than the ones he brought up in the book. Just as understanding that our words, ideas and beliefs are not enough to create change, that we also need to change our frequency – so I think there are other factors which affect our ability to make changes. Some of these include astrological influences and the curriculum (life experience) that we signed up for before incarnating. I don’t see any of these things as determinants (we have free will) but I do see them as influences that must be taken into consideration.

6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?

The most helpful thing to me, besides being a reminder of what I already knew, was to refocus my attention on deliberate creation. By far the most helpful thing was to actually force me to use the exercises and not just read about the ideas and concepts. Creating an action plan was the most helpful result.

7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.

This book show the reader how he creates every situation and circumstance in his life through the power of his thoughts which creates a vibration that attracts to itself those circumstances, people and situations that are vibrating at a similar frequency, whether positive or negative.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.

A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10

Goal Setting 101
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver (USA)

What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples.

Goal Definition
A goal is an end toward which you direct specific effort.
The three key elements of a goal are:
• An accomplishment to be achieved
• A measurable outcome
• A specific date and time to be accomplished

This was particularly helpful to me. Although I have been involved in goal setting for 30 years, I had never seen this definition of a goal, especially with the three key elements. For me, what was so important were the second two keys. Most people understand that a goal is an desired accomplishment. What many people don’t realize is that it must be measurable and designed to be accomplished within a specific time period.

Mission Statement
A mission statement states your ‘reason for being.’ It is a declaration of who you are, why you exist and what you intend to accomplish.

This was a very important idea to me because I see it as the foundation upon which one builds ones goals. The mission statement should be the focal point which ties all of the goals into a coherent unity of purpose. For example, one should look at each goal and ask oneself whether and how this goal relates to or fulfills the mission statement. If it doesn’t then it is important to either set the goal aside or expand the mission statement. They serve as a kind of checks and balances to each other.

Anatomy Of A Goal
The author describes the three essential elements of a goal are the ‘what, why and how’. The ‘what’ provides the direction, the ‘why’ sets forth the benefits which provides the motivation and the ‘how’ is the map that provides the ‘mile markers’ to measure achievement.

I found this a very helpful framework to look at when creating a goal. It’s easy enough to state what you want. It’s another thing to be clear as to why you want it and to know whether you really want it bad enough to have the motivation to pursue. And then there is the how. Unless you know how (and when) you intend to reach it, then it’s not really complete

Six Goal Setting Questions
• Who will be involved in helping you achieve this goal?
• What is the goal? What specifically do you want to accomplish?
• Where are you now in relationship to this goal?
• How will you accomplish this goal?
• Why do you want to achieve this goal?

I also found this very helpful, especially in the way that suggested that one see it like an interview – asking one’s self these questions. This seems to be a very good way to monitor the goal setting & attainment process.

Put Goals Into Writing
This is one of the primary things that I stress in teaching goal setting or mentoring those involved in the process. I personally believe that this is one of the most important ideas of all. I don’t remember the specifics but many years ago I heard some percentages quoted that showed that those who write their goals down were substantially more likely to accomplish them than those who didn’t

Involving A Team
The author refers to the “buy-in” by which he means getting others to buy into your goal. Another way of saying this is creating a team, whether formal or informal. Many goals can only be accomplish with team work or at least the involvement of others. In this regard, the most important thing I think he brought out was the importance of creating a sense of ownership among those who will be involved. Let me elaborate.

If you are trying to get others involved with a project or a specific goal that you have, there are normally three motivators. The first is financial. If you are paying them then of course, they are going to be involved in helping your reach your goal. A case in point might be sales representatives that you hire. The second motivating factor is the individuals personal commitment to you. They believe in you and are willing to help you reach your goal. The third – and by far I think the best – is the persons commitment to the goal itself. I use the example of the difference between a babysitter and a mother. If you have a baby (goal) you might hire a babysitter to help you or you may have a good friend who simply likes you a lot and is willing to help you look after the baby. But what if something happens to you? When then happens to the baby (goal)? That’s why it is important to find people who are willing to actually adopt the goal as their own. Thus, their motivation is coming from their own personal commitment to the goal itself (as is yours) and not just to you as an individual. I think this is critical and so important in the long run. Of course it is a process…

The author brought up many other interesting points and actions that are important for creating success. One of the ones that struck me the most, however, was the idea of dealing with REALITY instead of the way you wish things were. This is a balancing between idealism and what actually is happening. I think the very best example of this is the challenge George Bush and his team have faced with the war in Iraq. On the surface, at least, it appears that there was a tremendous amount of naivety based on ideology rather than reality, going into the war. And even when reality started undermining the whole effort, there seemed to be an oblivious belief that all was OK. A situation such as this points out the importance of gather information and being very clear about the action you will take, basing that action on facts and not beliefs – even if those facts aren’t something that you like to face. Being an idealist myself, I learned a lot from this part of the book, especially as I saw a concrete example in Bush’s war.

2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Please use personal examples in your explanation.

In looking back over my life I can see how I have successfully accomplished many goals and less successfully other goals. Reading this book gave me some additional understanding as to why I was more successful in some cases than others. It has also renewed my interest in goal setting. I think this book

3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain.

There wasn’t really anything new that I learned as much as the reminders that I received from reading it and the insights that I got from how the author arranged the material.

4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?

Although the book hasn’t really changed my thinking, I think it has inspired me to take another look at all of the major aspects of my life and think about my current goals in each area.

5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?

No
6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?

The think I like best and least in the book, both relate to how brief and to the point it is. On the one hand, being brief and to the point makes it easy to read and understand. On the other hand, I do believe that he has left out some important subtleties that should be noted. For example there are self improvement goals which can’t be easily measurable and therefore can’t ever be considered 100% ‘accomplished.’

Take for example the personality goal of being more confident or optimistic. These aren’t either/or goals like obtaining something material (buying a house or car or having a million dollars). They involve degrees and they really don’t have an ending point. So if one has a goal of becoming more confident, how does one measure success. Of course it can be done by attaching certain actions to the goal; actions that would indicate increased confidence. But there really isn’t a measurable ending point. Perhaps the author wouldn’t consider these things a true goals, but I think they are definitely desire accomplishments, even if they aren’t as measurable as material goals.

This book is really one of a trilogy of three very important books in the IIGL curriculum: The Law of Attraction, Goal Setting 101 and Goal Mapping. I think that each of these three books touch on vital elements of setting and attaining goals.

7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.

This small book is an excellent guide to setting goals. In a brief and to-the-point manner, the author describes the goal setting process, including the essential elements in setting and attaining goals and some of the pitfalls to be aware of.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.

A. How interesting was it to read? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10

Comments - Although quite small, this book was very much to the point, covering all the important elements of goal setting without a lot of extra material such as case histories, examples, etc.

What To Say When You Talk To Yourself
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver (USA)

1. What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples.

The author indicates that this book was born out of his quest to find the answer as to why - after 30 years and thousands of books – in the self-help movement, so few people were able to make permanent changes in their lives. He spends the first half of the book describing what doesn’t work and why and also describing how the mind works and, based on this, what the missing link was in bringing about permanent change. The second half of the book is largely devoted to teaching the reader how to make these permanent changes with self-talk.

The most important thing I learned in the first half of the book were the self management sequence and the five levels of self-talk. Although I knew the basic components that he described in the self-management sequence, I had never seen them arranged in that manner. This really fits in quite well with the IIGL teachings.

He describes the sequence as:
A. Programming
B. Beliefs
C. Attitudes
D. Feelings
E. Behavior/Actions

Many of our Level One books are devoted to examining and altering one’s self image along with showing the importance of our thoughts (beliefs) and attitudes. The way he describes the sequence is very valuable.

While I have long been aware of the value of self-talk – from which the idea of affirmations arises – I had never read a book on it. The analysis of self-talk into five different levels was particularly interesting to me. I think he did a good job of describing the sequence of moving from negative self talk, to less negative to positive.

2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Please use personal examples in your explanation.

I think the main thing that came up for me personally as I read the book is the negative self-talk that I still use, in spite of all that I know. Two of the primary ones deal with memory and time. In the past, particularly, I have so often referred to not having enough time or not having a good memory. Reading the book reminded me that this is an area that I still need to work on.

The second half of the book was devoted to the actual technique of Self-Talk along with lots of examples for every kind of situation or change that a person wants to make.

3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain.

I can’t honestly say that any of the ideas were truly new to me, except perhaps in the way he arranged them. This was particularly true with the different levels of self talk which he described. Seeing them described this was new to me.

Although it wasn’t really a new idea, I think one of the best suggestions he gave was to take any negative self-talk statement and pivot it to create a positive self talk statement. In my case, for example, where I often make negative remarks about my memory, I can take those remarks and state the opposite.

Another good suggestion he gives is to create a tape of positive self-talk to use when our minds are relatively free, such as when we are driving, etc. He gives some excellent examples of success in using this technique.

He distinguishes between affirmations and self-talk by stating that the latter is very specific while the former is more general. He stresses the importance of being as specific as possible when creating self talk statements. Each should be very specific to the situation and what we want to accomplish.

He uses two metaphors which I found particularly helpful. One was the comparison of our negative thoughts and statements being like the old, broken down furniture in an apartment. When we are ready to refurbish, we must not only trash the old, but replace it with the new. If we don’t immediately replace it with the new mental furniture, we will find that we q uickly start reusing the old furniture again.

In the second example he suggest that each day we are given a certain amount of energy and it is up to us how we are going to spend (use) it. We can waste it, we can use it on negative emotions, etc. or we can use it to create the kind of life we want. This was a very helpful concept to me.

4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?

It hasn’t really changed or challenged me as much as it has served as a good reminder and caused me to take a look once again at my own self-talk and where and how it needs to be changed. It has also helped to see some things from a different angle.

5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?

There are a few things I do disagree with him about, based on my reading of other books in the field. For example, he uses what are called “negative statements” for a positive result. The best example is that he suggests that, to stop smoking, one should use such statements as “I don’t smoke.” Everything else I have read seems to suggest that the subconscious mind, which operates with pictures, doesn’t process the negative statement. So, instead of hearing/seeing “I don’t smoke” is sees only the words I & smoke! Perhaps the better way to say this is that I am finally free of smoking or something like that.

The other thing that I disagree with is that he says that not all problems are opportunities. I disagree. I think it is only a matter of how one chooses to see any situation. I do believe that every problem or challenge carries an opportunity with it – if nothing else it can simply be the personal growth that can come from it.

6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?

The most helpful to me was his outline of the five steps of the self-management sequence. I think the least helpful for me personally were all of the examples and details. This was true because I have already read a great deal in this area. It might be more helpful to those who are encountering these ideas for the first time.

7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.

This book is all about how our consciousness (programming) affects our beliefs, attitudes, feelings and ultimately determines our action, which creates our circumstances in life, and how we can change the whole sequence by changing our personal subconscious program with new, positive statements we make to ourselves.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 5
B. How helpful were the contents? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8

Comments: From my own experience in these realms, I think that there is one very important item that none of the self-improvement authors talk about. That is the frequency we carry. While I agree that Self-Talk and many of the other techniques we use to change our attitude and behavior can work, if we don’t change the frequency we carry, then we really can’t change our circumstances.

A good example is ‘poverty consciousness.’ Like all mind sets, it is more than just a set of subconscious beliefs. I believe that such mindsets create a frequency in which we attract to ourselves people and circumstances with a similar frequency. If one has this kind of consciousness, one can use a score of different kinds of techniques to change the internal programming but until one’s actual frequency is changed, the circumstances will not change permanently. This is something that most authors never touch on.

Also, while I do not believe in so called “luck,” I do believe that there are unseen influences which affects one’s circumstances that are not normally taken into account. These might include astrological and numerological influences, for example, and a myrid of other factors that we aren’t even aware of. I also believe that we carry over certain challenges and agreements from other lives in terms of our ‘life curriculum’ etc. This does not mean that we don’t have the free will to chose and create our future. It does mean that there may be many more influences at work than we might realize.

Goal Mapping
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver (USA)

1. What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples.

Positive Pre-Play (p. 34)
The author describes Positive Pre-Play as visualizing the outcome you desire before taking physical action. This is a technique that I learn 25 years ago and have used with great success since then. It fits in perfectly with the whole idea that what you think about you bring about. This is especially true with what you visualize. This is one of the reasons it is so important not to worry – or at least the kind of worrying that involves visualizing negative outcomes. This is a very common practice among people. They worry (visualize negative outcome) and then empower this picture with strong emotion (fear) and actually create the thing they fear most. The alternative to this is positive pre play. Once a person is clear about what they want, then it is important to create mental pictures of positive outcomes or results. The first time I learned about this was reading a book where individuals who were making sales calls or going in for interviews or similar first time encounters were encouraged to rehearse the whole encounter before it happened and to picture the results exactly as they wanted. Extending this to the larger picture, one can visualize attaining a goal such as a specific kind of relationship, a material possession such as a house or car, or basically anything by visualizing the desired results just as one would have them. My own experience with this over the past 25 years has been excellent. While the final outcome might vary from the specifics I had visualized, the basic components of my goal were always there.

The Power of Emotion (p 35)
According to the author “The stronger the emotion, he greater the power of the thought becomes, and the greater the manifestation of that though.” This is also something that I have known for some time. It is also something that is not normally touched on by other books on goal setting. I have often used the example of a goal being like an automobile. It will take you to your manifestation, but only if it has fuel. Emotion is the fuel. This is why excitement and equally positive emotions are so important to employ when one is seeking to reach a goal. It is also the reason that negative emotions such as fear are so powerful in causing a person to fail – especially if one is holding a picture of failure. The principle works both positively and negatively which is why it is so important to monitor one’s thoughts and emotions. I think that each of us have different emotions that we are more comfortable with. For example, I am not a very excitable person. I am enthusiastice but quietly so. I can’t imagine myself screaming at a sporting even, for example. One of the emotions that I feel most deeply is gratitude. So in my own life I have combined this emotion with positive-preplay to cultivate a profound sense of gratitude combined with holding a clear mental image of having already reach my desired goals.

The Importance of Paradigm (p 60)
The author describes paradigm as a general viewpoint that is held about something or someone and acts as a guidance grid for our opinions, attitudes and actions. It is a blueprint or map that our subconscious reads constantly to regulate our actions and reactions. He goes on to say that a distorted paradigm leads to distorted opinions, attitudes and actions, which in turn create distorted results. Another thing he says is that we don’t see the reality of life as it truly is – we see life through our interpretation of reality. We do not see the world as it is, but as we are. This idea is also presented in other books in the IIGL curriculum and I think it is probably one of the most important ideas of all. The author speaks of the importance of understanding our own paradigm as part of seven principles which are vital to success. Of course the other six are also valuable but this one was the most important to me. The importance of this idea to me personally is that it is so empowering. Many years ago when I first started realizing that the world “out there” was really a reflection of the “world in here” I came to realize that I could change my world by changing my thoughts. The classic example of this is the pessimist and optimist. One sees a glass half full of water and the other sees the glass half empty. The amount of water in the glass is the same but their interpretation of reality is based on their paradigm (pessimist or optimist).

Becoming Responsible (P 74)
According to the author, responsibility equals the ability to choose your response. He considers this the greatest key to freedom and success. This is another idea that I came across many years ago in my own journey from ‘victim mentality’ to mastership. In any situation we have the ability to choose our response (response-ability). Normally we simply respond to situations based on our paradigm or world view – i.e. our interpretation of the situation or event. This is why it is so vital to create a paradigm that creates what one wants in life. But changing one’s paradigm is a journey. It doesn’t happen instantly. After one has committed oneself to changing ones paradigm, then every situation or event that arises, challenges one to make a conscious choice as to their response. We have the choice of responding automatically according to our own paradigm or to consciously choose to respond differently, according to the new paradigm we are developing. This is response-ability. This idea is important to me because it is so empowering. It says that we don’t have to be the victim of circumstances. We do have the ability to choose how we respond to situations and events and that response will depend on how we choose to view the situation.

Seven Laws Of Manifestation (p 84)
The author lists seven laws of manifestation which he describes as signposts on the road to success. He lists them as follows:

* Believe in yourself & your goal
* Balance your goals
* Live in the moment
* State your goals in the present
* State your goals in the positive
* State your goals in personal tense
* Allow for lag time

Although I was familiar with all of these ideas, I had never seen them arranged in this particular fashion. The one that stood out most for me was the second one: balance your goals. He go on to outline six goal areas, which are:

* Personal development
* Career
* Financial
* Health & Fitness
* Toy & Adventure
* Quality of Life

I have seen various categories used to group goals and I find that this is one of the better ones.

2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Please use personal examples in your explanation.

Certainly I can relate this book to my own experience in goal setting. The idea of visualization and what he calls ‘positive pre-play’ are two things which I have been using for many years and which I have found to be highly successful.

3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain.

The Life Balance Wheel (p 66)
Most of the ideas presented in the book are ones that I have known and used for many years. Reading the book, however, was still very powerful for me since I am at a point that I am ready to review and redo – or update – my life goals. One of the things that was new and very valuable to me was the idea of the Life Balance Wheel. This exercise involves having the reader look at six major areas of life and charting them on a wheel, giving oneself the highest score for the areas of life that one gives most of his attention to. Then by drawing a line between these numbers, a wheel is created which shows those areas that may need more or less attention. The whole idea is that balance is important in one’s life for happiness and success. An example is the common complaint of many people that they have a difficult time maintaining a balance between work and family, or finding time for self. This is an excellent exercise for creating a visual of where one is in life.

4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?

Because I was already familiar with the ideas in the book, it hasn’t really changed my thinking. However it has been an excellent reminder and has also been quite inspirational to me in terms of redoing my own goals.

5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?

No

6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?

Each of the points in the first question are the ideas that I found most helpful. I really didn’t find any as less helpful.

7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.

While the author covers all aspects of goal setting, the primary premises of the book is that reaching our goals is much more than the left brain logical process described by most authors. According to the author, the most important element is the imagination which comes from the subconscious and the most effective way of manifesting one’s dreams or reaching ones goals is to visualize them.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.

A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10

The Power Of Intention
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver (USA)

1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?

The primary thesis of the book is that Intention is not something that you 'do' as much as a 'force' in the Universe that one needs to understand and learn how to work with.

2. What ideas were personally most important to you and why? List the idea followed by an explanation as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your own life.

Wayne Dyer's books usually contain a ton of good ideas. Here are some of them.

Intention is commonly defined as a strong purpose or aim, accompanied by a determintion to produce a desired result. However, Dyer contends that it is not something that you do but rather a force that exists in the universe as an invisible field of energy.

This was a new and interesting idea to me. It helped me to realise that the way to manifest a desired result is through alignment or being in vibrationally harmony with the force of itention rather than through will.

Characteristics of Ego
- I am what I have (possessessions)
- I am what I do (achievements)
- I am what others think of me (reputation)
- I am separate from everyone (body)
- I am separate from what is missing (desires)
- I am separate from God (worthiness/judgement)
- Your ego will always want you to acquire evidence of your importance.

Steps for Overcoming Ego's Hold
- Stop being offended
- Let go of the need to win
- Let go of your need to be right
- Let go of your need to be superior
- Let go of your need to have more
- Let go of identifying yourself with your achievements
- Let go of identifying yourself with what others think of you.

Because the will is born of Ego, it is important to understand the ego and to be able to distinquish between the Ego and the Essential or soul-self. These characteristics of ego reminded me of who I am not. This was important in the process of remembering who I really am. Dyer speaks of our being held hostage by the ego. He lists the primary characteristics of a person who is being held hostage and how to ecscape. I found these particularly helpful and could clearly see how I am still being held by a few of them.

Connecting to Intention
- Continuously see yourself as being surrounded by the conditions you wish to produce.
- Your imagination, not your will power, is your link to the power of intention.
- Thinking from the end causes one to act as if ones desires are already fufilled.
- Look for a vibrational matchup between your imagination and the Source of all creation.
- In your imagination always dwell on the end result.

The points he makes above are in harmony with the ideas presented in many different ways in other IIGL books, especially the idea of seeing the end at the beginning and using the imagination as the vehicle for manifesting your dreams. I have used both of these over and over again to manifest many different things in my life.

Obstacles
- Thinking about what is missing in your life
- Thinking about the circumstances in your life
- Thinking about the way things have always been
- Thinking about what 'they' want/expect from you

Dyer lists four different things which are obstacles to our manifesting our desires. I have expereinced all of these in the course of learning the process of manifestation over the past 25 years. For me personally, the two biggest challenges have been not to focus on what is missing. There is a certain paradox in the sense that when you focus on what you want or desire, you are really admiting that it is something that you lack. My bigghest AHA moment came in the mid '80s, not long after I began learning the principles. I was soo deep in debt and that was new to me at the time. It was like a heavy chain around my neck. More than anything I wanted to become debt free. I had already learned the technique of creating a manifestation board with pictures of the things I wished to manifest. So right in the middle of the board, I put the list of my debts. And guess what, from time to time I would slowly and painfully climb out of debt, but only for a month or two and plunge right back. Why, because I was focusing on debt. This was the message I was sending to the Universe. So I got more of it. It's so clear now of course and I can remember the moment I realized what I was doing. My first thought was 'how could I have been so stupid."

Over the course of the years, my other challenge was not to focus on my actual circumstances. I consider myself to be both grounded and practical. To not notice what is right in front of you is to be in denial, or so I thought. However, I slowly learned that if I focused on current circumstances, then I would get more of the same. That doesn't mean that I ignore them. They do have to be dealt with, but quickly and efficiently - but not to be dwelt upon. That has been a great learning. I have never been so affected by the last two; the way things have been in the past or what others expect of me.

How do you affect others?
* Does your presence instill calmness?
* Does your presence leave others feeling energized?
* Does your presence cause others to feel better about themselves?
* Does your presence cause other to feel more connected?
* Does your presence inspire a sense of purpose in others?
* Does your presence inspire others to greatness?
* Does your presence inspire others to see beauty?
* Does your preseence ispire health and wholness?

I don't quite remember how Dyer relates this to intention except to say that when one is vibrating at a high frequency, that the above ideas represent, one is in harmony with the Source of intention and thus more likely to manifest. I do find these to be very personally inspiring.

Qualities of an actualized human being
* A sense of destiny
* A sense of the possible
* A sense of awe
* A sense of humility
* A sense of generosity
* A sense of knowing
* A sense of passion
* A sense of belonging.

The author didn't actually say that these are qualities of an actualized human being. He used some other terminology that I didn't totally understand. However I could really relate to this list and found it very interesting to assess myself and a few other people in my life according to this list.

3. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, please explain.

As with many books in the IIGL curriculum, this book was more of a reminder to me rather than new ideas which have changed my thinking. Since I haven't incorporated all of the ideas presented in the book in to my life, such constant reminders are always helpful and welcomed. The journey toward a deeper understand and putting into practice the fundamental laws of the universe is an ongoing one. Reading books such as this are valuable companions on that journey.

4. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?

There were a few points that I needed to re-read a few times to really understand but there was nothing that I read that I disagree with. For me this is an ongoing journey whereby one is challenged to put these ideas into practice and find their practical value on a day to day basis.

5. Have the ideas in this book influenced your daily life, including your inner response to external situations, your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, etc? If so, please use personal examples in your explanation.

Definitely, the principles put forth in the book - principles which I have been studying for the past 25 years - really form the foundation of my life and experience. Slowly and sometimes painfully I have learned to apply these principles to the various situation in my life. I can clearly see how their application has improved my relationships, clarified my goals and slowly altered my beliefs. The most profound change has come from seeing that my outer world is truly a reflection of my inner world. When I am at peace within myself, my world is at peace. When I accept myself, I have little judgement of others. The foundation of my life now is Gratitude. When I live in a state of Gratitude for all of lifes experiences and see it all as valuable curriculum for growth, my life is peaceful and empowered.

6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exerciese?

This particular book did not contain exercises.

7. Do you see yourself being able to use this information in the future and, if so, how?

As I have said, I have been using these principles for 25 years now, gradually refining my life according to these ideas. I will continue to do so and I fully expect that these will continue to be a beacon on my journey, both within and without.

8. How can the information in this book be used in creating a better world?

Ghandi said that we must become the change we want in the world. If this is the case, then who we become and the tools we use to get there are invaluable. Planetary transformation begins with personal transformation. It's not an either/or situation. They are simultaneous journeys toward wholeness.

9. Quotes: Are there brief quotes from the book which really got your attention? If so, please list them and comment on them.

What you may fail to see inside is a result of how you choose to process everything and everyone in your world. You project onto the world what you see inside yourself and you fail to project into the world what you fail tos ee inside yourself. p. 71

Anything you see in anyone else is a reflection of some aspect of your - otherwise your wouldn't be bothered by it, because you wouln't notice it in the first place. p 165

No one is capable of making you upset without your consent. p. 166

Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change. p. 173

Your thoughts, not the world, cause your stress. p 197

The five quotes above are different ways of saying the same thing. We are not victims. Our experience in life is the product of our thoughts, our attitudes and our beliefs. This is the one of the fundamental teachings of IIGL and probably the most personally empowering idea that I have ever encountered. I believe it to be the very conerstone of an empowered life.

When you react to the lower energies you encounter with your own low energies, you're actually setting up a situation that attracts more of that lower energy. p. 72

You must be what it is you are seeking p 203

Manifestation is a function of spiritual intention matching up in vibrational harmony with your desires. p 210

We attract into our lives through our level of consciosness and we can change what we attract.

The four quotes above all speak to the vibrational nature of the universe and the importance of consciously managing our frequency so as to manifest more of what we want in life and less of what we don't want.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.

A. How interesting was it to read? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10

Real Magic
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver (USA)

1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?

The main idea that the author is trying to convey is that each of us have the power within ourselves to create magic and miracles in our lives. The way to do this is through a change in our consciousness and especially our belief system. Real magic is a product of the inner realms of consciousness; what some would call the spiritual realm. For this reason he focuses a good deal of this. Once he has established the meaning of ‘real magic’ and given the reader various ways to create that in one’s life, he goes on to describe how this can be applied to the various areas of ones life including Relationships, Prosperity, Personal Identity and Health.

2. What were the seven ideas which were personally most important to you and why? List these seven ideas followed by an explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your own life.

The author is very much into lists and I actually found these helpful. Here are some of them.

* Three Paths To Enlightenment
I found this very interesting. He speaks of the three paths as Suffering, Outcome (lessons) and Purpose. I could see my own personal journey in these three paths. There was a time when I seemed to create so much suffering in my life. Of course at the time I really felt like a victim and didn’t realize that I was actually creating the suffering myself. But through all of the suffering I learned a great deal. Then I move to the next level of simply embracing the outcome of all situations, knowing that I could learn from every experience, however pleasant or unpleasant. I still see every experience in life as ‘curriculum’ or something that contributes to my personal growth. He speaks of the third path as purpose. Although I totally understand what he means by purpose, I will admit that I didn’t quite understand what he meant by purpose in relationship to enlightment. For example, I have always lived with a sense of purpose. Even in my earlier years when I experienced much suffering and later when I came to see all experiences as curriculum (as I still do), I still had a sense of purpose. Having said that, I can say that I do see the progression of the three steps as he explains them.

* Seven Beliefs For Manifesting Real Magic
Without repeating the seven beliefs, let me just summarise by saying that these seven beliefs define the boundaries of our lives or set the limitations of what we can accomplish in life. In a sense this is the essence of this book and all of Wayne Dyer’s writings; that – for better or worse – we are the product of our beliefs. Our beliefs about what we can do and who we are can either limit or empower us. I have certainly found this to be true in my own experience. I have only been able to manifest those things in my life that I honestly believed I could have. There are many roadblocks to such manifestation. For example if we believe that it is impossible to have something such a new car, home, etc. then we are not likely to get it. The same is true if we do not believe that we deserve it. All of these are limiting beliefs which will prevent us from obtaining certain goals.

* Twelve Attributes Of A Spiritual Being
The author spends a good deal of time talking about the fact that the world is much larger than what our five senses perceive and we are much more than our bodies. Real magic, or miracles, are created in the non-physical realm, which he defines as spiritual. So to consciously create miracles in one’s life, a person must get in contact with their spiritual self. To this end he identifies the 12 attributes of a spiritual being. This is consistent with everything that I know and have read; that is, all creation begins in the non-physical realm. Even a hard core scientist will have to admit that every human creation begins at least with a non-physical idea. While the scientist might call this the mental realm, Dyer speaks of it as the spiritual realm, to which he really means ‘non-physical.’ Reading his twelve attributes of a spiritual being was very helpful to me as a reminder and as a template for looking at the current status of my own life.

* Twenty One Suggestions For Becoming A Spiritual Being
This list is something of an expansion on the previous list. After defining what a spiritual being is, according to certain attributes, he moves forward to explain what one can do to focus more in the non-physical realm. It is like, if magic and miracles originate in the spiritual realm, then we must understand what that realm is and how to access it. As previously, his list was a good reminder to me of what I can do to focus more in this realm. Much of the advice has to do with developing good ethical behavior that comes from seeing the ‘big picture’ of one’s life and actions.

* Fourteen Keys For Creating A Miracle Mindset
Miracles are like seeds. As seeds flourish in a garden with rich soil, so do miracles take root and flourish in the rich mental environment of empowering beliefs. This includes the elimination of doubt, seeing ones self without limits, developing one’s intuition and learning to access it on a regular basis and learning to see beyond the physical appearance of circumstances and events. This section was a good reminder for me. I have developed a regular habit of looking behind the appearance of things to find a deeper meaning. I have also increasingly learned to rely on intuition and inner guidance for direction in life and making decisions. However, I know that still have a way to go in moving beyond self-limiting beliefs about what is truly possible in my life. It is an ongoing journey.

* Four ingredients of A Good Relationship
This is another list which he gives in the section on real magic as it relates to your relationships. He lists these as
A. Release your need to be right.
B. Allow the other person space
C. Eliminate the idea of ownership
D. Know that you do not have to understand
I found these ideas particularly significant. As a relationship counselor, I have found these four to be fundamental to wholesome relationships. I have also seen many relationships fall apart because of two peoples insistence on ‘being right’ or feeling that they owned the other person. One idea that was somewhat new to me, however, was that it isn’t necessary to always understand. I strive so hard to understand and after reading this I realize that perhaps there are times when one just needs to listen and accept, without really understanding.

* Five aspects of prosperity consciousness
This was a very helpful list in which the author relates real magic to the development of a prosperity consciousness. While none of the items were new, they were each good reminders. Perhaps the most important of the five aspects to me personally was the statement that you cannot create prosperity if you believe in lack. This has perhaps been my biggest personal challenge. I grew up with the belief that frugality was a virtue and there was a certain pride in how much one could do with very little. It was the opposite of extravagance or being wasteful which was wrong. So part of my personal challenge is that I hold two views that could be in somewhat opposition to each other. On the one hand I do believe in no limits. One the other hand, considering our environment and the way westerners, and especially Americans, live I see that our wastefulness uses a great portion of the worlds resources. I am reminded of the bumper sticker which reads “Live Simply That Others May Simply Live.” The truth is I feel I have a very abundant life and live in a very abundant world. Nature always speaks of and demonstrates abundance. At the same time I place high value on good stewardship and judicious management of resources, whatever they may be. This is obviously an issue I am still working on and seeking to reconcile in my own mind.

3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you to create a better world? If so, how?

For me personally, all of these ideas are simply a reminder and an affirmation of what I know and have been attempting to practice for some time. These ideas have been influencing my life and mind for the past twenty five years and continue to do so. It was because of the profound effect that these ideas had on changing my life and consciousness that I developed a passion for sharing them with others, which ultimately gave birth the Leadership Institute in 2002. I am now seeing how they are transforming the beliefs and lives of young leaders around the world and how they will continue to spread and hopefully contribute to creating a more positive future than we have known in the past.

4. Quotes: Are there brief quotes from the book which really got your attention? If so, please list and comment on them.

The non-spiritual being is motivated by achievement, performance and acquisitions. The Spritual being is motivated by ethics, serenity and quality of life. P.46
I thought is was a particularly clear statement about the difference between those people who are outer focused and those who are inner focused. I don’t necessarily like his description of these being spiritual and non spiritual, though I do understand his point. Also I don’t think this is necessarily an either/or situation. As I look at my own evolvement over the years I see that I have been all of these aspects simultaneously, moving from the primarily ‘non-spiritual’ to the spiritual over the course of the years. I suspect this has also been Dyer’s journey, as it is for many people as they get older.

All of the other people in your life are simply thoughts in your mind. P. 135
This was an intriguing thought. We have a whole set of beliefs (thougths) about the other people in our lives. When we look closely, they are just a set of thoughts. Someone else might have a totally different set of thoughts about the same person. So what is the person beyond our set of beliefs or thoughts about them? This reminds me of the saying that all the other people in our life are actors who we have hired to be in our drama.

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday you will have been all of these. George Washington Carver P. 140
I don’t have much to say about this except that it was a touching quote and a good reminder.

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?

No

6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?

No.

7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.

There were three more ideas which struck me that I want to comment on in addition to the seven mentioned in question #2.

A peaceful and loving relationship comes first and foremost from you state of mind.
This was very important to me. Often times we try to come up with a list of proper behaviors or ways of communicating which will create peaceful and loving relationships. Certainly good communication and appropriate are vitally important. However, ones state of mind or consciousness is fundamental. If one is carrying around a frequency of anger or antagonism, then all of the right techniques really won’t help.

Stay focused on what you are for rather than what you are against.
This is another vitally important idea. So often we spend a great deal of time fighting against or giving our energy to what we don’t want that we don’t take the time or give the energy to focus on what we do want. I fully believe that what we focus our attention on we tend to create more of. For this reason it is important to always focus on what we want.

Create an Intention Inventory for yourself.
This was something of a new idea for me. I have set goals in the past and made manifestation picture boards of what I want, but I never really created an intention list. For me, the word intention implies a lot more commitment than a wish list or even a set of goals.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.

A. How interesting was it to read? 8
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9

Non-Violent Communication
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver (USA)

1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?

Non-violent Communication is about breaking all of the old communication patterns of blame, accusation, defending, etc. and authentically communicating from the heart - compassionately expressing one's feelings and compassionately listening to another person's feelings. The author sums it up when he says “The objective of NVC is not to change people and their behavior in order to get our own way; it is to establish relationships based on honesty and empathy which will evwentually fulfill everyone's needs.

For me personally, it is really about looking behind the words that are being expressed to fine the feelings and source from which they come and to address that rather than their words. When others attack us verbally, most people either counter attack or defend themselves and never really hear what the other person is really saying and particularly the place of fear or pain that the words originate from. So learning to communicate non-violently is learning to access that place of compassion within one's self to listen deeply to the other person and address their fear, pain and anger in a way that brings resolution and harmony.

2. What were the seven ideas which were personally most important to you and why? List these seven ideas followed by an explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your own life.

The basic ideas which meant the most to me, roughly correspond to the title of several of the chapters in the book. They are:

Communication that blocks compassion
The author points out several forms of communication which block both compassion as well as communication. These include moralistic judgment, making comparisons, making demands, denial of responsibility, etc. - basically communication that belittles or blames the other person and cuts off communication.

Moralistic Judgment: These ideas are very current for me. Just recently I made a moralistic judgment of a family member who I felt had 'crossed the line' of ethics in her comment about another family member. Instead of looking deeper at the source of her pain and addressing that, I made a moralistic judgment that she was 'bad' for saying what she said. This was from a place of judgment and not from a place of compassion. Her reaction was fiery anger, judgment and blame directed toward me. Reading this book again really helped me to see how much work I still have to do on myself and how much I need to learn from books just like this.

It is very difficult to see ourselves and accurately evaluate our own behavior. It normally takes others to help us see this. As painful as these situation are, especially with ones you love, they are valuable curriculum.

As for the other forms of communication such as making comparisons, making demands, denial of personal responsibility for the situations in my life, I'm not as aware of these, but then again, maybe they are there and I just can't see them.

Observing without evaluation
This is a very interesting point. The author says that one of the biggest challenges is to observe behavior without evaluating it. One of the things that makes this so difficult is our choice of language. For example, we may think that we are simply making an observation such as “You always procrastinate.” But actually that is an evaluation or form of judgment. An actual observation would be “I notice that you only study the night before the exam.” Of course, the other person may take anything as judgment if they are super sensitive and especially if they have a lot of self judgment and project that on to others. We are only responsible for our own communication.

Identifying and expressing feelings
The author points out that it is critically important that we learn how to identify and express our feelings. Here again he also points out the challenge of language. So often we say “I feel…” when we are really expressing what we think and not how we feel. He gives a long list of words that truly express feelings. He includes words that are used when we feel that our needs are being met and words that we use when we feel our needs are not being met.

This was a very helpful chapter for me because it help me to sort out and identify some of my own feelings. One of the biggest challenges I sometimes face is to really know how I feel about something. Part of this is because I often have mixed feelings. For example a specific incident or situation may bring up feelings of hurt, guilt, anger, worry and compassion, all at the same time. Figuring out which is predominate and how to deal with these is a challenge. The most recent incident mentioned above is a case in point. I found myself bouncing back and forth between all of these feelings. Each feeling called for a different response. I'm still sorting all of this out.

Taking responsibility for our feelings
I thought this was an excellent chapter. The author pointed out four options for how we receive negative messages from others: 1) Blaming ourselves, 2) Blaming others, 3) Sensing our own feelings and needs 4) Sensing others feelings and needs. I think that the first two responses are obvious so I will address the second two.

Referring to #3, for example, he says that by focusing attention on our own feelings and needs, we become conscious that our current feeling of hurt derives from a need we have that is not being met; whether it is for love, acceptance, understanding, affirmation or recognition. Thus we take personal responsibility for our feelings. Referring to #4, we do the same as in #3, except for the other person. In other words, instead of blaming the other person for what they feel, we seek to become conscious as to WHY they feel the way they do. In other words, moving past their hurtful words, we seek to understand where it is coming from. Is it a cry for love, acceptance, understanding, affirmation or recognition? If so, then we are challenged to address the original need and not their words or actions.

Requesting what we want
What is it that we REALLY want from others in order to enrich our own lives. The author points out that not only is it vital that we KNOW what we want, but that we also know how to ask for it from others in a way that is likely to fulfill our needs rather than further alienate us from them and create more distance and division. He speaks to the importance of making our requests in clear, positive, concrete action language that reveals what we really want, and he gives examples of such language.

Personally I can speak to the difficulty that I have had with this. I have also notice that most people have a challenge with this. Either they play 'nice guy' and keep their mouth shut or they do just the opposite - express their anger and rage in a way that closes down all communication. The author points out that neither of these approaches are very successful in helping us to get what we really want in life. In fact, one could say that this is the essence of the whole book - learning how to communicate in a way that gets our needs met. I feel like I could read this book a dozen times and still have so much to learn. The biggest challenge is to translate what we learn into our day to day behavior.

Expressing Anger
The author makes several very interesting observations in this chapter. First of all, he says it is very important to distinguish between the CAUSE of anger and the STIMULUS. He goes on to say “The first step in the process of fully expressing our anger is to realize that what other people do is never the cause of how we feel.” And again… “The cause of anger is located in our own thinking.” He continues by saying “At the core of all anger is a need that is not being fulfilled.” He refers to anger as an 'alarm clock' to wake us up - to realize that we have a need that isn't being met and that we are thinkng in a way that makes it unlikely to be met.

This is very personal to me, having been the recipient of repeated anger from a family member.
Rereading this book has helped me enormously to move aside from the emotional arrows and try to look at the source of the anger and address that rather than getting into a defensive/attack mode.

3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you to create a better world? If so, how?

I think I have already addressed this in question #2. All of us have conflict situations arise in our life. The ideas in this book will help me immensely in dealing with such situations and hopefully in a current situation I face with a family member. I hope that, by employing these ideas, I can not only help us move toward win/win solutions where all of our needs are met, but also, teach by example.


4. Quotes: Are there any statements which the author made that particularly got your attention? If so, please quote them and comment as to why they were important to you.

There are so many important ideas in the book, it's hard to choose which to quote. Here are a couple that really struck me.

Whenever we are angry, we are finding fault - we choose to play God by judging or blaming the other person for being wrong or deserving of punishment. P. 137

I had never really come across this definition of anger and it has really given me pause to think deeply about it. It helps me understand the place from which my own anger, and that of others, originates.

“Anger co-opts our energy by directing it toward punishing people rather than meeting our needs.” P. 138

I thought this was a particularly interesting point. We only have so much energy and when we use it in blame and judgment (focusing on the problem) instead of focusing on solutions, then our needs are not likely to be met.

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?

No

6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?

It didn't contain a lot of exercises but it did contain lots of lists and examples. I found all of these very helpful, especially the examples of dialog which the author used to illustrate a point.

7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.

This is really an excellent book. I feel that I need to read it over and over and over again until I am able to really absorb it and use it to guide my day to day behavior.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.

A. How interesting was it to read?
B. How helpful were the contents?
C. How easy was it to understand?
D. Would you recommend it to others?
E. What is the overall rating you would give it?

Leadership For Dummies
Assessment by Michael Lightweaver (USA)

1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?

This is a primer on leadership. It covers all the various aspects of leadership including what it takes to be a leader, leadership qualities, the various roles a leader must fulfill, the different types of leaders, a leaders responsibilities and the reasons leaders fail. I would say that the primary idea the author is trying to convey is really just an overview of what leadership is.

2. What were the seven ideas which were personally most important to you and why? List these seven ideas followed by an explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your own life.

Responsibility
The first idea that got my attention was the idea that a leader often emergest because he or she is the one who is willing to assume responsibility related to an issue or problem. As I look at some of my personal leadership heros, such as Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King & Nelson Mandela, in each case we fine that they were individuals who were faced with looming social problems and were willing to personally assume responsibility for solving those problems. This willingness to assume responsibility thrust them into their subsequent leadership positions.

Types of Leadership
I found his description of the different types of leaders very interesting. He defines them as situational, transitional & hierarchial. I realized from reading this that the ones I refer to as ‘authentic leaders’ are really the situational leaders, such as the ones mentioned in the previous paragraph. These are those individuals who rise to the occasion when the situation demands it. Technically speaking a hereditary king, chief, etc. or a democratically elected chief of state is a ‘leader’ but not what I call an authentic leader. I was particularly intrigued with the distinction he made between a leader and a commander. The best example of this is the military. When people follow an individual because they are forced to do so, that person is a commander and not a leader.

Leadership Roles
The third thing I found very interesting was his discussion of the different roles that a leader must play. I had never really seen these spelled out in a specific way so this was very helpful. To begin with, a group normally looks to it’s leader setting for setting the direction of where the group is going. This person serves as a catalyst for bringing many elements together that leads to effective action. Along the way, the leader is responsible for determining facts that are relevant to the groups work and sorting out information which may not be true. The leader is responsible for facilitating the process of moving the group toward achieving it’s goals. He or she is also the chief spokesperson and marketing officer for what the group is about and attempting to accomplish. Internally, the leader also is responsible for mediating any conflict between group members as well as coaching both individuals and the group as a whole; i.e. team building. He/she also serves as the chief strategist for the group and is responsible for overseeing the following through of individuals and the group as a whole. My personal feeling is that a leader may not always be good at each of these tasks and should be self-aware enough to delegate certain roles to others in the group who may be better suited to a particular role. However the leader should always assume ultimate responsibility for the group effort.

Leadership Responsibilities
The primary responsibility that a leader has, according to the author, it to create and hold the vision for the followers, building a strong team, and helping them to create goals and a plan tfor carrying out the vision. It is also the leaders responsibility to understand and address the needs of the team players and monitoring them to be sure that responsibilities are carried out.

Why Leaders Fail
This was a particularly interesting section. Again, the author brought up several things that I had not thought about; For example he says that leaders often fail because they do not know the different between leading and commanding; that they fail to listen to others, fail to learn from their mistakes, are rigid in their attitudes or beliefs, lack a sense of humor and always think of themselves first. That’s a pretty good checklist. I think we can look at many failed leaders today, especially political leaders, and see all of these qualities personified in their behavior.

Leadership vs Management
I felt that this was a very important point that the author made. I feel that too often when people speak of leadership, they are really referring to management. The made three statements which I found significant:

“Leaders ask the what and why questions, not the how questions. Leadersh thin kabout empowerment, not control.” P. 27

“You manage things, but you lead people.” P. 27

“ Managers do things right but leaders do the right things.” p. 27

I think it can be best summed up in the definitions of the two terms: manage and lead. I think that a really successful leaders does need some management skills, especially in help a team or group carry out goals. The reverse is not always true.

Organizing for Success
Last of all, I found the authors description of the community organizing process very interesting, even though it wsn’t directly related to leadership, per se. I wish I had read and learned this 25 years ago when I was doing community organizing myself. The first two steps, he says, is to identify and clarify the issue or issues. The next step is to identify all of the players; those who will be involved in addressing the issue. The final steps are to look at all the possible solutions to the problem and the potential consequenes of each solution. I find this to be very helpful.

3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you to create a better world? If so, how?

I can see several ways that what I learned from this book can help me. First, the various lists mentioned in question #1 have given me an organized way to look at leadership, not only my own leadership but also in mentoring others. Secondly, the book has given me some good ideas related to team building. Overall, the book has given me a template or blueprint for analyzing leadership and understanding where it is in relationship to the various standards the author refers to.

4. Quotes: Are there any statements which the author made that particularly got your attention? If so, please quote them and comment as to why they were important to you.

“Successful leadership really requires that you do only three things: elicit the cooperation of others, listen, and put others before yourself” intro

Over and over the author stresses the importance of listening and putting others before yourself. Why? First, a leader is only a leader if he or she has people who are willing followers. People follow a leader because they are either inspired by the vision or the individual (or both). When people’s personal needs are being met, the are more likely to say with the goal or vision. When they come to personally own the vision as their own, then they have transcended a dependence on the charisma of the leader. This can best be done by listening to people and putting their needs ahead of ones’ own.

“Leadership boils down to a willingness to accept responsibility” p. 10

This really struck me as the primary thing which separates a leader from followers. The leader is the one who is willing to step out and assume responsibility. I have seen this over and over again with new groups which have formed and are initially without a strong leader. Sometimes the groups die because no one emerges to assume responsibility. Sometimes a person does assume responsibility but isn’t up for the job because of the lack of ability or personal ego needs. But then there are those who emerge and because of their willingness to assume responsibility, their passion and their skills, they become great leaders.

“A good leader looks inward for a reason rather than outward for an excuse” p. 10

“The biggest single mistake that people make about leadership is to think that it means command” p. 14

“Leadership takes place because of an intersection of a need, a goal and a persona willing to assume responsibility. Leadership often depends on being in the right place at the right time.” P.29

“A good leader will focus followers or the team on solutions rather than problems.” P.55

I think that each of the statements above are self-explanatory. I found each of them valuable.

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?

I think that I understood everything and I can’t really say that there was anything that I disagreed with.

6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?

There were no exercises to complete

7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.

While the book contained some good basics, I didn’t personally find a lot of the examples that helpful. I felt that it was geared mostly toward the business and sports community.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.

A. How interesting was it to read? 6
B. How helpful were the contents? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 7
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7