Abdullahi Salad Hashi – Assessments

As a Man Thinketh
Assessment by Abdullahi Salad Hashi (Somalia)

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

The main idea the book conveyed is to persuade the reader how the genuine thoughts influences the attitudes and the lives of the individual. The author of the book intrudes the truth that man Is the causer of his circumstances. The book also indicates that good idea can produce good results and vice versa negative thoughts. For example, good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results, bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results and clean thoughts make clean habits. The author also illustrates when a man have improper thoughts tends to adverse circumstances and contrary on that when a man have pleasant thoughts will produce cherish circumstances(i.e. bestial thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease, while, beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances).It emphasizes the changes comes from brain not the changing the food balance or building body and the body is a servant to the brain and must obey orders from the mind{i.e. change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts, and the body is the servant of the body and it obeys the operations of the mind).

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.

i. Good thoughts

I got from this book one’s success depends on how he shape his thought either right thinking or bestial thinking. Right thinking produces better circumstances as the author indicates in the book circumstances growth out of thought every man knows who has for length of time practiced self-control and self-purification and the effects of thought on circumstances. Therefore, a person who shapes wrong thinking goes to the wrong direction and will suffer a lot and the person who shapes right thinking have the right direction and will appreciate much. For instances I myself seen many times when I have good thoughts I plan tasks well and do conducted my activities as its and appreciate myself for the fabulous job. When I have bad thinking I go without plan and I worry a lot for the deadline since most of my tasks are not conducted.

Character

Character represents specific traits or personality that a person possesses, the character contributes how a person adapts the exist circumstances and environment as the books clarifies (character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstances, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state), the ones personality guides the kind of thinking whether positive or negative that have impacts his life that eventually help you to succeed or failure.

iii. Legitimate purpose

This is a central point that guides the entire life of a man and life without target cannot win or succeed. Purpose the most important duty to set out, organize and pursue it to reach it. As the author shows in the book a man {should make the purpose and should devote himself to its attainment and he should make the purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts}. Therefore, to have clear purpose the main concept that I obtained from this book.

iv. The weakest soul

Every man has weaknesses and strangeness, and knowing the areas you weaker or stronger is real truth. If a person cannot analysis his negative and weakness areas will not set out his goal. The strength can only be achieved by continuous efforts and practicing many times. The book itself emphasizes that weak soul can be developed through building stronger environment. The weakest soul, knowing its own weakness, and believing this truth that strength can only be developed by effort and practice, will, thus believing, at once begin to exert itself, and, adding effort to effort, patience to patience, and strength to strength, will never cease to develop, and will at last grow divinely strong.

v. Confidence

Having confidence is the acceptance of your mind and body and belief your ability, skills and experience and helps you to have enough energy that you can perform a duty effectively and efficiently and the person lacking confidence cannot support himself, let alone supporting others.

vi. Visions

Anyone who doesn’t have clear vision cannot identify they cannot predict and deal the future ahead. The visionary’s people cannot see big deal to have long term vision or dream. The book indicates {the dreamers are the saviours of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as they realities which it shall one day see and know}.I have realized that vision is key vital for my life direction and to shift my dream into reality.

vii. Selfishness

Selfishness is the a concern of one’s own interests that kills the leadership skills of a person and the leaders preferred to have generosity instead having selfishness skills. Therefore, I urge myself and other young leaders to avoid selfishness characteristics as the book indicates. Those who have conquered weakness, and have put away all selfish thoughts, belong neither to oppressor nor oppressed. They are free.

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?

The above extracted ideas are touched my life in many areas and changed my attitude and beliefs to the right direction and added profound contribution to have clear defined goal and bigger dream. For example good thoughts leads to reap good fruits, while bad thinking leads you to the wrong direction and also legitimate purpose, selfishness taught me the way I shape my life.

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.

“The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind.”

These statements attracted me since it indicates that good mind can have greater impact and more important than the rest of the body. Therefore, I strongly got encourages leaders need to enlarge the capacity of mind in terms of knowledge, skills, and competence to produce good thoughts that are acceptable by the people. I see myself thirsty for reading books, seeking different courses to capacitate my brain before supporting anybody else.

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?

Of course, due to my limited knowledge there are some statements that I didn’t get will
For page 9, Paragraph 7 “Indigence and indulgence are the two extremes of wretchedness.”

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.

No, but I would like to suggest here to simplify the language of the book and the instructions because there are numerous students who are using English as second language and get difficulties during the books.

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? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8

 

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Abdullahi Salad Hashi (Somalia)

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

The prime ideas that the author is trying to convince to the readers to come up the best sacrifice and commitment to one’s changing his life. It indicates to employ the necessary resources skills, knowledge, and technologies, methodologies and techniques to succeed the end destination that anyone wants. For example, when Jon his mom asked to lower his flying level and speed and eat enough, he justified to get rid of his thinking, “Why, Jon, why?” His mother asked, “Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon?” Why can’t you leave low flying to the pelicans, the albatross? Why don’t you eat? Son, you’re bone and feathers!” “I don’t mind being bone and feathers mom. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can’t, that’s all. I just want to know.”

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.

Come again the seven ideas that I personally see more important to me and the author captured in the book and touched my feeling are the listed down is following:

i. Flight

This is one idea attracted my attention during reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a successive flying levels and increasing speed through gradually and identify flight limitation challenges. “At two hundred fifty miles per hour he felt that he was nearing his level-flight maximum speed. At two hundred seventy-three he thought that he was flying as fast as he could fly, and he was ever so faintly disappointed. There was a limit to how much the new body could do, and though it was much faster than his old level-flight record, it was still a limit that would take great effort to crack. In heaven, he thought, there should be no limits.”

ii. Clear Goals

I highlighted statements that clearly indicates that everyone who wants to win his life shall have clear goals for the ahead future as the Jonathan Livingston Seagull sets out his goals which he later achieves it. Therefore, I myself recognized having clear goals in necessary instrument to have successful life and become great person keeping in mind the proverb saying: “if haven’t plan you plan to fail.”

iii. Commitment and patience

Employing commitment plus patience to attain your ambition as per planned is key sacrifice done by successful man. During my reading this book written by Richard Back- the Jonathan Livingston Seagull, I have seen when Jon his mom why don’t you eat and forget flying, he responded to his mother eating is not my intension. “Why, Jon, why?” his mother asked: “Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can’t you leave low flying to the pelicans, the albatross? Why don’t you eat? Son, you’re bone and feathers!” “I don’t mind being bone and feathers mom. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can’t, that’s all. I just want to know.” Therefore, commitment and patience are the two folds complementing one another, and everybody who anticipates to succeed should keep in mind and have that skills. Personally this book inspiring me to increase my patience and commitment towards attaining life purpose and overcoming challenges might encounter in the course of my pursuing journey ahead.

iv. Self-confidence

Literally, self-confidence is to have confidence for yourself without doubting yourself. Therefore, the Janathon’s self-confidence that he believes to fly is not easy but he is based in self-confidence is a base of every success and without getting it and dependent someone else you never attain your dream. And I personally identified confidence to become a leader, I must have autonomy for my future is very important. Many opportunity that I lost due to lacking enough self-confidence.

v. Trial and error

One idea I found in this book there is no one way that can reach you directly to your ultimate destination without facing challenges obstacles. Therefore, to overcome your challenges and attain your goal trial and error is necessary and seek alternatives and appropriate options and decisions. “He felt better for his decision to be just another one of the Flock. There would be no ties now to the force that had driven him to learn, there would be no more challenge and no more failure. And it was pretty, just to stop thinking, and fly through the dark, toward the lights above the beach, what a fool I’ve been! All I need is a tiny little wing, all I need is to fold most of my wings and fly on just the tips alone! Short wings! He climbed two thousand feet above the black sea, and without a moment for thought of failure and death, he brought his forewings tightly in to his body, left only the narrow swept daggers of his wingtips extended into the wind, and fell into a vertical dive.” Therefore, I recognized that trial and error is vital methods and techniques that I can reach my goal.

vi. Dream

Having vision is one of the key important of anybody to succeed his dream. A person who have no vision is like a person who have no plan and every road could be his way, like Fletcher Seagull who based in what loved his dream was flying {Fletcher Seagull, who loved aerobatics like no one else, conquered his sixteen point vertical slow roll and the next day topped it off with a triple cartwheel, his feathers flashing white sunlight to a beach from which more than one furtive eye watched}.

vii. Continuous learning

Lifelong learning contributing your performance and productivity become up to par and reach your target. One’s performance depends on the extent of knowledge, skills and ability he has. Like the Jonathon, he was courageous and bushing himself and guiding others to learn. “Every hour Jonathan was there at the side of each of his students, demonstrating, suggesting, pressuring, guiding. He flew with them through night and cloud and storm, for the sport of it, while the Flock huddled miserably on the ground.” The Jonathon indicates guiding, expressing suggestions in the roadmap that survives from failure during the journey.

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?

All of these odeas or lessons found have a huge influence to my personal life and profound contribution towards building better world through sacrificing the necessary resources. Personally I have to re-shape and make difference to my life before do anything do to the world. Changing the world is an easy task, it needs brilliant leaders equipped with all-round knowledge, skills and competency to break set back bridges and can fill the missing gaps. The necessity skills required by every soul should have are: self-confidence, clearly defined goal, right thinking, self-sacrifice, commitment and patience, clear vision, enthusiasm and determine leader.

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.

Yes, there are many statements who caught my attention and touched my heart are:

“I don’t mind being bone and feathers mom. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can’t, that’s all. I just want to know.”

Jonathon expressed his commitment and patience and his tireless efforts to accomplish his goals and I identified my total commitment and patience can break everything even mountain.

“Each of us is in truth an idea of the Great Gull, an unlimited idea of freedom,” Jonathan would say in the evenings on the beach and precision flying is a step toward expressing our real nature. Everything that limits us we have to put aside. That’s why all this high-speed practice, and low speed, and aerobatics.”

These ideas that quoted from Jonathon his journey depend on positive thoughts, and unlimited ideas and lifelong learning process, and really important for me take advantage for change my life purpose and become role model for others.

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?

Yes, there is a statement that I feel somehow difficult to me: “His vows of a moment before were forgotten, swept away in that great swift wind. Yet he felt guiltless, breaking the promises he had made himself. Such promises are only for the gulls that accept the ordinary.” On my side no disagreement found so far.

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, I didn’t find any exercises.

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.

No, I haven’t found anything else to comment on.

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? 5
D. Would you recommend it to others? 5
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 6