Ikeh Victor Chinedu – Assessments

As A Man Thinketh
Assessment by Ikeh Victor Chinedu

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

The author is established the relationship between our mental or thought world and the physical or material world and their dependent on each other. He is of the opinion that the quality of life we live here on earth is dependent on the intensity and quality of our thought, and just as a seed brings forth seeds after it kind so our thought produces the positive or negative circumstances of our life based on the most dominant thought we have continually, negative if we harbour more of negative thoughts and positive if we harbour more of positive thoughts. Moreover he opines that our character is a direct product of our thoughts and this translates into what we do or fails to do, what we achieve or fails to achieve. This he says reflects in both our health, happiness, achievements, disposition to serenity, ideals and visions and accomplishment.

2. What where the seven ideas which where 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.

A. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thought. Personally i found out that that the more i think of pure and noble thought the more i develop enviable strong personal character. And the more i thought of immoral thought the more those characters find expression in my life.

B. Effect of thought on circumstances. When he said that circumstance grow out of thought, i could relate to it because when i concentrate my thought on my financial limitations, all i see is mountings of challenges, but when my thoughts are preoccupied with wealth creation, i can only but see opportunities all around me and when i act on them my lacks are exchanged with supply.

C. Effect of thought on health and the body. The idea that the body is the servant of the mind and obeys all the operations of the mind has since been become a part of me, i always fill my mind with thoughts of health and well being, these has kept in me in strong health so glad and beautiful thoughts of health will definitely translate into its physical equivalent. Truly a melodious heart doeth good like medicine.

D. Thought and purpose; a purpose is a driving thought and when you make that purpose your dominant and central thought it will drive you to accomplishment. It is this same driving force that caused me to achieve excellence in leading my team to achieve a mile stone in my organisation in various projects we have handled.

E. The thought factor in accomplishment; all that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts. My believe in this concept has helped to always go the extra mile and refuse every thought of excuse knowing that I can achieve anything that I set my gaze on, and at the end I always find a way to win.

F. Vision and Ideal; Ideals is the picture of your tomorrow that you have today, with this I picture the future that I require for my life and compels it to become an overwhelmingly dominant thought in my sub-conscious mind. And as I strive to towards the direction of that vision, I am stirred up to take on anything that will move me towards actualising that vision.

G. Serenity; A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought evolving being and such knowledge necessitates the understanding of others as the result of thought, and as he develops a right understanding and sees more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect and worry and grieve, and remains poised, steadfast and serene.

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

i. Having the understanding that a man is the complete sum of what he thinks it will make me to consciously and continually channel my thought in such a way that it will impact my life positively and in doing that my character will also impact on my world by exhibiting and influencing others to adopt that kind of thought pattern.

ii. Since thought has a direct impact on my circumstances, I will create the circumstances consistent with my ideals by thinking them into reality.

iii. By meditating on the thoughts of health continually, I will rejuvenate my body and health and live a healthy life by compelling my body to comply with the state of health I require.

iv. By writing down my purpose in each area of my life and making it an all-consuming thought I believe that 60% of the work has been done and by acting on my purpose am assured of its accomplishment with speed.

v. Knowing that I can achieve anything that I want, I will set my sail in that direction constantly.

6. I will constantly picture the future that I require and develop myself to fit into that picture of my future.

vii. By consistent and patient effort in my self-control i will develop the exquisite poise of character and no matter the tempest, no matter the condition I may face I will be assured of that inner peace and blessedness.

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

‘’As a man thinketh so is he’’- A man is the sum of all his thoughts, these includes his actions and character.

‘’Circumstances does not make the man; it reveals him to himself’’.

‘’men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are’’.

‘’Fighting against circumstances?’’- implies that a man is continually revolting against an effect, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart.

‘’Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; thy therefore remain bound.’’ – when you work on self improvement, you set your self up for success.

‘’The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set’’ – we are the best judge of ourselves.

‘’Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction’’.- when you are in a spot, check out the thought that lead you to that point.

Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe; justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life; and righteousness, not corruption, is the molding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world.

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.

Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and solidifies into circumstances. This implies that your character will definitely reveal your most secret thought.

Beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances: pure thoughts crystallizes into habits of temperance and self –control, which solidify into circumstances of repose and peace: thoughts of courage, self- reliance, and decision crystallize into manly habits, which solidify into circumstances of success, plenty and freedom: energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness and industry, which solidify into circumstances of pleasantness: gentle and forgiving thoughts crystallize into habits of gentleness, which solidify into protective and preservative circumstances: loving and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of self-forgetfulness for others, which solidify into circumstances of sure and abiding prosperity and true riches.

‘’Be not impatient in delays but wait as one who understands; when spirit rises and commands the gods are ready to obey’’. We should not be dejected even when we seem to be stagnated but fill our though with success and it will definitely come to us.

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 do understand the idea being communicated, and I agree with the authors views.

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

There was no exercise for the reader 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.

No

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? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10.

 

 

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Ikeh Victory Chinedu (Nigeria)

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

The main focus is that there is a meaning and an higher purpose to life and that we are creatures of excellence, skill and intelligence, and freedom is our very nature therefore whatever will stand in against that freedom must be set aside, be it ritual, superstition or limitations and that with conscious understanding and practise we can be free and achieve anything that we set our gaze on.

2.What where the seven ideas which where 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. The most important thing in living is to reach out and touch perfection in all we do, and that our purpose for living is to find that perfection and show it forth.

ii. We choose our next world or level in life through what we learn in this (present) one, if we learn nothing, the next world is the same as this one, with the same limitations and lead weight. This implies that at every stage in life there is a lesson we are meant to learn and until we learn that lesson though we move up to a higher position or station in life yet we will continue to struggle with the same limitations and challenges until we learn our lesson, we cannot thoroughly say that we have advanced in life.

iii. Heaven is not a place and it is not a time, heaven is being perfect in flight speed and attitude. This entails perfection and excellence in all that we do and as we strive more to be perfect, we are striving to attain to what we thoroughly are and our set place ‘’ Heaven’’.

iv. To fly as fast as thought to anywhere you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived, this means that we must see ourselves in our minds eyes already in possession of whatever we desire, be it position wealth, character, health etc.

v. Never stop learning and practising and striving to understand more of the perfect invincible principle of life. It’s important to understand that there is more to life than the material or visible world and the more we strive to understand this principles of the invisible world and practise what we learn by translating it into the visible world, the richer our life will become.

vi. Keep working on love; Love is work and we have to practise to see the good in every one, no matter how disagreeable they are or what they do to us, we should not hate them, but strive to see the good in them and in so doing it becomes easier to love them, that is why love require work and effort on our part.

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

i. The concepts in this book will help me to strive for perfection in all that I do and to live discharge whatever duty am assigned to excellently.

ii. It will enable me to grow by looking out for the lessons behind every circumstance, situation or difficulty, thereby moving up to the next stage of my life with speed and without limitations or heavy weights.

iii. It will help me to strive to be free and fight for freedom for others in my daily endeavours and refuse everything that will want to enslave or limit me or others be it, laws, superstition or intimidation.

iv. This ideas will help me understand that love doesn’t come easy and that it requires work and by working on love continually, it will impact on my world positively and there will be no place for groom, hatred or violence in my life.

v. It has enlightened me to the existence of spiritual principles and therefore I will continue to practise and strive to understand the perfect invisible principle of life in the pursuit of my purpose and excellence in other to establish myself.

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

a. “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.” this type of attitudes puts us on the way to self discovery.

b. ”He felt better for his decision to be just another one of the Flock. – you will feel no pressure being one of the cloud in fact it feels good.

c. When Jonathan Seagull joined the Flock on the beach, it was full night. He was dizzy and terribly tired. Yet in delight he flew a loop to landing, with a snap roll just before touchdown. When they hear of it, he thought, of the Breakthrough, they’ll be wild with joy. How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s a reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly! – when we discover something new we are always elated and feel that others will feel the same way about our break through which is often not the case.

d. “Why aren’t there more of us here? Why, where I came from there were.. ” “… thousands and thousands of gulls. I know. ” – its only a handful of people that pursue excellent in life while majority of people are just comfortable with just getting by.

e. “You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there.” – there is no limit to perfection of growth.

f. “keep working on love.” – its a very central idea to a happier life.

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 do not fully understand the idea of ”heaven isn’t a place or a time, because place
and time are so very meaningless”.

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

There was no exercise for the reader 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.

No

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? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10.

Success Through Positive Mental Attitude

Assessment by Ikeh Victor (Nigeria)

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

The author is presenting to us the power of the human mind, how the nerve system and brain works together. He also instructed on exactly what to do and how to do it in other to tap the power of our subconscious mind and put it to work for us. he also alluded to how to explore the power of the human mind.’ Whatever the mind of man can conceive, it can achieve’. The author also addressed the following;

· Approaching problem with positive attitude to get the best result.

· How to motivate oneself and others.

· Attracting wealth and how to use other peoples money to create wealth.

· Finding satisfaction in your job.

· Enjoying good health in other to live longer.

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.

a. The starting point of all achievement is definiteness of purpose with positive mental attitude.— a clear picture in my mind of what I want to achieve or an end result that I desire with a positive mental attitude puts me in a mental high and causes me to achieve my result faster. I picked a goal of making a certain XYZ amount of money in six months, I thought about it more often and set in motion the strategy to to achieve this result. I talked about it with my friends as often as possible, this opened my eyes to the opportunity of supply contracting, I ventured into it and no matter the discouragement I kept at it and in four months I met the target I set for myself.

b. The secret of getting things done- how do you develop the habit of getting things done?, by habit and you develop habit through repetition.’ Sow an action and you will reap a habit, sow a habit and you will reap a character, sow a character and you will reap a destiny. By sowing the action of thinking on paper and reviewing my notes and diary every two days, it has become a habit and the habit has become my character through repletion in a period of three months.

c. Learning to see- you are near sighted if you do not make plans, form objectives and lay foundation for the future. After reading this, I knew that it was time have my mental vision checked and evaluated and in so doing I discovered that I was leaning more on the near sight of recent and have to take corrective steps to remedy the situation. This I did by allotting more thinking time for myself. And the more I observe mu quiet thinking time the brighter my future appears.

d. Motivation- to motivate yourself try to understand the principles that motivates others, to motivate others try to understand the principles that motivates you. I discovered that giving people hope goes a long way to motivate them, so anything discouragement wants to set in, I reassess the situation and try to assure myself of why am doing what am doing, this brings hope and inspires faith in my objectives and it always motivates me and keep me going once more.

e. What the mind of man can conceive and believe the mind of man can achieve with positive mental attitude- this concept helped me to develop a can do attitude and as a result there is nothing that can ever be too big for me, no matter the situation, I will always face it headlong and use it to motivate myself. I say to myself ‘because I have conceived it in my mind, I will definitely achieve it’ and with my attitude on the positive side I can weather any opposing circumstance or even discouragement.

f. Emotion are controlled through the combination of reason and action, while emotion are not always immediately subject to reason, none the less they are immediately subject to action- whenever a negative emotion such as fear, uncertainty, doubt, anxiety, discouragement and doubt tries to overwhelm me, I say to myself “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me, so am doing this now” I immediately face my fear or anxiety courageously because the cure of fear is to face my fear. And by taking action immediately even though the situation may not have been completely resolved, I feels energized and the negative emotion disappears almost immediately.

g. Develop a magnificent obsession to help others, share yourself without expecting a reward, payment or commendation- when I was 15years I met a woman that took out time every week to gather youths both those in school and those out of school and thought us on personal development, hygiene, moral standard, how to influence and affect others and the love of Jesus Christ. she also thought us on how not to repeat the mistake of the older generation. Since then my biggest obsession has been to help others mostly the youths, to train then and guide through those same principles, HIV/AIDS and educate them on self reliance, ever since I have set the goal of owning or being part of a bigger NGO that have or share some of those values as part of their mission or goal. I have joined a lot of youth organizations, trained students on adolescent health and HIV/AIDS, I have written and distributed over 50 manuscript and other materials on adolescent health and HIV/AIDS to those youths and attended a lot of workshops just to develop and build my capacity. All this is in line with my major obsession, I still have youths that I meet with every week to interact and impact those basic believes to them and am motivated to keep going by the impact it is making in their lives.

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?

a. Definiteness of purpose: in my daily endeavor I always choose the major objective I want to achieve and stick with it, while avoiding every other activities that will serve as a distraction.

b. Learning how to see: I try to look at the world around me with fresh eyes to see and identify the opportunities that is available, take advantage of it while simultaneously looking into the future for the chances that are there and making plans and strategies to meet those future opportunities competitively.

c. The secret of getting things done: by doing it now, I do not procrastinate on the things that needs to be done today for a future date.

d. Motivation: I daily try to motivate others by looking at the things that motivates me, having faith in them and making them feel appreciated and important, these motivates them and also build my self esteem.

e. I try to always think with positive mental attitude and grow rich. I practice my daily thinking time to increase my ideation and to be more my effective.

f. Magnificent obsession: the success of every other principle falls in place with obsession. Every day I do something that brings me closer to the achievement of my basic obsession.

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.

* if you know what you want you are more apt to recognize it when you see it.

* Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefits.

* Unless you develop the habit of recognizing, relating, assimilating and using universal principles and adopting them as your very own, the follow through with desirable action, basic principles will mean nothing to you.

* Do it now-self starter.

* Emotions are controlled through the combination of reason and action.

* To see mentally is to think.

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

i. I need more clarification on inspirational dissatisfaction in relation with the concept of contentment.

ii. Other people’s money (O. P. M.)- in my society no one Is ready to give you money or to loan money to you without collateral. For the ones that invest on your idea, they end up frustrating your efforts and even try to take over the business because they funded it, and yet another will see you just as the manager of the business. In this situation how do you go about

a. Convincing people to invest or give you to start a business based on your idea an still be able to run it the way you want it.( most people don’t care about how outstanding your standard and ethics are).

b. How do you find investors and when you do find them, how do you select the right one that will not try to push you out in the future?

c. How do you protect your idea in a society that has little or no protection for individual idea?

d. How do you gather business or professional experience when everyone sees you as inexperienced and nobody is ready to give you the chance to gather this experience?

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?

Yes

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

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? 8
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? 8

 

 

Keys To Success

Assessment by Ikeh Victor (Nigeria)

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

The author is revealing through the book his seventeen essential principles of personal achievement, with concrete descriptions of their implementation. The secrets include;

1. Develop definiteness of purpose.

2. Establish a mastermind alliance.

3. Assemble an attractive personality.

4. Use applied faith.

5. Go the extra mile.

6. Create personal initiative.

7. Build a positive mental attitude.

8. Control your enthusiasm.

9. Enforce self-discipline.

10. Think accurately.

11. Control your attention.

12. Inspire team work.

13. Learn from adversity and defeat.

14. Cultivate creative vision.

15. Maintain sound health.

16. Budget your time and money.

17. Use cosmic habit force.

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.

a. Definiteness of purpose –this is like the map that sets the path that one must follow in life. By defining the type of life and future I want for myself, it automatically dictates the type of book I read, my relationships, the company I keep, the way I spend my time and money. My thoughts, imaginations, self-discipline and efforts are channeled to follow that path in other for me to reach my goal. And it also causes me to be alert to see opportunities in line with my definite purpose and to take advantage of them.

b. Assemble an attractive personality- this book made me to begin to gather and sharpen my personality to make it attractive by improving myself in the area of flexibility, sincerity or purpose, promptness in taking decision, curtsey, tactfulness, use of the right tone of voice in my interactions with people and I now smile more often and control my facial expression. In fact my personality has improved a great deal.

c. Use applied faith- faith being the response of the human spirit to God, signifying and act of trust on God, must be active. By trusting in the infallibility of the word of God, I align my major purpose, plan and action in line with his principles and by acting on it, fear and unbelief is dispelled and hope rises within me and when I pray to God, I receive guidance and I experience peace within me.

d. Going the extra mile – the tendency of going the extra mile is what separates performers from high performers. Going on when others has stopped has been instrumental in my success in my Job, when necessary I work extra time, I take personal initiative and it has payed off in my work success.

e. Build a positive mental attitude- it dawned on me that attitude is everything on reading this book I realized that a lot of people are not necessarily doing the wrong thing, they just have a negative attitude. So I resolved to be positive at all time, and I say to myself “it doesn’t matter what happens to me, I control how I respond to it” with this I became more calm and I try to understand people more, wow I just radiates with love. What a difference positive attitude can make in any situation.

f. Enforce self-discipline – by balancing my emotions with reason before reaching at a decision, I have become more self disciplined, and it has made me to try to assess myself and my abilities more accurately, so that I can balance my emotions with reason and action better.

g. Cultivate creative thinking- on recognizing the difference between synthetic imagination and creative imagination, I resolved to review and I reviewed my progress towards my major purpose and by so doing impress my major purpose more on my subconscious mind to stimulate my creative imagination.

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. By using definiteness of purpose, I have become more aware of the importance of goal setting, both long term, medium term and short term goals. So I use definiteness of purpose in setting my short and medium term goal to align with the long term goal, I also teach others the techniques and steps in goal setting.

II. By assembling and using the various attributes of an attractive personality, I am becoming more of a role model to my youths, and am also teaching them to develop themselves and make the attributes a part of them too.

III. By building up my faith and applying my faith in God to my daily endeavors, I have started to achieve more result in a noticeable measure. And I don’t hesitate to point out my faith in God to any person that want to know how am achieving great things in a short time.

IV. The principle of going the extra mile is so inspiring and its effect easily noticeable that I made it a part of my day to day activities and its easily becoming a habit. This principle does not recognize limitation.

V. Attitude is everything and the short cut to achievement is applying positive mental attitude in everything you do. I always stand out in the crowd because of my can do and positive mental attitude.

VI. Self-discipline – self- discipline is a difficult trait to master, but by mastering myself, I have attained a new height that I can only dream about before now, the best form of teaching is by being an example of what you teach, through my life style, it has become very easy to teach my youths to master and discipline themselves.

VII. Creative thinking – making out time daily to engage in creative thinking and since I started this, I have become a master strategist because I now strategize effectively and it’s evident in the results I achieve.

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.

· If you know what you want from life, if you are determined to get it to the point that it becomes an obsession, and you back that obsession with continuous effort and sound planning, then you have awakened and developed definiteness of purpose. – This is so striking in its directness, I wish a lot of could be explained this simply.

· One single idea may have greater weight than the labor of all the men, animals and engines for a century. – This says a lot about the efficacy of a well thought out idea, and how definiteness of purpose is seen in every worthwhile achievement.

· Having a positive mental attitude means that your actions and thoughts further your ends, having a negative mental attitude means that you are constantly under mining your own efforts. – This is so distinctive and shows more clearly what you get when you choose either of the two attitudes.

· If you can see an opportunity as quickly as you can see the faults of others, you will soon succeed. – Everyone has a fault, so overlooking their faults will open our eyes to opportunities that abound around them.

· The value of wealth that comes with success is that it carries with it the lessons you have learned in acquiring it. – It is not just enough to succeed or fail, if you don’t learn anything in the process, you have missed out on the greater gold mine of lessons.

· Personal ambition must be subordinate to the fulfillment and successful achievement of the definite major purpose of an alliance – when personal interest conflict with the interest of an alliance, the interest of the alliance should take priority.

· People who are strong in faith are always humble of heart. – developing your faith also brings out humility in you.

· Be sincere first of all with yourself, and you will steadily grow in self-reliance. – Most of the things that we look for outside is inside us, all we need is just self awareness.

· To master dramatic technique, you must learn to speak forcefully in ordinary conversation. – practicing in secret improves effective speech delivery.

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?

YES

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

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? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9

 

 

PsychoCybernetics

Assessment by Ikeh Victor (Nigeria)

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

The main idea of the author is about

· How to improve one’s personal fulfillment through self-image enhancement.

· How to develop a personal action plan for improving your personal and professional life.

· How to be more assertive with friends, family members and difficult co-workers.

· How to successfully cope with severe emotional blows.

· How to anticipate and prepare for career changes

· How to eliminate stress and anxiety, and replace it with positive actions.

· How relaxation improves our quality of life and reduces ill health, while at the same time improves our relationships.

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.

a. Self- image: every one of us always acts, feels and behaves in a way that is consistent with our self image, regardless of the self image.—I have realized that having a positive self image of myself have kept me going even through times of severe difficulties. In those instances I carry myself as someone special, some one with so much to offer to the world an answer to the cry of many, I see myself as valuable and important, this makes me to look at the situation as neutral and temporal and it keeps me up beat and removes the attendant depression that would have resulted otherwise.

b. Creating a change : anything that has been learned can be evaluated and challenged, anything that has been challenged can be relearned with new data to replace the old.——this idea is so important because it reminded me of my formative years. I grew up as the last child in a family of nine, this made it really difficult for me to express an opinion in the family and stand up for it against any opposition since everyone in the family looks at me as a baby and therefore I don’t know what am doing. They believed that it is their duty to look after my well being, protect me and direct the course that I must follow. It got to a time where there love and protection started getting in the way of what I really want to do for myself and my personal pursuit. I was left with the choice of going after my pursuit all by myself without there support or assistance. It was indeed a hard battle to change the way which I normally do things because I was used to having them doing things for me but then I have to learn to do things on my own. But at the end I removed it from my psyche that my family must help me in doing things and learned that am my own person and have to do things with or without their help. It was a difficult time for me but it turned out for my benefits.

c. CRAFT: Cancel old, negative data, Replace it with new, positive data, Affirm your new image to yourself, Focus on an image of successful you, Train yourself for lasting change.— growing up in my family, we had just enough resources to get by. I was made to believe that those that have more than enough money or resources to get by must be doing something bad or dishonest or cheating or even stealing to have the surplus that they enjoy. So when I left home, anytime I desire the good and happier things that life has to offer, I will have this thought and feeling that I will have to start doing something dishonest to get it. When it finally dawned on me that I have the wrong mind set, I stared to replace that belief consciously by always saying out loud when such thoughts comes to me ‘’I am rich, wealthy and prosperous’’ I learnt this from Pastor Chris Oyakhilome PHD. And on reading this book I got to know what I was actually doing. So recently when such thought comes up again I use the CRAFT APPROACH and since I started using it I have noticed a tremendous improvement in consciously replacing the old tape with new data and saying out loud to myself cancel. Am not there yet but I have made significant progress.

d. Through your imagination, you can create positive images of yourself that with time and repeated practice will become your actual self-image. — I had issue with self confidence glowing up, while in the university an incident happened that made me to start working on my self confidence. I contested for the office of the financial secretary in my department in my sophomore year and I was also elected the technical director of my fellowship the same year. I noticed that other students started looking up to me and in different occasions, the duty of coordinating them fell on me, it became a struggle to keep up with myself and the demands others place on me, and I acted without confidence in different instances. But later I started to look back and imagine scenarios where I acted confident, how I felt about myself and how I felt when I acted clumsily. I stared to imagine myself acting differently next time I found myself in similar situation, in some cases I faked being confident and with time it became a part of me. I did not know exactly what I was doing then, but on reading psycho-cybernetics 2000, it dawned on me that I was using exactly most of the techniques in the book on my own then without knowing that other people has also been using it successfully.

e. Relaxation: the state in which your left brain decelerates and your right brain is allowed to roam free.—am always critical, and I like to think things through first before I act, but with this I have discovered a more accurate method of thinking thing through without stress or worries.

f. Relaxation as nature’s free tranquilizer. Our disturbed feelings, anger, hostility, fear, anxiety, insecurity are caused by our on responses not by external-Maxwell Maltz.—by learning that our stress comes not from any event but from my response to it, I was able to approach job relate issues that was causing me great stress and leaving me very tired and drained at the end of each working day, and looking at it from different angle and choosing not to react emotionally to them, I was able to maintain my energy level and positive disposition with smiles always.

g. Sowing SEEDS: by sowing seeds, Situation, Evaluation, Emotions, Do, Self esteem. In my Job, one of my responsibilities is to ensure proper and timely maintenance of my company’s fleet of cars. To do this I must get the approval of my Boss and here lies the challenge because my Boss is not in the same location with me. When I send my request for his approval he always delays before giving the approval and this may take days or weeks. And because the faulty car is still being used the fault may spread or become worse.

Situation- Anytime such things happens I get angry, helpless, frustrated and sad. By using the SEEDs technique I was able to see the situation as fundamentally neutral.

Evaluate- the situation and see that the fault is not mine but my Boss’s. He laid down the rule of having to approve every repair and yet he delays in giving such prompt approval resulting in other faults developing and therefore our spending more money in maintenance that would have been saved if prompt decision to fix them was made.

Emotion-I was able to shift my emotions to fit my evaluation, removing my feeling of hurt, frustration, helplessness and sadness.

Do-I did something about the situation by presenting the situation as it is to my Boss, and taking personal initiative to fix any critical fault to avoid it spreading when ever such delay repeats.

Self-esteem- by following the above steps, my self-esteem went from helplessness to confidence and can do attitude.

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?

By adopting all the steps in question 2 above and others, it will help me to live a more quality life, devoid of, aimlessness, frustration, sickness and anxiety and also to live a more relaxed, happy, goal oriented and creative life. And in so doing impacting the same value to people in my sphere of contact, especially the youths in my forum.

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.

· Whether we realize it or not, each of us carries a mental blue print or picture of ourselves- Maxwell Maltz- this deals directly with our self image

· It is our self image that prescribes our limits- if I refuse limitations in my mind, nothing can hold me back.

· Each of us is capable of taking control of our self image and programming our automatic guidance system for success.

· People always feel, act and behave according to what they imagine to be true about themselves and there circumstances.

· Psych-cybernetics is a program for developing a self-image you can live with, one in which you can feel secure, one that you can be proud to express to others, one that leads to self-confidence and success.

· If we watch limits instead of destinations, we bump up against those limits- I learnt to focus on the goals and not my limitations.

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?

YES

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

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

 

 

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Assessment by Ikeh Victor Chinedu (Nigeria)

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

The book is directed towards public speaking and mostly based on human relations. It starts with the six fundamental techniques in handling people, followed by six ways to make people like you and finally twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking and then the nine ways to change people without giving offense of arousing resentment.

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.

a. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain: this is important because people mostly don’t criticize themselves for anything, no matter how wrong it may be. Again criticism puts a person on the defensive and this usually makes him strive to justify himself. Criticism is dangerous because it wounds a person’s precious pride, hurts his sense of importance and arouses resentment. Example: in the middle of last year I lost a very dear friend because I criticized her attitude towards work tactlessly, I told her point blank that she was wrong and that it’s affecting her relationship with her family members too, she didn’t take it lightly and it engendered resentment towards me. I tried to apologize later but our friendship was never the same again, and the issue I was trying to correct still remained unresolved. So instead of condemning people I have learnt to try and understand them, to figure out why they do the things they do. And it has been more profitable and intriguing than criticism. It has also bread sympathy, tolerance and more kindness.

b. Arouse in the other person an eager want : the only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it, remember also that every act you ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something in return. By arousing in the other person eager want, you can successfully do this, you would have the world with you and if you cannot do this you will walk a lonely way. Example: in the middle of February I wanted to travel to Port-Harcourt Nigeria to pick up a car down to Abuja, I was just recovering from malaria attack and needed a friend to go with me, so we could take turn in driving back (the travel time is about nine to 11 hours). When I approached him, he insisted that I pay him, but when I informed him of the benefits to him which included branching to see his mother on our way back, he accepted and went with me without my paying him.

c. Become genuinely interested in other people: if we want to make friends, let’s put ourselves out to do things for other people, things that require time, energy, unselfishness and thoughtfulness. If we want to make friends, lets great people with animation and enthusiasm. Example: I like to treat people with care and respect irrespective of who or what they are. I try to study the environment and the people that I meet, by the time I start relating fully with them with thoughtfulness and kindness, this has always enabled me to make long lasting friends. In 2009 I took out time to be very nice to a recharge card vendor, in another state without knowing who she was, I stood up for against some people that was talking down on her and after the incident we became friends and the next year she introduced me to someone who was instrumental to my getting my first job.

d. Smile: action speaks louder than words, and a smile says “I like you, you make me happy, am glad to see you” thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our cheerfulness is lost , is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness is already there. It is not what you have or who you are, or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it that makes you happy or unhappy. Your smile is a messenger of your good will; your smile brightens the lives of all who see it. This is a very valuable lesson because I have tried to act and be happy irrespective of my present transient circumstance and no matter how sad or discouraged I may feel, whenever I start acting happy before long I start feeling happy both on the outside and inside, so no I smile a lot no matter what.

e. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language: One of the simplest, most obvious and most important ways of gaining good will is by remembering names and making people feel important, so I try to be aware of the magic contained in a name and it has made me realize that this single item is wholly and completely owned by the person with whom we are dealing with and nobody else. This is why people are so proud of their names that they strive to perpetuate them at any cost. Now I try by all means to pay attention to peoples name and utilize many techniques to remember them.

f. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it: you can’t win an argument because if you lose it, you lose it, and if you win it, you lose it. A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still, so to avoid an argument is far more better and the following steps can be employed to better avoid an argument;

i. Welcome disagreement

ii. Distrust your first instinctive impression. iii. Control your temper.

Iv. Listen first.

V. look for areas of agreement.

Vi. be honest.

Vi. Promise to think over your opponents ideas and study them carefully.

Vii. Thank your opponent sincerely for their interest.

Viii. Postpone action to give both sides time to think through the problem.

g. Show respect for the other person’s opinion, never say ” you are wrong”: you can tell people they are wrong by a look, or an intonation or a gesture just as eloquently as you can in words. If you tell them they are wrong, you have struck a direct blow at their intelligence, judgment, pride and self respect. And that will make them want to strike back, but will never make them change their mind because you have hurt their feeling. So if you are going to prove anything, don’t let anybody know it, do it so subtly, so adroitly that no one will feel that you are doing it.

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?

It has already started helping me in that I have stopped criticizing, condemning or complaining but rather I do more of encouraging and praising people now with a better result.

By applying these principles one at a time steadily and consistently it will make me a better person in human relation and public speaking, and teach others to do same as well, thereby spreading these principles which will make more people to practice it and in so doing changing the world for better.

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.

People at each point in time are at different level of understanding or intelligent and it is fool hardy to expect perfection from people.

By criticizing we do not make lasting changes and often incur resentment.

When dealing with people, let us remember that we are not dealing creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivates by pride and vanity.

If some people are so hungry for a feeling of importance that they can actually go insane to get it, imagine what miracle you and I can achieve by giving people honest appreciation this side of insanity.

We often take our spouses so much for granted that we never let them know we appreciate them.

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well from your own. -Henry Ford. A show of interest, as with every other principle of human relations must be sincere it must pay off not only for the person showing the interest, but for the person receiving the attitude. It is a two-way street, both parties benefit.

Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together, and by regulating the action which we do have more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.

The importance of remembering and using names is not just the prerogative of kings and corporate executives. It works for all of us.

Men must be taught as if you taught them not and things unknown proposed as things forgot.-Alexander pope

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, I quite understand and see the applications of most of the ideas already

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

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 New Dynamics Of Winning

Assessment by Ikeh Victor Chinedu (Nigeria)

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

The author show cases the mental traits you need to become a champion in athletics, business and any field of endeavor. He also showed the practical research and approach into the psychology of winning and how to personalise these traits. He also outlined a 21 day program for doing so. He covered topics like

* Focusing your mind for peak performance anywhere, anytime.

* How to use stress to your advantage

* Prevalent self-destructive beliefs

* The psychological traits of those who become winners.

Lastly the book provides clear, no-nonsense advice on what it takes to succeed in any field of endeavour. It elaborates on the ability to access the inner resources of strength and commitment that are the defining characteristics of champions in any field.

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 visualisation of victory: visualisation works because the mind reacts automatically to the information it receives in the form of feelings, words and sensory experiences such as sight, taste and touch. The mind can’t tell the difference between a real experience and one that has been vividly and repeatedly imagined. By mentally rehearsing the perfect accomplishment of your

goals, you create a neulogical pathway that allows your muscles to repeat those actions. Seeing leads to believing, believing leads to achieving. This implies that winners see the act of winning in advance-vividly, multi dimensional, texture, and clear in their mind before even they start.

Strength through mental toughness: mental toughness is the ability to thrive on pain and adversity i.e. converting stumbling blocks into stepping stones. Just like from the Bill Toomey story, mental toughness is developed by learning from the experts, going with the flow, being patient and not trying to rush success. Thinking and speaking well of your health, not making an issue out of minor problems or minor ailment. And the most important element of mental toughness is to expect the unexpected. That’s what coach John wooden’s Father meant by ‘’build a shelter against a rainy day’’. This is another way of saying ‘’Hope for the best, prepare for the worst and keep yourself ready for surprises’’.

Finally the authors check list of mental toughness was so instructive to me that I will like to restate it here.

* Learn everything you can about winners who have overcome setbacks and handicaps in order to become successful.

* Don’t embrace the idea that you need to ‘’come from behind ‘’ in order to get ahead.

* Give solution – oriented feedback when problem -solving.

*Get comfortable with the unfamiliar.

* Think and speak well of your health.

* Verify before you glorify.

* Joint with individuals who have already achieved their goals or who are dedicated to goals similar to yours.

* Above all, never forget that the real secret of mental toughness is contingency planning.

Self confidence and self transformation: self confidence is learned by focusing all your attention on what you are doing right now, detecting and eliminating self- sabotaging thoughts, feelings and habits and applying the learned behaviour or techniques required to achieve the task at hand.

By asking yourself the following important questions before embarking on significant undertaking you can increase dramatically your chances of success.

Are you feeling optimistic?

Are you drowning in a sea of adrenaline?

Are you replaying yesterday’s mistakes?

Are you confidence of your preparations?

What about the A.N.Ts (Abstract Negative thoughts)?

Are you thinking too much about the outcome and not enough about the process?

Another striking point that got to me was his opinion on self statement. He defined self- statement as powerful verbal, visual and emotional ‘script’ you use to evoke a more healthy and desired response in yourself. The guideline for constructing and phrasing effective self statement were very helpful and has helped me in creating my own self statements and I will like to restate them here

Make a conscious decision to turn negative self-talk into positive self-talk.

Don’t allow others to contaminate your self-talk with negativity

Direct your self- talk toward what you want, instead of away from what you don’t want.

Keep your self –talk non-competitive.

In constructing your self- statement, focus on incremental improvement.

The coach ability factor: the keys to being coachable, to being a team player are easy to define but not always easy to act upon. Here are important factors to being coachable. Respect and trust the role of authority figure, this implies trusting your own judgment as well as the decision of designated leaders. In addition to the ability to accept guidance from others, coachable performers have a healthy personal impulse towards self direction and freedom of interpretation.

A high tolerance for order and organisation. This implies that you subordinate your ego needs to the best interest of the group. Be open and inquisitive but be able to follow instructions. Never assume that you have all the answers and be a good listener.

The quality of leadership: the foundation of real leadership is empowerment which is first the desire to understand the needs of the people who are depending upon you, and the ability to create an environment in which they themselves can fulfill those needs. Personally the author do’s and don’ts of quality leadership is outstanding and I will repeat it here or emphasis.

Listen often and as much as possible to what others say and try to do so without pre judgment.

Don’t put anyone off or penalise anyone in any way for asking questions.Use praise frequently and sincerely. If you feel that criticism is definitely required, don’t do it in front of others.

Be firm and be fair.

Plan leisure and recreational activities that everyone can do.

Don’t be afraid to share your concerns with others.

Don’t make rash promise and don’t be inconsistent.

Whenever you are in a leadership role, focus your supervision on teaching effective habits and skills, not in looking for mistakes.

Encourage everyone in both your personal and professional life to speak up and express their own ideas, even if you disagree with them

The Olympian within: before the competition even begins, winners desire to win.

Performance is only a reflection of internal worth, not a measure of it.

What you reveal to the outside world is what you feel on the inside. The ‘’inner gold medal’’ of self-esteem determines the quality of your performance. And before anything else happens, you must believe you are an Olympian within. It’s your internal belief system that determines whether you win or lose, you will never win if your concept of winning depend on external factors rather than your believe in yourself. Because of the importance I attach to self esteem, I will restate the authors 5 fundamentals of self esteem.

You must be aware that self-esteem, or the lack of it, is at the root of all behaviour, both negative and positive. Remember that self esteem is made up of both self- worth and self- trust. Realize that no opinion and no judgment are as vitally important to your own growth and development as that which you hold to yourself. Remember that no eyes will ever critique a video of you, a photo of you, a reflection of you in a store window, or a full length view of you in the mirror as you. Step out of the shower as sharply and critically as your own eyes. You can be your own worst enemy or your own best friend.

The drive to win: the key concept is the realisation early enough that champions risk playing the fool because champions know there never was a winner who wasn’t at some point a beginner. The greatest risk is the fear of taking action. The greatest security derives from self-determination linked to specific incremental goals, which becomes a world class victory like that of Greg lemonade in the tour de France of July 23, 1989. Secondly Motivation is a desire for change, and it must be internalised before it has any real power. The fear of change, and even the fear of success, keeps many a person’s natural drive for achievement locked in neutral, or even in reverse. Your ability to access the inner resources of strength and commitment are the defining characteristics of a champion in any field. Success depends on your ability to combine physical or technical skill with mental process in a stressful environment. Effective self-management and total self-mastery will always result in outstanding accomplishment. Succinctly put the three most important traits of winners are

Common sense. This is the ability to simplify complex subjects by getting right to the core of what really matters. Knowing your field both through hands-on experience and the advice of other people. Self-reliance. This implies taking definite action to get things moving in your

life. In addition to all these you have to employ the ‘’step-stepping’’ process of goal setting and actualization, this implies taking a big goal and breaking it down into smaller components.

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?

It will help me in goal setting and complete follow up on the goals. It will help me to develop my self confidence and self reliance as well as in helping others achieve same. I will apply the new things Learn on quality leadership in my group and any other group I find myself and whenever I find myself in a leadership role to delegate wisely.

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.

Outstanding accomplishment depends upon effective self-management and total

self-mastery.

Champions know where they are and where they want to go.

As a leader be sensitive to opportunities for welcoming someone who feels estranged, to accept the differences in others who work and live nearby, and to see the other person’s point of view before passing judgment.

Leadership isn’t based on theory or technique. It depends on your ability to subordinate your own ego before the good of the team.

Authentic leaders listen and learn, they ask questions before they offer opinions. Many of the greatest accomplishments of a true leader go largely unrecognised, because the true leader go largely unrecognised because the true leader doesn’t push, manipulate, or control, there’s no resentment among team members and little resistance.

A real leader leads by listening first and then sparks the internal values in others to gain decisive movement toward accomplishing a common goal. The job of the corporate leader is to set mission, decide upon a strategic direction, achieve the necessary cooperate delegate authority and the leave people above.

You need to feed love inside before you can offer it to anyone else. Your own sense of value determines the quality of your performance. Performance is only a reflection of internal worth, not the measure of it.

The less you try to impress, the more impression you are

What you show to the world on the outside is a reflection of how you feel on the insider.

You can never win if your concept of success depends upon the perfect performance or the placing of a gold medal around your neck. Champions are born, but they can be unmade by the their perceptions and responses. Losers are not born to lose; they are programmed that way by their perceptions and decisions.

Success depends on your ability to combine physical or technical skill which mental process in a stressful environment. Effective accomplishments depend upon effective self management and total self -mastery. Champions know where they are and they see where they want to go, they dominate and focus their thoughts and energy on the desired result and they move towards it. They are propelled by desire, not compelled by fear.

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?

Yes, the 21 days plan for goal setting and actualization was very enlightening and helpful.

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

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? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8

 

 

Giant Steps

Asssessment by Ikeh Victor Chinedu (Nigeria)

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

Giant steps is based upon the finest tools, techniques, principles, and strategies that are offered in the authors other book ‘Awaken the giant within’. He offers small changes to make big difference in areas from power of decision, goal settings, beliefs, to the more specific, precise tools that can define the quality of your relationships, your finances, health and emotion and some promptings for you to take immediate action of what you read. He shows you how to get maximum results with a minimum investment of time.

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.

a. Decisions: our decision not the conditions of our lives determines our destiny. Realize that the power of a single decision acted upon immediately and with utter conviction and commitment will make your dream an undeniable reality. The flood gates can be opened by one decision, bringing us joy or sorrow, prosperity or poverty, companionship or solitude, long life or early death; that’s how powerful a decision can be. We’ve all heard about people who’ve exploded beyond the limitations of their conditions to become examples of unlimited power of the human spirit. Their actions were all made possible by a single decision they made with conviction and commitment.

Example: about two years ago a friend of mind made a decision to quit an abusive relationship that she was in, she ‘ve often quit the relationship far more often than I can remember and still end up going back to it. One day I took her aside and we had a real talk, I helped her to put her life into perspective and to focus on what she wants and the kind of relationship she has always dreamt about. This helped her to build up a strong resolve and she quit the relationship. Three months later she got into another relationship, which ended up in marriage months later and today she is a proud mother with a son.

b. Goal setting: we all have goals whether we know it or not. No matter what they are, they have a profound effect on our lives. The secret of unleashing your true power is in setting goals that are exciting enough that they truly inspire your creativity and ignite your passion. And you can’t truly set a great goal without defining what they are with clarity. Goals can be separated into

i. Personal development goal

ii. Career/business/economic goal

iii. Toys/adventure goals.

iv. Contribution goals.

Having a powerful enough why (why the goals) will provide you with the necessary how (how will I accomplish my goals). Condition your mind and make those goals your daily contemplation, think about and focus upon your move towards achieving them. I quite appreciate the author’s ultimate success formula and I will reiterate it here.

i. Decide what you want(be precise, clarity is power)

ii. Take action(because desire is not enough)

iii. Notice what’s us working or not.

iv. Change your approach until you achieve what you want.

Example:

This goal setting steps has been helpful to me in putting my life into perspective and deciding what is and what is not important in the long run.

c. How to get what you really want: to get what you want, you must discover what’s preventing you from taking action. One of the miracles of being human is that we can decide what cause us pain and pleasure. What you link pain to and what you link pleasure to shape your destiny. Rather than feeling trapped, use your pains as your strongest ally. Success is to live life in a way that causes you to feel an immense amount of pleasure, and very little pain, and because of your lifestyle, to have the people around you consistently feel a lot more pleasure and very little pain.so to travel the ‘’high road’’ from pain to pleasure, you must discover numerous positive ways to change your outlook. So the truth is what you get will not make you feel good but learning how to change your state of mind in an instant will shift your mental focus and it will change how you feel because emotion is created by motion.

Example: reading about this emotional shift have been helpful to me, am not there yet but am getting better by the day at managing my emotion, and to associate less pain with some emotions.

d. The power to create, the power to destroy (beliefs): the force that determines what we try or fail to accomplish in our lives is our beliefs about what we’re capable of, about what’s possible or impossible, about who we are. So often people blame events for how their lives have turned out. Yet what really shaped our lives is the meaning we attach to events. Beliefs makes the difference between a lifetime of misery and one of joyous contribution, beliefs separate a Mozart from a Manson, causing some individuals to become hero’s while others resign themselves to wondering what could have been. Beliefs have the power to create or destroy. And just to clarify; a belief is nothing but a feeling of certainty about what something means. Belief drive all of our behaviour, while some affect only one aspect of our lives, others are more pervasive.

Example: I grew up having malaria attack almost on a monthly or bimonthly basis; I believe it was normal, until I met a friend that never falls ill. I got thinking and I made up my mind that I can live without such attacks, and since then always confess that ‘’I live in health’’. This changed me and so far this year I have had malaria attack just once in eight months and it’s going to remain this way all year round.

e. Questions are answers: questions are the lasers of human consciousness, use their power to cut through any obstacle or challenge. Successfully people are those who have asked better questions and as a result, gotten better answers. So this implies that thinking is nothing but the process of asking and answering questions. Most of our thought processes from evaluating (‘’ how is that so?’’) to imagining (‘’what is possible’’) involves asking and answering question. Therefore, if we want to change the quality of our lives, we must change what we habitually ask of ourselves and others. Therefore to live a quality life, you must ask quality questions.

For whatever area of your life you want to improve, there are questions you can ask that will provide you with answers-these solutions will catapult you and your loved one to a higher level of success and enjoyment. All human progress is preceded by new questions. And rather than merely pumping you up, questions direct your focus and get you to come up with real and compelling reasons to feel the emotion. If you don’t get the answers you want at first, keep asking in as many ways as you have to, to get the answers you need. Be open to receive answers.

Example: as an engineer my training is more about probing and evaluating the answers you get, and asking more questions until you get the optimal answer to the situation at hand, so asking great question is a great tool in getting and solving may of life’s problem.

f. Change; the science of success conditioning: any change we make will be only temporary unless we make ourselves responsible for our change. Change happens when we alter in our nervous system the sensation we link to an experience. To produce lasting change use (NAC) Neuro-Association conditioning strategy. This is the authors suggestions;

i. State clearly what you really want: decide what you really want and determine what’s preventing you from having it now.

ii. Get leverage: associate massive pain to not changing now and immense pleasure to immediately making the change.

iii. Interrupt the limiting pattern: it’s a waste of time trying to establish a new behaviour/emotional pattern with the old pattern still entrenched.

iv. Create a new, empowering alternative.

v. Condition it- until it’s a new habit: a fundamental law of conditioning is that any pattern that is continually reinforced will become an automatic and conditioned response, anything we fail to reinforce will eventually dissipate.

vi. Test it. Make sure it works.

g. The vocabulary of success (the power of transformational vocabulary and global metaphor): consciously selecting the words you use to describe the way you feel can immediately change your experience at a moment’s notice. Words have the power to start wars or create peace, destroy relationships or unconsciously select to describe a situation immediately change what it means to you and thus how you feel. By adopting a new set of words, you can transform your emotional patterns. You don’t just change intellectually; you change how you feel emotionally. So transformational vocabulary are words that have power to instantly transform emotions, to lower or heighten their intensity.

It’s critical to expand your emotional vocabulary so that the words you select produce the emotional state you desire. The words we attach to our experience become our experience. Add positive and uplifting words to your habitual vocabulary. It will add multi-colours with which to paint your life’s experience. You can also use modifiers and softeners to lower the intensity of negative emotions. The use of metaphors can also have an explosive effect in our lives. Changing your metaphor will change the way you deal with virtually anything.

Example: we have a saying that once you say a negative word, you might apologize later but the effect of your words remains with the person. So I have also started to add more transformational vocabulary to my daily words usage and now I hurt people less with my words and I get hurt less easily by changing the emotions I attach to some words.

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

The ideas in the book is a practical one that is all encompassing and by adopting any one of them am not necessary changing my life but also improving the lives of the people that come in contact with me. And by changing one person at a time, am also influencing the people they influence. So by using the ideas in the book the responsibility lies with my having to change first and others will change as well when they see it.

4. Quote: 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 only thing that limits your questions is your belief about what is possible.

· If I continue to ask any question, I will certainly receive an answer.

· Just realize that if you can instantly create a problem you can just as quickly and easily create a solution.

· At some point you must stop asking questions and start taking actions.

· If you agonize over getting the perfect answer, you won’t get very far.

· We must take personal responsibility for our change.

· Courage unused diminishes; commitment unexercised wanes; passion unexpressed dissipates.

· When you use a metaphor, you’re not describing your actual experience, but how it’s like something else.

· Changing your metaphor will change the way you deal with virtually anything.

· The best time to handle a ‘’negative’’ emotion is when you first begin to feel it.

· Cheerfulness enhances your self-esteem, makes life more fun, and causes the people around you to feel happier as well.

· If you’re in a state of confidence and positive expectancy, the decisions you make will be quite different than if you’re feeling vulnerable and fearful.

· As we make decisions we consider whether these pain or pleasure state will be a consequence of our actions.

· A value is an emotional state.

· Don’t have too many rules.

· Don’t allow familiarity to habituate you to the intense excitement and gratitude you feel for having someone special in your life.

· The most important way to ensure success in any relationship is to communicate clearly up front.

· The fifth key to financial mastery is to enjoy your wealth.

· The only limit to our impact is our imagination and commitment.

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?

Yes, particularly the action prompters at the end of each page.

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.

None

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

 

 

Real Magic

Asssessment by Ikeh Victor Chinedu (Nigeria)

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

The main idea in the book is about miracles. Real miracle and real magic according to the author means creating miracles in every day’s life. And these miracles transcend our perceived limitations. He shows us the way to transcend the realm of believing in miracles and goal setting, to a place he calls ‘’knowing’’ (this is a place in the mind where miracles are produced). According to him in this realm all things are possible and there are no limits. He shows how to become competent in going to this wondrous place. At this realm mysteries begins to disappear and our life’s purpose becomes very clear. The author also teaches us how to achieve a higher level of consciousness, to imagine what will make us happy, and offers specific strategies for attaining these goals in every aspect of our lives (health, finances, intimate relationships and personal identity).

He also indicates that there is perfect order in the universe and by choosing to align ourselves to this order we will find and achieve perfect equilibrium of the mind over every set of circumstances, this he says is the context of the real magic.

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.

a. Creating the inner path for real magic: to create miracles we must understand that the world is not to be put in order, but that the world is order incarnate. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order. We must begin now to reconsider our entire life experience as a beautiful tapestry or journey towards greater awareness. A simple way to do this is to envision our life as a journey with three ascending paths.

i. The path of enlightenment through suffering: on this first path of the journey, you learn through a process of enlightenment through suffering. Here when something occurs that is painful or difficult, you wonder why it has to happen to you, but after a while, as you recover and look back you realize that it allowed you to move to another life experience of greater value. From the perspective of looking backward, you realize that you had to experience the pain in order to transcend it.

ii. Enlightenment through outcome: at this level, you develop a knowing that there are no accidents; your mind is focused on what you can learn from an experience. Living at outcome is far more superior to living at suffering. It forces you to be goal oriented and to see obstacles as opportunities.

iii. Enlightenment through purpose: at this level, you are so sure and aware and conscious that you have a task in life. You learn that you have a heroic mission and to get in step with that mission. This is the level where you begin to introduce real magic into your life. You understand that everything in the universe has a purpose and that you ‘’ultimately’’ have a purpose in life, so you start to discover and begin to think, feel and behave in ways consistent with that mission.

Example: about a year ago I realized that we have a purpose in life, and since then I started to discover and begin to think, feel and behave in ways consistent with that mission. Since then, it doesn’t matter what people around me is doing because I have the ultimate compass within and if what is happening is not consistent with my purpose then it’s not for me and I don’t even feel disappointed about them as before.

b. Believing in miracles and real magic: getting your life to purpose and creating openness to being assisted are crucial to becoming your own miracle worker. And your belief or ‘’knowing’’ are necessary to help you go within and literally manifest what you have previously believed impossible. Within each of us is a divine invisible presence that has something to do with creating a state that can only be described paradoxically as real magic. And as Jesus Christ puts it ‘’ he that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do…’’.so you have to believe in miracles before you can create one for yourself.

I quite agree with the author’s seven beliefs for manifesting real magic and I will reiterate it here.

i. There is an invisible but knowable life force within you.

ii. Your thought is something that you control and they originate with you.

iii. There are no limits; be a person who accepts no limits in your mind.

iv. Your life has a purpose; know you have a purpose and you will be on your way to creating magic in any and all areas of your choosing.

v. You overcome weakness buy leaving then behind.

vi. When you examine what you believe to be impossible, you can the change your beliefs.

vii. You can go beyond logic.

Example: when you believe in yourself, believe in your ability to create miracle, it becomes easy for you create miracles in your life, recently a lot of things happened in my life that reinforced my faith in God, and by just trusting in him, now I experience miracle on a daily basis.

c. Becoming a spiritual being: miracles cannot be ‘’understood’’ in the rational mind. They defy logic. They cannot be ‘’understood’’ in the ways we have been conditioned to think. Therefore in order to enter the world of real magic, you will need to learn how to go way beyond your rational mind and enter the dimension of spirituality. Becoming a spiritual being involves forgetting about your five senses, including that finger that you cannot place, and develop a calm sense of trust which you know suffices you but which you can never prove with logic or our current measuring devices. Once you have the experience of this invisible dimension, and you know this higher place you can go within your mind, and receive guidance and, yes, even the help in creating real magic for yourself, you would have shifted from being an exclusively physical person, a human being having a spiritual experience, to a spiritual being having a human experience. The place for creating real magic will be in our spiritual awakening, yet it will be manifested here and now in this physical world where you find yourself every day.

d. Creating a miracle mind set: here there must be a shift in your mind-set to experience a world where real magic is not only possible, but your birth-right. With this shift, miracle making will become something that you not only believe in, but that you manifest in your everyday life.

The following are the authors fourteen keys to creating an environment in which miracle making and real magic can flourish (miracle mind-set). I believe in these principles and I would repeat it here;

i. Reserve your judgement and disbelief.

ii. Create a real magic zone in your mind.

iii. Affirm yourself as a no-limit person.

iv. Develop a new mind-set toward the concept of intuition.

v. Discover the secret that sits in the centre and knows.

vi. Learn to learn through knowing ant trusting rather than doubting and fearing.

vii. Affirm that your intentions create your reality.

viii. Experience surrender and satori (instant awakening).

ix. Learn to act as if the life you visualize were already here.

x. Live according to your spiritual self-first and your physical self, second.

xi. Study the paradox, ‘’ you can never get enough of what you don’t want’’.

xii. Ask nothing of anyone and practice unconditional acceptance.

xiii. Begin to develop authentic power for yourself.

xiv. Practice daily meditation.

e. Real magic and your relationships: when you are inspired in your relationships and have mastered how to live peacefully and joyfully with others, your life will be on a path of purpose, and you will experience real magic throughout your life. The ability to create magical relationship in your life begins and ends with you. If you want to create miracles for yourself and truly live a fulfilled, self-actualized life, you need only accept complete responsibility for how you choose to go about relating to all of the other people with whom you share this divine perfect planet. This has absolutely nothing to do with anyone else having to change in other for this miraculous state of affair to materialize.

The following are new perspectives to having a fulfilling relationship

i. Your mind is where you experience others, even though you may touch, kiss, hold and caress others in a physical way. It is your thoughts about those physical activities that determine the quality of your relationships. Your mind is all you have for relating- even your physical touching’s are experienced in your mind.

ii. Use your thoughts to create your relationships. Thoughts originate with you. If you are thinking about what is missing in the person you love, that will be your experience of that person, and will define your relationship. Real magic in relationship means an absence of judgement of others. They are defined by their own thoughts and subsequent actions, so what to do is work hard at creating the exact thought in your mind towards others that will match up with the relationship you wish to have, and then your relationship becomes what you think about.

iii. Love: is the central ingredient of relationship with purpose. This ingredient of love at the level of giving is how purpose is defined, and it is the ultimate in creating miraculous relationships. Four other major ingredients are (relinquish your need to be right, allow space, eliminate the idea of ownership and know that you do not have to understand).

Example: the idea that our relationships is defined by the thoughts that we have about our relationships and our partners and also not to judge others has revolutionized my relationship in a great way, and now am just having the time of my life in my relationship.

f. Real magic and prosperity: circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him. The message of this sentence is at the core of our ability to achieve prosperity consciousness rather than a scarcity consciousness. You can have all the prosperity you are willing to believe in and create for yourself. The following are five aspects of a prosperity consciousness.

i. You don’t need anything else to experience prosperity.

ii. You cannot create prosperity if you believe in lacks.

iii. You are not separated into categories, you are at once the seer, seeing and seen.

iv. You cannot experience prosperity if you believe that you don’t deserve it.

v. Rejoice in the prosperity of others. And finally ‘’ money and wealth can and will flow into your life when you follow the principles of prosperity consciousness.

g. Real magic and spiritual revolution: just as the state of your life is a reflection of your state of our collective state of mind. All that you see in the physical world has a mental equivalent in the mind of each of us. We act upon what we think personally as individuals and collectively as a people. Understanding this leads to knowing that we are capable of creating a world of real magic in the same way we create it in our individual lives. There is a new collective consciousness in the minds of people, and a new spiritual awareness is spreading through our humanity and it’s the concept of spiritual revolution. This new way of thinking is a new way of being for humanity, it may not be fast enough to suit your desire but it is moving along at precisely d right speed. The leaders that are emerging from this new consciousness will be in the fore front of this spiritual revolution. You can be one of those leaders and be part of the changing paradigm that you are witnessing.

Example: a more spiritually conscious environment is a richer one; in my environment people have a high spiritual sense of things, so I try to show them more of the positive aspect of spirituality when the opportunity presents itself.

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

· Recently I feel like sharing more of what I know with people this has resulted in helping a couple going through a difficult time in their marriage to resolve their differences.

· I enjoy a more fuller relationship with others

· I write an article or two when the opportunity presents itself.

· My immediate circle of influence is one full of knowledge sharing.

4. Quote: 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.

· You are capable of achieving perfect equilibrium of the mind.

· Instruments of limitations will not reveal the limitless.

· Knowing you create your own reality and that inborn and divine forces work with you rather than independent of you.

· There is order in chaos and there are no accidents in a universe that is in perfect order.

· Once you begin the journey towards a life of purpose, you enter the realm of real magic.

· When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

· Be a person who accepts no limit in your life.

· Prosperity is about process, not outcome, process is about purpose, and purpose is about loving and giving.

· Your emotions are physical manifestation of your thoughts.

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?

None

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?

Yes

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.

None

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? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10