As A Man Thinketh
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
PART ONE: Content Review
I Thought and Character
A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete some of all his thoughts. Action is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are it’s fruit.
A noble and God-like character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effort of long-cherished association with God-like thoughts. Man is made or unmade by himself. Man is the master of thoughts, the molder of character, and the maker shaper of conditions, environment, and destiny. Man is always the master, even in his weakest and most abandoned state. For only by patience, practice, and ceaseless importunity can a man enter the door of the temple of knowledge.
II Effect of Thought On Circumstances
A man’s mind may be liken to a garden, —- whether cultivated or neglected, it must and will bring forth. Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there. The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. Following the inmost desire, aspirations, thoughts, by which he allows to be dominated, a man at last arrives at their fruition and fulfillment in the outer condition of his life. Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but they are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thought actions can never produce good results. Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It’s an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the law of his being. The sole and supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure. There could be no object in burning the gold after the dross had been removed.
Happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer of the man with his surroundings. A man only begins to be a man when he cease to whine and revile, and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonish at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material condition of his life. Men imagine that thoughts can be kept secret, but it cannot. It rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstances. A man cannot directly chose his circumstance, but he can chose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely shape his circumstances. Effect Of Thoughts On Health And Body:
Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. Clean thoughts make clean habits. He who has strengthen and purify his thoughts does not need to consider the malevolent. If you would perfect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew your body, beautify your mind. There is no physician like cheerful thoughts for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no comforter to compare with good will for dispersing the shadows of sorrow and grief.
IV Thought And Purpose
Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him whom will steer clear of catastrophe and destruction. A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart and set out to accomplish it. —— He should make this purpose his supreme duty and devote himself to its attainment not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies longings, and imaginings. To put away aimlessness and weakness and to begin to think with purpose is to enter the rank of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment. He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. Though allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force.
V. The thought factor in achievement.
All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thought. He who has conquered weakness and has pushed away all selfish thoughts belongs neither to the oppressor nor oppressed. He is free. A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. There can be no progress nor achievement without sacrifice. The higher he lifts his thoughts, the greater will be his success, the more blessed and enduring will be his achievement. Achievement of any kind is the crown of efforts, diadem of thoughts. By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness and well-directed thoughts among ascends. He who would accomplish little need sacrifice little; and he who would achieve much sacrifice. He who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.
VI. Vision and ideals
The dreamers are the survivers of the world. He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. Dreamers are the seedlings of reality. You will always gravitate to words that which you secretly love most. You will become a small as your controlling desire, as great as your dominant aspirations. In all human affairs, there are efforts and reserves; the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart ñ this will build your life by; this you will become.
VII Serenity
Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It’s presence is an indication of ripen experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thoughts. The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater his success, his influence, his power for good. Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastered. Calmness is power. Character is the expression of that which is in the inside of a man. It’s by ones behaviour that we are able to tell what his thoughts are. We decide what to be, and where to be by the thoughts we entertain in our lives. The thoughts of a person will always reveal him out. We always respond to situations by the way we think. Its not that which we want that we get but that which we give. When we start to improve on our thoughts, our circumstances changes. Choosing our thoughts means choosing our circumstances. That which we feed our mind, is the same that we are feeding our body with. Cheerful thoughts come along with good appetite unlike evil thoughts. When your thoughts are not focus on a particular purpose in life, any thing that comes on your way will sweep you, and you may end up not reaching your destiny. When we sacrifice our thoughts to think wisely, we progress and achieve good results in life. There can never be an achievement without giving something in the first place. No pain no gain. People who have visions and dreams are people who have a passion for life. These are people who are a life. They feel the real taste of life from all angles. Vision is the strong force that gives a person the strength to face another day. No dreams and visions, no life. When a man is calm and compose, people will always admire him; furthermore if this person has a purpose and a direction, people will follow him even when he is wrong. Doesn’t the Holy Bible say that, even when a full is silent, he will be consider wise.
PART TWO: Personal Impact And Practical Value.
What is it that differentiates man from wild beasts and other animals, other than thought? We are where we are today as a result of different thoughts other people had. Just as the book is telling us, when we have a long-cherish association with God-like thoughts, we can change our homes, our villages, nations, and the whole world at large into a suitable habitant for all creations.
I use to wonder why certain people love to do some things and not others; but what I have discover is that what a man loves is a clue to what he is. It’s only reviling who he is.
Most people suffer today in our society just because they have lived to accept certain thoughts of failure and defeat to the extend that they are surrounded by a wall of poverty, resentment, jealousy, and distraction. The only remedy is for them to change their thinking and the world around them will change immediately. My dad use to tell us that whatever you say is what you get; even when you see defeat in front of you, just be optimistic and speak a positive word, you may be surprise to find that it was a stepping stone to elevate you to a higher level of honor and glory. We should always be careful and guard our minds from every trash that comes on our way.
Living without purpose, is like living in darkness. You fumble for things and you will never come to know what is right or wrong for you. It’s like one who is lost in a desert or an ocean without a compass; therefore he keeps on rotating in the same circles time and again. Any nation, organization, or leadership that will be successful, must be govern by a soul purpose. Purpose attracts commitment and determination.
For every successful achievement that we see today there was a sacrifice. In life there are those who have made it, and others have not. There are those who are still struggling and there are those who have despaired completely. Most people want to be on top, but they are unwilling to sacrifice. It will never work. We need to learn from those who went before us and know that whatever that has been obtain rightly (through sacrifice) is highly treasured.
Every time when I go to bed, and when I wake up, there is always something that gives me some strength, and that is vision and dreams. I always have some feeling that one day, sometime, my dreams will become true; therefore I don’t have to quit. This is what I believe; if there were no visions and dreams, life would be so boring. Everything about life would be eating, sleeping and waking up the same person. When people lack passion for their vision, they seem less alive. Life has pass them by, and sometimes the can not be sure they have ever lived.
Any person or any leader, who is leading people, Should always learn the act of calmness and self-control. Without this, people will not respect your leadership; in fact you will be as confused as the people you are leading. A father cannot come and start crying before the children just because he has failed to do one or two things for them. No. He will always assure them how he is in control and the children will always believe that there is no father like their daddy.
Therefore we need to be careful with the seeds (thoughts) that we plant in our gardens (minds), because what a man plants, the same shall he ripe. You sow a thought, you ripe an action; you sow action you ripe a character; you sow character, you ripe a product; you sow a product, you ripe a destiny. It all starts with a thought.
PART THREE: Summary
This is a book that has make me to start considering the things that I have been doing that have brought me to what I am today. It’s a book that people should read now and then checking if they are drifting from the course of their lives.
Jonathan Living stone Seagull
As A Man Thinketh
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
PART ONE: Content Review
This kind of thinking, he found was not to make one popular with other birds, as he spent whole days alone, experimenting. Victory was short- lived. He felt better for his decision to be just another one of the flock; no more challenges and no more failures. He felt guiltless breaking the promises he had made. Such promises are only for the gulls that accept the ordinary. One who has touch excellence in his learning has no need of that kind of promise. How much more there is to living .We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find our selves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skills. His one sorrow was not solitude, it was that other gulls refuse to open their eyes and see. Jonathan discover that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gulls life is so short. With the two brilliant gulls, he saw that his body was growing as bright as theirs. For each of them, the most important thing in living was to reach out and touch perfection in that which they loved to do, and that was flying. Any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limit. Perfect speed, my son, is being there. The trick according to Chiang, was for Jonathan to stop seeing himself as trapped inside a limited body; the trick was to know that his true nature lived as perfect as an written number, every where at once across space and time.
In spite of his lonely past, Jonathan seagull was born an instructor, and his own way of demonstrating love was to give something of the truth he had seen to a gull who asked for a chance only to see truth for himself. The gull see farthest who fly highest. Precision flying is a step towards expressing our real nature. Any thing that limits as we have to put aside. A circle of curious gulls listening in darkness for hours on end, not wishing to see or be seen of one another, fading away before daybreak. You have the freedom to be your self, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand on your way. It is the law of the great gull, the Law that is Whatever stands on that freedom must be set aside, be it ritual or superstition or limitation of any form.
The crowd grew larger everday, coming to question, to idolize, to scorn.
The price of being misunderstood; they call you a devil or they call you god.
You don’t love hatred and evil, you have to practice and see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and to help them see it in themselves. Don’t belive what your eyes are telling you, all they show is limitation. Look with understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly. An image of the Great Gull, and your whole body, from wing tip to wing tip is nothing more than your thought it self.
Jonathan Seagull did not mind what other gulls thought or felt. Other gulls wanted to appear popular by living according to what they had inherited just to please their leaders. Due to his determination, he was able to learn and acquire more speed in his flight. However, his success came along with and dangers which made him to feel resign for some time.
Jonathan seagull had great desire that could not allow him to accept the reality of being an ordinary seagull with limitations. This strong desire made him to forget the promises he had made, and found himself practicing with more enthusiasm than before. Even when isolated, he did not stop from his purpose: to learn to fly. He only wish that other gulls would open their eyes and see all the reason to living and flying.
With the other seagulls, which had come to take him higher, he found himself becoming like them. He found that the flock that you associate with would always determine how you would become. Finding gulls that share same principles as his, flying became easier. The advice of Chiang helped Jonathan to widen his view of perfection; always to aim higher because in life there is steal more to be unveil and learned. For one to be successful, he has to learn to overcome the thought of having limitations. There is potential in any seagull.
The only way to improve the lifestyle of Seagull was by demonstrating love in helping other gulls to understand the importance of flying higher. Jonathan had to put himself low, to the standers of other seagulls in order to demonstrate to them what flying is all about. More gulls desired to learn, but they were afraid of being spot by the counsel. With time, most of them could not control themselves any more, and they did not care what the law said or what the elders would say. When they discover that the secret is knowing your freedom, even those gulls that could not make it, they found themselves advancing their skills in flying.
Jonathan didn’t mind the crowd, because different gulls had come with different motives. However he knew that those who were willing, they were going to learn something. Jonathan was clear; he did not want to be misunderstand because it would cost him a lot. Each gull had potential regardless of its appearance. The gulls had to learn that there is more to what the eyes can see. What a gull thinks is what it will become and what it will be.
PART TWO: Personal Impact and Practical value
In life, there are a lot of things that happen to people who have a burden for greatness and serving. One of them is Isolation. Just as Jonathan Seagull spent a lot of time alone experimenting things that appeared to be of no value to other seagulls, so is with us. Every time when you want to start something, you find opposition even from your very own. This is one of the most painful part that one experiences toward his success. Most people give up at this point just because they don’t want to leave the comfort of being accepted in the society. The thing that people forget is that our places of comfort my turn to be our place of confinement. If you don’t want to fly, then be comfortable with where you are.
This has happen to me many times. It has made me sometimes to decide not to share with people some of the things that are burning in my heart because they will never understand. I remember when I was young; I use to make my own guitars, which was an abomination to my parents. They could say that people who grow up like that, they normally end up playing music in nightclubs and bars. They could tell me that, we want you to be a learned person and a church pastor as well. If only they knew what was in me, all that I desire, more than music and pastoral work. When I got my first job, I bought a guitar. My mom was not happy. This is what she could say, ‘why my son? Why? All that money you could have buy something good other than this. What is this going to help you with?’
People who have a strong passion for their destiny, even when they have decided to give up, they will find themselves back into it, because their life is bound in their desire.
Another wonderful thing that we are learning from this book is that when you know what you want, you should be careful with the people that you spend with, and more so you should desire to learn from your role models. This is because you will find you’re self becoming like them. People who are not thinking of positive and great things in life, will always discourage you and make you feel that you cannot make it. They will always pull you down by telling you how impossible it is. In the society, we should always move with people who desire perfection. Those who feel that there is still more to be attained. There is never an end to learning.
When you find what you love, do it to the best of your performance. We should never allow our background and the environment to determine how far we can go. There are many things that will try to limit us, but this should only make us understand that the more the opposition the greater the destiny.
As a person who want to see this world a better place for everyone, I have decide not to listen to the past and the limitations that are surrounding me. I always face oppositions whenever I decide to take a step high towards my flight. For instance, I formed a music group that involved musicians from different churches with a common interest of supporting each other. When my paster heard of it, I received a stern warning to dissolve the group immediately or face the sacking and exparltion from the church. Almost all the musician’s left me, and I was left with very few who were determine. Some times we do practice in the nights with much care not to be notice. What I have discover is that, when one start to do something, people don’t want to associate with him especially when it looks like a failure.
There is potential in every one that God created. The secret is to lay aside all the limitations and see beyond what our eyes can see. Also we should work on our thoughts, because what you think is what you are.
Jonathan Seagull never stop his effort to love and train other seagulls, and with time they came to appreciate him. Now my parents are overwhelm on how a guitar can help someone to eat, dress well, live in a house, and even send them some money. I don’t play in nightclubs and discos as they thought. They use to think of university degrees; but is it over? Recently I pay my dad a visit upcountry and found that he had preserved one of the guitars that I had made saying that, success can be find in anything so long as you are ready to do it to perfection.
PART THREE: Summary
This is a book that every one should read. It’s so helpful to any one who is dreaming great dreams. It’s for all those who are yearning for more in life. All those who are willing to go deeper depths and higher heights to unveil the hidden treasures of life.
The only thing that the author has not talk much about is faith. Reference: ‘forget about faith,’ Chiang said it time and again. ‘You didn’t need faith to fly, you need to understand flying.’ I think apart from understanding you need to have some trust/confidence that when you put yourself into it, it’s going to work more than what you know. Nevertheless I recommend this book. I wonder if there has been anyone who has ever been successful without going through this experience that the book is talking about.
Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
PART I – CONTENT REVIEW
Chapter 1 – Meet The Most Important Living Person
We are poor -n ot because of God, —– because father has never develop a desire to become rich. No one in our family has ever developed a desire to be anything else.
You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by trying. Success is achieved and maintain by those who keep trying with a positive mental attitude.
Every adversity has a seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.
Greatness comes to those who develop a burning desire to achieve high goals.
To become an expert achiever in any human activity, it takes practice. practice practice.
Effort and work can become fun when you establish specific desirable goals.
Man’s greatest power lies in the power of prayer.
The price less gift: the will to work, the joy of work.
The greatest value in life; loving people and serving them.
If you know what you want, you can find a way to get it.
Chapter 2
You Can Change Your World
17 Success principles
. A positive mental attitude
. Definiteness of purpose
. Going the extra mile
. Accurate thinking
. Self-discipline
. The mastermind
. Applied faith
. A pleasing personality
. Personal initiative
. Enthusiasm
. Controlled attention
. Teamwork
. Learning from defeat
. Creative vision
. Budgeting time and money
. Maintaining sound physical and mental health
. Using cosmic habit force (universal law)
If man is right, his world will be right.
Identify your self with a successful image.
The starting point of all achievements is definiteness of purpose with a PMA.
What a mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind of man can achieve with PMA.
Chapter 3
Clear The Cobwebs from Your Thinking
Are you seeing the mote in the other fellow’s eyes?
When I am faced with a problem that involves misunderstanding, with the other persona, I should first start with my self.
Necessity is the mother of invention and the father of crime.
Honesty is inherent in PMA.
As he thinks in his heart, so is he. If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
According to your faith, be it unto you.
Faith with out works is dead.
Whatsoever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.
If God be for us, who can be against as?
Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; nock and the door shall be opened unto you.
Ignorance is the result of inertia.
Direct your thoughts with a PMA and you to control your and to ordair you destiny.
Chapter 4
Will you Dare to Explore the Powers of your Mind?
You are a mind with a body.
A little knowledge my be a dangerous thing.
Chapter 5
And Something More
You don’t need to be ashamed to be a failure.
Once a principle has been acquired it becomes part of one and is never lost.
Use the simplest but most important of instruments ever invented- paper and pencil- to write down flashes of inspiration when they occur.
Chapter 6
You’ve Got a Problem? That’s Good
Negative attitude are often contagious and ban habits are contagious.
Keep your mind on he things you want and off the things you don’t want.
It takes only one idea followed by an action, to succeed when others fail.
One man said, ì I have a problem. That’s awful’ The other said,’ I have got a problem. That’s good!’
Problems is the seed of greater benefits to those who have PMA.
Chapter 7
Learn To See
What we see, is always the interpretation of the mind.
To hear does not necessarily imply attention or application. To listen always does.
Chapter 8
The Secret of Getting Things Done
Success must be continually practice, or it will take wings and fly away.
Now is the time to act.
It is better for people to do something and pay nothing, than to pay dues and do nothing.
Chapter 9
How to Motivate Your Self
13 Virtues ñ self-motivators for self-suggestion
. Temperance
. Silence
. Order
. Resolutions
. Frugality
. Industry
. Sincerity
. Justice
. Moderation
. Cleanliness
. Tranquility
. Chastity
. Humility
Hope is the magic ingredient in motivating your self and others.
Chapter 10
How to Motivate Others
A letter can change a life for the better.
To speak atheistically and overcome timidity and fear: Talk loudly, talk rapidly, emphasize important words; hesitate, keep a smile in your voice, modulate.
Anything in life worth having is worth working for.
Chapter 11
Is There a Short Cut to Riches?
Think With Positive Mental attitude and grow rich.
Chapter 12
Attract- Don’t Repel- Wealth
The more you give of that which is good and desirable- the more you get.
Write down your goal
Give yourself a deadline.
Set your standards high.
Aim high.
Where will you be and what will you be doing 10 years from today if you keep on doing what you are doing now?
Chapter 13
If You Don’t Have Money- Use OPM
When you want to make a deal with someone, develop a plan that will give him what he wants, and in doing so, get what you want.
Chapter 14
How to Find Satisfaction in your Job
Satisfaction is a mental attitude.
Defeat my be a stepping-stone or may be a stumbling block depending on whether your attitude is positive or negative.
Chapter 15
Your Magnificent Obsession
Let every occasion be a great occasion for you cannot know when fate my be taking your measure for a larger place.
A burning desire can generate desire to action that is imperative to great achievements.
Just keep giving till the master stop giving you.
Chapter 16
How to Raise Your Energy Level
A failure uses up as much energy in his work at failing as a successful person use in living successes.
Chapter 17
You Can Enjoy Good Health and Live Longer
All the wealth in the world cannot, by itself, buy good health.
Chapter 18
Can you Attract Happiness?
One of the surest way to find happiness for your self to devote you energies towards making someone else happy. To be happy, make others happy.
Chapter 19
Get Rid of That Guilt Feeling
Anything which deters you from noble achievement in life should be cast aside.
Chapter 20
Success Quotient
To learn one must pay the price. Knowledge? You must seek it out,
Saw an act, and you ripe a habit. Saw a habit, and you ripe a character. Saw a character, and you ripe a destiny.
Chapter 21
Awake the sleeping Giant Within you.
Name it and it can be yours with PMA.
The highest idea of man is the will of God.
Chapter 22
The Amazing Power of Bibliography
. Proverbs 22:7
. Mark 9:23; 11:24
. Mathew 9:29
Understand how to achieve any desirable goal that does not violet the laws of God or the rights of your fellow men.
PART II – PERSONAL IMPERCT AND PRACTICAL VALUES
In this generation, knowledge has increase and most people have great ideas on the vision and things they want to do and become. However, very few people live to fulfill their dreams and visions. This are the people who have discover the secret of success through a positive mental attitude.
Everyone wants to be great, but people don’t want to pay the price of entering the gates of greatness. It’s only a positive mental attitude that can make one overcome all the hindrances that block people from receiving the fruits of their treasured vision.
Success through a positive mental attitude has put me into motion. I will not sit back and wait for things to take their course. I will cause things to happen. If you don’t decide what you want to do, the world will take you wherever it feels like, and you may end up in a wilderness you never desired. Now is the time to act!
In times of necessity, we should learn to see well because this are the times that we may either improve our lives or worsen the situation. This book has made me to change my perspective on the term call problem.
We are creators by nature, which means we initiate changes. The moment we initiate changes, we create problems. Problem is the key to our significant. God created you and me to be a walking solution to someone with a problem. Our lives are only meaningful when we solve problems.
The starting point to all achievements is definiteness of purpose. I should have a time frame work for the things I want to achieve and a deadline to when they should take place. My daddy normally says that the things that you are doing now will determine your tomorrow. No matter how much you desire, if you cannot change your habit, you cannot change your future. Your habit is a permanent you.
One of the problems that is facing the people today and especially the third world countries, is that people live as though there is never tomorrow. We should have both short and long site in order to blend our destiny.
Good health, love, work, and happiness, should dominate my life. Success is not only in having lots of money; but is mostly living in good health, love, happiness, and being at peace with each other especially your creator.
Everything in life worth having, is worth working for. When you get that which is rightful yours in the right way, everyone will appreciate you in the society, and even God will be looking at you and say, ì This is my beloved son;’ because your ways are upright. There is a Swahili saying that says that whoever toils in the sun, will eat under a shade. That which you have work for, will always be sweet when you get it rightful.
To learn one must pay the price. Knowledge? You must seek it out. And once you find it apply it. Even the Bible says, my people perish for lack of knowledge.
Success through a positive mental attitude has changed my life. That which I want I must get it though a PMA. Therefore, I have decide to look where no one is looking, do what other people fear to do, go where they don’t go, and once I am inside, to ask for divine guidance. I just must be a different person in order to achieve extremely great results ever.
PART III – SUMMARY
This is a very powerful book. When you read you not only get the message the author is passing across but also you get motivated into action. It’s a book that talks on why the state of your mental attitude is very important, because it will determine your life. The way to success is very simple: A Positive Mental Attitude. It’s upon you to decide.
he secret of getting things done is: Do it now! What your mind can conceive through a positive mental attitude, it can achieve. It’s a recommendable book. People should read such like books and awaken the sleeping giant within them. Name it and it can be yours with Positive Mental Attitude.
Real Magic
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
PART I – CONTENT REVIEW
CHAPTER 1
A Transcendent Of Magic And Miracles
I have been all things unholy; if God can through me, He can work through anyone.
Three paths through enlightenment
The world is not to be put in order, this world is order incarnate. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order.
Enlightenment through suffering. Life gives examples and unless you learn from
your mistakes you are domed to repeat them
Enlightenment through out come. What is in this experience that I can use in a beneficial way, even if I donít understand why itís happening right now?
Enlightenment through purpose.
Getting To Purpose
Every single event of your life is in some way related to the next event.
Where there is great love, there is always miracles
The great and glorious masterpiece of man is how to live with purpose
Real magic, miracles and purpose
Behave in ways consistent with love and harmony and do not be attached in any way to the fruits of your labor. Live your life entirely on purpose and renounce any and all credit that my come your way from your actions.
You show up with nothing. You leave with nothing. All you truly can do with this life in form is to give it away. Purpose is always about giving.
Complete possession is prove only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.
When the student is ready
When the student is ready the teacher will appear
When you are green you grow, when you are ripe you rot
Seven beliefs of manifesting real magic
There is an invisible and but knowable force within you
Your thoughts are something that you control and they originate within you. The
ancestor to every action is thought.
There are no limits. People who believe only what they can see or prove scientifically are limited by the current level of sophistication of our measuring devices.
Your life has a purpose
You overcome weaknesses by leaving it behind
When you examine what you believe to impossible, you can then change your believes
You can go beyond logic. There are some who will never believe it unless they see it. Others will see it because they believe it.
CHAPTER 2
Becoming A Spiritual Being
We are born into the world of nature; our second birth is in the world of spirit
Man may have a nonmaterial consciousness capable of influencing matter. I.e. you have the capacity to create miracles and live of real magic by using yourself to your physical reality.
Itís with our thoughts that we create our reality
The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action
You do not have to sleep to make contact with your soul
Realize that you have been taught whom to hate and that these thoughts are as the result of geographic accident of our birth
You will not be punish for your anger, you will be punish by your anger
CHAPTER 3
Creating A Miracle Mind Set
As our case is new, we must think and act new
Fourteen keys for creating a miracle mind set
Reserve you judgment and disbelieve. Just because I canít see it or do not fully understand it, it does not mean it is nonexistent.
Create a real magic zone in your mind. You are a spiritual being having a human experience and in this spiritual realm there are no limitations.
Affirm your self as a non- limited person.
Develop a new mind ñset towards the concept on intuition.
Discover the secret that sits in the center and knows. Seeing into nothingness-that is the true seeing, the eternal seeing.
Learn to learn through knowing and trusting rather than doubting and fearing.
Affirm that your intentions creates your reality.
Experience surrender and satori.
Learn to act as if the life you are visualizing were already here. An expert is somebody who believe in his own expertise and isnít afraid to act on those feelings.
Live according to your spiritual self first and your physical self second.
Study the paradox, ì you can never get enough of what you donít want.î
Ask nothing of anyone and practice unconditional acceptance.
Begin to develop authentic power for your self.
Practice daily meditation.
CHAPTER 4
Real Magic And Your relationship
—– All you behold; though it appears without, it is within, in your imagination, of which this world of mortality ids just but a shadow.
Indeed, boundaries disappear when you commit yourself to miracles
CHAPTER 5
Real Magic And Your Prosperity
Circumstance do not make a man, they reveal him
You donít need anything else to experience prosperity. Prosperity is first and foremost a mind game.
Authentic power does not come to you from the acquisition of money, because without money you would then be power less. Authentic power comes from your soul, that place that is always within you.
CHAPTER 6
Real Magic And Your Personal Identity
Talent is really a quality that is defined through comparison.
Your are a genius when you know that you have the intellectual capacity to create your own happiness, and when you know whom or what to consult.
If you want to know what your thoughts were like yesterday, look at your body today. If you want to know what your body will be like tomorrow, look at your thoughts today.
Stay focus on what you are for rather than what your are against.
Keep those words, ìnow you know better,î high in your consciousness.
CHAPTER 7
Real Magic And Your Physical Health
Every thought you have is a miracle incapable of being explain away by logical scientific discourse.
CHAPTER 8
Real Magic And The Spiritual Revelation
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed itís the only thing that ever has.
Thoughts in the shape of ideas can spread like wild fire through the universe.
Your thoughts create either prosperity or scarcity in your life.
Your thoughts create your physical reality.
A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial until finally, it becomes what everyone knows.
PART II – PERSONAL IMPACT AND PRACTICAL VALUE
For a long time I use to wonder and ask myself the same question that many people ask; why me? Why should it happen like this? However, now I have understand that every event that happens to me, there is an experience that I can use in a beneficial way even if I don’t understand why it’s happening then.
Our lives will only have a dramatic change when we fully understand our purpose. Purpose is the force that causes people to activate the continual flow of recourses from God to their respective fields of assignment. This is always about giving.
The purpose of life for every mankind is in giving out. There is something in you and me that the outside world is in need off. If you don’t bring it out, it will be destroy in you hence destroying your life. When you share with others, that which you are giving will continue to grow and blossom in your life. Therefore, blessed those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.
As a spiritual being in a physical body, this book has help me to eliminate all the limitations that were still bothering my life. I have the capacity to live a life of real magic and there is nothing that can stop me. In the spiritual real there are no limitations.
By the power of serving in love, which is compassion in action, I can go around influencing the world to be a better place for every one.
We should not be driven by fear and anger; but love should motivate us to serve each other. God is love. He who does not know how to love, does not know God.
Most people fail and become miserable in life just because they are busy comparing success with the lives of others. This should not be so. What I have learn is that one should stay focus on what he or she wants and have intellectual capacity to create own happiness. Because, you can never get enough of what you don’t want.
My thoughts will create either prosperity or scarcity. Thoughts create physical reality. Thus far my life has reach and all that I have achieved or fail to achieve it has been as the result of my thinking. I have come to understand that I should not listen to my circumstances; rather I should follow that which I believe.
Everything starts with our thinking. Even the mighty legends that have been before us did not listen to the oppositions they faced, they listen to the voice that whatever a mind of man can conceive and believe, it will achieve.
Thoughts are so powerful that they either make you or break you; but they never leave you neutral.
Now it has become obvious that I can be all that I want. Beyond doubt, Iím sure of attaining my destiny and there is nothing no not one that can stop me. My life has change for the better. I never knew before that I have all it takes to be what I want.
This is it; I act as if the life that I visualize is already here. Every thought I have is a miracle incapable of being explained by logical, scientific discourse. Indeed, the boundaries disappear when you commit yourself to miracles.
PART III – SUMMARY
There are many good books that people can read, but this is one among the best books I can recommend. This is a book that has cause a great impact in my life.
When you read this book, you feel like you are listening to the author speaking to you passionately from his heart. This book has made me to see beyond the physical state of my life. I donít need anything else to experience prosperity. What I need I already have. Prosperity is first and foremost a mind game.
This is an authentic book. It does not violate the laws of God and neither does it criticize any religion. Furthermore, it does not attack scientific inventions and discoveries.
No matter how hard/stiff-necked you are, you can’t read this book and fail to experience a change in your life.
I have enjoyed and love every bit of this book. Especially on the area of the purpose of life, meditation, the secret that sits in the center and knows; among others. I like this: Seeing into nothingness ñ that is the true seeing, the eternal seeing.
I wonder, can anyone read such like book and fail to change?
Your Sacred Self
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
PART I – Content Review
CHAPTER 1
Your life’s Greatest Challenge
The act of observing affects the creation.
CHAPTER 2
Recognizing the Limits of Your Past
You own the body, you are not the body.
If you are what you do, then when you don’t, you are not.
CHAPTER 3
Releasing Old beliefs
My past is nothing more than the trail that I have left behind. What drives my life today is the energy that I generate in my present moments.
Blaming your surroundings is a futile exercise because wherever you go, you are still there.
Rely on the message of the teacher, not on his personality.
By itself, your body has no purpose.
All people are in your life to teach you valuable lessons.
When you learn not only to abandon beliefs but to convert them into knowings, you will have only that inner knowing to consult when traumas surface in your life.
Your believes are transitory, your knowings are eternal.
CHAPTER 4
Banishing the Doubt
Mere knowledge is not enough, the knower must be known…Without the knowledge of the knower; there can be no peace.
You can not fail at anything. Everything you do produces a result. It is what you do with the result that counts. Labeling yourself a failure is meaningless.
When you know that you are on a spiritual mission, you become independent of the good opinion of others.
Your joy is divine-your suffering is divine.
CHAPTER 5
Cultivate the Witness
I realize that I am always free to let go and observe my life.
In my world, nothing ever goes wrong. You do not have problems, only your body has problems.
The witness does not identify with the problems. You see those problems as the concerns of the body which can be resolve without inner despair.
Self-knowledge is detachment…. When you know that you lack nothing, that all there is, is yours, desire ceases.
I am more than what bothers me.
CHAPTER 6
Shut Down the Inner Dialogue
Peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is the experience of God.
The storms will continue in your life…Serenity will no longer be define as freedom from storms, but will be known as peace during that wild weather.
CHAPTER 7
Free the Higher Self from the Ego
No one is special. Specialness denies the perfect equality of creation. It also denies the totality of God’s love.
CHAPTER 8
From Turmoil to Peace
You’ll not find peace except the peace of God.
CHAPTER 9
From Deception to Truth
You do not need outside approval. More important, you need the truth so you can be in alignment with your higher self.
CHAPTER 10
From Fear to Love
For this purpose we have been created: To love and be loved.
When love is the focus of your life, you don’t need to fear a poor performance. You know in your hear that you are much more than how you perform.
CHAPTER 11
From Outward Appearance to Inner Substance
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them._
When you need more of anything to feel positive about your self, your are always in a race without a finish line, and you can not achieve spiritual bliss.
Feed before you are fed. Give before you get.
CHAPTER 12
From Striving to Arriving
I know that I am already whole and I need not chase after anything in order to be complete.
If you understand, things are just as they are. If you don’t, things are just as they are.
CHAPTER 13
From Dominance to Tolerance
Never correct someone infront of others. No one appreciates being publicly corrected.
CHAPTER 14
From Toxicity to Purity
Remember, God does not play favorites. In reality, no one is any better looking or more gorgeous than any one else. The only difference between a flower and a weed is a judgment.
CHAPTER 15
Creating a Collective Spirit of Sacred Selves
None of us are separate from each other. Living on a round planet symbolize the impossibility of choosing side.
Everything hat is manifest in the material form is changing at all moments.
There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.
If you can’t learn silence, you can’t listen to anyone. If you want to listen from God, you must learn to accept silence as part of our lives.
You are not this physical body. Even when some parts of your body cease to function, the real you does not stop with them.
If you allow your past to dominate you, you’ll never change to perform better because you will live to believe that you are your past.
When you know that you know no one nor anything that can stop you from this truth.
When you understand your purpose, you come to understand this truth that nothing goes wrong. Everything that happens contributes towards the successful destiny that you are aspiring to have.
Your body should not control you even for once. You own it. Detach yourself from its evil demands and never should you give in to its desires.
We are all the same created by one God. The only difference is the temples (bodies) that we have been put in.
Moving in love is the only way we can find it easy to accept that we are the same and one. Love penetrates all zones and hindrances.
PART II – Personal Impact
We are living today in a noisy and busy world where people have detached themselves from their true spiritual being. We have so much engaged ourselves in our physical being such that we are drifting from the true purpose of life. How can we get to hear the one who created us if we don’t know what it means to be silent and meditate?
Your Sacred Self is a book that has really help me. I have been having a false understanding about myself, but now the truth is being unveil to me by the help of this book.
Many a times I have been in constant worry about my physical state, changes that are happening, my occupation, relationships, the past that wasn’t successful etc. This among other things have even try to impose a threat in my healthy life. Now I have come to realize that I’m neither this body nor what I do. I own the body. The poor past should not make me feel like a failure by haunting me every time. My past is nothing more than the trail that I have left behind. What drives my life today is the energy that I generate in my present life.
In understanding our purpose, we need to go beyond the act of believing into knowing. Knowing gives you more strength than believing. As this book has help me to understand; when I know that I’m on a spiritual mission, I become independent of the opinion of others. I do not need outside approval. This is what used to trouble me; what will people say? What will they think of me now that I have venture into this?
Now the truth is becoming obvious as it sinks in my heart day by day. I know who I am and what I am for. Every time as I perform my duties and when I meditate I see myself on the path of my purpose proceeding unaware of the surrounding distractions.
For everything that happens, there is a purpose. There is nothing like a misfortune. Everything is in divine plan to reveal my purpose.
Whenever I feel low and negative feelings trying to depress me, I confess this words: In my world nothing ever goes wrong. I do not have any problems, only my body has problems. I’m the witness and I does not identify with the problems. The problems are the concerns of the body which can be solve without inner despair. Although the physical state can experience the pain, I don’t have to carry the pain to my true self, which is divine. By doing this, the pain eventually disappears even in the physical. I’m divine and divine design shines through me.
The storms will continue in life. Serenity will no longer be defined as freedom from storm but will be known as peace during that wild weather.
No one is special. Specialness denies the perfect equality of creation. It also denies the totality of God’s love. This does not mean that we should disrespect our leaders, but in as much as we respect them, we should know that we are all the same creation. They are vulnerable to mistakes just like anyone else.
I have learned that I should share my love to others. I should think of the welfare of others first. They are just like me. What I want they also want. Then why should I think of my self to be better than them? None of us are separate from each other. Therefore, for this purpose we have been created: to love and be loved.
Part 3 – Summary
Your Sacred Self is really an inspiring book. This book helps us to know our true identity. Right from the first page, you feel the urge to read more and know what the next inspiring words are about. This powerful book has helped me to go beyond the physical and connect with my divinity.
Your body by itself has no purpose. Its only when you come to understand your sacred self then you will be able to fulfill your purpose regardless of the oppositions that my arise.
This words: In my world, nothing ever goes wrong; have caused a new revelation in my life. I find myself confessing them every time when I’m confronted with any situation that causes fear and despair.
This book has also strengthened me in my Christian faith. Most of the things the write is talking about are agreeing with the bible.
I’m more than what bothers me. This words alone can help you live a happy life in spite of your circumstances. I’m already whole and I need not chase after anything in order to be complete. If you understand, things are just as they are. If you don not understand, things are just as they are.
Nevertheless, Your Sacred Self is a critical book. You need to read it with much care in order to grasp all the truth that the writer is talking about and not to misquote him. For instance, the author has strongly criticized the ego and the act of believing in things you have not proven. I’m afraid for people who feel low about themselves; this might contribute in destroying their incentive and self-esteem as well.
Above all, this captivating book is a good counter check for those who have engaged themselves in seeking more and more thinking that more is better to the extend that their lives are at stake. When you need more of anything to feel positive about yourself, you are always in a race without a finish line, and you cannot achieve spiritual bliss. I have enjoyed this book, I like it.
Psycho-Cybernetics 2000
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
PART 1 – Content Review
If it ain’t broke, why are you fixing it? If the original idea was good, why are you tinkering with it?
CHAPTER 1
Your Self-image And How It Affects You
No real behavioral changes could take place unless the self-image was changed.
The winner is the man/woman who does not personalize poor results. Such a person can be disappointed with out feeling like a failure.
People always feel, act and behave according to what they imagine….This is because the subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between a real experience and one that is vividly imagined.
CHAPTER 2
How To Program Your Success Mechanism
Anything that can be learned, Can be reevaluated and challenged. Anything that has been challenged can be leaned with new data to replace the old.
Change comes about through awareness of negative self-image, by challenging the bad habits that supports this image, and by creating a new positive self image that allows us to act and achieve worthwhile goals.
By hearing yourself speak the thought,….It’s a double reinforcement: your ears your voice giving the order. It makes your focus clearer.
The subconscious mind always says yes to every thing the conscious mind tells it.
The subconscious mind always move in the direction the in which the conscious mind tells it.
Once the conscious mind has made its selection, all the possible options are eliminated for that given moment.
Any path to success is defined by mistakes and corrections. Don’t dwell on your mistakes-but don’t be afraid of them either.
If you watch limits instead of destinations, you bump up against those limits every time.
CHAPTER 3
Fake It Till You Make It: Imagining Your Way To Success
Anything you imagine to be true is accepted as true by your subconscious mind.
Your behavior follows what you believe to be true.
Acting as if it were true will in effect make it true.
We act or fail to act not because of will as is believed, but because of imagination.
The broken record. You restate the negative comment in a non negative way, coupling it with the massage you want the other person to hear, and you repeat it the same way every time.
CHAPTER 4
Free Your Self From False Beliefs
Change is too scary. Yet often the only thing that keeps us from breaking out of our confining life patterns is a belief that a chain is holding us back.
CHAPTER 5
Give Your Success Mechanism Some Slake: Learn To Relax
Learn through subconscious repetition (when you are not even paying attention) but not through force of will. Relax
CHAPTER 6
Just Say Yes: De-stress Yourself With Drug -free Tranquilizers
Your stress comes not from an event but from your response to it and that response is nothing but a habit you can replace.
New habits are learned only through a constant repetitions.
A healthy mind in a health body.
Delaying the response breaks up and interferes with the automatic workings of conditioning.
CHAPTER 7
Live Life by Your Own Script: How To Chose And Set Goals
If you don’t know what you want, you are granted not to get it. If you want to hit a target, you have to have got to have one.
If you can’t commit to writing them down (goals) you won’t commit to following through. If you won’t commit to paper, you won’t connect to reality.
If that goal doesn’t include time a time-specific dimension, your horse will find any number of excuse for continuing to graze on the pasture. After all the rider didn’t say when.
CHAPTER 8
Moving Ahead: From Goal Setting To Goal…..Getting.
Choose a series of rewards to give your self at each milestone.
If you can’t stand the heat, don’t get out of the kitchen; just turn down the heat.
Goal – a target for your creative mechanism to act on.
CHAPTER 9
Your Success Mechanism Revisited: Drawing A Blueprint For Change
Remember it took years of reinforcement to get you to believe your old tapes. Allow your self the time it takes to learn the new ones. You’ll find that your patience was well worth it.
CHAPTER 10
Beyond The Self-image: Shaping Your Personality For Success
We are not on earth to live up to someone else’s expectations. To make your unique contributions to the world, we each need to prize our individual worth and pursue our dreams.
It doesn’t matter who is write, but what is write.
Change can be terrifying; old habits can be comforting even when we acknowledge that we want to change.
Be willing to make a few mistakes, to suffer a little pain to get what you want.
Confidence is built on an experience of success.
CHAPTER 11
Heading The Danger Signals: How To Avoid Failure.
No one is immune to negative feelings and attitudes…..The important thing is to recognize them for what they are and to take a positive to correct course.
It was frustration that led you to seek change in your life.
CHAPTER 12
Removing The Glitches From Your Personality
CHAPTER 13
Making The most Psycho-cybernetic: Being Alive VS Living
Don’t react to imaginary failure’ practice being alive.
Success- S-ense of direction Failure- F-rustation
U-nderstanding A-ggressiveness
C-ourage I-nsecurity
C-harity L-onelness
E-steem U-ncertanity
S-elf – confidence R-esentment
S-elf – acceptance E-mptyness
Craft – C-ancel Seeds- S-ituation
R-eplace E-valuation
A-ffirm E-motions
F-ocus D-o
T-rain S-elf-esteem
Smart – S-pecific
M-easurable
A-ction-oriented
R-ealistic
T-ime-conscious
Self-image define our being, so it’s up to us to work on it. It’s not hard to replace old habits as people think, but by reaffirming to your self that change is possible, you’ll attain it.
The outlined points shows that once you have confess it, you should not be afraid of mistakes and limitations because eventually you’ll get it.
Believing it; will bring it. Don’t be afraid of change. You will steel find a way of tackling the outcome that arises as the result of the change.
Relaxing and taking your time as you respond to events helps in avoiding stress and aggressiveness.
Knowing our goals is the first step towards success. However this is not just enough. You have to allow your self time as you work toward this change.
PART 2 – Personal Impact
There is nothing that is so horrible and terrifying than to have a poor self – image. When your self-esteem is destried, you live a life full of frustration and fear always. You no longer value anything about your self.
This book has helped me to restore some of the most important thinks I had lost in my life.
Some time back I worked in one among the best casinos in our country. Among the bosses who were supervising the work, there was a lady who made my life a really misery. She could criticize almost everything I did. Even when it was evident that my work was good, there was never a time she could see this.
This made me to develop a low self-esteem. I felt so low about my self that I stated to believe her criticism. Although it was her nature to talk to people like that, for me I was really affected. It reached to the extent that whenever she was around I could make silly mistakes because I was afraid of her and therefore I was focusing on the mistakes. Were it not for the directors who intervened by setting our shifts to differ, I don’t know how it would have end up.
The subconscious mind always says ‘yes’ to everything the conscious mind tells it. The subconscious mind always moves in the direction the conscious mind points it.
The act of CRAFT (Cancel, Replace, Affirm, Focus, Train), Has really help me in training my ‘Horse’ to get to follow the new and right path of my life.
I have decided to fake it till I make it happen. Change can be terrifying; old habits can be comforting even when we acknowledge that we want to change. Psycho-cybernetics has help me not to be afraid making mistakes and even to be ready to suffer a little pain to get what I want.
Stress results from the way we respond outside events and not form the events themselves.
My experience with the lady at the casino did distress me. Although it is some time now, I have come to discover that I had not completely erased those old tapes. This is because I had developed a negative attitude towards women who are in leadership. Every time I could see them, I could see people who are up to looking for mistakes and shortcomings. Now I’m happy because ‘craft’ is helping me to overcome this completely.
The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. This book has help me to understand that the act of delaying the response breaks up, and interferes with the automatic working of conditioning. The Bible says, be quick at listening and slow at answering. Self- control is strength. Right thoughts is mastery. Calmness is power.
For a long time I used to think; why do I have to write my goals? After all I know what I want. However I have come to discover that I was fooling myself. If some one had to ask me to explain my goals, I could not do it fully because I had not commiedt myself to writing and so I had only a glimpse of what I wanted.
If you can’t commit to writing them down (goals), you won’t commit to following through. If you won’t connect to paper, you won’t connect to reality.
One among the most important things I have learn and that will stick in my life completely is that; we are not on earth to live up to someone else’s expectations. To make our unique contribution to the world, we each need to prize our individual worth and pursue our dreams.
PART 3 – Summary
This has been a book that I have happen to find at just the right time in my life.
If you are one that is distress and you have lost the vision to fulfill your goals, this is a recommendable book for you. It will turn you in the right path. If you are a wandering person with no define goal to achieve in life, this book will help you make a right decision.
I have loved and enjoyed every bite of this book. From the questioner, how to program your success mechanism, moving ahead from goal setting to goal getting, shaping your personality to success; among others.
I like this: The subconscious mind always says ‘yes’ to everything the conscious mind tells it. The subconscious mind always moves in the direction in which the conscious mind points it. What of this? Fake it till you make it. Imagine your way to success.
This is a powerful book. The writer use day to day life examples and also testimonials from people who have made it to show us that we can make it. Psycho-cybernetics 2000 is a book that will stand the taste of time in helping people of all generations. It’s worth having it.
Giant Steps
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discus the main ideas that you found most important in this book and discus why they were important to you.
There are no failures in life. There are only results. Success is the results of good judgment; good judgment is the result of experience; and experience is often the result of bad judgment.
Every action we take produces results. What we do with and after the results matters a lot. If you are a pessimist, you will always look for faults and the term failure will always appear. However if you are an optimist, you will always find something to learn and to give you strength in any results hence the term failure will be non-existent. This has helped me to have a positive attitude in life.
Clarity is power.
When one is precise in what he wants, he ceases to whine and commences to fulfill his goals. Clarity causes a clearer focus, which makes it easy to pursue your goals. This has given me the understanding to set my goals the smart way and have the assurance of fulfilling them.
Courage unused diminishes; commitment unexercised wanes; passion unexpressed dissipates.
Anything that is not put into use tends to lose its significance in our lives because our attention shifts to focus on other things. Therefore, I have to look for every opportunity in my life to put these qualities into use in order to strengthen them.
Old patterns must be replaced not just eliminated.
Elimination without replacement creates an empty room that will be yearning for something, which eventually my lead back to the same habit evicted. In order for me to be in a better position whenever I’m trying to get ride of the old habits that I do not need, I must look for something to occupy that space. This way, it will be much more easy for me to escape the danger of going back to the old habits.
Any pattern that is continually reinforced will become an automatic and condition response.
This is one major way of reaching perfection. The more exercises you do, the more you learn new skills. There is no way you can fail to improve. We can condition any behavior if we do it with enough repetition and emotional intensity.
Just because you don’t see immediate result, does not mean you are not making progress.
Some of the things we do may immediately start to have a positive impact of which however our minds may not be in a position to grasp and understand immediately. Just because you do not see your desired result immediately, you don’t have to stop. Keep on persisting and in the end, the impact shall be felt fully. This has helped me to always remember that the first action, however small, contributes to the final and grand results that I am anticipating. I don’t have to quite.
Trying to achieve the pleasure of success without risking the pain of rejection would never work.
In the process of becoming successful, you come across people who may not share the same ideas and opinions as you. When you are rejected by some individuals, just understand that its not because you are wrong, probably, it may be they don’t have the same ideas as you. Therefore, the pain of rejection should not stop you. This has helped me to become more strong and more aggressive as I pursue my destiny.
Any limitations you have in life are probably just the result of limited reference experiences.
Expand your references and you will immediately expand your life,
The more you continue to overcome ignorance, the more you expand your life and territory, and thus all limitations dissipate. The best way to subdue ignorance is by exploring the wealth of literature, stories, myths, poetry, music, talking to strangers etc. This has helped me by causing me to enjoy the beauty of life as my mind is set to gain more knowledge from all aspects of life.
Large solutions start with individuals who take small but consisted action that build into worldwide change.
The steps that we take towards success are very important however small they may seem to be. Non-the-less, if they will ever be fruitful, it calls for consistency. The mark of a true champion is consistency. It’s all based on your habits. Every action that I take as an individual matters a lot if only I will be consistent.
If you want to play the game of life and win, got to play full out. Be willing to feel stupid, and be willing to try things that may not work. Other wise, how can you innovate? How can you grow and discover who you really are?
In life, many people are willing and really desiring to live successful lives, but they are afraid of the process. People fear to make mistakes and therefore they are not read to leave their comfort zones.
There is nothing wrong in trying. I will keep on trying regardless of what people may thing or say until I discover who I really am. In fact, what others may call stupidity may not be stupid to me. It may be a stepping-stone towards my destiny and latter on, they may see the point.
2. Can you relate the ideas or concept in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Relating this book to my circumstances is that the ideas in this book are widening my relationship with others. In order to overcome limitations, one has to expand his references. The best way to do this is by improving my relationship to others, making friends, talking to strangers etc. The book supports the belief that we are related to each other and therefore I should always think globally.
This book prepares one to be ready to confront all the oppositions on pursuit to your goals. All my goals call for commitment. I value the act of growing and improving in anything I do just as the book is talking about consistency. The mark of a true champion is consistency. It’s all based on your habits. The only true security in life comes from knowing that every single day you are improving yourself in some way.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learn from this book? Please explain.
There are no failures in life. There are only results. Success is the result of good judgment; good judgment is the result of experience; and experience often is the result of bad judgment.
This idea has helped me to completely eliminate the fear that comes along with term failure in life. In everything I do, definitely there are results. What I do with the results and after the results determines and shapes may life. The results may be pleasing or not, however, above all I will have learned something. Therefore the term failure does not exist.
Courage unused diminishes; commitment unexercised whines; passion unexpressed dissipates.
This idea has helped me to start looking for opportunities, however small they may seem to be, so that I can put into action the qualities that I have in order for me to keep on growing.
Just because you don’t see immediate results, it doesn’t mean you are not making progress.
This has cause me to be patience and consistent and never to quiet easily. It has strengthened my commitment.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
This book has changed and challenged my thinking in that I should not struggle in life. I should perceive life as a game. I should not be so conscious of what other people may say or think about what I do. If you want to play the game of life and win you’ve got to play full out. Be willing to feel stupid, and be willing to try things that may not work. Otherwise, how can you innovate? How can you grow and discover who you really are?
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
There are not any.
6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?
The section where: questions are the answer. These two questions: What have you learned today? And; when am I going to do something unusual and new? They may seem ordinary questions, but this time I have come to understand them in a different way. They have become a great help in my life.
I didn’t like the idea that the writer used to arrange the book into a 365 daily lesson. I have a feeling that this limited the author by confining him to fit his ideas into the 365 daily lesson plan. If he would have avoided this in writing the book, I think the book would flow much better.
7. In 50 wards or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
This is a great book talking on how larger solutions starts with individuals who take small but consistent actions that build into worldwide change. We can condition any behavior if we do it with enough repetition and emotional intensity.
Rating
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
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
Unconditional Life
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discus the min ideas that you found most important in this book and discus why they were important to you.
-People have to be transformed before the crisis. If not, they may find themselves with not enough time to enjoy the life that suddenly seems so worthwhile.
Most people have the habit of postponding their engagements mostly because they are afraid and not ready for the added responsibilities and tasks that comes along with the same. This has caused many people to regret of the wasted years when they discover that they don’t have the physical ability to fulfil the tasks that they evaded of which by then there is a demand and a necessity for them. And if happens that they endure to do them; they don’t live to enjoy them.
-To get somewhere, you have to leave somewhere.
For any progress to take place, there must be an action. This action involves leaving some things and places to stick to others. This helped me to understand that I should appreciate the moves that I make if at all I’m intending to get to any better standards in life.
-By itself, nothing out there has any definition without a perceiver.
Everything we see is of significance because we can observe and give our judgment. It’s our attitude and perception that gives life a meaning. Therefore, I have to work on my attitude towards life and make it beautiful.
-So long as our happiness depends upon objects out there, we are their prisoner. We have given our freedom away to things.
The world and all that is there in is always in constant change. Events always happen in our lives leading to others. If we want to live a healthy and happy life, we ought to set ourselves free from objects. They should not posses us rather we should posses them.
This has helped me to overcome being distress by petty things that happen around me. They should not rob me of my joy.
-We exist beyond law, beyond human and biological destiny.
Our lives would be more miserable if only we were bond and limited in this physical body. We have the ability to excel beyond the boundaries and limitations that our physical eyes can see. This is a God given ability and favour to us. I trust and believe that there are no limits. I can perform effectively with this knowledge ringing inside my heart.
-All of us are radiating our awareness out into the world and bringing its reflection back to us. If you awareness contains violence and dread, you will meet those qualities out there. If you awareness contains unconditional love, the world will that love.
What you give is what you get. There is no need wasting time blaming the circumstances. The world has not given you a raw deal. The qualities that you have and that you portray outside will attract people of the same traits towards you. I am to be more careful with the life that I share outside because the same will I get.
-Everything sorts itself out correctly and spontaneously once you become quiet.
Silence is one had thing for us to follow. Silence does not mean you are not in control and neither does it signify ignorance. In fact, being calm in times of crisis is a sign of a real champion. This is the only way I can get inspiration and know which steps to follow when I feel like I have reach the end.
-Renewal is one of life’s primary urges, like live and freedom, but even more important since all life needs renewing to keep ahead of the tireless process of destruction.
Without renewal, it becomes so hard for one to get the incentive to learn new skills in whatsoever field he is performing. In order to that may lead one to stagnation, renewal is a must. From it you gain more momentum to go to higher levels.
This has helped me always whenever I feel fatigued and bored.
-The eyes refuse to see what the mind does not know.
Every vision is interpreted by the mind. The eyes just serve as a channel to delivering the vision to the mind. Therefore, if the mind see anything that it does not comprehend, it reject’s it as unworthy thus the eyes have to reject it as non-existent.
This has caused me to know that sometimes I don’t have to stick to all that my mind understands. I have to go beyond what I know and have the faith that there is more to life than I can see.
-You are burn by fear, not by fire.
Fear has paralysed and destroyed most people than actual thing that they dreaded. Most of the time what we fear is not what that turns out to be. This has helped me to understand that another great step towards success is to overcome fear.
-Perfection is both natural and possible, something must be denying it and holding it back.
There are people who were just like us but they refused to be limited with their circumstances and proceeded to perform unto perfection. Everything is possible. If one would have this concept, it’s just a matter of time for the rest of the world to catch up with him.
-If you are ignorant about your own self, yourself will shrink to fit your conception.
You can never perform beyond what you believe. Whether you have been placed in a high position to serve and you are ignorant about your potential in that area, you will still fail in your duties. The same applies to if you have been placed in any low place to serve and you are aware of your true self, nothing will stop you from becoming what you are suppose to be. I have learn to improve on my level of awareness and excel.
2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values etc? Explain.
I can relate the ideas and concepts in this book to my circumstances in life. The concepts in this book have improved my relationship with others. This book has caused me to accept my self worth now, and know that I’m in a better position to do anything I want. It has caused me to see the need of cultivating a good relationship with each other, because in everyone there is a potential to success.
The book has driven me to accept and improve on the level of awareness as well as to being the silent witness. I believe in listening for divine guidance as the book has slightly talked of this.
The book has create a more strong force in my life that is propelling me towards fulfilling my goals, as it does not contradict my values in life.
This book has caused me to strongly believe that all things are possible. There don’t have to be an explanation in order to believe this. Perfection is both natural and possible, something must be denying it and holding it back.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you have learn from this book? Please explain.
-People grow old and die because they see other people grow old and die. Aging is not a fixed biological process; it’s just a bundle of perceptions we have picked up, taken into our bodies and given a physical shape.
I used to think that it’s a fixed process, however, this has open up my eyes. Here is the logic; why is it that we can have people of the same age but some will look more or even twice old than others? There is some truth in this.
-For every natural law that holds me down in my chair, another, still asleep in the field would allow me to fly.
From the examples and testimonies given in this book, I have been challenged to know that we have not yet fully exhaust all the knowledge and power invested in us. There is still more that the world is yet to see.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Yes, this book has challenged and changed my thinking many ways. It has shown me how my life is precious just as I am in spite of everything. Getting sick or being healthy is within my power. What I think and constantly believe matters a lot, because all the misery that people are feeling are basically self-inflicted.
The book has created a different level of confidence in my life. We exist beyond law, beyond human and biological destiny. Therefore if you are ignorant about your own self, yourself will shrink to fit your conception.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
No any.
6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?
The most helpful thing I have found in this book to me, is the concept that the writer is trying to pass in the book based on this phrase: Human will dictate to matter and not vice versa.
The least helpful thing is that he has used so many examples based on people’s lives experiences, which is good; however, some of them, he has left hanging with out giving us the exact message he want us to learn from them making the book even harder to understand.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the book is tying to convey.
The book is talking on how one can improve and perform to the fullest irrespective of the circumstances. The writer talks on how you can change your attitude and you thinking to develop a consciousness that can lead to a happy and prosperous life. This is the message: Human will dictate to matter and not vice versa.
Rating
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8
This is a powerful good book and also hard to comprehend. The author has not use prices points that one can use as a guideline to support the message being convey. It’s as though he has gone it parables leaving the rest of the work for you to figure out. Also he has used advanced English.
Nevertheless, it’s a very nice book.
The New Dynamics Of Winning
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discus the main ideas that you found most important in this book and discuss why they were important to you.
Champions are propelled by desire, not compelled by fear.
The power of desire can drive one to do anything in spite of the opposition he my be facing. While fear can paralyze one to the extent that he my not be able to do even what he knows better.
Once we discover our desires and go ahead to work on them, we will have discovered a force that can never be stop. This has work in my life and I have decided to let the power of desire to energize me as a driving force into my championship.
It’s 10 percent talent and 90 percent determination.
Some people fail in life just because they sit at the back and let the talent they have to work for them everything. They refuse to work hard and put in any effort, and therefore, their talent is as good as dead. I may be talented in particular areas of life, but the only way the talent will be fruitful is by me working on the 90 percent, which is guts and determination. Winning is the result of effort much more than ability. Every effort bares fruits, on the other had, ability alone cannot be productive.
Any goal can be achieved but first it must be broken down into a series of sub goals. Each smaller goal, should lead you, one day at a time to your lager goal.
Seeing yourself in the place that you are and where you want to be, may sometimes make you feel disillusioned that it may never work. It becomes easier for one to achieve the smaller goals as they lead to the lager goal. This way, you feel your effort rewarded hence increasing your moral. This has helped me now to start looking for every small action that I can involve myself into and that will lead to my destiny.
Winners work at doing things that the rest of the population won’t even consider trying.
For you to stand out triumphantly successful, unique and outrageous, surpassing all the adversities of life; you have to go the extra mile. Do something beyond ordinary and normal. This is what makes winners different from the rest of the population because they risk, and in risking, you discover the hidden treasures of life. I have decided to be doing something extra and beyond normal in every area of my life. This is what will make me a champion because I will always be ahead and ready for any eventuality unexpected.
Mistakes are painful when they happen. But years latter a collection of mistakes is called experience.
No one likes to be associated with any kind of mistake. The fear of making mistakes has even restrained some people from making any progress in life. The truth is that in the life of any experience persons. If you look at the track of their lives, you will see a collection of mistakes. This has helped me not to be depressed by the few mistakes that I make, rather to learn form them and continue my course.
During visualization exercises, the mind can’t tell the difference between a real performance and one that is imagined. And neither can the body.
What one visualize deeply, affects him physically because inside him he feels the pain and the ecstasy of what he is visualizing. My visions should always be positive so that they can drive my body in acting the same.
The more often you see the winners circle in your minds eyes, the sooner you will arrive there in person.
This is because what you see is what you get regardless of whether you know it or not. This has transposed my thinking and behavior into the right way towards my goals. I see myself as though I am already there because I know it’s just a matter of time and I will be there.
Bend with the wind and you will be there when the hurricane passes and the good weather returns.
If you become so adamant and stand against the changes that may be appearing occasionally on your way to success, you may end up being destroyed completely. One is suppose to go with the times and the seasons order not to be left out. Goals are best achieve by going with the tide and with the wind, without force, anger, or impenitence.
There is a danger in not being acquainted with new changes that are constantly taking place in this generation today. Don’t become so well-adapted to a specific set of circumstances that you can’t change when conditions begin to fluctuate. Otherwise, you my find your self going the way of the dinosaurs.
From this I have learned to adjust and fit to every circumstance that are surrounding me. I am not offended by any adversity, but I learn lessons form them to grow stronger.
It’s not who you are that holds you back. It’s what you think you are not.
You may have great potential to do something in life, but as long as you think that you are not able to do it, you will not make it. Anybody who believes that he can make it, he will make it no matter how hard the task may be. As a man thinketh, so is he. I have stop to blame my circumstances, but rather to monitor my thinking.
If you’ve got the guts to say you are in control of your own destiny, the world will respect you for it, even if events prove you were wrong.
The world wants to identify with people who have got a purpose and direction in life. When you have a purpose and direction, people will follow you even when you are wrong. This calls for trusting your instincts and believing you are worthy. I don’t need outside approval for me to continue with my vision.
School is never out for the winner. Education is a life-long process.
Every single day of our lives we are in the process of learning. But for those who grow into real champions, they always bare this in mind; they have to acquire as much knowledge as possible and the knowledge should be applied in their daily life to be productive. This has helped me to develop a passion for learning more and more.
2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationship, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
This book has improved my relationship with others so much. It has made me to stop confining my relationship only to the people that I’m familiar with. It has shown me the importance of breaking daily routine and trying different and new things.
I am a person who believe that every effort; eventually is rewarded. As the book is stating, for you to sit at the comfortable and high chair, you must first start to prepare by going into the painful and vigorous process of practicing in advance.
There is no short cut into becoming a champion. I value sincerity and getting things the right way as the book is advocating. Be smart in everything you are doing, and also be mindful of other people’s welfare.
3. What are the most new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Pease explain.
Any goal can be achieved but first it must be broken down into a series of sub goals. Each smaller goal, should lead you, one day at a time to your larger goal.
I have been having a problem of straggling to achieve great goals without looking at the small goals I achieve on my way to the great goals. This has caused me to start appreciating myself for the small goals and to reward my self, making life more sweet and enjoyable.
During visualization exercises the mind can’t tall the difference between a real performance and one that is imagined. And neither can the body.
From the book, I have understood that in visualization exercise, the body’s muscles tend to use the same energy as in real thing. This has caused me to value and treasure the act of visualization.
Losers let it happen, winners make it happen.
The beginning of failing in life is not to make decisions, but to let things happen by default. As a winner, I have recognized that I should always be in motion. I should make decisions and cause things to happen.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain.
This book has challenged and changed my thinking greatly. It has ignited high expectations in my life like never before. Now there is a force propelling me to success, which is desire. I’m no longer compelled by fear. Nothing in the world can take the place of determination. Determination and persistence alone are omnipotent.
This book has challenged me into the act of visualization. I have started to see myself as though I’m already what I want. I speak to myself in the present form convincing my mind that I’m already there.
My mind has been driven off the negative feelings that have been confining and creating a small world for me than I deserve to have.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
No
6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?
Winners believe that they have the inner resource to survive any number of setbacks on the way to achieving their goals. What you see real is what you get regardless of whether you know it or not.
I have really been help to develop a coachable spirit.
I don’t have anything that I can single out as least helpful in this book.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
The book is talking on how one can improve his life and achieve his goals fully and become a champion in his life. The book shows you why paying the prize is a worthwhile thing and that it can never destroy you.
Rating
A. How interesting was it to read? 8
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
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
This is a powerful, attractive and compelling book. I have enjoyed every bit of it. For all the aspiring champions and even those who are not sure of what their lives hold for them, here is an authentic book that will drive you from your comfort zones into the world of action and reality. Failure, impossibility, frustration and hopelessness; can never be part of your life. Once you understand the truth, you can never just be the same. You are a winner as long as you have done your best.
Unlimited Power
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
– Power is the ability to act.
If one will ever produce any results, he has to take action. There is no question about this. If you can’t put into action your knowledge, ideas, or wisdom; then you are of no significant in this life. This book has imparted something in my life. I just feel that I should be doing something; I have been motivated to be on motion. It will be so sad, so pathetic, and even unforgivable if I will sit back and do nothing after reading all this inspiring and compelling books. Therefore, the truth still holds; the great end of life is not knowledge but action.
– In this society, those with information and the means to communicate it have what the kings use to have – unlimited power.
Hear is something that has enlightened me to take steps towards strengthening my leadership skills. The ability to acquire information is very virtual in being successful in any age, however one has to go a step further and know the means to communicate it.
This book has clearly described how information is always within us and that we can easily access it especially in this generation. All this skills are within us, through the books, media, and even emulating the people who are doing what we desire. That’s why I have come to full believe that anyone if he will make up his mind, he is in a position to elevate his life to whichever standards he desire.
– Successful people’s lives have shown us time and again that the quality of our lives is determined not by what happens to us, rather by what we do about what happens.
I have been challenged so much by some of the revelations this book has impart in my life. For instance, being depressed, happy, successful, or a failure; is nothing more than a decision you have made out of your circumstances.
Nothing in the world has any inherent meaning. How we feel about something and what we do in the world are dependant upon perception of it. You can decide to term your setbacks as failures and live a miserable life, or you can see them as lessons and opportunities to advance in a new way.
From this book, we are getting the understanding that people who succeed do not have fewer problems than people who fail. The only people with no problems are those in cemeteries. It’s not what happens to us that separates failures from success. It is how we perceive it and what we do about what “happens” that makes the difference. Also I have learned in times of adversities to remember that there are ways to see our biggest problems as our greatest opportunities – if only we can step out of our trained patterns of perception.
– If you ask for almost anything in the world in the right way, with enough conviction and enough commitment, to you will get it.
For most people at least they can afford to ask for the first time. But rarely do majority take a step further to persist using different tactics after they have been told No! I had been also a victim of this some time back. Whenever someone could tell me No! I could develop hundreds of reasons in my mind as to why I had been rejected, that could make me to completely discard my ideas as unworthy. However I came to discover that I was a fool.
There are no really success without rejections. I have had so many “No’s” that it’s no longer news to me. If you can handle rejection; you’ll learn to get everything you want. None the less, I have also learn not to fool myself, there is no such thing as resistance, there are only inflexible communicators who push at the wrong time and in the wrong direction. I will never cease to ask come what may. It’s a funny thing about life, if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. Life will pay any price you ask of it.
– If you would be powerful, pretend to be powerful.
You cannot just come from nowhere and be what you had never dreamed or thought off. If you don’t take any action towards your goals, it’s very likely that you won’t fulfill them. What this is teaching me is that I must start attracting what I want by acting as though I’m already there. In fact, this will ease my process of getting there because I will have known already how people perform when they are there.
– If you knew you could not fail, what would you do? If you were absolutely certain of success, what activities would you pursue? What actions would you take?
For a long time I had been viewing the act of achieving goals a complex and tiresome process that consumes time sometimes if one isn’t well prepared. This had made me to console myself whenever I found out that time had caught up with some of my goals.
What this book has cause me to understand is that I am to lay aside all the limits that I have create in my mind insinuating that it’s impossible. Then I must proceed towards my goals in a manner that indicates that there is no way I can fail.
Every time when I look at this questions, I feel energize. It’s like they trigger my confidence to tackle any situation. Thus generally it’s a matter of what you believe. Whether you believe you can do something or you believe you can’t, you’re right. Successful people make it because they believe they can.
– Results are inevitable. If you don’t provide your mind with the programming of the result you desire, someone else will provide that programming for you. If you don’t have your own plan, someone else is going to make you fit into their plan.
Time and again I have been learning that everything counts. Whether you decide to make decisions by default or to take action and stand responsible, there is no way you will evade the out come. The best thing is to make decisions and be responsible. Those who take responsibility are in power. Those who avoid it are disempowered.
I’m learning that I should be the driver of my own life. I ought to program my own mind and make my own decisions. If you don’t believe you’re creating your own world, whether it be success or failures, then your are at the mercies of circumstances. Things just happen to you. You’re an object, not a subject.
2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Yes. Almost all the teachings in this book are in full agreement with my personal circumstances in life. The book has explained how we can develop good relationships by creating a rapport with each other through understanding their values. Who is he that does not want a mutual relationship with others?
I’m one person who believes that all things are possible. There are no limits other than those we have imposed upon ourselves as the book is attributing.
The book is also explaining how you can target and achieve his goals. Every individual values life. No one wants to live unhealthy life. This book has full explained this. I also don’t like the act of selfishness and being greedy. This book has comprehensively covered all this as well.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
– Sometimes people do produce outstanding results simply because they don’t know some thing is difficult or impossible.
This has really built me. It has caused me to constantly desire to know the positive reports rather than the negative ones. Also I have learned that I don’t have to go with the ideas of the majority about impossibility, but I should trust what my inner self says about possibility.
– Modeling can save people one of our irreplaceable resources – time.
We are in a world were people are anxious about time. The world is in a race. No one wants to waste time. People will do anything to recover the time they lost. And the good news here is that this book has given us a clue on this by introducing to us the act of modeling. By modeling, anyone can advance and become an expert in which ever filed he desires at the shortest time possible.
– People who learn rapidly can master even the most complex tasks because they chunk information into small steps and then reassemble them into the original whole.
This is a great technique I have learn from this book especially going by the example given on becoming a superb speller. It’s intriguing. I have liked it.
– People are not lazy. They simply have important goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.
When one is not inspired, he loses the enthusiasm and the energy to perform. People are not inspired because they are not connected to their original source that links them to their goals. They do things that they see others do and not what their intent is. This has helped me to stick to my source and also to help others who are drifting from their source.
– Substitute the word “But” with “And.”
This is the magic of rapport. It has challenged me. Instead of jumping to conclusions and cutting people short by using the word ‘ But’, I have discovered the best way to create rapport which is the use of the word ‘ And.’ No conflicts nor resistance can arise when one get to know the right way of avoiding the use of the word ‘ But.’ I feel empowered to control any conversation in the most powerful yet non-violent way that gives everyone satisfaction.
– Power today is the ability to communicate and the ability to pursued … You can have an idea or a product that can change the world, but without the power to pursued, you have nothing.
I didn’t know before how powerful the ability to pursued could be. I have been always been over looking this. This book has utterly transformed my perspective on this. The world is governed by the persuaders. Persuasion isn’t a choice. It’s an ever-present fact of life. Someone is always doing the persuading. People are spending millions and millions of dollars to get their message out with ultimate power and skills. So you either do the persuading or some one else does.
4. Has this book challenged your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Definitely, this book has challenged my thinking. I’m no longer upset over adversities. I no longer see the need to go complaining blaming people and circumstances for what I am.
Look at this challenge: The key to success is massive frustration … Anybody who tells you other wise doesn’t know anything about achieving. There are two kinds of people – those who’ve handle frustrations and those who wish they had. There is frustration on the road to any great success.
I have loved the area where the author is teaching us on the 5 keys to the creation of wealth and happiness. (pg 371) People don’t like frustrations, rejections, and no’s. Very few people can handle these. No wonder we have few people we can term as successful.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
No any.
6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?
– If you can find enough reasons to do something, you can get yourself to do anything. Our purpose for doing something is much more stronger motivator than the object that we pursue.
I have been asking myself, why do I do what I do? Why precisely do I want to achieve my goals? What is the reason behind all these?
Why to do something is much more important than how to do it. If you get a big-enough why, you can always figure out the how. If you have enough reasons, you can do virtually anything in this world. This has helped me to get a clearer picture of what I want in this life. I have developed a passion, zeal; such a great force that I feel nothing can stop me. If I don’t achieve these goals, there is no way I will be complete. A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. If a man hasn’t discover something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
– There is nothing that I have figure out in this book that I can term as least important.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the whole idea the book is trying to convey.
This is a great book that reveals to us all the secrets towards great achievements. It has covered comprehensively all the areas that leads to excellent performance and overcoming all limits in life.
Rating
A. How interesting was it to read? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 9
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? 9
What a book! Many books don’t stick to the titles they bare, but this is extremely different. From the first page to the last one, ideas have been arranged coherently, supporting the title of the book. It’s such an authentic, powerful, and compelling book. I have really enjoyed it. It’s worth it.
Goal Setting 101
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found most important in this book and discus why they were important to you.
People can not help you achieve your vision unless they know and understand why your vision is important. You must walk the talk.
One can have a very great and powerful new idea that can cause great innovations and that can change the entire face of the earth for the better. However, it doesn’t matter how good your vision is, if you don’t cause people to see the importance of your vision they will dump it. In fact, any new idea is at first passive as unattainable and useless. Therefore it’s up to you to prove your point to the world by all means.
We all need people to make our visions to materialize. The question that I have started asking myself is: Are people seeing the importance of my vision and why I desperately need to achieve it?
Find the fewest and best words to express what you want. This will save time, removing confusion, and minimizing error.
Due to the fact that any achievement will need people especially to those who are in leadership positions, it’s essential to find a way of expressing your vision in the fewest and best words without nagging or boring people. We are in a dispensation where by people are so busy, always occupied with things to do and they will not spend any extra time on an idea that is unenthusiastic and that sounds unrealistic to them.
My goals are suppose to be arranged clearly and precise. I have learn to package, and blend them in the most beautiful and attractive way. This way, I will not only attract others to join me, but the goals will continually increase my incentive day by day as well.
We all have to give meaning to our lives. We must find or create reason for living.
There is a purpose for the lives that each of us to have. The problem is that most people fail to stick to the original purpose that God ordained for their lives and they are left wandering. Consequently, in this process of trying and leaving goals unattained, they end up achieving nothing successful that can fully satisfy them. If you would later ask any of them what their legacy is, you will find out that they don’t have a definite answer.
This has helped me to understand that I should not only create reasons for my living, but I should give meaning to my life by finding out exactly the purpose of my living.
Unless you choose – with certainty what it is you want, you accept table scraps by default.
Circumstances will push you to whichever corner they want if you are not a person that knows what you want in life. If you refuse to make decision by defiant, you have already made a decision for circumstances to take their own course.
My decisions, my choices are my own in accordance to my destiny. I don’t want to make decisions by default. Some choices may be hard to make, and therefore I have learn to console widely. However, the final decision is mine. No decision is difficult to make if you get all the facts correctly.
Reality isn’t necessarily going to be the way you wish things to be or the way they seem to be; reality is the way things actually are.
This is something that in one way or another bothers us. Sometimes we shun from confronting situations because we are afraid of coming face to face with the truth. This is also one major contributing factor that makes people to make decisions by default. We don’t have to disguise reality by the way we wish things to be or by the way they seem to be.
This has helped me to understand that in as much as I may wish to trust everything to fit my desires, I should also be ready to confront and accept the truth about some circumstances.
If a goal is truly your own, proceed happily without being side tracked by the accomplishment of others. All too often people pursue things that they see other people achieving.
When we see others achieving their goals, we tend to hate ours and think that theirs are the easy, best and attainable goals. This is an indication that one has not fully understood his goals and why he should achieve them. You can never be other people. You will be your self and you will continue to be that way for the rest of your life. If you deny yourself what you have been meant to be and pursue other people’s goals just because they seem easily attainable; you will live a frustrated life whether you achieve them or not. Your conscious will always condemned you for the rest of your life for abandoning your mission.
This has caused me to learn to value my goals and to pursue them at all costs because this is my destiny, my life, my passion, my joy etc.
The best ideas typically have a short shelf life. In life, circumstances conspire to retard progress.
Inspiration sometimes does not come easily when we need it. But it sometimes occurs when we least expect it. You may be on a journey, talking to someone, at work, watching a movie, resting or busy doing something when instantly an idea hits you. If you don’t proceed to fulfill this goal while it’s still hot in your mind, you may lose it or you may not be able to achieve it in the best way possible especially when circumstances catches up with you to retard progress by talking you out of the game.
A plan or action driven out by speed, simplicity, and boldness is difficult to fault. This has caused me to be more and more time conscious. When the whistle blows and the game is over, all the goals that I may score then will amount to nothing. Therefore this is the time to act. My time is now!
It is the unreasonable people, those discontent by the status quo, the dreamers and visionaries who nevertheless have their feet planted in solid ground who improves people’s lives and advance the society. I have now discovered why I should be unreasonable sometimes as I focus on my destiny. If I don’t grasp this truth and make it part of my principals, with this great destiny ahead of me, it might be so hard even to accomplish a quarter of it. Reasonable people can talk them selves out of anything no matter how great the merits of the goal.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, you beliefs, your goals, your values etc? Explain.
Yes. This book relates to many aspects of my life as the ideas and concepts in this book are basically in line with my goals. This book has greatly contributed in improving my relationship with others. We all need each other and therefore we should respect and appreciate other people’s decisions. More so I should value my individual worth and course others to understand my vision.
I believe value and accept the idea of setting goals and achieving them. This book is all about these as it guides us in the best way of setting goal and achieving them. Everyday we are confronted by goals whether we are aware of it or not, thus every decision counts.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned form this book? Please explain.
Implement now – perfect latter. There is no totally right time. You cannot control everything.
This had been a problem in my life. It’s hard to start implementing goals. Once you start, you are confronted with setbacks all over. It’s then that you discover a number of limitations even those you had not anticipated. There can never and there will never be a time that one will feel totally and completely perfect to achieve his goals. There always will be something lacking.
I can use this example especially for those who are Christians. When you want to pray and fast, you feel that it’s always not the right time. Either the weather is too cooled to go without food, or it’s so hot or just anything. There is never right time to fast. There is never perfect time to implement your goals. You cannot control everything.
This has helped me to dismiss the fear that always erupts whenever I’m ready to implement my goals. I like it so much!
You can be wrong, but never be in doubt. If there is any doubt in your voice, you and others around you will feel it and cave in.
Any idea said in boldness with certainty will attract people because no one wants to identify with a failure. The ideas may even fail to be successful but people will not take it as a failure, they will look at it as an accidental occurrence.
I have learned something powerful from this. Before I go forth to share my vision with others, first I must convince myself dispelling all elements of doubt in me by using positive affirmations including the right vocabularies. Once I am confident about myself, it will be easy to attract others.
Everything counts! Every thought, decision, and action moves you closer to or further from your goals.
Every action that I have been indulging myself into is what has contributed to what I am now. Every event in our lives leads to another. I have developed a consciousness to monitor my actions because they are the determining factors to whether I will achieve my goals effectively or not. Every choice counts! There are no insignificant choices, no neutral actions. Even the smallest gesture has a consequence leading you towards or away from your goals.
3. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in anyway? If so, explain how?
This book has challenged and changed my thinking greatly. I have come to understand that goals are different from wishful thinking. If a goal is not specific, measurable and set to be achieved within a specific time frame, then it is not a goal. Achievements and accomplishments do not happen accidentally. They are the result of clearly defined goals acted upon until completion.
Everything counts! This alone has caused me to be on my feet. It has wakened me form slumber land into action. There are no insignificant choices. Even the smallest gesture has a consequence leading towards or away from your goals.
4. Are there ideas in this book that you totally disagree with? If so why?
No, not any.
5. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?
Plans inform everyone around you that you are a person with a purpose. Everyone wants to identify with a person that is well organized, smart and on course. It’s only by planning that we are compelled to be discipline people in the process of attracting our goals. People who are on plan will not be weaved by circumstances thus making them more admirable.
In this book, I have not figure out anything that I can term as least helpful.
6. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
This is a great book that guides us on how to make goals and achieve them. It not only shows us the rules but it helps us to implement them. Unless you choose with certainty what it is that you want, you accept table scraps by default.
7. Please rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 8
B. How helpful were the contents? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9
This is a very powerful and interesting book to read. It’s one among the very few books that I have seen that are precise and clearly defined. The author has stick to the title of the book by presenting his powerful points in a best and attractive way. I have liked and enjoyed it so much.
Leadership For The Dummies
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found most important in this book and discus why they were important to you.
– You can’t be a leader if you are afraid of responsibility and accountability… With the idea of accepting responsibility, you are saying to people, “If things go wrong, I’m ultimately the reason why. The failure is mine and no one else’s.”
In my entire life, I have come to realize that I love and admire to be close to people who are articulate. Those that are fully accountable for their work, and they don’t go about pointing accusing finger to others when things have turn out wrongly, but they first and foremost accept responsibility over the mistake. This quality attracts people towards anybody that possesses it. Any person that is not responsible in performing his chores, then he has fail as a leader for himself and it’s really difficult for him to think that he can be successful in leading others.
I have learned to be responsible and accountable even over little matters that previously I have been ignoring. This is a better way of warming up for the great work ahead.
– The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.
Sometimes circumstances will occur in a manner to favor ones vision and goals; however this does not happen more often. If you sit at the back and wait for this, you might end up being disappointed. One must learn how to manipulate the current circumstances to fit his desires. I have started to look for any tiny space that can turn the world towards me and provide an opening that will drive me towards my destiny.
– Situation leadership requires that you responsibility at the moment action is required; otherwise, the critical moment may be lost.
Situation leadership, which is the leadership that I regard as the best, calls for people who are well informed and respond to circumstances promptly. When a black smith is working on iron, he acts quickly by hitting it while it’s still hot, or else it becomes so hard for him to work on it when in turns cold. I have discovered that being watchful always to understand the seasons and the timing is very much important. I don’t want to be ignorant of the right time. That’s why I’m grateful for the ideas this book is imparting in my life.
– Drawing distinction in between seemingly similar situations.
In this area of leadership, it’s not the ultimate consequence that matters, but the ability to find the minute difference that can give you an advantage even a temporally one. Because you are not the only one in the game, you ought to find a way of exposing your unique yet admirable traits that will make you an outstanding figure. Often opportunities appear when you do nothing than reshuffle existing information. From this book, I have found out that every situation we encounter is the same yet different. It’s only by discovering and exposing this slight distinction that others will be attracted to see what you have.
Each one of us has a unique quality. People do get tired of monotony. If you will immerge up in exactly the same way like your predecessor, you wont mean anything; in fact, don’t be surprise to find out that you are a just a shadow of another person. People will recognize the other person rather than you.
We are learning that sometimes, the way to break out doesn’t involve doing something better; it involves doing something that isn’t being done at all.
– Knowing that thou knowest not is in a sense omniscience.
If anyone wants to grow and expand, he must desire to learn what he doesn’t know. Anyway, what you know is that which has brought you that far; then the way forward is by learning that which you don’t know so that your territory can expand. This has helped me not to remain in the same level by basking in the past success. I keep on advancing by putting in more effort because the future holds much for me.
– Leaders can only take people where they want to go, and if a leader can’t hear the mood of his or her group, it is impossible to take them anywhere.
This is especially for those who have been put on the leadership position by the majority of the group they are leading. People do propose, elect, or work under the leadership of a leader that they have confidence in him/her helping them achieve their goals. Any popular leader is the one that stands to protect, provide, and defend the demands of the people he is leading. By being able to understand the mood of the people you are leading, I have learned that you’ll be able to take them to a better place. This way, the group feels that the leader is close to them by identifying their needs.
– Often, a problem that stymies everyone is a problem that is stated incorrectly.
The solution to a problem lies in its definition. There is no way that you can completely solve a problem that you have no clear understanding of its cause in the fist place. The problem with most of us is that we rush to solve problems with only a glimpse of their definitions and in most cases we end up worsening the matter.
As a good leader, I have learn that I must take my time to fully study and understand the problem, then proceed to solve it in an easy and enjoyable way that wont create chaos.
– If you are always just a little bit ahead of the game, you will know things a day before your competition does which is another quality that people look for in leaders.
An effective leader has to be the one that is up to date, well informed, and more so ahead of the people he is leading with information on anticipated adversities or success. If the people you are leading seems to be the ones that always make the hard decisions because they know much than you do, then you are on your way out as a leader.
This has helped me to learn that sometimes a leader should be perceived as a psychic by the people he is leading. It’s not mandatory that you have to know everything, but at least, have an idea about everything by expanding your knowledge through books. Because, even the most skeptical person wants to be convince and sold on the idea that you are the right choice to lead them. You will never please everyone, but you can at least get the most difficult members of your group to concede that your goals and mission are worthwhile and that they have a vested interest.
– Visualize your favorite pro and describe what he does. Then do the same thing.
In every field that you are working, there has at least been someone who inspired you. I remember when we were kids playing games like football, we could each identify ourselves with names of great legends in the game. If one took the name of a favorite player, the rest could be offended because they had to opt for other names of players who were not so famous. The one with the great name could play with much vigor according to what he saw on the TV, Sometimes you could hear things like,” Give way for Maradona. A goal is coming.”
I’m learning that by visualizing yourself with your favorite pro who does things with much easy yet so skillful because of experience, you get motivated that you can also do it. I have come to even file some picture of my favorite pros, and whenever I look at them, I say to myself: Link that’s where you are going.
This is very important. Reinventing the wheel isn’t necessary when you can learn the process by which the wheel was first invented. You’ll be wasting your time rather than advancing to other issues of importance.
-The process of bench making is all about learning form the best, regardless of where they come form.
Due to the fact that leadership and learning are indispensable to each other, a leader must constantly be in the process of acquiring knowledge from all quotas that will ease his leadership. Life lessons are all around us if only we can learn to open our eyes and ears to learn. Apart from learning form normal circumstances, a leader has to go a mile further to elicit information form people in areas where he has not qualify professionally. This helps one to identify divers ways of doing different things. It becomes even much better when ones learns even form his opponents and competitors because you get to know all that they know which is an advantage to keep you ahead of them.
This is really great information from this book. It doesn’t matter where you have got the knowledge; all that matters is whether it’s applicable and important in advancing your leadership skills. Therefore, never be deter by someone else’s success. In fact that ought to spur you to emulate it then beat it.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concept in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your believes, your goals, your values etc? Explain.
Yes. As a person who has a burden and desire to liberate God’s people form all sorts of oppressions and deceptions, this is a book that is in line with this goals. This book has moulded my thinking and place me in a position where I can elicit-cooperation in relationship with others.
The ideas in this book have given me a guideline to follow before indulging in any serious project to verify its worthiness. As a person who values success in anything that I do, this book is attributing the importance of acquiring knowledge, improving on quality, and eliciting cooperation which is precisely what one needs to be successful.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
– Leaders set out on mission impossible when they are expected to fail, or at least not to have a complete success.
History has it that most of the powerful leaders that ever existed were at first considered as incompetent in executing the task ahead of them. People expected them to fail but things turned contrary to their expectations when they emerged out powerful and successful, although some turned out to be dictators.
People will take interest in monitoring and criticizing your leadership when they know that you have a great task ahead that may end up destroying your leadership. This creates suspense in them that eventually in oblivion makes your leadership popular. When it’s obvious that you will win with little or no resistance at all, people will get tired and bored with your leadership quickly and they’ll start looking for someone that can topple or threaten your leadership for a change.
When I see all the resistance and adversities that I encounter day by day, I get convince that I have a great task as a leader who will change the face of the earth. This is necessary evidence that I’m a potential candidate. The question is not how hard I work to become a leader or how well I develop my skills, it’s what I do when situation arises and I’m the person on the sport.
– If quality is your goal, then you should keep on working on it until mistakes are so rare that they are a cause for curiosity
Perfection is very much possible with more practice and practice. The only way one can get the world’s attention is by working to produce the best. It’s worth doing this regardless of how long or how much time it takes to be there because it shall be rewarded handsomely.
An effective leader is the one that values consistency which come a long with perfection. As a leader, your mission is to make your group a winner not just a contender. This book has really helped me with this concept on quality in a new way that is creating more energy in me.
– Get a logo and wear the logo patches proudly to let other people know what projects you are working on.
A logo acts as a constant remainder to your vision and a better way of marketing your products. The prettier you design your logo; the more people will understand your goals and desire to follow you. It shows how purposeful you are. I have come to understand the importance of having a logo. I see it as a means of leaving a trail and a legacy that people will always recognize and admire to identify with.
– The best business plan in the world, and the ablest people, are not enough if no linkage exist between what those people are doing in the present and what they propose to do in the future.
Again this is another new idea I’m learning form this book. I have been wondering, how am I going to get to reach to my desired targets that are so great? However, this doctrine is shadowing some light in my path. The first thing is to look at what I’m doing now and how I can link it to my destiny. Once I understand this, I will have discover the process of connecting to my future step by step.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Absolutely yes. This book has challenged me so much by making me discover that leadership opportunities are always within me. It’s for me to open my eyes and see.
This statement has challenged me: Leadership situations aren’t always obvious. Sometimes, leadership emerges in moments of great crisis. Others times it emerges out of argument or disagreement that needs to be settled. Yet other times, a leaders has to stand up for a principal or defend the defenseless. The circumstances may vary from situation to situation, but in every case, the situation an opportunity that requires someone to step forward and advance a cause or a goals, or merely take charge of the situation to ensure better out come. I like this!
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, explain why?
None.
6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?
The most helpful thing I have learn form this book is the part where we learn the act of moving from an idea to a plan. (Page 250) The author has compressively explained to us that in order to succeed, the idea that underlies a vision should be able to answer the following questions:
* Why should customers buy your product or services? Why is yours different from – and better than – what people can already get?
* Will it last? Is it enduring or a fade?
* Will competition let you survive?
* Can it be profitable?
* Can it be implemented?
* Can the enterprise grow?
* Will being in this enterprise satisfy your needs?
The only thing that I feel like was of less importance is that, the author has use plenty of anecdote which are mostly not intriguing as expected causing the book to be less interesting. In some chapters, some of them are so boring and almost irrelevant that leaves one wondering whether this was just a means of filling the pages.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
It’s a powerful book that literally trains and lead one on to being an effective leader. It has fully covered all areas of leadership. It’s an articulate definition of what leadership is all about. No leader should afford to miss it.
Rating
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8
The Law Of Attraction
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found most important in this book and discus why they were important to you.
I attract in my life whatever I give my energy, focus, and attention to, whether wanted or unwanted.
From the examples given in this book, we find that in our entire lives, we either attract positive or negative things. There is no neutral ground. Whether we acknowledge it or not, whatsoever we focus our attention and energy to is what we get.
This has caused me to be more careful and watch the things that I attract in my life, because they are a result of either positive or negative attraction.
The law of attraction responds to whatever vibration you are offering, by giving you more of what you are vibrating. It doesn’t decide whether its good for you or not, it simply respond to your vibration.
All words carry a vibration for the person who says or think of them. Mostly, our vibrations will be determined by how we respond to circumstances in life. Some situations may not be pleasing and sometimes we might find ourselves responding negatively. However, in order for us to be in a position to vibrate positively always, we must develop the consciousness to manipulate our circumstances so that they can fit our desired vibration.
This has helped me in adjusting my focus and attention for the better. Whenever I find myself giving in to wrong pressure, I hold myself and remember that the law of attraction responds to whatever vibrations I offer it.
Observing contrast is essential because it delivers clarity.
Most people don’t like to observe contrast, although the fact remains that whether they like it or not, they spend most of their time dwelling on contrast against their will. It’s hard to start a life that you’ve completely erased contrast. But with the law of attraction, we can observe contrast to create clarity. It’s out of contrast that we develop this question “ Then what do I want?” Therefore we ought to observe contrast as a very important element in delivering clarity. I have learned a lot from this when it comes to making my focus clearer on pursuit to my destiny.
The speed at which the law of attraction manifests your desire is in direct proposition to how much you allow.
Our doubts are our traitors. They always prevent us from achieving our goals every time they manifest. Doubts result form our limited believes we have acquired especially as the result of our negative backgrounds and they prevent us from attracting our desired destiny.
We have to stop doubting and allow the law of attraction to manifest our desires. We don’t have to struggle to achieve our desires. Ours is just to allow the law of attraction to take its course. It’s the absence of doubt that will bring our desire faster. With this truth, all I have to do now is to have a positive vibration and leave the rest for the law of attraction.
Celebrate the closeness of the match.
The law of attraction does not care whether you are remembering, pretending, playing, creating, complaining, or worrying. It simply responds to your vibration.
Sometimes when we come close to achieving what we had desperately desired, and something happens such that we loose that opportunity; we curse a lot thus emitting negative vibrations. This leaves us in a worse state than where we were before. The best thing is to overlook the negative and revel in the ecstasy of celebrating the closeness of the match. This way, the law of attraction responds to our positive vibration leaving us in a better position to attract more. Therefore, disappointments don’t have to drop my mood, rather I should turn them to fit and build my desired destiny.
Use the expressions; I’m in the process, and I have decided.
Saying you don’t have something is another way of focusing on the lack and offering a negative vibration. But using the phrases; I have decided or I’m in the process; makes it feel more believable and attainable. These expressions have helped me to change the use of some words and my habit as well. They offer me positive vibration.
Abundance is a feeling. Do whatever it takes to raise your vibration and make you feel more abundant.
There are people of whom when we see them, it seems as though they have nothing, but they live a happy healthy life. While there are others who have plenty but their lives is a misery. The only difference is the attitude and feeling they are bearing. Therefore, abundance is clearly manifest in our feelings. It’s not just a matter of possessing material things. I have learned that I should not wait to acquire more in order to live the life that I desire, I can start now to vibrate the life that I desire.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstance such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Yes. The ideas and concepts in this book relate to a many aspects of my life in many ways. In relationship, I am one person who believes that we get what we put into it. By having a positive vibration it’s one way of improving, attracting and having a healthy happy relationship with others.
We move closer to our goals by allowing. I strongly believe and share the ideas in this book about allowing. Creating more space, a more vacuum towards achieving my goals, makes me to interact and meet the relevant people to support my goals. When I lose someone among them that I had value a lot, I don’t dwell on that setback, rather I take it as another opportunity as illustrated in the book.
I value being realistic and honest as much as I believe in having great faith. This book has relate this by showing as how affirmation alone is not enough. What that matters a lot is that which you feel about what you are saying concerning your self.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
The law of attraction doesn’t just respond to words – it respond to how you feel too.
I have read books that talk on positive confessions and how they work to fulfil our desires, but this idea has come to me in a new and helpful way. Sometimes we speak great things about our desired goals and ourselves but there seem to be no big change. After it, we feel and see ourselves just the same, and some times even more miserable.
This idea has helped me to first discipline my feelings into all that I declare. I must listen to what my feelings are saying about what I’m confessing. It may be a great declaration of which I may not feel myself into it. However there is something that I have learn that can contribute in making my feelings to vibrate positively. This is the use of the expression: I’m in the process, and I’ve decided.
Just put it into your attraction box and leave the rest to the law of attraction.
This is also a new concept that I have learned from this book that has greatly improved my life. I have been coming across things that I want to identify with in life such as business plans, career opportunities, tenders, adverts, documents, etc. But I have been brushing them aside thinking that I’m still not in a position to have them. Now however, this idea of putting them into an attraction box is really challenging. I have discovered that by doing this, every time I look at them, my vibration will increase positively. And bearing in mind that the law of attraction does not care whether you are remembering, pretending, playing, creating, complaining or worrying. It simply responds to your vibration.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
This book has challenged me a lot. It has caused me to change some of the phrases and words I have been using in my life. There is nothing that is too hard to achieve in this life. It’s just a matter of changing your vibration and allowing. We are all vibrating positively or negatively whether we acknowledge it or not.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, Why?
No.
6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?
Create a void or a vacuum.
I have been complaining a lot feeling depressed over the empty space that shows up when I’m pursuing my goals. I had never known before that this could be one among the best way of allowing. A void creates more room and space for expanding and reaching your goals effectively. I have like this so much. Instead of seeing an empty space with nothing, causing more depression and hopelessness, I see it as a vacuum that is about to be filled by new clients and more possessions. Instead of lamenting over the loss of one or two people that I have been working with, I see an opportunity created for working with new and much more better potential.
This is really helpful to me. I have now adapted to use phrases like: I have room and space for new clientele; and I have just created a space to attract a new client. This is allowing.
This is indeed a powerful book. However, looking at the great stuff we are getting form it, right from the title to the last page, I feel like there are some demonstrative examples he has use which are substandard. For instance, the illustration on allowing by giving us simple children’s game about the marble and the sticks. I feel like he should have look for something that can make us think. Something that can create more enthusiasm and make the book more interesting.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main ideas the book is trying to convey.
This is a powerful book talking of a powerful force, The law of attraction. In everything that we do in our lives, there is a vibration, some energy that is emitted that latter contributes full in all that we achieve in life. This is a book that helps us to get more of what we want and less of what we don’t want.
Rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8
Nonviolent Communication
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found most important in this book and discus why they were important to you.
Let’s shine the light of consciousness on places where we can expect to find what we are seeking.
There is no use trying to look for what you want at a place that it never existed because you’ll never get it. This is what has cause most people to end up in frustration and in disillusionment. We always want to stick to the comfort zone avoiding to confront the other side which often holds the answers that we are looking for. I have learned to always move towards the side that I am feeling an attraction for my goals.
In the world of judgment, our concern centers on who is what.
When we develop the attitude of evaluating, we never cease to find fault in almost everything and everyone that we come across. We stop seeing the true self in people and focus on their achievements and status. When we do this, we get the wrong understanding of others. Analysis of others is actually expressions of our own needs and values. This also promotes violence.
Comparisons are a form of judgment.
Every time when one uses comparison, he takes the judgment seat. Just because one is not living to your standards or to the level of the other person that you regard as successful, it does not disqualify him as undeserving. We cannot all be the same nor do everything the same; that’s why there is specialization of labor.
I have come to learn from this that we are all equally important on the face of the earth and that we need each other in this life. Therefore, we ought to learn to observe without evaluating. Observation without evaluating is the highest form of human intelligence.
Observation are to be made specific to time and context.
When we make observations that are not specific to time and context, our language becomes more harsh and violent to the recipient. From the examples given in this book, I have realized that my observations have not been in the form of nonviolent communication. I have learn to transform my language in a better way e.g. Instead of saying, “Hank Smith is a poor soccer player”, I would rather say, “Hank Smith has not scored a goal in 20 games.”
Distinguish feelings form thoughts.
Most people don’t know how to fully express their feelings differentiating them from thoughts when they want their needs to be met. If you don’t use the right words when expressing your feelings, people may not respond to your exact needs as you would like them to do. Also we should learn to know the feelings that drive other people and not just what we think to be their behaviors. This is a way of enhancing mutual understanding in our lives.
I have learned to distinguish between what I feel and how I think that others react or behave towards me.
The moment people begin talk about what they need rather than what’s wrong with one another, the possibility of finding ways to everybody’s needs is greatly increased.
When people hear anything that sounds like criticism, they tend to invest their energy in self-defense or counter attack. We must stop dwelling on the wrongs committed by others. In the real sense, it becomes so hard for our needs to be met if we don’t express them in a more clear way for others to understand them.
This has helped me to learn that, if we are wishing for a compassionate response from others, it is self-defeating to express our needs by interpreting or diagnosing their behavior. Instead, the more directly we can connect our feelings to our own needs, the easier it is for others to respond to our own needs.
The clearer we are about what we want back, the more likely it is that we will get it.
Clarity is power. If we are not clear, then we should be ready to get a response that is not clear. When we say anything to another person, we are requesting something in return whether we acknowledged it or not. Therefore we should present our requests in a more clear way so that they don’t sound like demands. I have learned the most powerful way to communicate that will indicate that I’m making a genuine request, is to empathize with people when they don’t respond to my request.
Behind intimidating messages are simply people appealing to us to meet their needs.
People need to be hard and know that they have been understood. For each one of us, our desire is to have our needs met in the right way. We need to learn how to understand the voice behind the intimidating messages that is simply appealing to us to meet the needs of the people concern.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationship, your beliefs, your goals, your values etc? Explain.
Yes. For any relationship to be successful, it requires understanding. People fail to understand each other due to poor means of communication i.e. the language they use. This is book has helped to build in me a language that is nonviolent which is a major key in building strong relationships.
What you make happen for others is what you will get in return. This book supports this believe in that it shows the importance of expressing our needs and feelings in a clear and nonviolent way that is not demanding. It shows us how we can create an atmosphere that others will enjoy being around us and feel free to share with us what they have.
The concept in this book supports the importance of creating harmony, peace, love, and unity. If we all learn this language of life, all the problems and sufferings that we see today will dissipate.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
We get depressed because we are not getting what we want and we are not getting what we want because we have never been tough to get what we want.
Often we identify and know what we don’t need or want to do in life; however, without clarifying what we want to do, we end up in a position with our needs unmet.
Depression is the reward we get for being “good”. I have learned to clarify what I would like people to do for me to make my life more wonderful.
Empathy – emptying the mind and listening with our whole being.
In our lives, we are always occupied and busy to the extent that we have forgotten what it means to listen. We always feel and say that we have no time. From this book, I have learned to listen empathically and get to know the feelings and the needs being passed across. The hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear or to the mind. Hence it demands the emptiness of all faculties.
When we listen to their feelings and needs, we no longer see people as monsters.
Even the worse people we can think of and of whom the society has condemned as unworthy, are not all that evil as we have learn to evaluate them. It’s just that their needs are not being met and that they don’t know how to express them rightly, hence they resort to those monstrous acts.
I have learned a lot from this. If we learn to see the force that drives people, if only we can learn to listen to other people’s feelings empathically; then this world will be a peaceful and suitable place for each one of us.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how.
This book has challenged me greatly. It has changed my language as well as my observations. I have come to realize that some of the compliments that we make are in the real cense a form of an alienating communication. Appreciation should be expressed as a way to celebrate, not to manipulate. I have adapted this form of saying ‘thank you’ in nonviolent communication: “This is what you did to me; this is what I feel; this is the need of mine that was met.”
I have also been challenged to make choices motivated purely by my desire to contribute to life rather than out of fear, guilt, shame, duty, or obligation. If we don’t value our needs, others may not either. We must come out of emotional slavery- believing ourselves to be responsible for the feelings of others and be liberated to accept full responsibility for our own feelings and not the feelings of others. Also while being aware that we can never meet our needs at the expense of others.
I had a problem. I always found myself doing things as an obligation or as a means to please others. This has been burdensome to me, but now I am coming out of it. The most dangerous of all behavior may consist of doing things because we are supposed to do them.
5. Are there ideas in this book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
No any.
6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?
The four components of nonviolent communication: Observations, feelings, needs, and requirements. These four components of nonviolent communication have really helped me to know how to apply the language of life. In the world of judgments, our concerns centers on who is what; and we find out that analysis of others are actually expressions of our own needs and values.
With the four components of nonviolent communication, I have come to learn how to be less judgmental and get to understand the core of other people’s feelings and needs that drives them into action.
Nonetheless, I have slightly not been pleased by the format of the book. I don’t see the reason why Dr. Rosenberg had to write all that much on what people are saying about the book. At least two or three people’s testimonials are enough to convince the reader the importance of the book.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the book is trying to convey.
This is a great book that is talking on how we can create a harmonious world within us in spite of the hostile surroundings. We are the ones who can improve any relationship and live a sweet life.
1. Rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8
The Power of Intention
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that found most important and discus why they were important to you.
– Intention doesn’t err. The acorn never turns into a pumpkin, or the apple blossom into an orange. Every aspect of nature, without exception has intention build into it, and as far as we can tell, nothing in nature questions its path of intention. Nature simply progress in harmony from the field of intention.
When you detach yourself from your field of intention, you end up in perpetual distress because you will not be in harmony with your source. Regardless of all the efforts and achievements you may attain, you’ll still remain unfulfilled. Man is the only creature that has the free will to decide his destiny. None the less if his decisions are distinct form his source i.e. intention, then all his labor is in vain.
I have discovered some truth here; intention does not err. Connecting to intention is the only way I can get the assurance of fulfilling my desired destiny.
– Since light moves faster than non light, when a candle is brought into a dark room, the darkness not only dissolve and disappear, but it seems magically converted into light. The same is true of love which is a higher/faster energy than the energy of hate.
If there is any cause for all the discord that we see in the world today is the absence of love. When people operate on low energy, which result in strive and disputes, they repel all the circumstances that might lift them to their destiny. It’s by love that we create a harmonious existence that to learn and gain from each other.
This has helped me to stop viewing people as ordinary, unless I wish to have more of the ordinary manifest into my life. Each individual regardless of his/her status has something that the rest of the world can learn from. I have learn to take the road of seeing the face of God in everyone I encounter.
-If imagination works for God, then surely it works for you, too. Through imagination, God imagined everything into reality. This is our new strategy as well.
The Bible declares that out of the void and formlessness, God imagined and spoke the existence of everything. We have the form of Godliness in us, hence the ability to create through imagination. What you imagine to be you shall be. Everything starts by our thinking. This is a great reminder to me that my thoughts matters a lot.
– You cannot see outside of you what you fail to see in the inside.
A person cannot give or share what he doesn’t have. Unless you work on yourself first, it will be difficult, almost impossible to convert the outside. This book is emphasizing that we should be the change that we desire to see. Before embarking on any mission, I have learned to first see it done by connecting to the source of intention, then proceed to work it out. You project into the world what you see inside, and you fail to project into the world what you fail to see inside.
– If your expectation for your self centres on being normal, just getting along, fitting in and being an ordinary person, you’ll resonate to ordinary frequencies and you’ll attract more of normal and ordinary into your life.
One must value his individual worth and see the greatness in him. When I look at myself, I always affirm that I’m not an ordinary person. I’m unique and powerful destine for a great mission. I am whole and perfect as I was created.
This is something that is so wonderful to me. As the book is attributing. I have begun to feel intrigued by some of the things I perform; just an indication that I’m connected to some powerful force that works through me only when I give myself to it and learn how to allow. I operate and vibrate on high energy. The energy that creates worlds and universe is within me. I’m never settling for anything less than I intend.
By looking at yourself as ordinary and unworthy, you are disrespecting yourself which is not only disrespecting one of God’s greatest creation, but it’s disrespecting God. If you fail to respect yourself, you’re showing contempt for the process of creation.
– The opinions of others towards you aren’t facts, they’re opinions…I’m none of those opinions.
There is no one in this earth that can fully satisfy others. No matter how hard you try, People will still find some fault or something to accuse you of. When you please one, the other develops a negative attitude out of your act of kindness. Therefore if you take it upon yourself to go by people’s opinions, you will weary, further more being enslave by them. The ultimate truth is that your are not the opinions of others; you are the intention that’s for real and that can never err. Unless you decide to detach yourself from it.
I’m also learning form this book that you can never stop people from talking. I like the way the author puts it: Leave your reputation for others to debate, it has nothing to do with you…What you think of me is none of my business so long as I remain connected to my original source.
Here is something to go by; forget the aptitude-test results, forget the absence of skills or know-how, and most important, ignore the opinions of others and listen to your heart.
– When you’re success itself, when you’re abundance itself, you’re in harmony with the all – creating source and it will do the only thing it knows how to do, it will be endless giving and forthcoming with that which has no resistance to it – namely, you.
Generally, abundance is a feeling rather than material possessions. I have come to realize that it’s not possessions that can give a person the peace of mind and a happy life, it’s your attitude and feeling towards this gift of life that God has given us. I’m an infinite being. When I tune and connect to the source, all boundaries and limitations disappear. Consequently, my focus shift form material things to my intention, the only place get fulfilled.
Time and again, this book has been consistently been reminding me that I lack nothing. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. Feeling abundant and successful is possible when I detach myself from the things I desire and allow them to flow to me, and just as important, through me.
– When you feel inspired, what appeared to be risky becomes a path you feel compel to follow. The risk are gone because you are following the bliss, which is the truth within you.
If there is any great achievement that man can ever or will ever accomplish, it is through inspiration. I can define inspiration as receiving from the higher forces. One gets inspired often when he connects to his intention. Inspiration is our word for in-spirited.
This has caused me to be aware of the inner voice that connects me to intention. I am ready by all means to activate it through, meditation, music, books, the Bible etc. I have opened my mind to be receptive. Inspiration is being connected to the spiritual realm where there are no limits. It may happen in flashes, however this glimpses are enough to drive in me a powerful force that cannot be stop and that will bring change in the entire universe. When you are inspired, you activate dormant forces, and the abundance you seek in any for comes streaming into your life.
– Thoughts that seem to persist, particularly if they relate to new activities and adventures aren’t in your mind accidentally.
Whenever a new thought strikes our minds, mostly we consider it as absurd and brush it off. However, we need to learn from this. Thoughts that seems to persist are either owning or alerting us of our seasons, hence we need to respond promptly lest we lost an opportunity that we have waited for so long.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your goals, your beliefs, your values, etc? Explain.
The ideas and concepts in this book are in unison with my circumstances. This book is teaching us to value and respect the geniuses in others. Not just to see people as ordinary but to take the road of seeing the face of God in them. This is the only way we can build strong relationships.
I believe in following your purpose. One is only fulfilled when he follows his intended purpose. That is all this book is insisting. Connecting and sticking to your original purpose.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned form this book? Please explain.
-The low of flotation was not discovered by contemplating the sinking of things but by contemplating the floating of things which floated naturally, and then intelligently asking why they did so.
The problem that most of us do face is focusing on the possibility of failure rather than focusing on the probability of success. When we concentrate on the negativity, we vibrate the same and end up in the exact place that we dread. This is an idea that has really challenged me. It has helped me in transforming my attitude. I look at the people that I admire who have achieve what I desire, and I ask myself how they made it. Whenever I look at any of God’s creation that performs things that are beyond our natural ability, I ask myself what is the secret behind this performance. I;This has caused me to always declare this quote: You se things as they are and you say; ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were, and I say, ‘Why not?’
– Intention isn’t a material substance with measurable qualities…The artist creates something out of nothing! Without the thoughts and feelings of the artist, there would be no art.
I like this concept. It has opened my understanding on intention. It’s not what I have, my location, nor my circumstances; what that matters most is that which is in the inside. It’s what I’m thinking of; that which burns in my heart every time. What I’m learning form this is that if I lost my connection to the intention, than I will have lost everything. But as long as I stick to the source, which is intention, then I have everything.
– Your presence here in the universe is a prove alone that you belong here. No person decides if you belong here. No government determines if some belong and some don’t…The wisdom of creation intended you to be here, in this place with this family with this siblings and parents, occupying this precious space.
I have just come to realize that when I’m connected to the source, everything that happens around me happens for a reason. I’m in divine plan of God to execute a mission of which no one else can do but me. No one decides this for me, but my source. I have learned that you get treated the way you teach others to treat you. Therefore I have set my targets and limits that no one can temper with. I choose my thoughts base exclusively on how it makes me feel, rather than on how popular or how well advertise it is.
– Be like that baby that you once were in terms of being joyful. You don’t need a reason to be happy… your desire to be so is sufficient
I have read books and listen to sermons instructing us on how to be happy always in spite of our adversities, but this idea has come to me in a new and exciting way. The writer has clearly described how, when we were babies with our intention still fresh and undefiled; our happiness was not determine by our circumstances. We were not skilled in many aspects, yet that could not deter our joy and happiness. We must connect back to the source and feel good not because our world is right, but our world is right because we feel good.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
This book has challenged, changed my attitude, and increased incentive in my life. It has made me to feel something like; “What are you doing? Why do you waste time dwelling on people’s opinions? Where is your source? Do you know that you have everything at your disposal?
It has challenged me greatly especially when I think of this statement: Everyone is born a genius but the process of living de-genius them. The genius in you isn’t seeking confirmation from others, but quiet space for its ideas to blossom…An uncomplicated life with fewer intrusion tolerated, in a simple setting, allows your creative genius to surface and express it self. The simplicity establishes a link to the power of intention, and genius will flourish.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
None
6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?
The overall lesson that I can term as most helpful and that has caused a mighty awakening in my life is chapter 15 of this book. This last chapter of the book alone is enough to cause a change even in the life of the most skeptical person on earth. I feel connected, inspired, and blissful when I read this topic on: A portrait of a person connected to the field of intention. Here are just a few of the statements that have inspired me:
* It’s almost as if they’re in a different world, world in which they can’t hear the reason why things won’t work.
* Connectors don’t place their thoughts on what they don’t want.
* Just reconnect to your source, and be like your source and your intention will match out perfectly with the all-providing sources.
* They aren’t fault finders. If it rains, they enjoy it knowing that they wont get were they want to go if they only travel on sunny days. This is how they react to all of nature, with appreciative harmony. The snow, the wind, and the sound of nature are all reminders to connectors that they are part of natural world. The air-regardless of its temperature or wind velocity – is the revered air that is the breath of life.
* They never say no to the universe. Whatever life sends them, they say Thank you. What can I learn, and how can I grow from what I’m receiving.
* I have not figure out anything in this book that I can regard as least helpful.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
A compelling book that helps in restoring one back to his original purpose in life and the direction to follow in achieving it. The secrete to any success in life is knowing your intention, which is what this book is all about.
Rating
A. How interesting was it to read? 8
B. How helpful were the contents? 9
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? 9
I loved and enjoyed every aspect of this book. It has been design and structured in an attractive way. It’s a comprehensive cover on the subject of intention. When reading it, you feel compel to check on the next page.
What To Say When You Talk To Your Self
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found most important in this book and discus why they where important to you.
You are everything that is your thoughts, your life your, dreams come true. You are everything that you choose to be. You are unlimited as the endless universe.
Every action in life is preceded by thoughts. Just the way we can choose and decide to stick to whatever thoughts we want, so do we shape our lives physically. We can decide to live a life that has no limits because our thoughts have no boundaries.
I have come to learn that I should be more careful with the thoughts that I entertain in my mind because they shape and determine my life.
You can never really get anyone to do anything they don’t want to do unless you use force. In most of the free world, “force” is called advertising.
No matter which language you’ll use to convince someone to do something, the final decision to comply or not lies with the individual you are talking to. In fact, no one can make decisions for you unless you by yourself you decide to allow him. The best way to have someone agree with your ideas is by convincing and demonstrating how good your ideas are.
This has helped me to know that I’m the final man to decide on the course of my life.
Success, ultimately, is up to the individual. It’s not the pen, it’s the writer. It’s not the road; it’s the runner that counts.
Success starts from the inside and not the outside. It all starts from our hearts and our attitudes towards life. There is no use blaming the circumstances. If you are the one that blames circumstances as the results of your failures, the truth is that even if the situations will change as per your desire, you will still find something to blame for your not being effective. Therefore, it’s your attitude towards life that attributes your success.
This has helped me to appreciate myself for what I am now and I know that I can excel regardless of my circumstances.
Whatever you put in your mind-in one way or another-is what you get back out-in one way or another.
From the illustrations given in this book, comparing our minds to the same way computer programming functions, we get to know that you can never get what you never feed your mind in the first place. Anything you get in this life is what you had sometime taught your mind to believe, whether consciously or unconsciously.
This is important to me in that; I have come to learn that my future is determined by the programs I feed my mind today. The have to be positive.
If it isn’t simple, it won’t work.
People don’t like to involve themselves into tasks that are so tiring and demanding. But the goals that we set for ourselves are really great which is obvious that they will demand a lot from us. The best way to achieve these grand goals is simply by starting to work towards them by first fulfilling the simpler and small goals leading to the larger.
For any self-improvement concept to be successful, it has to be simple. It has to be easy to use. And when put into practice, it has to work! I have learned from this a lot. I have decide to simplify my desires as I pursue them. Just to take life simple.
To change the habit; change the words.
There is no way one can change his habit unless he first starts by changing his words. Our words are so powerful such that they control our character. They influence our actions and decisions each and every day. If at all I want to change for the better, the number one thing is start by changing my words.
Goals create challenges and challenges create goals.
Once you set up to achieve anything in life, you are immediately confronted by problems. These challenges arise because of your goals. Likewise, you may with challenges that will drive you to be alert and set goals. This has helped me to learn to be happy always in spite of the challenges that I may be facing because they direct me towards my goals.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your believes, your goals, your values etc? Explain.
The ideas in this book relate in almost all aspects of my life. I have learned to improve my relationship with others by having a positive self-talk, and also helping others to desire the same.
I’m a strong believer on what the Bible says about confession. What one confesses according to his faith, so shall it be granted. The Bible encourages us to always have positive confessions in order to be successful. The same principal has been applied in this book in a more clear way. Goals spring out from our hearts, our minds, and radiate out by the words we speak to our self and to others as well.
This book has helped me to blend my journey towards success by introducing me to the concept of having a positive self-talk and applying it whenever confronted with any threatening circumstances.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
Every new thought you think has to have some old thought to stick to, a proper place to stick. When you are told something new, your brain will, in a fraction of a second, scan through literally millions of filling cabinets, filled with every idea or thought or impression you have ever stored. The brain always tries to tie any new thing you think to something you already believe.
I use to wonder sometime back why it was that whenever I could hear a new idea, product, music, doctrine, etc; I would first look out for faults and be reluctant to accept it or even dismiss it as unworthy. However, with much repetitions, I would latter come to discover that it was a brilliant thought. Now from this knowledge, I have come to learn that it is my brain that normally scans to verify if the idea has some old thoughts to stick to.
If you want to earn more, you have to start by seeing yourself as worthy, deserving, capable, and wiling-and by redirecting yourself to do so.
Most of us have got big dreams and visions, and we are ready to fulfill them by all means. However, the question that I have start to ask myself is that, am I ready to handle them? If something would happen for me to get all the resources that I need, which of the goals will I handle effectively?
This has caused me to start monitoring my attitudes, my relationship with others, the way I carry myself, and how I tackle adversities. Which of my goals am I deserving and ready to handle them? And which ones am I falling short in one way or another?
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in anyway? If so, explain how?
This book has challenged and changed my thinking in many ways. I have been challenged to understand that the best and lasting solution comes from the inside. Because programming control the habit, it’s essential to work on them and make them positive erasing the negative ones. You will become what you think most. Your success or failure in anything, large or small, will depend on your programming. Whatever you put in your mind, the same shall you get.
Furthermore, I have been challenged to start using self-talk as a means of achieving my desires. I used to take lightly anything to do with self-talk, but now I’m seeing it differently. It’s a necessity and I have to apply it my life even to the extent of verbalizing ittime and again. Repetition is a convincing argument.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
Not any.
6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?
It is essential to replace the old programming with the new, word for word, thought for thought.
The author has used a very good example to explain the importance of this by referring to our minds as a mental apartment. This has really been of help to me because it has caused me to recognize where we mostly fail once we decide to make a positive change. When you decide to stop thinking negatively and you do not have an immediate new positive vocabulary to replace the old, you will always return to the comfortable old negative self-talk of the past.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
This is a powerful book that is talking on how one can go beyond the ordinary excitements that come along once one decides to make a positive change into making a permanent and lasting solution by inducing self-talk. It’s a matter of erasing the old negative programming and replacing them with the positive programmings.
8. Rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would? 8
This is a great book that has cause a great impact in my life. The author has talk things that we all long to know and hear time and again. The book has been written such that the first chapters start on a very high note. While reading them, one can guess that he is in for a great impartation. I have like and adapt almost all the examples of the self-talk given.
However, the book ends on a lower note than expected especially due to the fact that in the latter chapters, he tends to repeat himself.
Agless Body, Timeless Mind
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
The major biomarkers of aging are all reversible.
Having understood that we can make our own world and decide our destiny especially from the influence of what we believe and what we have been taught to believe, I concur with this idea that age is reversible. It’s only a matter of reversing the old negative records that have been stored in our minds and induce the original ones that we once posses from birth before being corrupt by the skeptical society.
Unlike other creation, we are the only creatures on earth who can change our biology by what we think and feel. We possess the only nervous system that is aware of the phenomenon of aging. And therefore our cells are constantly eavesdropping on our thoughts and being changed by them.
Interpretation arises from a persons self-interaction.
Our core beliefs and assumptions generate internal dialogue that enable us to make interpretation. What we assume to be true about reality holds our information fields, in that we can perceive something as likable or unlikable, distressing or enjoyable, according to how it fits our expectations.
Our interactions, mostly based on our backgrounds, determines our interpretation hence our reactions. I’ve learned from this point that experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.
Memory is a funny thing. You can’t make yourself to remember anything, but you can make yourself to forget. One way to do this is to block your memory with anxiety.
I’ve witness this many times. When I’m relaxed, not under any pressure, I find my self more effective and capable of playing around with my memory even on issues that sometimes prove to be difficult to remember. However, when anxiety strikes in, everything evaporates.
In most cases, anxiety is provoked by doubt which generates fear. When you doubt that a desire will come true, essentially you are sending a self-defeating intention which that field computes as canceling your first desire.
The later you take up any creative pursuit, the more likely you are to pursue it into old age.
This is very interesting and encouraging. Most people do give up when their speculated time for doing something pass by. I’ve learned from this that with time us we age, we improve in our performance and clutch the belief in that for which we live. After going through the storm, our focus becomes more clear.
Everyone grows more unique with age, and that uniqueness includes the possibility for improvement on any front.
Replace the fear-motivated behavior with love-motivated behavior. Fear is the product of memory which dwells in the past. Remembering what hurt us before, we direct our energies towards making certain that an old hurt will not repeat itself.
I’ve realize form this book, every fear or hurt that we harbor in our lives results form our past experience. If not, it will ultimately have some linkage with our past learned experiences. If there is no linkage, the fear will have no place to be grounded and therefore it will just come and go because it has no significance.
I like the way this book has helped me to go over this. It takes detachment to bring understanding, and if you get caught in your hurt, you won’t see the reason behind it. No one can hurt you today without triggering a hurt from your past.
Moreover, nothing make people age faster than fear. A patient who has received the diagnosis of a terminal case can wither away very quickly, almost before your eyes.
From now hence forth, I’ve made up my mind to fight any element of fear and see the dramatic change my life is going to take.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Of course yes. I’m one person who beliefs that we posses unique qualities that transcends the physical realm not to mention the stated laws of nature. As children of God created in His own image, we posses some form of Godliness, thus it will be absurd for us to perceive ourselves like any other wild animals.
The whole book is teaching about abating negative traits which not only destroys our relationships but endangers our own health.
In the last pages of the book, we are taught to think, talk, seek out, and encourage love. These are things I value so much in my life and I’m determine to maintain them on pursuit to my goals. We all value being healthy. This book is supporting this by showing us ways of improving our health and living our desired life to the maximum.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
Not two people share the same perception of anything. The face of your beloved may be the face of my worse enemy, the food you crave may cause nausea in me.
This has dawned on me in a new and interesting way. Every world view creates its own world. At times I sit aside and think of it; how am I viewing my world? Are my perceptions destroying or brining out the best in me? Because, the world you live in, including the experience of your body, is completely dictated by how you learn to perceive it. If you change your perception, you change the experience of your body and your world.
Without the feeling there is no hormone, without the hormone there is no feeling. In the same way, there is no pain without nerve signals that transmit pain; there is no relief from pain without endorphins that fit into the pain receptors to block those signals. The revolution we call mind-body medicine was based on this simple discovery: wherever thought goes, a chemical goes with it.
I have also learned that our feelings may be turn on with nothing tangible other than words and images which functions as well as “real” molecules to trigger the on going process of life. The images that we see, the words that we hear and speak provokes the relies of chemicals and hormones that dictates our state. I’ve learned to be more careful with the words and images that cross my mind because they affect our health. Whenever I want to determine the state they’ve put me into, I do so by checking on my breathing.
Just as explained, breathing is the junction point between mind, body and spirit. Every change of mental state is reflected in the breath and then the body. Gross indications such as posture as well as distinct bodily sensations are directly related to one style of breathing. Change of feeling are registered immediately in the pattern of breathing.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Absolutely yes! I have received a great challenge from this book that has obviously changed my thinking.
To start with, I’ve been challenged to understand; life is awareness, awareness is life. Anything I can possibly experience begins and end with awareness; every thought or emotion that captures my attention is a tiny fragment of awareness; all the goals and expectations I set for myself are organized in awareness.
Everything that happens to me is a result of how I see myself. If I see problems and impossibilities, that’s what becomes of me because my awareness will turn into that. But if I see success and possibility, the same will apply also. To lose awareness is to lose intelligence, to lose intelligence is to lose the end product of intelligence, the human body. Awareness is a two-edged sword – it can both heal and destroy. What makes the difference is how your awareness becomes conditioned.
Consequently, this is clearly seen in the critical factor: interpretation. Our interpretation of an event is the critical component in our experience of stress.
Above all, I have been challenged by the answer given by the Indian guru to his disciple (pg 281) about the phenomenon of death. We think we were born because it is something we were told, which gave us the feeling (awareness), anything that has a beginning has an end. But in the really sense, no one remembers not existing.
None the less, death is not our enemy. This is not an awful event waiting us in the future. In actuality, parts of our bodies are dying every second. Our stomach lining dies partially every time we digest food, only to be replaced by new tissue. The same applies to skin, hair, toenails, blood cells etc. All this happens to keep you a life, if not, the whole of you would die.
As a Christian, I’ve not been afraid of death, but sometimes I’ve been failing to convince others fully not to be afraid of death. I think this has given me a convincing answer. I’m so happy about it.
Lastly, when you say you fear death you are really saying you fear you have not lived your true life. I think this should constrain us to mend our lives now.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
None. Just to support this answer, this book is nonpartisan. It does not take sides when it comes to religion, and neither is it confined to scientific laws. Anyone, regardless of our differences can read it and not feel offended.
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
Use it or lose it.
This simple powerful words compiles all the lesson I have learned. Every time now and then I find myself declaring them. Unlike machines which run down with too much use, the human body is capable of getting better the more it’s used. The aging body refuses to behave according to mechanical laws and rules.
There is nothing in this book that I can confidently term as least helpful.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
How we can live a healthy long life evading well known disasters that strike with aging. This is the body – mind connection. The awareness that shapes our lives. Or, simply the interpretation – the ability to manipulate it, that causes us to be distinct from any other creation.
8. Please rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8
I’ve really enjoyed this book. There is a section about the Metabolic Time that I’m still trouble about it. I think it’ll take me some time to fully adjust in this area.
Time depends on the situation of the observer. If you’re bored, time hangs heavy; if you’re desperate, time’s running – out; if you’re exhilarated, time flies; when you’re in love, time stands still. Time in the subjective sense is a mirror.
In spite of these lessons and many more, time still remains to be my number one fear. If there is anything I fear, is time. There are some things that you don’t have all the time on earth to do them. If time elapse before they are done, you’ll never achieve them. When the whistle blows, the game is over, all the other goals that you score don’t count then.
It’s this sense of rushing time that leaves me hollow with dread. Time is the psychological enemy of man.
The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
You are as good as anyone.
When one thinks of himself as unworthy, he develops inferiority complex which leads to fear of attempts. Such person will always have an attitude; let those who are good at it, do it.
This is very wrong. No one was born a champion. Champions are never born but are made. If others have made it, you can also make it. Don’t fear the outcomes of your attempts, because when a person lives with the fear of the consequences for his personal life he can never do anything in terms of lifting the whole of humanity and solving many of the social problems which we confront in every age and every generation.
Often the path to freedom will carry you through prison.
You can never treasure anything that you have never known the pain of getting it. All the things that you want in this life someone else is having them. More often than never, they are in the wrong hands or under the custodian of people who will not easily part with them until you prove to be deserving. Remember they are meant to be yours.
Thus the oppressor never voluntarily give freedom to the oppressed. You’ve got to work for it. Privileged classes never give up their privileges without strong resistance.
Truly, I can see and confess from this context that nothing worthwhile is gained without sacrifice.
Don’t ever think that you are by yourself. One with God is a majority.
Every vision starts with an individual. Rarely have I seen two people conceive visions that are utterly similar in every aspect at the same time. God appeared first to Moses then to Aaron and the rest of the Israelites.
This has enlightened me on something. When people don’t seem to buy into your vision and it’s like you are alone, don’t give up. If you hard from God I.e. if He is on your side, He’ll know how to defend you and fight for you.
Some things are wrong whether they are never caught up with. Some things are right, whether nobody see you doing them or not.
If all people would develop this attitude and learn to do the right things, we would not have the problems that we see today. Majority of people have turned out to be unscrupulous. People will compromise moral values just for the sake of their selfish gains.
As a person of integrity, I made up my mind not to condone with evil. Non cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Martin Luther puts it in a very interesting way: I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
This is a relevant book in all aspects of my life. First, it advocates for nonviolence which is a very virtual ingredient in developing strong relationships. Secondly, it’s basically talking about faith in the Almighty God which is everything about my life. Moreover, the book is all about honesty, love, boldness, sharing, hardworking; not to mention tidiness which is closer to Godliness.
All this are principals that I value in my life. They are things that I dream of every now and then. This book is relevant to me.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
There comes a time when time itself is ready for change.
It’s very important for people to learn how to observe the seasons in order to know when to do what. There are opportunities that rarely show up, but when they show up, they cause a great difference in ushering one into his destiny provided that you act promptly.
I have learned that when you have the conviction that time is ripped, go ahead and act. Do not mind your age or experience. Marque, you’ll never learn how to swim until you get into the water.
Obviously it’s not a guarantee that things will run smoothly because it’s your season. Mistakes should not dissuade you. Human beings with all their faults and strengths constitute the mechanism of social movement. They must make mistakes and learn form them, make more mistakes and learn a new. They must taste defeat as well as success and learn how to live with each other.
A genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus but a molder of consensus… I would rather be a man of conviction than a man of conformity.
A typical sign of a person who has a seed of greatness and who will transform nations is the act of being your true self. The problem with most people is that they keep their seeds of greatness in shelves by conforming to the set routines by the society.
In the coming world, they will not ask me why I wasn’t Abraham or Moses, but they’ll ask me why I wasn’t myself. I always ask myself this question, when God will demand the fruits of my labor what will I give? I chose to be a man of conviction. Humanity is waiting for something other than blind imitation of the past. It’s not wrong to learn form the past, however don’t live your life in the past and be a shadow of someone else’s life.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
This is book has really challenged me in understanding my purpose to the extent that I’m hurt when I see people living their lives aimlessly. It’s a crime. They’re doing injustice to themselves. This must be stopped.
If you have never found something so dear and so precious to you that you will die for it, you aren’t fit to live. … One day some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand up for some great principal, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you’re afraid that you will be criticize or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that someone will stab you or shoot at you or bomb your house. So you refuse to take the stand. Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you died when you refuse to stand up for right.
The book has also challenged my thinking with the famous biblical story on the Good Samaritan. A question we should always learn to ask our selves. The Good Samaritan reversed the question and instead of saying, “If I stop to help this man what will happen to me?” He said, “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
None.
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
This is idea has fully summarized everything to me about this book. I might forget other things about the book, but this, not at all!
The cross is not something that you merely put your hands on. It’s not something that you wear. The cross is something that you bear and ultimately that you die on. It may mean the death of your popularity, death of your bridge to the White House, death of a foundation grant, may cut your budget down a little, but take up your cross and just bear it.
The only slight thing that I tend to think isn’t so helpful about this book is the constant repetition on what has already been discussed and a wide explanations on issues that may not be of very much importance. Nevertheless, whichever way, I think it’s in my nature, things don’t appeal to me so much when they are repeated time and again.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
This is a dynamic book describing the life style of Martin Luther King Jr. as a minister and a leader who stood to defend human rights in a nonviolent way.
8. Please rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 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
Getting Funded
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
Preparing an application requires you to think and plan, so writing proposals can always be beneficial to planning.
No one would like to submit a proposal for it just for it to be rejected immediately. People will go into a great deal of organizing their projects and come up with something presentable that funders can give a second thought. Proposals takes a great deal of time and effort to prepare. This process of preparing definitely sharpens and improves your organization. Therefore, writing a proposal will ultimately be beneficial whether they are funded or not precisely due to the fact that one gains experience.
The proposals must prove that you are knowledgeable in your field, and engage the funders in your excitement about the project.
If you are not well informed in your field, it will be very hard for you to convince someone else to support you by funding your work. You must be ready to answer any questions clearly and completely whenever asked. All the answers should be at your finger tips. That’s why one must do enough research to increase his knowledge.
All the details and guidelines are there for a reason. Pay attention to them.
Following instructions is very much important in all aspects of our lives. The person who set the guidelines had a reason, otherwise he wouldn’t have them there. Some times we do err by thinking that we already know what is required and refuse to go through all the guidelines. You might think it’s similar to what you previously experience while there are some changes. Paying attention to all the guidelines does not only prove that you are a careful person, but it indicates that you have an interest in what the grantors are doing.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Yes. In this life there are people who have great ideas that can work for the betterment of all of us but they don’t have resources. Majority of this people normally give up after trying for so long with no one to support them. There are great thinkers somewhere, people with big potential; it’s a pity that most of them are dying with their dreams unfulfilled just because they lacked funds to drive their work.
This book supports the idea on knowing how to explicit funds from the right people/organizations to boost the right projects by giving us guidelines on presenting our ideas coherently. I strongly believe and value this act of funding the right work in improving our goals and relationships in the society.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
Look for the funders goals. No body will give you money just because you need it.
One thing that majority of people normally forget is that everyone wants more for himself. There is nobody who will say that he is satisfied with money. People will cry out for more while in the real sense some of them have nothing of importance to deserve funding.
This has helped me learn something. Your goals must identify with what the funders are doing. Find a common ground. A proposal that closely matches a funder’s goals whether explicit or implicit.
Too many proposals use the word “we need” instead of saying “the community needs” or “the people we are serving needs.” Eliminate the words “we need” from your grant seeking vocabulary.
There is a language that hooks the reader’s interest early in the proposal, while there is one that can portray selfish interest. I’ve been looking at this closely and I have learned that the people who should basically benefit from the grant are those to whom the projects addressing rather ones who have organize the project. Therefore, the use of the term “we need” is not so much encouraging to the funders.
Also I have realized that starting proposals with a question is another great way that hooks the reader’s interest. But make sure the question is one that you’ll answer through your proposal project.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Of course yes. I have been challenged in many ways. Because donors know that a problem can be reasonable be addressed in many ways, you must convince them that you have select the best way and justify your choice. In order to convince them, I’ve been challenged that I must be able to answer question that funders desire to know:
* Why are you asking us to fund this project?
* Why is the issue more critical than all other issues we are asked to support?
* How did you ascertain that our foundation was the most appropriate source to approach to help solve this problem?
* Of all the things your organization does, what makes this the effort for which you chose to ask for help?
I believe if one is able to answer this question completely, that proposal will be worth to be considered.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
No.
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
This part about the seven deadly sins of proposal writing I found it to be most helpful. This part is like a summery to the entire guide to getting funded. It touches the most crucial points that one must bare in mind before submitting his proposal. Here are is a list of them:
* The application does not have a clear focus. Doesn’t concisely and compellingly convey what you want to do, how it relates to the interest of the funding source, and why you are the best qualify to carry it out.
* Presentation is sloppy.
* Proposal is unsound. Unrealistic plans quickly kills the interest of funders in a proposal.
* The proposal has an “internal” rather than an “external” focus. The proposal should not be design in isolation of from other organizations whose cooperation is essential for success.
* Budget problems. Either, over or under feasible budget.
* Instructions weren’t followed.
* Deadline was missed.
There is nothing I’ve been able to identify in this book as least helpful.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
Getting funded is a comprehensive guide to writing grant proposals in a clear, concise and compelling way. It helps grant seeks to understand how they can meet the funders’ requirements in order for their proposals to be approved.
8. Please rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7
The Hidden Messages In Water
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
When your emotions flow though out your body, you feel a sense of joy and you move towards physical health.
Our emotions determines’ a lot about ourselves. Emotions affect the flow of energy in our bodies and our surroundings. You can easily tell when a person has been hurt emotionally by his physical appearance. Not only do emotions affect our bodies, but also the people we encounter. It is very much important to always develop positive vibes and have a way of suppressing the negative ones.
This book has given us a clear understanding on this by showing us the effects of emotions on the waters we use which comprises of over 70 percent of our body system. Moment by moment, our feelings have effect on the world around us. If you send out words and images of creativity, then you’ll be contributing to the creation of a beautiful world.
Making, changing, flowing – this is what life is all about.
As creations of God, we have all been granted the power of creation. Our lives become meaningful only when we stick to our purpose which is in creating, coursing change and allowing things to flow.
We are in motion. We are enthralled by action which is power. Whenever we become stuck, we lose the enthusiasm and the passion to live, hence inviting death. But if we will use the power imparted to us to the maximum, then we will be able to change the world in but a moment.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Yes. I’m one person who fully believes in appreciating all the gifts of nature that the Lord has given us, and one of them is water. This book has really strengthen this belief in me. To start with, water by its self is an antidote. Taking plant of water is one way of staying healthy. I strongly abhore the act of pollution that destroys the water we use by inducing chemicals which later intoxicate our bodies.
Having a sense of love and gratitude to this great gift of nature not only does it improve our physical health, but it helps in developing good relationship. It’s among my goals and values to treat water with love and gratitude. Immunity is love (healing power).
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
Water wants to be free.
This idea has really fascinated me. I’ve come to understand that water that flows down the streams can sometimes be much more healthier compared to the tap and mineral water that we are used to. Some of the tap and mineral water that we prefer using has been added chemicals that some times my destroy the natural ability of water and when we continue to use them consistently, our bodies end up accumulating this minerals that turn out to be harmful to our health.
This has made me to think of it in this manner. Caged water is dead water. Therefore I shouldn’t prefer to use it whenever there is an alternative.
What you really know is possible in your heart is possible. We make it possible by our will. What we imagine in our minds becomes our world.
We posses a certain power through what we belief. If we only work on our believes then the rest of the things will definitely fall into their intended place. This is the same way Henry Ford said: If you believe you can you are right, and if you believe you can’t you are right.
That which can be seen has no form and that which cannot be seen has form.
This statement sound paradoxical. You may find it hard to understand but the fact remains this is the ultimate truth. Even in the Bible, we are taught that, that which cannot be seen is real and eternal. It’s that which cannot be seen that controls that which can be seen. From the examples given in this book proven empirically when matter is turned into its smallest form possible, I can conclude; form is emptiness, and emptiness is form.
When someone becomes aware of something, other people also tend to become aware.
This should encourage us to adhere to Biblical teachings on brotherhood. We are all one people. We all share the same world and resources. This great linkage (water) should serve as a media to help us end all manner of prejudice in the society.
From this lesson, I tend to think, because there is no one who can survive without water, then, we are all inseparable to each other. I might even say this is what has lead to rapid development. When a particular people are advance in certain areas, water tend to carry the knowledge and for the sake of the linkage (water) and love that sustains the earth, other people are able to grasp the same intuitively.
Now, every time whenever I see water, a massage flashes in my memory, we are all brothers and sisters; don’t fail to express love and gratitude to others.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Absolutely yes. This book has literally changed my attitude towards nature. I have had a great challenge to develop love and gratitude. It’s so funny. I now can sit talk to nature, quoting some scriptures form the Bible, and whenever I do this, I just know that as it resonates form my lips it’s being carried to the entire universe taking its effect. This love and gratitude is to be expressed not only to nature but to all of God’s creations.
This has also challenged me: Existence is vibration. Everything that exist is in vibration whether we don’t see or feel it. The vibration of good words has a positive effect on our world, while the vibration from negative words has the power to destroy.
Further more, I have received a great challenge when it comes to voicing our intentions. No matter what your intentions, announcing them is an important step. This simple act of saying something is a way to gather energy towards you. Especially when you say something to other people, energy flows in your direction and helps you to achieve your aims.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
None.
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
The act of paying attention.
This has really helped and improved my relationship with others. To give you positive or negative attention to something is a way of giving energy. The most damaging form of behavior is withholding your attention. When no one pays attention, people stop caring. And when people stop caring, it’s a clear indication that passion is no longer there, in other words life is gone. This applies in all areas of our lives. Love unrequited can be fatal.
It has been said that even the most harden prisoners succumb to death not because of ill treatment but solely due to lack of affection which makes them give up the will to live.
There is an effect that observation has on the observed. There are people who know when someone is looking at them form behind. The act of looking at something has an effect on it. Everyone seems to be aware of this but we don’t put it into practice. At least pay attention to someone; be it your children, friends, your spouse etc.
I didn’t see anything in this book that I can classify as least helpful.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
A book that literally unveils to us the hidden messages in water. Water has a message to all creations. Water is even capable of detecting forth coming earthquakes. From this work, it’s no longer elusive, water bares a clear message from God: Love and gratitude.
8. Please rate this book 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? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 7
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8
The Millionaire Course
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
You can create what you want in life; first you have to imagine it clearly. Imagine your ideal scene.
Our lives are designed and mould by ourselves. We are the product of imagination. The subconscious mind always says yes to what we feed it. Every person is the architect of their own fortune. We are not suppose to fear or shun from the inner force of imagination that creates our wholesome being. The universe is constantly saying yes to us, It’s our task to discover what within us it’s saying yes to. We live in a vast and supremely responsive universe. Within this great being, we are infinitely prosperous.
Don’t dream too small.
You pay nothing to dream and you lose nothing by making your dreams big. Small plans have no magic to stir your blood. It’s good t have big plans and aim high in hope and in work.
Let the dreams create the incentive to inspire you. When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find your self in new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties becomes alive, and you discover yourself to be a great person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.
Act as if it were impossible to fail.
Many times we miss the mark because we focus our attention on the fear of failure. Supposing we would ignore this negative feeling and assume that failure does not exist, what would we achieve? In the actual sense there is nothing like failing. We learn new ways of dealing with the situation and those that cannot make it work as well.
Then, our worse enemy here is not failure by itself, it’s the fear. Therefore, it’s very good to examine our worse fears – when we do, we usually realize that the odds of them actually happening are extremely slim.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Yes. This being a book that is sharing with use on how to create an ideal life of our own choice, I have found it to be relevant in many aspects of my life.
There are areas where the book is teaching us on how to settle augments and have a healthy relationship, and also why it’s important to have a time of meditation, which all are in line with my values and beliefs.
I also value this; it’s not good to be money maniac. Being a millionaire by it self is an empty goal. What kind of life do you want to create for your self? That’s the worthwhile question to ask. What steps do you need to take in order to live the life of your dreams?
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
Writing… is a powerful visualization process: If you thoroughly think it through and make it work on paper, then you can make it work in reality.
This is so important. Before indulging my self in any serious deal I have to first visualize it, then, put it on paper. If you cannot commit it to paper, you won’t commit your self to go through. Writing is like seeing the far end from the beginning and being able to detect any form of uncertainty in advance.
Dreams are like tiny infants in many ways. They have the power to quickly grow, but they’re small and vulnerable, and need to be constantly watched and protected. If they aren’t they won’t survive.
I’ve been looking at people who were once enthusiastic about life, who used to talk big and walk with their heads high and wonder what happened to them. When I see them frustrated with life, resentful, and better about almost everything, I marvel at the great difference that has suddenly changed their attitude.
I have realized from this course; these are people who sincerely had great dreams but they never watched and protected them, and in the end, their dreams became victims of harsh circumstances. That’s why we should nature our dreams to grow stronger than our doubts. As soon as your drams becomes stronger than your doubts and fears, your dreams begin to manifest.
We are not physical beings who may have a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having physical experience.
This is also fascinating. We are just aliens in this physical experience and strange enough, some people settle for this thinking that this is their true self.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Yes. There is a question that troubles each one of us at times. We all think of it time and again especially when we feel like our decisions are right on the wall. This book has challenged me to see it differently. Here is it” Can you really get what you want in life? Not if you think like everybody else.” I have realized that we fail to get what we desire simply because we limit our thinking to fit into what has been said.
Now I’ve developed a different view. Yes I can surely get what I really want, in this situation, how am I thinking differently from everybody else? This means that you are looking into possibilities that no one has looked into. Definitely there is bond to be a different result.
When it comes to meditation I have received a great boost. First we must know that what we think about expands. Our lives are shaped by the things we have focused our minds on.
Meditation isn’t another activity you do, it’s the opposite side of the polarity of activities. Stillness. Meditation is doing nothing. It’s refreshing yourself. By emptying your mind of anything.
When I go into the state of meditation, I have learned a new technique. You need not leave your room. Remain sitting and at your table and listen. Your need not even listen, simply wait. You need not even wait, just learn to be quiet and still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
None.
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
This book has shown me that I have all it takes to create the life of my own choice. I don’t need to wait for perfection in order to pursue my dreams because that time will never come. But, with the limitations around me, I’m to live the life of my dreams and the rest will take care of itself.
All of us are talented, and none of us is perfect. All of us have unique strength and abilities, and all of us have unique weakness and imperfections. All of us have been given the ability to shine brilliantly in some areas of life, and we all are clue less and ignorant in other areas. All of us are gifted and we all need help. If we were to be perfect before we could succeed in life, none of us would ever succeed.
Ultimately, the general message that I have learned form this book is, start form where you are. Implement now perfect later. Live what you want now, don’t wait for tomorrow. Because, every millionaire discovers that being a millionaire is not the important thing in life. The important thing is to live the life you dream of living and to be the person you dream of being. And as much as you live your life, remember, the end of all wisdom, is love, love, love.
There is nothing in this book that I can term as least helpful.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
It’s a book that conveys a series of powerful lessons and keys to unlock your potential and live the life of your dreams. If you ca n dream it, then you have the power to achieve it. Don’t pursue the millions, just follow the dream and the millions will fall in place.
8. Please rate this book 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? 7
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
Journeys Out Of The Body
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
– Human nature resists change. We like the world to be the way we think it is, even if it’s unpleasant. At least we can anticipate what may happen. Change and uncertainty have possibilities of unsettling things happening, especially when that change doesn’t take account of our desires, our wills, our egos.
Change involves movement and doing things in a different way than what one is used to. In other cases, change involves risking. Probably, with these factors in mind, most people are bond to resist change. But as a matter of fact, there has never been any tremendous achievement in anybodies life that never involved change right from the beginning. Even our bodies are turning on the wings of change due to the swift abilities of cells to adapt to new circumstances and enable’s us to stay alive.
…Your only other barrier is fear. And it need not be. Because this is like being afraid of your shadow, yourself. It’s natural rather than strange. Get used to this idea – that your lack of conscious experience it does not necessarily mean it is something to be afraid of.
Unknowns are feared only as long as they remain so. What we fear normally turns out to be nothing to worry about. Boldness and courageousness is mandatory for anyone who is dreaming to live his life to the full potential. Being courageous does not mean the absolute absence of fear, but courage means acting in the presence of fear.
– You thing movement, and it’s fact…communication is instantaneous… How energy is replace – if it’s truly spend – is not known.
This is something that I have witness from Biblical teachings and testimonies from various clergymen, I fully agree with it. There is unlimited power that one is able to acquire in the second state compare with the physical state.
“Mere” thought is the force that supplies a need or desire, and what you think is the matrix of your action. As the children of God, we shall attain this form of Godliness and be able to act like our Father. Unto those who believe, this can start to happen in their lives while they are still in the physical body. In the Bible we have isolated cases were God intervened to help His savants act extraordinary. A good example is Elijah, among other prophets. However, one must be prepared to handle this by living in holiness so that you can operate in the same level with what is about to be reveled to you. This is similar to what this book is saying … At least for the benefit of those who are just emerging from the physical world, after “death.” This is done to reduce trauma and shock for the “new comers” by introducing familiar shapes and setting in the early conversion stages.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Only a few of the ideas and concepts in this book do relate to my personal circumstances in life. Just to mention, the idea of the existence of the second body is in line with my faith. No doubt about that.
The existence of a higher level of intelligence that we are yet to fully unveil only if we’ll dispel fear and venture deep to unfold the unknown, is something that I really value in my life and I see it as a goal that I will soon achieve in order to improve this life and how we relate to each other. I belief and I’m fully convinced that God is the author of all knowledge and wisdom. He gives wisdom to whosoever he will. And His word encourages us that if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives freely. All the inventions and discoveries ever made are in the divine plan of God. It’s Him who said that in the last days he shall pour out His spirit and knowledge shall increase.
This are just some of the few parts in this book that I tend to agree with.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
– In order to willful bring back a condition, it was necessary to recreate the feeling of a similar experience that had occurred in the past… one should think of the feeling rather than the details of the incident.
I have seen this work in many ways. For instance, whenever I desire to remember everything about a particular incident, what I do is to try and rekindle the feelings and my mind will be in a position to recall all the details. This is nothing less than the act of anchoring as described by Anthony Robinson in his dynamic book: Unlimited Power. To me, feelings helps’ me retrieve pictures that have been long gone and hidden deep in my mind. That’s why I believe, a good teacher is one that puts his feelings (passion) in whatever he is trying to convey.
– What you engender in others thus “feeds back” to you.
The laws of God have never changed. You reap what you plant, regardless. When you struggle to save your life by being anxious to acquire more for yourself, you lose everything and find your self right in the very sport you are evading. On the other hand, one who lets it go, who minds his neighbors’ welfare and shares out what he has, reaps the same in abundance.
People who succeed in this life, in whichever field, are people who are solving other people’s problems.
The man who gives to another his bread, who provides for his family at the cost of early death, who gives of himself to community and country without direct benefit, who deliberately endangers and possibly sacrifices his life for others, has done the right thing.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
This book has in the least challenged me. All I can say is that from reading this book, I have discovered how much convicted I am and nothing can disused my faith. I don’t fear criticism, I don’t condemn the people who challenge what I believe in. But one thing about me is that I have gone to the point of no return. There is no doctrine that can ever make me change my mind leave alone to weaken me. I wonder, when it comes to Spiritual matters, I follow them blindly with no questions.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
Yes. In this book, over 70 percent of the information conveyed, I disagree with it. Having read a number of books written by believers whom God enable to have such experiences of leaving their bodies and to visit places like heaven, I see this work as a total distortion. This is confusion. I fail to understand how Monroe could have such an experience, I have come up with two conclusion about this work. Either God wanted to use Monroe to do a certain mission but he never understood because he was not grounded in God’s word; or it’s the devil who wanted to use him and enable him to write this book so that he could develop skepticism and deny the existence of God in order to nullify Biblical teachings.
Amongst the many things I disagree with, here is one:
… that the God of my child hood was not as we worship,… was not as we worship Him to be – that for the rest of my life, I would “suffer the loss of this illusion. Are we, then, just left over laboratory animals? Or perhaps the experiment is still in “process.”
What Robert Monroe and the rest of the people who share in such doctrine should know is that, Gods’ way of doing things is beyond our understanding. There is no way we can prove or disprove the existence of God empirically. For now, all we know is that we were created in His own image. Whichever way, if you are still skeptic, then why don’t you trust the manifestation of His works?
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
I find this part that I have quoted to be more helpful: ‘… I suffered intense nostalgia and loneliness for days. I felt as an alien might among strangers in a land where things were not “right” where everything and everyone was so different and so “wrong” when compared with where you belonged. Acute loneliness, nostalgia, and something akin to home sickness’
This is also similar to what I do experience whenever I come out from the deep presence of God (prayer). Regardless of the great peace in my heart, I feel things are wrong seeing people talking in a rude manner, abusing each other, shouting at each other, despising one another, lying to each ether etc. It hurts me and I wonder, don’t these people know we are all one family? How on earth can a person talk or act like that being a child of God?
Moreover, this book has some how helped me get ride of fear.
However, the least helpful thing that has made me to detest this work is in the last chapters where the author is suggesting we might be on a wrong track, having illusions; and according to him, what we believe as the Bible may not be what we think to be. This has made me to vote the book out. I don’t like this.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
This is a book that I is describing the life style of Robert Monroe and his out – of – body experiences and how one can initiate their own out – of – body experiences.
8. Please rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 5
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 2
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 4
If you are going through this assessment and you feel offended by my harsh statements, don’t take it personal. As I have shared before, I’m not out to condemn anyone. I’m not trying to sabotage any discoveries or any religion. What I have shared is just what I believe in. If you don’t like it, no one is forcing you to take it. Just leave it and go for what you believe so long as it’s morally upright. In this life, we all have different experiences. Your experience might be different from mine. The most important thing is for us to live a peaceful life and mind each other.
The Great Game Of Business
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
-The more successful you are, the bigger the challenges you have to deal with.
Every new level of success comes along with different challenges than those you are used to. I have learned the best way to tackle such responsibilities is to involve team work. Motivate the people you are working with and give them a reason for doing the job, a purpose of working. Tackling challenges as a team widens your perspective and minimizes the possibility of making frequent mistakes. It’s easy to stop one guy, but it’s pretty hard to stop 100. I have come to realize that every time when we say we want to be successful and expand, we are saying we want to confront bigger challenges. The question is are you ready for the bigger challenges? This will only be determined by the way you handle the present challenges. If you are able to confront the present situation successfully, then the bigger challenges won’t be a problem. In fact you won’t realize when you have come to that level; which is success.
– Improvements comes in fractions; only surprises come in whole percents.
In as much as any business firm is successful, with the managers anticipating for great growth, it’s wise to give room for uncertainty. Don’t ever grow complacent. Businesses will always have some problems depending with the growth and change in the market. As a matter of fact, you can’t succeed if you don’t fail sometimes. But if you are not prepared for failure, it’s going to take you by surprise and knock you for a loop.
– If you want people to grow, you have let them take risks, and you have to let them fail. The tricky part is knowing how much to let people fail, where to draw the line.
Just as the book is suggesting, for any business corporation to grow more successful, it ought to encourage its employees to know why they are there and make them feel like they own the business. Because it’s very hard to get anyone motivated to achieve someone else’s goals. Hence it’s vital to involve the people in creating goals and making decisions. Consequently, if people will set their own targets, they are usually bound to achieve them.
Every one needs to be given a chance to bring out that which is in him. This is one way of encouraging people to participate. When people are not given a chance, they don’t grow. Even as a child you were once given a chance to try your skills on sitting, crawling, walking and talking. Otherwise you wouldn’t have known all that today. We all need a chance. It my seem difficult and scary, but that is the only way we can grow. If we don’t do that, we shall remain in the same level.
None the less, just as the statement is indicating, know how much to let people fail, where to draw the line. Isn’t this interesting? Even as a child, there were places your parents couldn’t allow you to try you skills until when you were mature enough. A good example is by the fire, cliff, river and many other places. This is very crucial and tricky. But as a leader, one must know where it applies.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Yes. This book is relevant in most aspects of my life. In life, at least everyone is involved in business transaction, either directly or indirectly. As a person that is looking forward to be involved in active business that shall include great deals, I see this book as a great aid in helping me achieve my goals, values, beliefs and relationships.
This book has helped me to understand how we can relate with each other at the place of work and how I can motivate others to improve on production. It also advocates for transparency when it comes to keeping records. This is an area that many businesses have failed. But having learn from the example given form the Springfield Remanufacturing Cooperation; I see it’s workable. It’s very much possible to drive your business to success by implementing the idea of open book management.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
– For people to feel like winners, they must have pride in themselves and what they do. There is no winning without pride, just as there is no ownership without pride. Pride is all about caring.
This is a new idea that has caused me to have a different view on the term called pride. This is not the pride of arrogance, but It is the feeling of prestige for what you have worked of and disserves to earn. Dressing in cloths that declares your profession through your company’s logo, using stationeries specifically designed to bare your brand, the letter heads and anything that speaks about your company; it’s not only a means of marketing your products, but it declares to others, you don’t regret to be part of that work. Anything you love and like, you must have some pride in it. You are proud of your family and friends because they make you feel good. You like it when anyone associates you with them. But if you friends were immoral, you wouldn’t want to associate with them. Actually, this is a feeling of ownership.
– Don’t pay the bonus unless it’s earned, but do everything you can to help people win.
Slightly similar to the previous point, I also see this as a way of having the feeling of ownership that triggers a healthy competition to improve on production and quality. A bonus should not be seen as a gift from the management. It should be a reward people earn by doing a better job than their competitors who are vying for the same customers. You undermine that message when you pay bonus when people come up short on their targets.
– Businesses always have problems. Numbers tell you where the problems are and how worried you should be.
A successful business is all about having clear records. What I have learned form this book is that records are nothing more than numbers. If the numbers are not clear, it’s hard, almost impossible to tell if the business is running at a loss or making profit. It becomes even worse to predict the future; the possibility of expanding or failing, or even to beat your competitors.
I have therefore realized that success in business starts with clarity in record keeping. This is even much more better when one implements’ the idea of open book management. Instead of leaving your employees in the dark, hanging on speculations, let the numbers motivate them. In business, numbers will settle disputes and encourage people to work together with a sense of ownership. This leads to motivation which gives people the reason for doing the job, the purpose of working.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Definitely yes. This book has improve my perspective on business matters by enlightening me on tips to running a successful business. I have been challenged to understand that there are only two ways to make money in business. One is to be the least – cost producer; the other is to have something nobody else has.
This is a great challenge. Any successful business I have ever seen has had either one of the two or sometimes both. Therefore, as long as we perform, as long as we are productive, as long as we deliver what we promise, and contribute, and add value, our services will always be on demand.
I can’t fail to mention this other statement that has changed my thinking: Everybody gets the same number of bites. You catch the fish when you are prepared and ready to respond. I’m now thinking of it in the same way like the author of this book. Opportunities have not dried up. They are everywhere. The only difference between then that catch the fish and those that don’t is preparation and concentration.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
None.
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
I have found this to be most helpful. If nobody pays attention, people stop caring. People have to see the effects of what they do, or they won’t care. It doesn’t matter whether the effects are good or bad. If you go out everyday and nobody notices whether your work is good, bad, or indifferent, you’ll stop caring. This is so interesting. Similar to what we find in the book The Hidden Messages of Water. It just confirms what has been said in that book. From experiments confirmed; when water is ignored, the crystals are deformed. The same applies to use. When we are ignored, when don’t’ see the point of being there. We fail to see our significance, which makes us to shun from contributing our ideas in anything.
I don’t seem to figure out anything that I can term as least helpful. Maybe, I might say, the book isn’t very much interesting to read as the first and last chapters indicates.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
The Great Game of Business is a powerful book that has been design to help one improve in business production, and employer – employee relationship by encouraging the idea of open book management. It gives us information on how to be outstanding in your production and management, and beat your competitors.
8. Please rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7
The View From Nowhere
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
Things have colors, tastes, and smell in virtue of the way they appear to us: to be red simply is to be the sort of thing that would appear red to normal human observers in the perceptual circumstances that normal obtain in the actual world.
Moreover, each and every one of us has a different way of perception. We all judge circumstances on different degrees depending on our levels of awareness. The food that you detest may not be the same case with someone else. This has clearly been explained in the dynamic book: Ageless Body, Timeless Mind by Deepak Chopra. No two people share the same perception of anything. The face of your beloved may be the face of my worst enemy.
Therefore, we know things as they appear to us especially promoted by our back ground. This ought to make us rational when condemning other people’s action. Because every world view creates its own world.
A less radical point is that whatever we may have achieved we are only at a passing stage of intellectual development, and much of what we now believe will be overthrown by later discoveries and later theories.
We are in an evolving world. Everything is changing and no one wants to be left out. People are striving to live a more comfortable and enjoyable life. and in that process, more problems emerges, hence the need for more solutions. Every discoveries that man achieves, comes along with their own faults. This works for our own good, because it’s part of our major reasons for living. Change will never stop to take place; the minds work is never done.
Also it’s important to note of this advantage of living with such circumstances where problems and bad things seem not to come to an end. It offers a wide rage of opportunities for many activities whose importance can’t be questioned.
We have all the autonomy we should want if our choice is determine by compelling reasons.
Everything I do is part of something I don’t do, because I’m a part of the world. When a person makes an autonomous choice like whether to accept or refuse something, there are reasons on both sides of the issue. Contrary to making haste judgments for what has been done, we are supposed to be in a position to explain what he did by pointing to his reasons for accepting or refusing. Bad reasons are reasons too.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Yes. Quite a number of ideas and concepts in this book tend to relate to my personal circumstances in life. The book is trying to explain the infinite potential in man that has not yet been fully taped, and in most cases, it has continue to remain elusive. I’m of this belief that the potential imparted in our lives, is far much greater than what we so far understand.
This book also supports the idea of acting rationally. Yes it’s better to embrace the freedom and the joy that comes along with it. Nevertheless, autonomy shouldn’t be the reason for acting untactful. This is very relevant in building stable relationships with others. Morality, decency should take preeminence.
Similarly, in achieving our goals, it’s important to bear this in minds. Most of the things we pursue, if not most of the things we avoid, are optional. Their values to us depends on our individual aims, projects, and concerns including; practical concerns for other people that reflects our relationships with them; they acquire value only because of the interest we develop in them and the place this gives them in our lives, rather than evoking interest because of their value. Therefore, a morality cannot be refuted on the ground of its conflict with good life.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
Just as adrenaline would exist even if no one had ever thought about it, so conscious mental states and persisting selves could exist even if the concepts didn’t. The fact that one is not conversant with a particular substance does not justify nullification of the same. Your ignorance about it does not mean that it stops existing. This is an illusion that most people adapt when they reach complacence. When people try something more than twice without reaching the desired results, they dispel the existence of whatever they are up to.
I have learned that a person’s ignorance does not stop the ultimate truth. It’s our duty to search for the truth at all costs.
This is also interesting; before the development of chemistry, gold already referred to a type of metal, and this determined which kinds of further discoveries about it’d material composition would reveal the true nature of gold. We must get outside of ourselves and view the world from nowhere within it. But since it’s impossible to leave one’s own point of view behind entirely without ceasing to exist, the metaphor of getting outside ourselves must have another meaning. We are to rely less and less on certain individual aspects of our point of view, and more and, more on something else, less individual which is also part of us.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Yes. This book has challenged me, especially when I look at how the society has developed a bad habit of prejudice, by grouping people in classes depending with their academic level and wealth as well.
A peasant is seen as a liability, a wild animal with nothing to offer. While a rich person whenever in need, will receive help from all over, because people have the motive; he will pay back. This is something I have learned that we must avoid and stop completely. We are not even supposed to detest others just because they are illiterate and or they don’t see things the way we see.
Someone has not make a stupid mistake if he completely lacks the capacity of thought to needed to draw the correct conclusion from the evidence available to him. The larger his intellectual capacities, the greater his opportunities for stupidity, as well as for intelligence. It’s the same with good and evil. The Bible says that he who knows to do good and avoids it commits a sin. In this case, we can conclude the greater the knowledge, the greater the responsibility and also the more chances of committing evil out of negligence.
Either way, still in both cases there is the danger of falling. The less knowledgeable person should not glory in his ignorance, because the lesser knowledge, the lesser chances of escaping from the snares of falling in sin. For instance, there are many chances for one who is poor/less knowledgeable to participate in deception, stealing and other forms of crimes in order to earn a living.
The challenges I have learned from this book have made me realize that it’s better to gain more intellectual capacity regardless of the challenges that may occur. But never should one ever think of himself to be better than others.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
Yes. In this book I disagree with a number of issues. To start with, the author is not definite with the message that he is trying to convey. The title as well as the cover of the book is so much appealing. On the contrary, the contents of the book are not so. Regardless of the level of the ‘language’ used; it’s hard for one to tell the position of the author in this book. In almost every statement he declares or quotes form another person, you’ll not fail to get a ‘But.’ On one occasion he tries to explain something as though he is for it but at the end of the sentence or the paragraph he comes up again with a contradiction. Unfortunately, this process tend to repeat it self almost in the entire book thus making it hard for one to tell what the book is clearly up to, or the stand of the author.
Ironically, just as the title states: The View from Nowhere, after one has read this book, you tend to get a more difficult view which is like saying a nowhere view. Or, maybe, this was the aim of Thomas Nagel when he wrote this book. I may further speculate and say; maybe also he was a coward, in that he didn’t want to make his own facts and conclusions because he feared being questioned.
I feel he has distorted everything making some of the view and focus that are clear to turn blurred. This has made it even hard for some of the points that I thought I would pick because I don’t know if he is for them of not.
It’s only on a very few occasions where he has try to stand firm on by his word like on page 224. However, I totally disagree with him here. Let me quote part of it; “Some people believe in an after life. I do not; what I say will be based on the assumption that death is nothing, and final. I believe there is little to be said for it: it is a great curse, and if we truly face it, nothing can make it palatable except the knowledge that by dying we can prevent an even greater evil.”
Although I have a respect for a number of things about Thomas Nagel in this book, this I totally disagree with him. In this case, I passive he is a novice. I won’t go into many stories to explain my case here. My conclusion is; life is beyond dying. Death is not final but just a transitional stage to another level of life.
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
When you look at your struggles as if from a great height, in abstraction form the engagements you have with this life because it is yours – perhaps even in abstraction form your identification with the human race – you may feel a certain sympathy for the poor beggar, a pale pleasure in his triumphs and a mild concern for his disappointments. And of course given that this person exists, there is little that he can do but keep going till he dies, and try to accomplish something by the standards internal to his form of life.
In this book, I tend to develop a feeling of detachment emanating from a number of statements explained. That feeling of detachment, being a witness, is virtual in living a peaceful serene life. This is clearly elaborated in Dr. Wayne Dyne books, Real Magic and Your Sacred Self. Once one develops the ability to be a witness, you become strong and rise into higher ranks surpassing petty things that make the mortal man to stumble and be depressed. I have been able to feel that element in this book.
As stated before, I have been disappointed with a number of issues. Generally, I don’t like the form that the author used to describe the book i.e. his inability to be definite with his statements.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
This is a book that it trying to unveil the truth about our existence, the circumstances that confronts us, and possibly the future that we should expect. The book has covered most areas that drives us into making decisions and why people are what they are.
8. Please rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 5
B. How helpful were the contents? 4
C. How easy was it to understand? 4
D. Would you recommend it to others? 5
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 4
Change The World
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
Ordinary efforts brings ordinary results.
Doing the same thing in the same manner, won’t produce any new desirable results.
The beginning of madness is to continue doing the same thing and expect that change will come. Unless a person’s effort transcends his ordinary ability, the probability of improving on his production is almost zero. Our work in life takes in a distinctive voice only when we have something unique to offer.
If the truth is threatening to those in power, it must not be stated. If the emperor has no cloths, nobody is allowed to say so. On the contrary, everyone is ordered to admire the cloths of their naked emperor.
This is challenging to those who have a great burden to change the world. In this life, a big number of people live lives that are not theirs, i.e., it’s like they are indebted. People do things just to please others, to fit in the norms or in order to continue getting support from others. Therefore they are not being sincere with themselves and with others as well. Complying with other people’s intentions and desires while suppressing your true feelings about the matter, is no different from being enslaved by them. This is doing injustice to yourself because you’ll never experience the bliss and peace that is derived when a transformational person fulfills his vision.
We shall never be cured of fear by escapism or repression for the more we attempt to ignore and repress our fears, the more we multiply our inner conflicts. Instead of resorting to escapism or repression when confronted by fear, I have learned to keep on acting, in fact, the right alternative is to confront the issues that cause the fear and get to understand that the element of fear is a sing of your great potential. Because our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It’s our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Absolutely yes! When it comes to relationships, I have been wondering why people don’t get to the standards that I expect of them. However, this book has helped me realize that what I’m seeing in other people is just a mirror of what I’m giving to them. The change that we desire to see in others should start with us.
To live a life of integrity, to be a honest person, should go along with speaking your true feelings regardless of the norms. I believe just as this book is attributing, this will not only save you from unnecessary trouble, but will go along in supporting you to achieve your goals. Right people will be attracted to you because of your honesty and commitment.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
Transforming human system usually requires that we transform ourselves, and this is the key to the process.
As stated earlier, people want to see change but they themselves are not portraying the change they desire. This book has helped me to understand that we change the world by changing ourselves. The change that we want should first start with us and other people will feel it and follow suit. In real sense, the world I see is in fact mirroring the person who I am. My behavior is playing a powerful role in creating what I perceive.
Change is not easy. Both organizationally and individually, we are continually faced by the choice between deep change and slow death.
Most people opt for slow death rather than deep change because they are afraid of making radical moves that usually require letting go of control, facing the unknown, and walking naked into the land of uncertainty. However, people forget that slow death is more tragic and painful when its time becomes eminent compare to the risk of deep change.
Therefore, the best option is to go for deep change and avoid the danger of being found unaware, because change is inevitable. The universe is never static. It is constantly changing.
To be truly creative, we must be willing to accept punishment. No one in the academic world, not even the most brilliant superstar, feels accepted. There is always someone around to criticize what we are doing. We are punished for failure. Surprisingly, we are punished for success. If we succeed, we come to stand for something, and that thing always get criticized. Some of the criticism is justified and some is simply rooted in jealousy.
This has been of a great help to me. It is impossible to fully please everyone. Other people’s opinions shouldn’t dominate our lives. It’s good to consider them, but they shouldn’t take preeminence. Each one of us has a unique destiny that is important to the world.
I have come to develop a different attitude when it comes to criticism. Criticism means people are at least paying attention to what you are doing. How sad it would be if you come up with something and no one says anything about it. Definitely, you’ll feel broken hearted. Moreover, the people that criticize mostly are the sane that will contribute in spreading the fame of your achievement when the final product turns out to be of help to them. That’s why it is said, inventors always appears as fools and made men at first.
A person will accept punishment for his creativity only if he is committed, and commitment calls for action. Committed people are acting. They cross the line from the zone of comfortable certainty and begin the adventure, they must learn the land of uncertainty and persist in the face of opposition.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Obviously yes! This book has caused a great challenge in my life that has result in making me change my attitude. When I first opened this book, judging from the title I was expecting to receive incentives that would drive me on the offensive side. However, it turned out to be far mach better than my expectations.
Change is not all about making orders. I can say whatever I want, but if I do not change, I will be communicating who I really am, not who I claim to be in words. Transformation is not about thinking per se. It is about our state of being, who we are, how we really view our world and our own lives. Just as also explained by Michael Lasier in the book The Law of Attraction; that the law of attraction does not respond to the words you use or the thoughts you think. It simply respond to how you feel about what you say and how you feel about what you think. When we change ourselves we change the world.
I’ve also been challenge in understanding that change is not all that easy. We are all terrified by the prospect of deep change, since deep change means altering some of our most fundamental beliefs and commitments. Deep change is not incremental change; it means facing the unknown, walking naked into the land of uncertainty. Fundamental choices do not shift with circumstance. Once we make such a choice we stick to it even when we are angry, frustrated, depressed, winning, losing etc. We pursue them even when it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient to do so.
Further more, I can’t fail to include this: to hear the unheard is necessary to be a good leader. In times of chaos, I have learned not to shy off. Chaos is not a “mess,” but rather “a primal state” of pure energy to which the person returns for every true new beginning. Change becomes easier at the edge of chaos because small stimuli can set in motion profound transformations.
Lastly, I find it necessary to paraphrase this and say; just as jazz players normally do by fabricating and inventing novel responses without a prescripted plan and without certainty of outcomes; discovering the future that their actions create as it unfolds; so is with them that take deep change. Ultimately, their efforts will be rewarded.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
None
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
Leadership means go forth to die. This is so fascinating. People fear death, they fear losing as a result to which they don’t attempt. Taking a deep change may mean losing a job, your friend, your credibility, your funding, your home etc. It’s risky. The danger is there. It’s not easy. One has to develop a compelling force that transcends all this risks. He who overcomes the dread of death, definitely there is nothing that can prevent him from making a transformational change.
Change is not comfortable and soothing at first. Regardless of all the daring and fear, it’s the deep zeal inside ones heart that keeps him pushing. Failure is a high probability. Just to reiterate, leadership (vocation) means go forth to die. Normal people do not do it because they have nothing worth dying for. Until we have nothing worth dying for, we have nothing worth living for. A transformational person has a vision and death is an acceptable alternative, because if the vision lives, the transformational person lives.
In my heart there is a deep vision. I think of it day and night. However, sometimes I feel like calling it a quit. There are resistance all over, not to mention the violence, prejudice, the interminable lack of resources, the calamities that are consuming our people, and the antagonism of the cynical. When you think you have sealed this side, you realize that the others part is porously leaking. When you take a step towards a goal, it’s like the target takes ten steps away from you.
None the less this book has helped me. I can never give up. I’ll do anything to get to my destiny; I don’t mind dying for it. It’s better to do something and fail than do nothing and succeed. Furthermore, transformational results emerges when commitment meats resistance. Commitment brings action in the face of uncertainty, action brings learning, and learning makes us free.
There is nothing in this book that I have figured out as least helpful.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
This is s a compelling, impeccable book that literally drives one on the path of change. This transformational book initiate’s change first from us as individuals then projects it to the world. When we change ourselves, we change the world.
Please rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8
Falling In Love
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
We fall in love, it seems, both literally and figuratively. It is as if we were walking down the street, minding our own business, when all of a sudden we fell into love.
When two people are in love, people try to look for mistakes and criticize their compatibility. A person may not see the reason why a beautiful well built woman may fall in love with a man who is a cripple. But learning from this experience, I have realize that true love is beyond physical and material substances. Its matters of the heart. It’s spiritual. You don’t decide with whom to fall in love, it just happens and without realizing you find yourself trapped.
Falling in love is a thing that strikes like lighting and is therefore extremely analogous to the mystical vision. You just find yourself hopelessly, madly in love.
Although high ability and confidence increases a candidate’s attractiveness, a certain evidence of human weakness increases attractiveness even more.
This has helped me to understand that you shouldn’t remain extremely strict in order to find your ideal mate, just be your true self. From some of the examples given in this book, I have found out that sometimes people tend to fall in love when they witness the weak side of their partner. It may happen when a person feels helpless, weakened by a condition, or denied something. That feeling of being alone and helpless, may provoke a desire to be there to comfort, protect or even provide.
This is important to me in that you don’t have to be mister perfect. It’s human to make mistakes, to express your feelings on the weaker side. If one is not emotional, then it’s obvious you cease to be human. After all there is never a perfect person.
Our behavior influences the people around us. A woman who treats a man like the most kind man, like the most kind and generous man on earth is going to help bring out the more of his generosity, a man who treats a woman like strong able person is going to help bring out more of her confidence.
What we hear, that which we interact with, contributes a lot in determining what we become. A slight negative word can change a person’s mood. It’s even believed that a woman can even catch a cold in the morning when someone criticizes her looks as she leaves the house.
Therefore, for me not to dispel prospective candidates away, I have learned the importance of complementing. Just to say to someone thank you, I appreciate, you look great, I Iike your hair style etc can mean a lot. Sincere complements do last in people’s mind for so long and can help in improving their lives
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Yes. The entire book involves building relationships. This book gives us clues in understanding the subject of love which is essential in building relationships. I believe everyone has his/her ideal mate destine for them, the only thing is to know when where and how to get to them. Just as in everyone else’s life time, it’s also my goal to make a wise decision and meet my ideal mate.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
Repeated exposure makes us respond positively to strangers who just happens to look familiar to us. The mare fact that a person looks like one that we know, make him/her seem familiar and thus less threatening.
Repeated exposure to almost everything we encounter increases our tendency to like them. Our apprehension dissipates when we get familiarize because we come to learn the truth about what we were afraid of. In this case, I tend to agree with the author about proximity being a factor in most cases of people falling in love. People fall in love with those closer to them because they feel secure having understood their life style. This applies in all aspects of our lives. If you have an idea, product, project, or any new substance, you shouldn’t give up on it too soon; be persistent until it gets to sink into people’s minds, i.e. they get familiarize with it.
Advertisers know that the more contact we have with a certain brand name or a new product, the more we are likes to prefer them.
Difference can be more exciting than similarities. Opposite attracts, just as the opposite ends of a magnet attract each other, opposite personalities do as well.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Definitely yes. The last part of every chapter that talks about suggestions for people seeking love has been helpful. Also the part where the author talks of turning problems into opportunities for growth.
I have been challenged when it comes to temporally separation. Separation causes longing that enhance romantic love. From a far, people can see clearly and appreciate the qualities of a partner, qualities that daily proximity may prevent them from seeing. Even a colleague that you don’t get on well with, when he/she leaves or is about to leave to a different location, one develops a liking towards them.
I have also received a great boost when confronted with resistance especially when it comes to love. Some obstacle is necessary to raise the tide of libido to its height, and at all history whenever barriers in the way of satisfaction have not suffice, mankind has erected conventional ones in order to enjoy love.
Obstacles increases attraction. We tend to love more the people for who we had to work or suffer. This is so interesting. I have never known why my chances of falling in love with a person are more when she is more resistant. The less my hope, the hotter my love. This sounds insane, Anyway, I think when it come to love no one is sane. People don’t use their minds but their hearts. This has challenged me not to wait for easy come because that which we easily get we less value, unlike that which we labored to get.
This book has further changed my thinking when it comes to the concept of people falling in love with lovers who are similar to their parents. This part has clearly been explained. I used to think that it’s something that happens consciously, but I have understood it clearly. It’s just an element in your partner that you used to experience or were deny as a baby by your parents and therefore it has to resurface and be expressed in your adulthood.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
There are no ideas that I totally disagree with in this book. Although there are a few incidents that I don’t fully support. I don’t really like the way the author has fully supported proximity as the major means of people falling in love. She has put more weight on this than on the act o love at first sight.
I’m for love at first sight that leads to proximity. If there is no that chemistry, that spark at first, I think that love wont be stronger than the one with the attraction. Also, consider this, familiarity breads contempt. And in some cases, people can force love just because they have seen material substances or talent at work, hence attracted to them which isn’t so right.
I also refute the idea of similarity as a contributing factor in love. I’m for opposite attracts. I want to get that which I don’t have from my love and I want her to get that which she doesn’t have from me. I’m seeking fro the missing quality in a romantic partner. Difference is more exciting than similarities. After all, why would I want to look for what I already have? I sometimes fail to understand the act of gays and lesbians. Aside with God’s word having forbidden, I fail to understand what they see in each other. That is a sickness, they need help. Anyway, these are just my opinions. The heart has its own reasons, which reasons knows nothing of.
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
Once you define what it is that you are looking for, you increase the likelihood of finding it. You should be careful to look for a potential partner who is willing and able to provide it. If not, it is better to look elsewhere.
Actually, this is very much important in everyone’s life. You must first identify what you want in this life in order to get it. If you don’t know what you want, then you are in no position to get it. It’s almost impossible. The problem with many people is to wonder. Today they want this, tomorrow they have change their minds, the next day they see something different and they turn for it; in the end they end up with what they really did not want.
This part has helped me to make a wise decision. In order to do this, I must find a way of getting closer to the potential candidate possessing the qualities that I’m looking for.
Similarly, if you want someone to love you, make sure you satisfy for that person an important need, we all share the need for appreciation. We are attracted to and tend to marry people whose psychological needs complements our own. The more complementary the needs, the easier and more gratifying the gratification. This is one way leading to compatibility. It makes both parties to feel important and needed in the relationship. One must ask himself, how am I responding to the needs of my partner?
I have not figured out anything in this book that I may term as least helpful; although I wish she would have explain in details the area for those seeking love by giving precise points on what to do and what to expect. Because the book is talking about falling in love, this part should have been given more weight.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
Falling in love is a book that comprehensively describe and explain why we fall in love with those we do, and why it’s essential for everyone. Nothing in the world is single. Falling in love does not happen by chance. Partners look for a repressed part of the past in each other.
Please rate this book 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? 7
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? 7
Gadhi An Autobiography
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills.
In this contemporary society, if there is anything that is needed most is truth and nonviolence. The problems and sufferings that we are seeing today are solely as a result of people having forsaken the life of integrity and resorting to violating justice (treaties) for their own selfish gains. Any leader that is not for truth, reconciliation and nonviolence, should never be encouraged. There is no way the earth will be a safe haven if people will despise truth and nonviolence. In fact, where we are headed to, if people won’t change their attitude, with the sophisticated weapons of war that we have; we may end up in a great destruction. I wonder what may happen if some weapons like nuclear bombs happens to fall into the hands of irrational people. All living things on earth may end up being extinct.
However, it’s never too late. From this autobiography, truth is stronger and everlasting. And nonviolent being more contagious, it’ll take only a few people who believe in this to change the globe. Remember, there is no other God than truth.
The good of the individual is contained in the good of all.
Indeed, anything that a person does affects others either positively or negatively. No man is an island. We are all connected to each other. When you do good, know that you are not only doing it for yourself but for the rest of the world. When you do anything evil, you are not only hurting yourself, but others as well. We are all one people with equally great potential. All people can shape and guide their lives according to the highest ideals, no matter how insignificant and powerless they may feel themselves to be.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Yes. Looking at the life of Gandhi, I see a strong believer who had a strong conviction in what he believed. No situation could make him relent. Even when he came face to face with death. This relates a lot with what I value as a believer. Here is a person who believed in reaching critical solutions in a peaceful way. It’s important to me because it helps in building good relationships with others. We must strive to be at peace with all men.
Gandhi is also a person who believed in achieving his own goals. He says that the hearts earnest and pure desire is always fulfilled. In many occasions, we see him with a blue print of what he had to do in order to achieve his objectives. This also relates to what I have so far come to learn and grasp about goal concept.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
And he who would be friends with God must remain alone, or make the whole world his friend.
It’s not an easy thing for anyone who desires to have a closer relationship with the God. It involves a lot of sacrifices. Most of these commitments lead one to living a recluse life. One thing I have come to learn form the lives of those people who had extra ordinary achievements is the act of isolation. It’s very hard for one to experience the inner bliss if you are always in crowds.
For one to get to the core point where you can unveil mysteries, you’ve got to forsake the world and do things that other people are afraid of doing in order to develop an impeccable character before God. The seeker after the truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker of after the truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush him.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Yes. This book has challenge and changed my thinking in many accepts of my life. To start with, I’ve been challenged when it comes to determination. Gandhi was a man that was totally determine, and in the end, he achieved his purpose. This is encouraging. Nothing once begun should be abandoned unless it is proved to be morally wrong. One should commit himself at all costs towards his purpose.
Secondly, a part from determination, I have been challenged that there are prices to pay for any goals especially for the goals that will involve a big number of people. Anything that one asks for in this life comes along with demands. The highest goals means the highest efforts should be necessary to attain them.
Consequently, the ultimate end to all goals should be for the good of all. Bearing in mind, in the life of service, service is its own reward. When it’s done for show or for fear of public opinion, it stunts the man and crushes his spirit. Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in the spirit of joy.
Further more; a person who is aspiring to work with people to fulfill a certain objective must learn how to be patient. Without infinite patience, it’s impossible to get people do any mega work.
This book has also challenged my attitude to how leaders are sometimes formed. Looking at the many occasions where Gandhi was unable to stand and deliver a speech until others had to intervene, I marvel at how he later reached a point of gathering crowds and influencing their decisions. Sometimes, leadership will not emerge in someone just because he/she is an excellent orator or has the boldness of a lion; I think it’s what is in the heart of a person and how he is able to put it into action.
Not to mention, one must avoid complacence. Improvement must be desired always in our lives, just as Gandhi is telling us; for it’s an unbroken torture to me that I am still so far from Him, who as I full knows, governs every breath of my life, and whose offspring I am.
Moreover, Gandhi was a person who was determined to live healthy. This is also fascinating. In spite of being a vegetarian, he was determined to feed natural food stuff compared to artificial. He tried as much as possible to avoid processed meals. He say that, he who runs to the doctor, for every little ailment and swallows all kinds of vegetable and mineral drugs, not only curtails his life, but, by becoming a true slave of his body instead of remaining its master, loses self-control, and ceases to be a man.
Ultimately, this life of humility and interminable fasting has strengthened my attitude. I thought that I hard paid the prize but I have come to realize that others have done it even more; therefore, I must increase my commitment.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
Yes. I don’t really support this vegetarian kind of life where even taking of milk is considered evil. I don’t see any logic because even us babies, our first food was milk. Worse still, I don’t support this kind of commitment to ones faith that tends to put even the lives of the children and wife in danger. In as much as one has dedicated his life to God, he shouldn’t impose it on the children or other members of his house hold to the extend of endangering their lives. They should be given the free will to chose. Manqué, the young children are still innocent and they may not understand.
Although Gandhi sacrificed a lot, and we highly appreciate his achievements, I can conclude, he never lived a happy life, this includes also his family. It’s not that if he would have tried to be happy with his family it would have dissuade his faith, it’s just that he was a little bit naïve and self-centered.
I’m not so much impressed by the way the book has been written. There is a lot of unnecessary information included that has contribute only to increase the volume of the book for apparently no reason.
I was greatly disappointed over this; having read a number of books speaking greatly of Gandhi, I was expecting to find the same in this book. I was greatly anticipating to find the great quotes and also the process by which he contributed to liberating India, and lastly, his death. However, the book has focused so much on his activities in South Africa and not so much in India.
The book is dormant, there is no much action. Regardless of these, I still love the work of Gandhi.
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
Man is man because he is capable of, and in so far as he exercises self-restraint.
Without self-restraint, we cease to be human. Every time when I feel like I’m getting hysterical, I recall this. When selfishness, arrogance, insolence etc wants to dominate my life, I think of self restraint. Neither poverty nor riches should make us lose this.
Desperate struggle for bread renders people insensible to all feelings of decency and self respect. However, it’s in times like this that our true faith (love) is seen. A man of truth must also be a man of care.
God can never be realize by one who is not pure in heart. Self-purification therefore must mean purification in all walks of life. And purification being highly infectious, purification of one-self necessarily leads to the purification of ones surroundings.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
This is a book that is giving us an insight into the lifestyle of a principal person who in spite of the great conviction he had in his life, hard regard to other peoples’ faith. A person who strongly believed in truth and nonviolence by putting them into action.
Please rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7
The Grip Of Death
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
Money comes into existence and circulates in the economy through sufficient debt being undertaken.
In this modern society, it’s evident that our lives circulates under the incessant grip of debt to the extent that most people have relent their efforts to get out of this menace. This sounds ridiculers; we go into debt in order to keep money circulating sufficiently? We may not like it but it’s the truth of the matter. We are procrastinating, we don’t want to confront the matter once and for all because we are uncertain of the repercussions. It’s like we are digging a hole to fill one, thus hurting our own selves.
This book has clearly expose and address this problem. When companies, industries, individuals etc, get money from the bank to facilitate their duties, there are charges incured, rather the money is to be paid with some interest. We struggle amongst ourselves to reposes this little cash in circulation with the required interest in order to pay back to the bank. When we do so, the bank cancels the debt, but the money (created money/interest) is not “cancelled/ destroyed.” In other words, money is with drowned from circulation. To further probe into this, when loans/mortgages are offered, the banks immediately comes up with money that is not. They come up with figures that are only written by the stroke of a pen on a paper and declare that to be their assets, then the responsibility is left upon you to create the money.
Most people don’t realize that they are having to borrow to buy. This is unpalatable truth, however we have to concede and look for a way out.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Absolutely yes. Especially considering the circumstances that have been happening in our country with some people complaining of the retard economic growth while others allege a 6% improvement, I have had a vivid understanding as to why we are in this state and what the common citizen is going through.
This is a timely book that has improved my relationship, beliefs, goals and values when it comes to the business worlds and economic circles.
The reason why the ordinary citizen has found it hard to comprehend the logic in the slight economic improvement is because he has been denied the purchasing power. In fact, to make the matters worse, he is suffering the pain from the increased taxation that is being levied on the little income that he is getting. Also the reason for the retard economic growth is the scarce in money circulation which similarly leads us to the issue of purchasing power.
This is an evocative book that takes us back to the roots of the matter. I feel enlighten, at least now I know better.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
Today as everyone in business knows, if you are not part of the process of change, you will not be part of the economy for long. So the market is forever changing with new and establish companies.
Change is inevitable. It should always be welcome as it improves on our lifestyle. However, people should not lure others under the pretence of change in order to enrich themselves while making others to suffer poverty. Learning from this book, I have understand that the current change that we are experiencing in our production sectors is absolutely dubious. If our cost of living is being made better, (the rate at which money must be spent) then it must include product durability.
Just to use the example given on page 60: if a kettle cost £10 in 1963, but cost £20 now, the price has doubled. But if the kettle in 1963 was built to last fifteen years and the kettle today only lasts for three years, the calculation is different – very, very different. Five of the £20 kettles will have to be bought to cover the 15years of the older model, totaling £100. This is a rise in the cost of living from £10 to £100.
Why has the durability of most commodities decline? I believe it’s due to the heighten competition that industries resort to making goods that are more glittering while using lesser raw materials in order to have plenty of them to meet the demand. Further more, most of the goods are not durable because the manufactures want to increase their sales, in that, when you buy a substance and it’s no more after a few years, you’ll be forced to go and buy the same.
However, the bottom line is we are hurting ourselves with such subtle practices. The solution to all this lays in what the entire book is talking about; The Grip of Death, debt slavery and destructive economics.
If you want to develop your nation, protect your own domestic economy.
When I was a child together with my colleagues we had the notion that anything from overseas was the best. This is a problem that is immensely affecting the developing nations. A number of people are yet to liberate themselves from this problem of exotic stereotype. Two commodities can be in the same shop, of the same quality and purpose, but one will have high sells unlike the other just because it’s imported. In fact, some designers go to the extend of pasting labels from preferred countries in order to make sales of their cloths.
I have been challenged a lot to encourage others to prefer domestic products. When you buy a domestic product, you not only benefit the person from whom you’ve buy, but you are developing your country which in the long run will be of help to you.
If a country imports more than it exports, there is a net outflow of money but the debt associated with the creation of that lost money remains. That country’s entire economy is threatened. Unsold goods start to collect, and unsold goods means someone, somewhere is in debt – either a factory, a wholesaler or a shopkeeper. And when some domestic goods remain unsold, purchasing power has left the country.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Obviously yes. This book has challenged and changed my perspective about a number of issues that have been happening in our economy that I didn’t understand.
Most people are languishing in poverty because the governments of the world are denying them purchasing power. In order to have effective purchasing power, money ought to circulate freely amongst people. But the circumstances created by banks have made it impossible for this to happen without the people going into debt including the government that manufactures the money.
Now this paradoxical situation is threatening to go rampant if the governments of the earth won’t reach a concession to take a critical move.
I have also received a challenge as to why it has become more difficult for all the debts to be cleared. If all private and commercial debts within the economy were repaid and settled, there would be almost no money in circulation. Money in circulation would collapse.
Now, everyone competes to obtain some of the money already in existence. Someone has to borrow, but no one wants to do it. All people, all firms, and the government are in perpetual competition with each other to trying to get the money already in circulation trying desperately not to be the someone who has to go into debt to bring back into circulation money returning into banks, or become part of the increase in the money supply.
We are living in an economy dominated by the scarcity of money that the absurdity of the situation easily escapes us.
It’s also challenging how the author has explain why some of the things we are doing may not alleviate the situation as we might be thinking. For instance, new businesses and plants are being erect ever so often while others are being closed regularly for want of sufficient sells. Tax is being levied on those at work to support those out of work which is next to criminal; both for those working and the unemployed, resulting to those working being impoverished, whilst the unemployed getting a pittance. Where is the problem? Is it lack of employment? Not really. Just to reiterate, industries, shops and supermarkets are being built regularly creating employment opportunities while others are declining in the same field, equally at the same pace resulting to lose of employments. We are rotating in the same circles. This leads us back to what the book is attributing; the problem is lack of purchasing power.
There is no any single nation that is out of debt. The worse part of it is that the more they try to clear their debts, the more they increase. But I’m grateful for this book because it’s not condemning and painting a grim picture, it’s showing us where it all started and what we ought to do to end it. Although it’s not easy, but I perceive the only reasonable solution is the one explained in the entire book. I may not be in a position to fully exhaust the challenges in this book, nevertheless I credit the work that was done to gather this information. I sometimes wonder; do the people in leadership of various governments ever come across such books?
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
None
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
I’ve found this statement to be of great help: Money is capable of doing what we want it to do, rather than (as at present) making us do what it wants us to do.
When people become obsessed with the zeal to make money, they tend to be irrational and committee a lot of offences. When money become your master, then you are in trouble, you’ll live a life full of regrets.
Back to the book’s context, we see a big distress that money has imposed upon the very people who created it to facilitate their activities. A town can be in desperate need of a school, a community centre, or repairs to its roads and drains. The raw materials may be laying idle in a builders yard, people may be desperate for work, but there isn’t enough money. So we can’t do it. In what possible sense can we not afford to do what we plainly can, in physical terms, achieve? This money slavery has definitely crippled our commitments. Everyone would rather obtain enough money to be able to buy what they need without going into debt.
There is nothing that I have figured out in this book as least helpful.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
This is an authentic, comprehensive coverage of the origin of money and debt slavery that was and is mostly facilitated by banks. This unrelenting debt slavery (Grip of death) especially on mortgages has continued to impoverish people while threatening nations economic stabilities.
8. Please rate this book 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? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7
How To Win Friends And Influence People
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discuss the main ideas that you found important to you and discuss why they were important to you.
The ability to deal with people is as purchasable as commodities as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability under the sun.
Many times we forget that the path towards the achievements that we strongly crave for lays with the very people around us that we ignore.
Somebody once said; all the things that you desire, there is another person that has them. Therefore, ours is to know how to get the other person give us willingly and joyfully what we need to support our goals. Knowing this is the ability to deal with people, and this is what this book is all about.
No man is an island.
It doesn’t matter how many things you can do by your self, it reaches a time that you desires’ other people’s approval or credit. As long as one is a life, the greatest success you can have is how to deal with people.
I will speak ill of no man, and speak all the good I know of everybody.
This book has challenged me not to be fond of criticizing others even if what they have done is sloppy. There is a better way to get them to improve than open criticism. By criticizing, we do not make lasting changes, instead we often incur resentment. Learning from our own selves this fact that as much as we thirst for approval, we dread condemnation, we shouldn’t be quick then to utter criticism that degrades the other person. When dealing with people I have learned to remember that we are dealing with creatures of emotions, creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Absolutely yes! In this book that is aptly named: How to Win Friends and Influence People, not only have found it to relate to my personal circumstances in life such as my relationships, beliefs, goals and values; but it has literally fortify my best qualities in dealing with people.
I now find it more easy to deal with all manner of relationships and even initiating new ones. One of the secrets I have realized is to be interested in other people’s desires. We are interested in others when they are interested in us. We are all one people regardless of some few political, geographical and climatic differences that try to separate us. We all share similarities in our strengths and vulnerability. As a staunch Christian, I totally concur with this book on the belief; do unto others us you’ll have them do unto you.
I value the principal of getting on top without insolently treading on others. A big number of people do things for their own personal aggrandizement and when things get out of hand, they fall with a great distraction. But when you treat others with respect while up there, in times of predicament, the people down are the ones who will sustain you until the time you regain your stability. This book has truly helped me to treat every person I encounter with ultimate care. We are all important.
3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
Do not criticize, condemn or complain.
Some time back, rather before reading this book, I would have found it hard to grasp this truth. Just like the anecdotes given in the book, I used to think that the best way to project my nobility to be by pointing other people’s mistakes. In fact, some times I could focus most of my attention on marginal issues instead of complementing the positive side. But now I have seen it in a different way.
In the first place, criticism, condemnation or complains, should be meant to improve performance but not to demoralize others. All people you meet have regard for themselves and like to be fine and unselfish in their own estimation. There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticism from superiors. I have had such a great transformation to the extend that I am deeply hurt when I see a person (especially superior) criticize another, and I’ve resolve to be going and complement the victims strength. I have tried it and I have seen people instantly drop their gloomy faces and brighten up in their work.
I like this quote from the book by French aviation pioneer and author – Antoine de Saint – Exupery: I have no right to say or do anything that diminishes a man in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him, but what he thinks of himself. Hurting a man in his dignity is a crime.
Arouse in the other person an eager want.
I have realize that the secret to getting others do what you want is to arouse in them an eager want. It’s in the nature if man to get something in return for whatever he does. Every act you have ever performed since you were born was performed because you wanted something. Even in doing voluntarily services and acts of charity, we do them because we crave for the satisfaction of having helped a poor soul. Action is propelled by desire.
This is fascinating. Whenever I need assistance from anyone I ask my self, how can I make this person want to do what I want? What is it that this person desires’ most that I can link to my need and get him do it?
– There is only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argument – and that is to avoid it … nine times out of ten, an argument ends with each of the contestants more firmly convinced than ever that he is absolutely right.
That ego that perpetually thwarted my desire to make friends, that developed a selfish attitude of being right always, has been weakened by this great stuff that I have learned from the book.
You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it. Why? Well, suppose you triumph over the other man and shoot his argument full of holes and prove that he is wrong. Then what? You’ll feel fine. But what about him? You have made him feel inferior. You have hurt his pride. He will resent your triumph.
This book has given us a better way of airing your views without hurting the other person. For instance, instead of using the word ‘but,’ encourage the use of the word ‘and.’ Also you can usher in powerful arguments using friendly remarks as Daniel Webster used to do like: ‘It will be for the jury to consider,’ ‘This may, perhaps, be worth thinking of,’ ‘Here are some facts that I trust you will not lose sight of,’ or ‘You, with your knowledge of human nature, will easily see the significance of this facts.’
Remember that other people my be totally wrong. But they don’t think so. Don’t condemn them. Any fool can do that. Try to understand them. Only wise, tolerant, exceptional people even try to do so.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
Definitely yes! To start with, I’m deeply intrigue by the great deal of erudition by which the book was wrote. I marvel at the immense toil he hard to go through to get the facts right before writing the book. He did a great job.
Secondly, I have been challenged on the best way to make friends. The secret is becoming interested in what others are doing. You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get others people interested in you. Why talk about what you want? That is childish. Absurd. Of course, you are interested in what you want. You are eternally interested in it, But no one else is. The rest of us are just like you: we are interested in what we want. So the only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want. This has helped me to overcome a problem that I had on how to keep a conversation lively and flowing. I used to found it hard to create a conversation with strangers. But following this technique I have realize that there is no one who doesn’t talk, and there is no one you can’t get along with once you develop an interest in him or her.
Each one of s has his own story to tell. There is no one who has nothing to say. On the other hand, all people can talk when they get mad. If you hit the most ignorant man in town and knock him down, he would get on his feet and talk with an eloquence, heat and emphasis that would have rivaled that world famous orator William Jennings Bryan at the height of his career.
Moreover, there is another fascinating way of winning friends which is by memorizing people’s names and mentioning them every time you talk to them. The average person is more interested in his or her own name than all the other names on earth put together. Sincerely, the name of a person is the sweetest sound he can ever hear from others. I’ve tried this and I have been baffled by the outcome. Sometimes when I talk to a person and I mention his name while stressing a point, he brightens up right from his eyes and listens with extreme enthusiasm. Other times I have greeted people by mentioning their names and they become joyful and it is like they say to themselves, “ You mean you still recall my name?” Or “ What is it about me that is so interesting that this person cannot forget my name?” By mentioning other people’s names, they immediately develop interest in us. They tend to feel you have known and understood them for long.
Lastly, I have been challenged on how to get your demands fulfilled peacefully even in the most hostile environment. This is what the book is telling us: Get the other person saying ‘Yes, yes’ at the outset. Keep your opponent, if possible from saying ‘No’ This is superb! It doesn’t matter who the person is and how adamant he is. I have learned to look for a common ground, something that he supports and agree with him, putting him on the truck of saying ‘Yes’ before driving my point. I believe with this weapon, you can get your way anywhere.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
None
6. What did you find most helpful and list helpful in this book?
The deepest principal in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
Everyone likes a compliment. When an honest and sincere appreciations is given, it adds some energy in a person’s life. I used to think that I’m an exemption in this case. I could say to myself that I’m strong enough, with or without a compliment it doesn’t make a difference. It was not a bad attitude. However, I realize that I was faking it. Wherever there is a compliment, definitely there is bond to be a massive mount of incentive and energy that gives us an ability to transcend previous limitations.
For a long time I had longed to write documents, books, fictions, etc but I was a bit apprehensive because I didn’t think I could match the standards. It was until when I wrote a sentimental letter to a lady friend that I discovered that I could make it. She came to me and challenged me with a compliment, “Friend you intrigued me with your writing, I have never seen such a fascinating letter. You could write a book. I like the clear flow of ideas and …”
When I listen and saw the sincerity in her eyes, it changed my attitude. I was convinced it wasn’t flattery. All the fear that I had including; you are not learned like the vast majority of people who are yet to write books, you were not so good in grammar while at school, you are not a university graduate, were decimated. I rolled my sleeves and decided to go for it regardless.
I immediately wrote a fiction and participated in a competition sponsored by an Italian company, but I wasn’t considered among the winners. I wrote a number of documentaries, opinions, comments, and letters to different newspapers and magazines but none of them was publish. Then, one day in the evening while I was strolling, I meet a friend who told me, “I’ve read the document you wrote on the opinion column of the Daily Nation newspaper. It is incredible!”
You can guess what happened next. I went home jumping up and down like a child singing and speaking to myself, it is done, the whole nation has read about it! The next thing I did was to embark on writing a book (Christian literature) based on a true life testimony about my life and other people’s as well. I wrote the book and I’m yet to find people who will help me publish it. Do you think I’ll stop there? No. Never! I’m now contemplating my second book.
This is what a sincere complement can do. A honest and sincere complement lasts in people’s memory for long even when a person who uttered it has long forgotten.
I have learned a lesson. The deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important. I have learned to speak good of others in their hearing and even in the presence of their colleagues. Approbation is virtual in helping others improve. I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. Let the other person know that you have faith in his ability to do it, that he has an undeveloped flair for it and he will practice until the down comes in the window in order to excel.
There is nothing that I have figured out in this book as least important.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
An extensive erudite book that has compiled all the information needed, in a lucid and concise manner, to win friends and influence people. It’s an action book that propels one into motion right from the beginning.
Please rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 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
Honestly, this is an action book that’s very much important to any aspiring leader or anyone in leadership. If I were asked, I would recommend it to be a compulsory read to all IIGL students. It’s a classic.
Quantum Healing
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. Discus the main ideas that you found most important in this book and discuss why they were important to you.
Consciousness creates reality.
We are what we are because of our consciousness. It is a conscious being who understands the world around it. We are perturbed by the activities around us in line with the programming of our consciousness. I have realized that our consciousness functions in the manner by which the society has shaped us right from our infancy. That’s why people have different characteristics. We all respond differently to various circumstances we encounter. Successful people are those who have learned to respond positively to circumstances contrary to those who respond negatively.
To think is to practice brain chemistry, promoting a cascade of responses throughout the body.
I have learned now from a number of books by Deepak Chopra that anything unused will eventually dissipate. The only way to stop this is by putting your ability in to action, and in so doing you obviously improve on your performance.
The secret as in any other ‘natural’ decline in old age depends on the habits of mind, not in the circuitry in the nervous system. As long as a person stays mentally active, he will remain as intelligent as in youth and middle age. This is lovely. Instead of seeing old age as ugly, unpleasant and fragile, I have learned to see it as experience, treasured, wise and lasting. Old is gold. The best way to maintain the value of this gold is by constant practice.
2. Can you relate the ideas and concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as yours relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Explain.
Yes. In a world that is surrounded with all manner of infirmities and new diseases emerging every now and then driving our immune system into unrelenting battles to maintain our health, I see this book as relevant to my circumstances. No one can achieve his goals if he is not in a good health. We must first be healthy before focusing our attention to other things.
Number one step towards living a healthy life is to get reconciled back to nature, to develop a friendly relationship with nature. Nature is man’s healer because nature is man.
3. What are the most new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please explain.
Intelligence is present everywhere in our own bodies. Our own inner intelligence is far superior to any we can try to substitute from outside. It’s more important than the actual matter of the body, since without it, that matter would be undirected, formless, and chaotic. Intelligence makes the difference between a house design by an architect and a pile of bricks.
God created our bodies with the ability to mend any complications and necessities that emerges so long as we nourish them rightly. When we try to indulge into the body’s activities to aid it back to the right health with various medicines and chemicals, we might succeed in some way but create a new and different problem. This is because our prescriptions and douses cannot be so accurate no matter how hard we try to maintain the balance. This inner intelligence cannot be substitute with any from outside.
As a person, I’ve learned the importance of maintaining the body into it’s normal factions as much as possible without disrupting or intoxicating it with anything form outside. The living body is the best pharmacy ever devised. It produces diuretics, painkillers, tranquillisers, sleeping pills, antibiotics, and indeed everything the manufactured by the drug companies, but it makes them much, much better. The dosage is always right and given on time; side effects are minimal or nonexistent; and the directions for using are included in drug itself, as part of its built – in intelligence.
The universe was created once, but we re – create ourselves with every thought.
It has been said that everywhere a thought goes there goes a chemical; everywhere a chemical goes there is bond to be an action either positive or negative. With every thought that we have we are creating something.
We have seen people sometimes get out of their sickness and become healthy by altering their thoughts and taking affirmative action. This helps to strengthen their immune system. Conversely, people have created diseases that were not there only by getting into depression that alters the normal functions of the body thus weakening the immune system. By the power of thought (meditation/faith) People have developed and perfected their talents, restored their health, walked on fire without being hurt, and performed activities that defied the stated laws of nature. Also, by thoughts, people have killed each other, destroyed the beauty of nature suffer diseases, demolished infrastructure, etc.
I totally agree with this reality; what you see you become. You are nothing more or less than your thoughts. Nothing real can be separated from what we tell ourselves is real. It’s now an accepted fact that one’s body spontaneously respond to one’s state of awareness.
All the raw data of experience must pass through the filter of intelligence, and no two people appraise it in exactly the same way.
It s plausible we unwittingly create ourselves by pilling millions of impulses of conditioned reflex. Every time whenever I experience instant strange body changes, I have learned to quickly reflect through my life and try to detect any conditioned reflex that I might have created. Many aspects of our lives have been mould by such impulses.
One ought to be determined and take serious steps towards undoing such created conditioned reflex. All these are circumstances that we create for ourselves with the level of awareness that controls our lives. When something seems to change in the world, it is really you that is changing.
4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in anyway? If so, explain how.
Yes. This book has changed and challenged my thinking when it comes to health matters. It has changed the way I used to think of my body and the act of healing. I’ve deeply been challenged from the examples given in the book of people who had terminal cases like cancer that had advanced unto their bones but they were able to change this fatal conditions when they welcomed the act of meditation. Some of them incredibly baffled their doctors with the ‘miraculous’ results that alleviated those horrible conditions only through the help of meditation, enabling them to live highly beyond the few days that the doctors had suggested.
Our bodies have been created with the ability to mend themselves from any complications only that we suppress such processes by ignoring the means that connects us back to the ‘source,’ which is meditation. When your body mends a broken bone, why is that not a miracle? As a healing process, it’s far to complex for medicine to duplicate; it involves an incredible number of perfectly synchronized processes, of which medicine knows only the major ones and those imperfectly. Every one’s body knows how to heal a curt, yet apparently only a few people have bodies that know how to cure cancer. Furthermore, every fatal disease has its mysterious survivors.
I have also been challenged by the great deal of change our bodies often go through. Ninety eight percent of the atoms in our body were not there a year ago. The skeleton that seems so solid was not there three months ago. The configuration of the bone cells remains somewhat constant, but atoms of all kinds pass freely back and forth through the cell walls, and by that, you acquire a new skeleton every three months. The skin is new every month. A new stomach lining every four days with the actual surface cells that contact food being renewed every five minutes.
Ultimately, what matters the most is our participation. Nothing is so important about the universe as your participation in it.
5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
No
6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?
A disease cannot take hold without a host who accept it.
Sometimes we struggle so hard to get rid of diseases while deep inside we have created a conducive atmosphere to nourish the same. Healing must start deep from the inside. The inside is more to do with our minds, our thinking. Treat the patient first, the disease second.
This has caused me to understand why people can live with the ailment but not the diagnosis. A person can live with a fatal disease for many years but once it has been diagnosed, and he has been made aware of it, he immediately succumb to it in few days. I believe a diagnosis creates a host for the disease by weakening the mind of the victim. And once this is done, the body submissively obeys the command form the brain. When the diagnosis are reviled, the patient goes like, “You mean I’m dying? You mean I have been having it all this time? Then I am doomed.”
I guess each one of us has once suffer a terminal case but because it was never diagnose, the body summoned its immune mechanism and cured it. I’m not ascertaining that we should not consider the doctors diagnosis and prescriptions. From what I have learned, we should condition our minds regardless of the grim report that there is no terminal case. Alternatively, for those who are weak at mind and heart, then it’s better for the whole truth not to be reviled to them. This can only be confined to the relatives but not to the victim for the sake of protecting his defence mechanism. Just like the example given on page 155. Making negative remarks during surgery affects the patient who tends to play out those gloomy predictions, while the more positive the surgeon’s expresses opinions, the more positive the outcome for the patient.
This book has helped me to overcome negative criticism. Sometimes it is even better not to listen to them. Consequently, one must also understand it’s not only the matter of changing the physical, but the ghost of the memory has to be changed or else you’ll be doing a futile job.
I like the conversation between the middle – aged radiologist and the author when the radiologist was diagnosed with leukemia (page 197-199) especially this part where he believes he has cancer; ‘ “You know, why bother to call it cancer? You could tell yourself that you have a chronic disease that has no name. If it doesn’t have a name, then you won’t have to worry about the statistics. People live a long life with mysterious diseases.” ‘
I’ve received a challenge. I can never be sick. A disease cannot take hold without a host who accept it. I’m too busy to be sick. I’m happy, healthy and satisfied, because I’m myself and I’ve all it takes to accomplish anything.
There is nothing that I have identify in this book as least important.
7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
This is a book that explains why and how our consciousness affects our health. Healing is not primarily a physical process but a mental one. We can mend any broken situation to its original functions.
Please rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 6
B. How helpful were the contents? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7
The Simple Abundance Journal
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
In this book the author is trying to help us unveil and experience the dramatic transformative force inherent in a life full of gratitude. Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. Our lives can never be fulfilled, no matter what, if gratitude is forsaken.
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.
– Once we accept that abundance and lack are parallel realities and that each day we choose – consciously or unconsciously – which world we will inhabit, a deep inner shift in our reality occurs.
God created the world full of splendor. There is always plenty within us only that we have turned a blind eye and all that we see is darkness and penury. This book has challenged me and I’ve been thinking it over; if not now, what else is it that matters most to make me live a life of gratitude?
There is fault in everything. If you what to, you can find mistakes in absolutely anything you desire and acquire. And if you want to, you can experience bliss in everything that is around you. I’m certain; joy is not in acquisition of properties. A happy healthy life is experience out of a grateful heart. Every day is literally a gift.
– Gratitude is our most direct line to God and the angles. If we take our time no matter how crazy and troubled we feel, we can find something to be thankful for. The more we seek gratitude, the more reason the angels will give us for gratitude and joy to exist in our lives.
The mistake that most people do is, when they go before God in prayers, the first thing they do is to present a deluge of questions and requests, give me this, give me that … me all. This is selfishness. Even in our day to day relationships it doesn’t work. It shows how we think so much about ourselves while others don’t matter whatsoever. This violates God’s principles.
This has helped me improve my relationship with others. Gratitude is a major key to connecting us to our destiny. It breaks and softens the ‘stony’ heart; it opens the stingiest arms to surrender willingly and joyfully. I’ve witness people who were so mean and stubborn change their attitude immediately when they were approached with a grateful heart. This has also been explained clearly in the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
– Cherish your human connection: your relationship with friends and family.
There is nothing so awesome like to cherish our human connection and relationship with others. All the wealth that we can ever acquire and all the awards that we can ever posses louse’s meaning if there were no people to celebrate with us. Furthermore if there were no people to compete with us in making all this, we wouldn’t feel enthralled that we acquired them. This is just to show us that life is all about our relationship with others. It’s the people around us who give us reason to live and work hard.
Our friends and family should also be aware that we cherish their presence. They should know that we value their opinion and that they matter to us. People don’t care what we know until they know we care. This has brought into perspective a lesson that I once learned not to take others for granted. There was a certain lady with who we used to work together doing sells. She used to challenge me a lot by saying how she believed that she was going to become very successful and extremely wealthy. It could go to the extent that she could sometimes upset me with her interminable fantasies. After some time, we parted ways but I never bothered to get her contacts.
It was some few years latter when I was in a situation that I desperately needed to work on a project of which she was conversant and used to speak of. I couldn’t progress with this project because it was elusive to me; she was the only one I knew who understood it clearly. I looked for her in every corner of the city into all the offices we ever entered without a single trace of her. I lost a great opportunity. Up to now, I regret I took things for granted. After the many lessons I’ve learned in IIGL, in retrospect, I’ve come to admire the attitude she had and I believe wherever she is God granted her desires.
I learned a lesson, that’s why I’m careful when it comes to cherishing our human connections. Often, I do recite these words from the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
– Friendship begins with liking or gratitude.
Gratitude is another way of informing the other person that you are pleased with them and what they are doing as well. I’ve learn a new way of building relationship with others. By expressing my appreciation, people will feel that I pay attention to them and what they are doing hence they’ll respond in the same way and friendship will begin.
With gratitude you can have as many friends as possible even in places where you feel like a stranger. Every time when I meet people, I try to figure out anything about them that is pleasing however small, then I proceed to build rapport by basing mostly on that quality that’s pleasing.
– You only live once – but if you work it right, once is enough.
Many people look at their lives ruefully over the opportunity they had and never utilized them. But, I’ve come to understand; this does not do us any good but leads to a life of resentment and regress. And neither does it mean that we shouldn’t be reviewing our lives to spot where the problem was, because if you want to improve in any area of your life you must first identify the problem. All I’m suggesting is don’t dwell on the problem, focus on the solution.
This book has helped me learn that if you want to live a life of abundance just start from where you are with what you have. It doesn’t matter what you have or don’t, where you are or who is who; by expressing gratitude for the simple things around, you open doors for greater things. You already posses all you need to be genuinely happy. All you truly need is the awareness of all you have. Today. Not tomorrow, or next week or next year. Gratitude spiritually induces this awareness with a lovers kiss.
– Nature has been for me for as long as I can remember, a source of solace, inspiration, adventure and delight; a home, a teacher, a companion.
Every time whenever I want to peruse through the blue print of my goals and purpose, I’ve identify a new way of doing it that connects me back to my intention. This is by appreciating the simple gifts of nature and being intrigued by their perfect performances. Whenever I look at the sun rise or sun set, the blue sky, the clouds, the moon, stars, rainfall etc, I get inspired, I feel edify and it’s like something new is born in me. There are things that I used to take fro granted; however after being challenged by this book, they have turned to be a great inspiration and a source of bliss. To appreciate nature, resonates love and abundance. We are made for lager ends than earth can encompass. Oh, let us be true to our exalted destiny.
– The pitcher cries for water and a person for work that is real.
I’ve learned that I should not long just for the destination but I should enjoy the journey towards it as well. All that we do should be connected to our purpose. Deep inside our hearts there is a persistent yearning for bliss that emanates from working our intention. This is what I perceive as work that is real. Our work is to discover our work then with all our hear to gives ourselves to 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?
Definitely, this ideas and lessons will help in my personal life and in creating a better world. When it comes to building relationships, gratitude is mandatory. Its’ the sweet, simple things of life which are the real things after all. There is a calmness to a life in gratitude, a quiet joy. The only way to achieve a joyful and successful life is through gratitude. This journal has helped me to bring this out by encouraging me to at least be writing down five things that I’m grateful for each day.
Ironically, gratitude’s most powerful mysteries are often revealed when we are struggling in the midst of personal turmoil. Therefore, this book has instructed me to come out of the old thinking and personality. It doesn’t matter how we feel, what matters is that we just do it. The Bible instructs us “to give thanks in all circumstances,” but it doesn’t tell us that we have to be smiling while we say it.
Since reading this book, I’ve purpose to create a better world by always saying these words: Thank You. Just like Rhonda Byrne is telling us in the book; The Secret, that the first words she says when she gets out of her bed is ‘Thank – You’ as her first and second feet steps down respectively; so will I be doing it in this manner, ‘Thank You – Jesus,’ the last thing after prayers before going to bed and the first thing in the morning. Every person I talk to, before we part, I’ll always be ending our conversation with the words, ‘Thank you, or I appreciated.’
4. Quotes: Are there brief quotes from the book which really got your attention? If so, please list and comment on them.
Yes, this book is full of quotes but I’ll just list only a few that really got my attention.
– God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with.
This is a lesson that I’ve often been learning form the various levels of IIGL, that, one of the keys to opening the doors of abundance is to give.
– There is only one real deprivation … and that is not to be able to give one’s gift to those one loves most.
I’m grateful for this book because now I now that I can never miss an opportunity or something to give.
5. Is there anything that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
Nothing was unclear, and I’ve not identify any ideas that I totally disagree with.
6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?
More or less yes. This book contains areas where one has to fill in each and every single day of the year five gifts of gratitude. It is a continuous process through out the year and so far I’ve clear almost six months since the year began.
I’ve found this exercise to be so inspiring and interesting that every time I look forward to doing it including today, tomorrow and the rest of the days. They are 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.
Nothing
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7
Dancing With The Beloved
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
In this poetic book, the author is giving us information on how we can identify and strengthen our love relationships in spite of all manner of adversities and weaknesses. The subject of love has been tackled figuratively and sincerely, leaving no room for fear and doubt.
The great fear of the lover is that his love will not be requited. However, love isn’t something that happens when we are fearful or insecure. Love involves surrendering and leaving to accept your partner by seeing things in his/her point of view. The truth is that our soul mate cannot come into our lives until we learn to like and accept ourselves warts and all. Moreover, our soul mate is as imperfect as we are. If we see his/her imperfections as obstacles to our love and acceptance; we will not break through our own fear.
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.
– Clothes do not make the man/woman. They just make an image that sooner or later will have to be destroyed if we have to see the real person.
I have learned that most people try to feign the truth especially about their character in order to win their friends affection. This ought not to be. Many relationships that would have blossomed have ended up breaking just because either one or both of the partners did not surrender to their true identity. When there is no truth, there is no trust hence no mutual understanding.
Whatever we overlook in the beginning of a relationship about ourselves or others, we will have to face it sooner or later whether we like it or not. The truth will always come out. It can be disguise or hidden but only temporally. It’s not to our advantage to try to hide it. Conversely, true love is born from expressing our true colors. You can’t keep on pretending for the rest of your life. If s/he loves you, s/he will accept you just as you are. In fact, the truth is that some people look better than they are and others are much better than they look.
Therefore, I’ve been challenged to keep both my eyes and heart open when beginning a relationship. Whatever is inside of you will come out, and one day you will look at it and say, “It’s ok. I can live with that.” And that will be the day your soul mate will arrives.
– There comes a time when we realize that we have no choice. We must submit. We think that we consciously choose the people we love, but that is a great illusion. The people we love are brought into our lives because they are our perfect mirrors.
This idea shares the same sentiments with the message in the book; Falling in Love with Ayala Malach. I personally believe, true love is divinely planned and nothing can stop it when it’s due. You can try to resist or suppress love, but when its time arrives, it will eventually erupt like a volcano and every one will see it. I’ve heard of people who set conditions that they would never marry from certain tribes, regions, races, etc only to find themselves in the same trap. All their conscious decisions dissipated when the grip of love suddenly caught up with them. There is nobody who can’t love.
We do not know why we love each other. We just know with a certainty that it is so. When in love, nobody can have a satisfactory reason for being in love. Love expresses it self spontaneously. It requires no planning, no practice, no effort. It is a gift that is given to us, and we have no choice but to pass it on.
This is important to me because it has helped me not to force things my way but to let go and let God. Try to control and you lose control. Trust and you come into alignment with the greater will.
– True relationship requires the death of ego. But ego cannot be sacrifice on a cross, as it were, or it will return again and again, hungry and unfulfilled. It must be surrendered voluntarily, willingly and joyfully, and then it can be resurrected into something greater and more profound.
Only on rare occasions will people admit to have acted under the influence of ego. Learning form this experience, ego is not something that can suddenly be trash off. The right way to do it is to surrender willingly. Often, none of us is ready to admit that s/he is the weakest player. We always try to figure out a way to blame others. However, I have realize that if you’ll set out the trend right from the beginning in your relationship to accept mistakes and confess them, you partner will certainly respond in the same way. This will help to prevent the incidents of matters being swept under the carpet which normally turns out to haunt us and even break relationships. For a healthy relationship, our armor must come off. Our love must lead the way, pulling our fear along with it.
– When people try to be lovers before they have learned to be friends, they are asking for trouble.
Obviously, such actions are evidence of selfishness, which is a recipe for mistrust and arguing. When two people are in a relationship, it’s essential they first learn and get to know each other emphatically before resorting to be lovers. A friend shows you his pain, and you don’t get threatened and attack or run away. You just hold your friends pain with compassion. While lovers who never learned to be friends, once either one or both of them have quelled their desire, they have no time for each other. Such relationships are bond to fail.
There being no relationship with no highs and no lows, what will be the fate of those who are not friends? Every relationship must fall apart, not just once but many times. That’s how it grows. That’s how new intimacy is achieved.
– Love isn’t something that happens when we are fearful or insecure. Because love means taking a risk. It means reaching out with the possibility that we will be denied or rejected. It means crossing over our safe zone and becoming vulnerable.
As mention earlier, love requires no explanations. None the less, there is a need for preparation, a conducive atmosphere to invite love. But the greatest enemy here is fear, especially the fear of denial or rejection. This is very much important to me because it has helped me realize that we must give up the ways in which we hold ourselves and release ourselves to whatever the outcome. We must give up the very boundaries that we have always held to for self definition. As a matter of fact, how can anyone ever know anything in this life without fast trying?
This can be scary, but when we love, we expand, we become a mythic figure: not just man or woman, but god or goddess, love helps us step into our divinity.
– Healing takes time. Feeling the pain is part of the healing and the learning.
It has been said; no pain no gain. That which we treasure, the one that we dearly crave for, we must be willing to pay the prize for it. In this life you’ll get anything that you pay its prize.
I’ve also been challenged that love is not a fragile, shiny thing, kept separate from the pain and misery of life. It is born of our willingness to learn from our mistakes. There is no one who learns to love without encountering the depth of her pain and her partner’s pain.
– The nature of love is that it brings everything that is not love to the surface. There’s no way around it. That’s the dance. Changing partners does not help. Leaving your partner does not help.
There is no one who is perfect. We all have some weakness and strengths. If you are looking for the perfect partner in your relationship, then you might as well call it a off. What you are running from in this relationship, you’ll definitely find it in the next one, or even worse.
I have liked how the author has tackled this phenomenon. The dance continues, no matter who is dancing. It strips away all illusions. It is completely devastating. When it is over, all you have is love. There is no more resistance, no more struggle, no more pain, no moiré pushing or holding back. You are just a leaf floating in the river. You move with the current. You do what love tells you to do.
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?
These ideas will help me in a number of areas when it comes to having an ideal relationship. First, they’ll help me to look beyond the physical and to try and find the true self in others which many people tend to hide or suppress. I’ll be able to achieve this by starting with my own self, thus encouraging others to open up. Consequently, this will help me to submit and surrender and let myself learn from my/our mistakes hence decimating fear and creating more room for trust and faithfulness.
If I will stick to these lessons and many others that I’ve learned from this book, I’m confident it’s such a great move towards creating a better world.
4. Quotes: Are there brief quotes from the book which really got your attention? If so, please list and comment on them.
Definitely yes
– The meaning is always there, but you don’t see it when you want to.
In everything that we go through, there is always a purpose that is being fulfilled and ultimately, a lesson to be learned. When we stop whining and surrender, it’s then that the meaning becomes clear to us. When you’ll let go, it’s then that you’ll see the gift that God has purpose behind all that.
– When you pick that smooth and shiny stone from the stream, do not forget what made it so complete in its surrender.
If we want to come out the best, we shouldn’t run from the process. There is no one who learns to love without encountering the depth of her pain and her partner’s pain.
– If we are afraid of failure, rejection or looking foolish, we cannot love. That is because, love is, after all, completely foolish. Anyone who has been stuck by Cupid’s arrow will attest to the fact that foolishness is the mark of love.
Sometimes love doesn’t know to wait for our perceive readiness. It doesn’t matter whether you feel it or not, love knows when the ripe time has come. It does not come to you until your are ready. The timing of the invitation is not up to you. Perhaps it will come when you sense it will; perhaps it will come when you least expect it.
5. Is there anything 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?
No. There were no exercises 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.
Nothing
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? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7
Long Walk To Freedom
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
In this book the author is giving us a fascinating and deeply compelling account of his life right from his childhood and the years that he was involved as a freedom fighter. From this memoir, we get to learn of the element of persistence, patience, conviction, pain and victory. The author is trying to help us learn and understand that in confidence, one should lay his cause before the whole world. Whether you win or die, your vision, your purpose will still speak on your behalf until all is accomplish. An authentic vision is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.
This is a perfect archetype of a leader who goes the extra mile to sacrifice his comfort for the sake of the people he is leading.
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.
– Virtue and generosity will be rewarded in ways that one cannot know.
Sometimes when people give or support others, they develop and attitude of when am I going to receive my reward. Every act of patronage will eventually be rewarded, but it’s not up to us to set our minds when and how. History has shown us, the most successful people who ever lived were those that knew how to give. Someone once said; blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting. A benevolent person should learn to share out expecting anything in return.
– A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.
Sometime back, I used to think in order to be an effective leader you ought to be in control of everything including all decisions being made. Often, I could inadvertently offend my colleagues. It was until when I asked myself why I kept on loosing a number of potential people out of our ministry, then I realize my mistake.
I was once challenged from a lesson I learned out of this series (IIGL) that caused a tremendous change. People will always defend an idea at all costs if they feel it’s theirs, rather if they feel they have been involved. Nowadays I’m confident with my leadership. I have made the people feel and know that it’s their decisions that counts. That’s why I have made a commitment; I’ll never publicly refute an idea from another person. I’ll rather modify it and state it in an amicable way such that the one who voiced it will see the logic why it’s not viable.
Nevertheless this does not mean that I will always sit at the back even when things are threatening to get out of control. When it reaches to such a point, I do concur with another of Mandela’s statements: like the gardener, a leader must take responsibility for what he cultivates; he must mind his work try to repel enemies, preserve what can be preserve, and eliminate what cannot succeed.
– There is little favorable to be said about poverty, but it is often an incubator for true friendship. Many people will appear to be friend you when you are wealthy, but precious few will do the same when you are poor.
Sometimes I do perceive that a person who was brought up in an extremely wealthy environment may never come to know who his true friends are. The people around him are friends of his wealth but not him. When the wealth dissipates, they’ll also vanish. I strongly believe that true friendship should not be built on materialism but on mutual understanding.
I’ve also find the incident he has explain on page 187 fascinating. It’s when Mandela meets a poor and apparently homeless white woman who was young and not unattractive and he immediately felt the urge to give her money while he didn’t normally give to African beggars. It’s baffling how people in South Africa saw things then; to be poor and black was normal, to be poor and white was a tragedy. There is no one whatsoever that is not vulnerable, and there is none that a verdict has been passed that he should never acquire wealth.
– After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent. The simple act of being able to control one’s self.
I’ve been challenged so much with all that Mandela had to go through in order to bring liberation in South Africa. There are so many things that we take for granted. This book has given me more reason to live and thank God always. The fact that I am healthy and at liberty to make my own decisions, is sufficient to live a life full of gratitude. I’m so grateful to God that I read this book and that I was able to get it along side the other book; The Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude from IIGL.
– Nothing is so dehumanizing than the absence of human companionship.
This has also challenged me. At that time when he was locked in isolation with no contacts from outside and no way to even tell the time, it made me to think again how grateful we should be to God for the companionship of our colleagues.
At some point in life, it sounds ridiculous to what extend a man will go just to have a friendly relationship with anything. Here is a quote from what he says, “After a time in solitary, I relish the company of even insects in my cell, and found myself on the verge of initiating conversations with a cockroach.”
– To a narrow – thinking person it is hard to explain that to be ‘educated’ does not only mean being literate and having a B.A., and that an illiterate man can be a far more ‘educated’ voter than someone with an advanced degree.
Our modern contemporary society has developed a notion, unless one has a certified certificate on his level of education he is illiterate and not fit to lead. However, I have developed a different understanding. A degree is not in itself a guarantee of leadership or literacy; it’s just a statement on paper that one has to live up to. It means nothing unless one goes out into the community to prove one self.
I strongly believe that leadership is a God given ability. Although on a few occasions it can also be developed. Degrees and other awards are just supplements to effective leadership. I’ve witness leaders who are well organized systematically while they don’t have a good academic background, whereas I’ve also witness excellent leaders who are well equipped academically. Therefore, leadership is determined by ones performance.
– To be truly prepared for something, one must actually expect it. One cannot be prepared for something while secretly believing it will not happen.
This idea has greatly inspired me. At this juncture, I fully perceive that Mandela deserved the victory as a freedom fighter, no wonder life had to compel all circumstances to see to it that the passion that he hard for his country was fulfilled. Throughout this book I’ve been trying to find out what kept him persisting and waiting patiently full of optimism. I’ve come to believe one of the reasons that kept him through all those years was a conviction that what they were up to was realistic and that it was the only ultimate truth. To have a conviction that what you are up to is realistic, attainable and the absolute truth, will prepare one into any form of suffering to achieve his purpose. This is what the ANC leaders were up to and they were prepared even if it meant death sentence. This was the most trying moment that one would’ve expected them to compromise.
I’ve also understood this concept on a different level. Once I have set my goals, I ought to expect them in reality by acting as though they are already done. All that matters is the conviction that it’s what you want and that it’s the right thing to do. Such a conviction indeed provokes a boldness that cannot be refuted easily.
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?
These ideas and lessons will help me in diverse ways. Now that I have understood leadership is all about people, everything that I do should work towards improving the lives of others. It is no wise to take an action that the masses are opposed, for then it will be practically hard or impossible to enforce. These lessons will help me to strategize and validate whether the style I’m using is viable or a waste of time because there is no moral goodness in using an ineffective weapon.
Also they’ll help me to learn how to count my blessings. It was such a painful experience for the ANC officials in the manner by which they were cut off from their families for years. The sanctions that made it almost impossible for them to receive visits from family members, how the letters from family members were censor and deliberately tampered with to make it hard for them to grasp the message convey and many other forms of oppressions. From now hence forth, when any thought of disillusionment will come to me, I’ll always remember, there were others before me who never surrendered. I’ll be thinking of it this way, remember Mandela, 27 years of waiting in prison. Just like Abraham in the Bible, he exhibits true patience.
I will also encourage people, I included to stand for that which is right and never to be scared of anything. After all, what is better, to live in freedom with all the wealth of the world but with a condemn conscious; or to live in bars, lacking but with a clean, liberated conscious? The former is total bondage to eternity, while the latter is true freedom. Actually, penalties do not deter men when their conscious is aroused. Never will I ever consider of selling my birth right, to compromise my purpose just for some seasonal comfort. I’ve learned from this book and any man or institution that will try to rob me of my dignity will lose because I will not part with it at any price or under any pressure. I will never give up myself to despair. Never!
Ultimately, in creating a better world, I will forever call for love. There is no one who is a terminal case. There is a streak of goodness in men that can be buried or hidden and then emerge unexpectedly. All men even the most seemingly cold – blooded, have a core of decency, and if their heart is touched, they are capable of changing.
4. Quotes: Are there brief quotes from the book which really got your attention? If so, please list and comment on them.
Yes.
– When you question a man’s integrity, you can expect a fight.
Sometimes this can be a good incentive to get people on move especially those who are still apprehensive. No man wants to be identified as the weak player.
– After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
There is never an end to doing good, learning, development and stewardship. Even the most sagacious men do take time to learn because as days advance so increases technology and knowledge, or else one might find himself rendered obsolete.
5. Is there anything that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
No. There is nothing in the book that was unclear or that I totally disagree with.
6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?
No. There were no exercises 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.
Nothing
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8
The Secret
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
In this book that is an extensive erudite work compiled out of ideas and teachings from various sages and great thinkers who lived before us and some who are still with us at present; the author is basically appealing to us to stop whining and follow our bliss, our consciousness of power and have whatsoever it is that we choose. Mind set is the key to building anything you want. You are a spiritual being operating beyond physical limitations.
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.
– Everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life. And it’s attracted to you by virtue of the images you are holding in your mind. It’s what you’re thinking whatever is going on in your mind you are attracting to you.
For some time I was fond of blaming my circumstances and all the negative things wondering to myself; what a fate? I’ve been challenged to learn that things don’t just happen to us by chance. At first I found it hard to concede this truth but after much scrutinizing, with the examples given in the book, I’ve come to the conclusion this is for real.
If something came to you, you drew it, with prolonged thoughts. The law of attraction is precise. There are times that I’ve intensively thought of certain people, events and places, just to come across them after some few weeks. You create your life. Whatever you sow, you reap! Your thoughts are seeds and the harvest you reap will depend on the seeds you plant. I’m certain, if you can convince your mind beyond any shadow of doubt that you own a particular thing, you’ll definitely get it. The problem is that, we doubt. If you see it in your mind, you are going to hold it in your hand. Therefore, instead of getting angry, I’ve made up my mind to first ask myself; did I really see it in my mind? Was I convinced?
– See yourself living in abundance and you will attract it. It works every time with every person.
Living in abundance ought to be an attitude which must be accompanied by the practicality of sharing out. As a matter of fact, people who give hardly lack anything. People with plenty do share with others because they know their resources can never be depleted. They don’t flinch entering any shop to ask about any commodity that their hearts desire. I have learned that when you see yourself living in abundance, you attract people with abundance around you and even your language becomes similar to theirs’ leading to circumstances of plenty.
– If you do just a little research, it is going to be become evident to you that anyone that ever accomplished anything, did not know how they were going to do it.
The process of getting to our destiny, to fulfilling our visions is often not admirable. Some times it’s a traumatic experience full of anguish, isolation and frustration. When one is inspired and he has a conviction that he must accomplish a certain mission, it’s a slavery that one cannot be freed from until the purpose is achieved.
Even at this juncture, I do feel some hollowness, living with this uncertainty, not knowing whether what I’m doing is the real jackpot that will take me there or its’ just another lesson I’m learning how it does not work. Always waiting, trying everything and whenever I think of calling it a quite, the conviction won’t give me rest and I find myself back at it again. When is it going to happen? For how long does one has to go through the same lessons time and again?
I’ve learned that everyone who goes through this process normally thinks that his case is the toughest one, which is not true. We all go through the same tunnel with the same yet slight peculiar features but of the same magnitude in proposition with our mission. What matters most is the density of our mission. The good news is that none of us can be allowed to tackle extremely immense tough circumstances than they can handle.
I like what this book has helped me to understand. When you are trying to work out how it will happen, you are emitting frequency that contains a lack of faith – that you don’t believe you have it already. You think you have to do it and you don’t believe the Universe will do it for you. The how is not your part in the Creative Process. This is a precious lesson that I’ve learned that has built in me more faith and confidence. Our job is not to figure out the how. The how will show up out of a commitment and believe in the what.
– Size is nothing to the Universe. The Universe does everything with zero effort. The grass doesn’t strain to grow. It’s effortless. It’s just this great design. It’s all about what is going on in your mind. It’s about what we put in place saying, “This is big, it’s going to take some time. And this is small. I’ll give it an hour.”
How could I be so naïve and live with thoughts like; it’s easy to manifest one dollar than one million dollars? The process to manifest either one is the same. The only difference is thoughts that have dominate our minds that one is smaller amount while the other is bigger amount therefore much time is needed. Now it’s clear to me, I have a task to alter my thinking and change my circumstances.
– To attract money you must focus on wealth. It is impossible to bring more money into your life when you are noticing you do not have enough, because that means you are thinking thoughts that you do not have enough. Focus on not enough money, and you will create untold more circumstances of not having enough money.
This has helped me a lot in changing my confessions. Now instead of complaining always that I do not have enough money I always affirm to myself I have plenty. Whenever a person asks for me money when I don’t have, I don’t tell him I don’t have, rather I tell him, I’m sorry as per now I’m not in a position to help you due to my circumstance.
I’ve also learned a new way of creating abundance in my life. I’ve made it my intention that I’m going to look at everything I like and say to myself, “I can afford that. I can buy that.”
Another lesson that I’ve learned is to discard the thoughts that the only way money can come to me to be though my job. I’m deeply intrigued by what the author is telling us in another section: It is not the people who are giving you the things you desire. If you hold that false belief, you will experience lack, because you are looking at the outside world and the people as the supply. The true supply is the invisible field … Supreme Mind … God.
– When you want to attract something into your life, make sure that your actions don’t contradict your desires.
This is really a compelling statement. Most of the time our actions are the exact opposite of our desires. If only we can learn to redirect them to be in alignment with our intentions, then we will certainly attract all our desires into reality. I think I’ve identify another weak spot in my life that has contributed in retarding my progress. I’ve believed, prayed, confessed yet nothing because my actions have been reading on a different script. They have been suggesting that it willnot happen, instead of I already have it. We don’t’ call to make bookings and reservations one moment then the next hour proceed ahead to make other bookings and reservations to serve the same purpose. When one wins a lottery or receives and inheritance, even before you physically have the money, you know it’s yours.
These lessons have dramatically changed my life. Looking at some of the examples from the book, for instance the woman who wanted to attract her perfect mate by creating space for him in all her activities, and Glenda’s actions when she wanted to relocate, how she kept on packing her belongings; I feel challenged that the law of attraction works for anyone consciously or unconsciously. Some of these acts sounds ridiculous, but if that is the means to attract what I want, then why complain? I don’t care what people will think or say.
I’ve purpose to apply these lessons and ideas into practical life. I’ve decided to follow what this book is instructing: do exactly what you would do if you were receiving it today, and take actions in your life to reflect that powerful expectation. Make room to receive your desire, and as you do, you are sending out that powerful signal of expectation.
– The people are just the effect. Your thoughts are the cause.
This has helped me realize that all the treatment I’m receiving from others is the result of what I’m emitting. If I treat myself with love, knowing that I’m worth enough and deserving just like any other successful person, they will treat me in like manner. People will treat you just as you have taught them to treat you.
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?
These ideas will certainly help me in my personal life and in creating a better world. I’m the master of my life, and the universe is answering to my every command by saying, your wish is my command, according to your faith so be it.
This is a practical book, and it will be of no use no matter how many times I read it if I don’t put it into action. But, a person cannot change suddenly into a new habit, he has to find a means of creating this habit. For this book to help me, I’ll have to start at this point, habit. In order to monitor my thoughts, I’ll keep on looking at my emotions because they are an incredible gift that we have to let us know what we are thinking.
I’ll be planning my day in advance by beginning to expect great things with gratitude always dominating my lips. I’ll be believing and acting as though I already have it, to the extend that I won’t feel as if I need the particular thing because it will feel like I have it already. This is radical faith.
I’ll continue to treat myself with dignity and self worth knowing that I’m deserving and worth it especially because I’ve learned that it’s not the people who are giving me the things I desire. The outside world and the people are not my supply. The true supply is the invisible field (God) whose supply can never be depleted. Love and giving will never cease from me which is a basic ingredient to building a better world. There is enough for each one of us.
4. Quotes: Are there brief quotes from the book which really got your attention? If so, please list and comment on them.
Absolutely yes!
– If you’ve been there in the mind, you’ll go there in the body. This is awesome. Our minds can be likened to a control tower receiving signals and emitting frequencies to respective destinations accordingly, of which the law of attraction responds by delivering in the physical realm. Our thoughts precede our actions. The word of God is so clear about this and that’s why it advices us to meditate upon it day and night in order to make our ways prosperous.
– The real secret of power is consciousness of power.
Similar to the previous quote, It’s all about mind set. If you believe you are a champion and nothing can perturb your efforts, then certainly, your circumstances will respond in the same manner.
– If it ain’t fun, don’t do it.
This evocative quote brings to my memory the lesson that I learned from the book Ageless Body Timeless Mind by Deepak Chopra that, even the time when we feel weary and lazy, it’s because we haven’t identify an enthusiastic thing to do. Whatever work we are doing, we must try and figure out some fun in doing it, not just the wages. If you can’t identify anything fun in doing it, you’d rather quite because might end up spending the rest of your life gloomy and doomed. This leads me to the next quote which is:
– Follow your bliss and the Universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.
There is none who followed their bliss and ended up disappointed. The problem is that many people are wasting their time doing good things to please others instead of doing the right thing.
5. Is there anything that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
Nothing was unclear. The book is well explained, and there were no ideas that I totally disagreed with.
6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?
No. There were no exercises 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.
Nothing
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 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
Matrix Energetics
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
The author is giving us a bondless, explorer able approach to body, mind and spiritual healing via frequencies and energy emitions especially through a concept the refers to us “Two – Point” technique.
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 act of observing something, at least at the subatomic level, changes the behavior and characteristic of the thing observed. This implies that consciousness has direct and observable affect on the structure and composition of matter.
This phenomenon is actually more deep and profound especially to those who believe we posses a limitless potential and that we are connected to each other. I have read of people who have taken this very seriously and at times, they have been able to ignite and extinguish a candle just by staring at it deeply. I have learned something from this, that by observing, there are some frequencies release either positively or negatively depending with the state of the one observing. Thus, I can change a situation by lovingly staring at it.
We are told that we are composed of electrons, which can and do behave differently depending on the observer’s perspective or set of expectations. If you put enough mental and emotional energy into manifesting the thing that you habitually worry about, you eventually manifest physically the fruits of your negative expectation and beliefs.
*All techniques work within the confines of the reality subset for which they were constructed. As long as you agree to cooperate within the rules that the technique founder has provided, you will remain safely congnent with the types of results that they describe. It is when you begin to look outside of the parameters of the system’s preloaded, prefabricated reality filters that you may run into some trouble.
Nowadays I am no longer scared of getting into trouble because of trying something new like I used to be. This lesson is helping me just like the many lessons that I have been learning in IIGL to never cease getting out of the comfort zones. There is never and never will be any progress, great achievements, as long as one avoids being eclectic and sticks to doing things from choices that he is used to. Judging from the lives of the many successful sages who ever lived, I can say that inventors always appears as fools and mad men at first.
One way to really get the power of a new idea is to have an experience with an altered or non – consensus reality that takes you so far outside your normal comfort zone that you experience a conversion of reality. I have learned to entertain new ideas and concepts, to things that I normally wouldn’t do, because everything that I think, feel and do a potential source of a new information. The author is also saying to us that it’s great to believe in science if it offers you a view of reality that is useful; but if it does not … then it doesn’t matter what science says.
*Results, not empty facts or theories, are really what counts in anything. This is challenging. The ultimate end in anything said or done is the results. Sometimes I prefer to let the people see for themselves and make evaluations. If what you are doing is good, people will tell. If my life is fruitless, it doesn’t matter who praises me, and if my life is fruitful, it doesn’t matter who criticizes me.
*Your perception will control your reality. I have realized that when you look at something, you are looking it through your perceptual filters; you are what you’ve been taught to see, what you’ve been accustom to seeing. When you actually see something beyond the veil, and welcome new ideas as they come to you i.e. turning your perceptions into being versatile; then definitely your reality will continue to manifest positively day by day.
You will see what you want to see and learn, in many cases, within the context of what you already think you know. I believe this is the major cause of limitations in our lives. We are the only barrier to our success. There are no incurable conditions, but there are incurable individuals. I have purpose to often “up grade my system” and triumph over any circumstance.
*If you continually ask your brain a different or more empowering question, eventually it will get with the program and start to generate more powerful answers for you.
Just as when one don’t use his muscles they become atrophy, so is with our brains. When we avoid putting then into task, and avoid giving them more exercises, the less effective they become. I have decided to change the rules so that I have the possibility of not always getting what I’ve always gotten. When it comes to acquiring knowledge, I am always insatiable. There never will be an end to change and new technology. I want to be the instrument of change. I want to be the cause, not the effect.
*You either do or do not, there is no try. If you merely try to do something, then you may fail. Do, with that part of you that knows you can, and it happens.
Trying to do things implies that you are uncertain. It’s creating room for failure. I have learned that whenever I want to do something, I should immerse the whole of myself deep into it regardless of the out come. Having learned that there are no failures but results and success to be met at a later date; I have decided to change my language. Instead of saying, I am trying; I say, I am doing it. When you really know and not just believe that you deserve it, you get it.
*Once the mind has stretched to encompass the reality of a new experience, it can never shrink back entirely into the old way of seeing the world.
I’ve come to understand that once I get rid of the old files, the way my mind has been program to do things, and replace them with new programming, though it may take some time for the mind to full grasp the new upgrading, the good news is that once acquired, it will be very difficult to lose it, unless I approve it.
The more tough it is to learn and get doing new things, the more I’m convicted that they will stick and retrieving them at times of need, will be so easy and natural. You don’t think about the process of breathing, you just do it. This is as natural and as easy as that, once you get used to 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?
First, this book has been so timely in nourishing my perception. Our perceptions determine our judgment and actions as well. Moreover, perceptions determine our limitations and strengths. Now that this book has helped me to work on this, I’m seeing myself growing strong in all aspects of my life.
Consequently, this evocative lesson on anchoring devices has helped me to improve my memory and learning skills. In Neuro – Linguistic Programming and behavioral psychology we are taught of the act of anchoring. This helps us to be able to stimulate what we desire either instinctively or purposefully. What has helped me here is that when I am anchoring, I shouldn’t have a contradictory device. There is nothing more damaging to an ‘animals’ learning ability than contradictory stimuli. In other words, this is leaning from the heart i.e. by feelings, which makes it more interesting and difficult to forget or erase.
I have also been challenged to try new and different things and never to mind making mistakes or what my critics will say. This is the only way to making progress. Though at first it leads to isolation, while people are astonish at the level of eccetricness, it eventually bare fruits that attracts the whole universe to you as long as you don’t give up.
The problem with most people when aspiring to be successful is to try and figure out the how. This book has helped me realize that in whichever area of our calling, what we need to do is to get out of the way. If you can resist the temptation to interpret or make it about something you know, then you can allow it to be about something that you do not know. This creates room for transformation. I’ve been challenged to do this by at least believing as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
Above all, the lesson on Treasure Mapping is another great help similar to what I learned in the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I have pictures of places, people and things that I desire file strategically where I can spot them often in the process of attracting them to my life. These lessons and many others that I have not mention will contribute towards improving my life and create a better world by amending my relationship to others.
4. Quotes: Are there brief quotes from the book which really got your attention? If so, please list and comment on them.
* Anything you can imagine is possible. Your imagination is the limit.
* To see what is possible opens the doors to all things in life.
These quotes are appealing to us to change our thinking and definitely change our world. There are no limitations a part from those we imagine, thus, it’s within our power.
5. Is there anything that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
Nothing
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, there were no exercises 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.
Nothing
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 6
D. Would you recommend it to others? 7
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7
The Conscious Heart
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
In this book the author is trying to help us learn what it means to listen emphatically, analyzing the needs of others and responding accordingly. We get to learn how to rekindle lost passion and keep it glowing even in the most perilous times.
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.
– When people are in their death beds, they do not regret the mansions not lived in or the cars not driven. Instead, they weep for love not given or received. They regret the unspoken words of love and forgiveness to the people closest to them.
There is nothing that can surpass love. Love is everything. When people try to substitute love with materialism, they live to regret. No matter how much we distract ourselves with over work or numb ourselves with alcohol and drugs, no matter how tightly we regulate the flow of our deeper feelings, our bodies will always be speaking to us until we listen to them or kill them in order to silence them.
Our sole purpose is not acquisition of properties; rather it’s to share love, with the consciousness that love is God. I’ve learned to value relationships with others above any ambitions. I regard ever moment as an opportunity to expand in love.
– Fear has four expressions: Fleeing, fighting, freezing and fainting.
This has helped me to change my actions every time I find myself in a critical condition. Instead of fleeing, I have learn to stand my ground and say no, not allowing the flight to speak for me. This grip of fear loosens when I make my request consciously and say what I want and what I do not want. Nevertheless this does not call for expressing my anger by fighting my way out; it’s expressing your feelings genuinely with no malevolent.
Instead of freezing and being paralyzed with fear, I’ve learn that it’s better to make a move, stretch, change position or take a deep centered breath and get restored into my experience of essence. This is also a way of overcoming the feeling of goofy looks, light – headed.
– Relationships live in truth and dies in lies.
In some way, being a person of integrity and telling the truth always can be a powerful means to disarm your opponent before s/he strikes.
The Hendricks’ are insisting on speaking the truth completely hiding nothing, which sometimes normally seems to be hurting. Most people are skeptical about the importance of telling the truth to this level. I’ve realize, often, the hurting is not as per the result of being told the truth, but it’s the feeling of being lied to for so long. Its like, “How could I be so naïve and not know that this was going on behind my back?” What hurts is when people bluntly say something that is arguable and call it the truth. What hurts is the pain of lying and being lied to. That’s why it’s extremely essential to be a person of truth right from the onset of any relationship.
– For gardens and relationship to thrive, they must be watered first. Expressing an appreciation is at first an act of faith, as watering seeds is an act of faith. In relationships, however, you do not have to wait for long to see the fruits of your appreciation.
It doesn’t matter how long one has been in a relationship, one way of revitalizing it is through appreciation and expressing eagerness in what your colleague is doing. No relationship can thrive when people watch out for mistakes to criticize their partners. Partners do mate with the opposite to balance themselves out. Therefore, our selection of each other is not a colossal mistake but a magnificently tailored learning opportunity. We ought to learn from each others gift rather than criticize them all the time.
– Balance can be cultivated by deliberately going off balance and then recovering, falling into your relating with trust that truth and love will catch you.
When you focus much of your attention on the log instead of the road, you hit the log. Just as mention earlier, when you let go of the conviction, especially being right, the load lightens. We must learn to take it easy, ease our stiffness and turn our relationships into a blissful game.
A performer loses balance when he or she is too cautious. Contrary to what we might expect, the gymnast who holds back from hurtling into the unknown is often the one who wobbles or fall.
– The ultimate stretch is to realize, “This is it!” Sometimes we feel sad at realizing how much of life went by while we were waiting for something better to happen.
If you can’t make it work now, if you can’t enjoy it now, even what you are eagerly anticipating won’t make a difference. Because it’s all about you as a person, not things and circumstances. I’ve decided to enjoy my now with the knowledge that my tomorrow will only be made better with my realization of now.
As time passes by people realize the importance of savoring the immediacy of the moment and to put their attention into sourcing the kind of love they want. In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.
– The path appears after you take responsibility, not before.
In most cases, procrastination is being apprehensive of responsibility. Responsibility by itself is not something to shun from, rather it’s a gate way into your path to prosperity. For any relationship to excel, it must first start with a person taking responsibility.
I’ve learned that when a relationship starts, it’s synonymous to a child’s growth right from infancy. The couple resuscitates latent desires and characters that were denied from their infancy. These desires ought to be expressed and be fulfilled in order to have a mature relationship. The author is telling us that many of us don’t realize that our adult relationships are being run by very angry, hurt children. Therefore it’s up to us to take responsibility and help fulfill or heal the love that was once denied thus driving our relationships into intimacy and maturity.
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?
These lessons are going to help me a great deal. I’ve lean to see every moment as an opportunity to expand in love. I’m going to fully utilize every moment to express my gratitude and love to the people close to me and even strangers.
I’ve learned from the Master Commitment (affirmative statements and actions) lessons, and now I regard conflicts as a gift that reveals my current learning edge. I view every problem as a sign of what I most need to learn, not as evidence that there is something wrong with me, other people or the world.
In most cases the things that stress us are small and negligible, but we find ourselves wasting a lot of energy on them unnecessary. What I’ve learned is now helping me to ameliorate such circumstances by applying the ratio of five to one. Out of this book I have realized that the ratio of appreciation to criticism in relationships that thrives is at list five to one. Now for any set back I encounter, I take a break to affirm to myself at least five things that I’m grateful for. I have tried it and I’ve found it very fascinating hence I have decided to use it as a tool towards improving my personal life and creating a better world.
The six essential practices: conscious listening, making soul – commitments, the essence – meditations, balancing power, ending control struggles and developing appreciation, are definitely also going o help me create a better life whenever I put them into practice.
4. Quotes: Are there brief quotes from the book which really got your attention? If so, please list and comment on them.
Yes, there is one that has really got my attention. That is: The greatest pain on our planet is untapped creativity and wasted potential.
This quote is self explanatory. We see these things happen. Almost each one of us has a time that we feel we never utilized our potential and creativity fully. This is a challenge to us that we can never deplete our creativity and potential as long us we put them into action, however, if we leave them dormant, we shall latter be haunt by them and by then we might be in an extremely difficult position to retrieve them.
5. Is there anything that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
Nothing was unclear. There were no ideas that I totally disagreed with.
6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?
Yes. The book contained a number of exercises of which it’s much better for a person to be reviewing them daily. For instance, the essence – questions on page 277 and the other question on developing appreciation (page 292). I did complete all the questions and I found them to be helpful to me. I have decided to feature them on my daily devotional guide.
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.
Nothing
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7
True Prosperity
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
This is an aptly named book that gives us an insight into making wealth authentically without side effects. It’s pathetic that majority of people who have accumulated wealth have done so at the expense of very important aspects of their lives such that they no longer enjoy the wealth. This book is an antidote to victims of such circumstances while also it’s a guide to them that desire to make wealth rightly.
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.
* We need to be the cause in our life, not the effect.
When a person feels disillusioned and resigned, he becomes a victim of circumstances. He no longer trusts in his creative ability to drive things. At this point, one can easily fall for anything that passes by. When you are an effect rather than a cause in your life, fulfillment can never be yours. One way to earn fulfillment, I have learned is to be the cause and not the effect. It’s better to do something and fail than to do nothing and succeed.
* Without an opponent, there is no challenge, no purpose, no fun. And there is no opportunity to earn fulfillment.
Often I have been of the attitude; the opponent should be evicted completely because he is the cause of all the problem we face. However, this book has challenged my perception and now I have developed a new paradigm when encountered with all manner of adversities and resistance. Our lives have purpose, destiny, commitment and fulfillment solely because of the opponent.
If there is no challenge (opponent) to overcome, you could never spend sleepless nights and woke up very early in the morning trying to improve on your performance. Everything could be boring; there never could be the anticipation and excitement because you would already know the outcome even before the real thing begins. Further more, innovation would definitely dissipate. The opponent has been provided to us for one purpose only: to allow us to overcome him, there by becoming the cause and not the effect in our lives. When you an effect rather than a cause in your life, fulfillment can never be yours.
Now instead of feeling infuriated when encounter with opposition, I look at it passively knowing that it’s an opportunity for growth, fulfillment and purpose to prevail. Even the negative feelings that I used to have over my competitors and adversaries have been decimated by the wonderful lessons I’ve learned from this book. I’ve really liked the examples the author has used to elucidate this topic concerning the opponent.
* If we want to know what is holding us back, we must search for the darkness, because only through the darkness will you find the light. And that is what stress does; it finds the darkness, and right behind it, we find light.
Similar to the previous idea, this has helped me to welcome adversities passively with the knowledge that they are opportunities to excel towards my destiny. That is what stress does. Without stress, we reach the natural limits of complacency; we hit the wall that keeps our company from moving to the next level – the wall that keeps us from achieving the greatness we are meant to attain. For this reason, far from being an annoyance, and something to avoid, stress is a gift to seek.
This book has really helped me. There are many things that have perpetually depressed me. I’ve been trying to avoid stress by all means to no avail. I’ve realized that I’ve been making a mistake by trying to run away from stress. Now I have learned to welcome it with love, conversely, it occurs to me, there is no stress; we are the ones who create it. There are only opportunities to learn from our circumstances, but we mistake them and create mountains out of them that we call stress, which are dangerous to our well-being.
* When you have certainty, you are no longer at the mercy of every little thing that happens. You are at the driver’s seat.
Another important key to success is certainty. With certainty, you are able to surpass all manner of discouragements and frustrations, which are a prerequisite to success in life.
There is nobody that can be in leadership for long when certainty is absent. As a matter of fact, people don’t follow you because you have a title. People follow you because of your courage. Courage dissipates when certainty is not there. When you have the cause (certainty), nothing can stop you; you lead people and inspire them. Therefore, I am determine in every task that I engage myself to first provoke courage by tapping from the intent/purpose. Because if I lose the purpose why I ought to do it, I will have lost the focus, thus I might be distracted easily by any slight wave of frustration and end up doing that which I never intended.
* Money comes and money goes. You can always make more, but when time slips away, it’s never coming back again.
Although people have alleged that time is illusion, and even describe from examples like a moment of bliss can seem to pass in seconds while a time of pain can seem to take ages; I some what disagree with them to some extend. Yes, some of these facts are true; however, I believe they do not apply always. I might say that it depends on the circumstance and the perception of the one involve at that moment.
Just as I had once described in my previous assessments, time is the most precious gift given to us. Time can never be bribe. It will continue striking regardless. Yet, time is the most dreadful thing on earth. When you lose it, you can never recover it. When the whistle blows, time is over; all the score that you make then won’t count. If you’ve won, you’ve won; if you’ve lost, you’ve lost. That’s why I am very careful with everything that I do, because everything counts. Every moment matters.
* Most people need motivation. People simply get less done when they are not motivated.
Complacence comes as a result of deficiency in motivation. When we are not motivated, creativity becomes such a hard task. When motivated, innovation springs up by itself. Every time whenever I want to get people into doing something, I take time to thinks of something that can motivate them. It is not the greatest expert or the best transmitter of information who make a true leader. It’s the person who, when he is finished, motivates people to do more. A typical leader when he is through with his speech, people should be like, “Okay, where do we begin?”
* While you are trying to sell somebody something, take 60 seconds to think about the other person. If you were the person buying, how would you feel? This process immediately injects sharing into the equation – and when that happens, every decision you make will be based on light. When we focus only on ourselves, we will often end up doing the wrong thing. In creating rapport, this is the best way to emulate. If you can share in the other persons feeling, you get to understand his needs and when you reciprocate, he feels you have fully attend to him.
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?
Certainly yes. These ideas have helped and are continuing to help me to live a healthy happy life. Stress has been a major cause of illness in many people’s lives, but now I’ve learned a better way to counter it. With this knowledge, I am also in a position to help others subdue it.
The lessons that I have learned on how to respond to my opponent are going to help me with my relationship with others because they have shed light on the logic why nonviolent communication is very important. Life is sweeter because of the opponent (competitor), hence I should not wish them cut off completely out of my way.
In order to tell the end of something, just look at its beginning. You can be able to gauge ones destiny by looking the things they are going through. This book has helped me never to give up even when things seems to be hitting the wall. When something starts of fraught with difficulty – when there are problems, disagreements, and miscommunications – it’s a good sign that the project will succeed. Conversely, when everything starts off easily – when you are amazed at how simple everything is – watch out, because that project probably won’t pan out in the long run. It will certainly not be your gold mine.
4. Quotes: Are there brief quotes from the book which really got your attention? If so, please list and comment on them.
A leader is a leader wherever he or she falls on the totem pole.
Leadership is not about places and things, it is what is in your heart. Wherever you are, the seed of leadership in you will still find its way out. It can never be buried.
5. Is there anything that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
Nothing
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, there were no exercises 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.
Nothing
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? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8
Your Faith Is Your Fortune
Assessment by Linquist Asiebela (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
This is rather a controversial work of which the author has astutely quoted references from the Bible to fortify the subject of consciousness. Consciousness or faith is the only way to being that which you desire. The world in it’s every detail is man’s consciousness crystallized. It all starts with having confidence in yourself.
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.
-We can be to others only that we are to ourselves. Therefore, as we revalue ourselves and begin to feel to be the giant, a centre of power, we automatically change our relationship to the giants, reducing these former monsters to their true place, making them appear to be the helpless grasshoppers.
I have realized that you cannot conquer others unless you first conquer yourself. It doesn’t matter how many declaration one makes, the ultimate truth still abides; you project in the outside that which is in the inside. You cannot give that which you don’t have. In fact, the greatest barrier to our success is nothing other than our own selves.
I like how this book has in this section bolstered my commitment with the reference from the Bible. Change your conception of yourself and you will automatically change the world in which you live. Do not try to change people; they are only messengers telling you who you are. Revalue yourself and they will confirm the change.
– You rise to a higher level of consciousness by taking your attention away from your present limitations and placing it upon that which you desire to be.
It doesn’t matter who you are, if you don’t know your position i.e. what you are capable of, you will continue to whine, suffer and languish in poverty. I’ve been asking myself, why is it that when people are promoted or receive a salary increment, they immediately develop a noble character even with out an official training. The answer is simple; consciousness of power. The Bible says that the truth that you know will set you free. As long as you are in obscurity concerning the truth, you’ll remain in bondage, a slave of circumstances. Consciousness is the only door. Unless you are conscious of being that which you seek, you seek in vain.
I’ve decided to claim myself to be that which I desire and that I shall be. Expressions follow impressions. They don’t precede them. Prove that you are will follow claim that you are, it will not precede it.
– Limitations exist only in the manifestations.
In the spiritual realm as well as in our imaginations, there are no boundaries. It’s important noting nothing happens in the physical (manifestation) without first being conceived in the spiritual. The spiritual is the source, the origin. Once you subdue the spiritual, definitely the physical will be submissive to your command. Instead of the consciousness of, “I’m man,” it’s “I am,” – faceless, formless and without figure, a formless, faceless all – knowing presence.
– To feel a thing intensively, and then rest confidently that it is, make the thing felt appear within your world.
Feeling a thing intensively involves having a certainty, knowing it is there. You proceed with your normal duties as though it is already there such that when you finally get it in reality it does not occur to you as a surprise. There is nothing that can never be brought to us if we deeply and intensively feel it.
I’ve receive a challenge to insistently attract the things I want until I posses them. It’s not the words that make it effective. It is the consciousness of being the thing that makes it effective. There is only one way you can command the things you want and that is by assuming the consciousness of the things you desire. You must accept without reservations the fact that by possessing (feeling) a thing in consciousness you have commanded the reality that causes it to come into existence in concrete form.
– You do not fight against your problem; your problem will only live as long as you are conscious of it. Take your attention away from your problem and the multitudes of reasons why you cannot achieve your ideal. Concentrate your attention entirely upon the thing desired.
Everything that we pay attention to grows more important in our lives it’s amazing how this principal works. When a person concentrates so much on the things that he does not want instead of those that he desires, in some way he emits a frequency that attracts them. I have seriously been challenged to focus my energy on the things that I want and to assume those that I do not want. Life is no respecter of persons and destroys nothing; it continues to keep alive that which man is conscious of being. Things will only disappear as man changes his consciousness.
You cannot lie to yourself, you can never deceive your conscious nor sub – conscious mind. When you are pretending, your sub – conscious mind will tell, like wise when you are authentic. To turn your attention from that which you are ware of being is to decapitate that body; but just like a chicken or a snake continues to jump and throb for a while after its head has been removed, likewise qualities and conditions appear to live for a while after your attention has been taken away from them.
– The sculptor, instead of making – reveals it by removing that part of the marble which hides his conception … The same applies to you. In your formless awareness, lies buried all that you will ever conceive yourself to be.
The Bible says that if you can believe, all things are possible. To him that believes, him that knows that all things including the treasures of the earth lies’ in and within him; his desires will never be thwarted. In the long run, he will have them fulfill. This has helped me realize that we do waste a lot of time looking for things we want outside us while they stare right into our eyes baffled by our blindness caused by the notion; someone else has to give me, or help me find them.
This brings into memory what I learned from the book; The Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude, that; a man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it. I have now come up with a different paradigm to help me accomplish my purpose every time whenever I feel negative circumstances trying to stymie my efforts. This is by asking myself; where is the sculptor’s site? This is not just a marble, a log or a piece of junk, there is a beautiful fine product that you mustn’t forget. If you are ignorant about your own self, your self will shrink to fit your conception. Where you stand there stand all worlds. Where you are there arises a place.
– All things expresses their nature. As you ware a feeling, it becomes your nature. It might take a moment or a year – it is entirely upon the degree of conviction. As doubt vanishes and you can feel “I am this,” you begin to develop the fruit in the nature of the thing you are feeling yourself to be.
The conditions around us are a perfect description of how our consciousness has been conditioned. The author is giving us a clear example on this matter by saying that, when a person buys a new hat or a pair of shoes he thinks that everyone knows they are new. He feels unnatural with his newly acquired apparel until it becomes a part of him. The same applies to wearing of the new state of consciousness. Thus, consciousness is ever outpicturing itself in conditions round about us.
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?
Certainly yes. These are not just ideas to be memories and be quoted to blend our speeches, rather they are provocative lessons that drives one into being aggressive, to cease from self pity and viewing yourself as worthless.
I’ve learned a powerful lesson that will help me to come out of any form of misery. I have realized that by all means I must stop concentrating my attention on the things that I don’t want and focus entirely on the things desired. I shall be declaring the thing desired as though it’s already there regardless of what I think. For instance, to state, “I shall be well.” is to say, “I am ill.” God the Eternal now is not mocked by words or vain repetitions.
By changing my life to this state, obviously I’m on the path to improving my life and creating a better world. This will eventually show forth. The man who is conscious of being poor he does not need the assistance of any one to express his poverty. The man who is conscious of being sick, though isolated in the most hermetically seal germ – proof area in the world, would express sickness. This is helpful to me. Regardless of what you are aware of being, you can and do express it without effort. Consciousness has shaped and moulds our lives.
I’ve learned a new way of hearing and shaping my consciousness into the right way I ought to be. This is perspective hearing. Everything that man accepts as true leaves an impression on his consciousness and must in time be define as proof or disproof. This has challenged me to be selective with that which I hear and accept as true, as a matter of fact, inclusive of the stuff I’m getting from this book. A man must discipline himself to hear only that which he wants to hear, regardless of rumor or the evidence of his senses to the contrary. This does not mean that I should turn insolent. All its suggesting is, if I don’t see the circumstances I want, I should go ahead and create them myself.
Above all, these lessons are helping me to grow strong my aspiration and to avoid complacence. There’s no chance for escapism, because, mans ignorance of the working of the law does not excuse him nor save him from the results. Law is impersonal and therefore no respecter of persons.
4. Quotes: Are there brief quotes from the book which really got your attention? If so, please list and comment on them.
– Man’s faith in God is measured by his confidence in himself.
– You are not a victim of faith but a victim of fate.
– A conviction is not a conviction if it can be shaken.
– Man discovers his awareness of being to be the inexhaustible treasure of the universe. In that day when man makes this discovery, he dies as man and awakes as a god.
All these quotes have a similar message to us: It’s all in your hands! All things that happen to us we created them, whether good or evil. And if so, then we also have the ability to demolish them and create the ones we desire.
5. Is there anything that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
Yes. The form in which this book has been written, it involves a number of statements that create controversies. I wouldn’t like to go into a debate about them, but what I’m feeling is that the author has gone over board with most of his ideas.
Here is one that I felt I couldn’t over look. It’s on page 88. “… but let me clarify this statement by telling you that heaven is not a locality; it’s a state of consciousness. The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”
I totally disagree with that. I fully believe that heaven is a locality on the basis of the things we see happen around us. Every force must have a bastion to function effectively. If the devil has a place where he strategies his work, then definitely, God, though omnipresent, must have a place for His elect to strategies.
This is just one among many incidences in this book that I feel ambiguous about. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion anyone who would like to read this book should be advice that he ought to be mature enough in order to be in a position to tell the difference when metaphorical, colloquial – expressions and factual ones have been used. Or else, one might end up being greatly confused and disappointed.
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 there were no exercises 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.
Nothing
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? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 4
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7