As a Man Thinketh
Assessment by Nwafor Emeka Patrick (Nigeria)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
What the author is tried to convey in his text is that a man begins to build himself from his taught, that a man may ascend or descend begins from the way he thinks, from the point a man begins to have a possible taught his circumstances begins to manifest in a positive dimension and greatness begins to manifest upon such individual, thought are controllable and don’t manifest on its own but rather the taught is the creation of a man. The mind is the soil of taught and, the mind is likened to a garden that should be look after and all negative taught must be uprooted and positive taught should be planted and trimmed, watered and natured to produce and bear good result which them produce a positive change in the man. Good taught builds good character which present a man circumstances that will uplift him.
2. What were the seven ideas which were personally most important to you and why? List these seven ideas followed by an explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your own life.
i. A man has to improve himself in other to improve his circumstances and it should seen as a continuum a man must continue to improve upon himself because of the ever changing world we are in, he must be ready to make great personal sacrifices before he can accomplish his objective.
If one should aspire to be a teacher he must be willing to learn and be able to impact knowledge which entails continuous learning on the field he wish to impact. If he refuses to improve on himself he will always find himself in an unpleasant circumstance. For one to attain greatness one has to improve upon himself first to suite into that which he intends to achieve.
ii. We must cease to whine, complain and blame existing factors for our present circumstances or short comings.
For a man to be a man he must cease to blame limiting factor for his limitations in life but rather look at this limiting factors presented to him as a challenge that could be overcome, this limitation should be seen as a means to discover the hidden powers and possibility within himself a man is yet to discover himself until he confront challenges and overcome them.
iii. A man should think right always, a right thinking mind will always manifest in himself and crystallize into habit which place him at his present circumstances, thought cannot be kept secret as many may think but rather leads him to circumstance either pleasant or unpleasant.
Impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting and adverse circumstances. Beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances with this present analysis one could always judge with the present circumstance befalling him. So particular way a man thinks it cannot fail to present its result on the character and circumstances.
iv. The body is the servant of the mind.
For one to live happy and a perfect body one must guard its mind, unnecessary worries always affect the body but happy thoughts build up the body in vigor and grace through clean thoughts clean habits would always be present in a man. When one thinks of clean and healthy way to live his habit will always be a clean one and he will happily and have a healthy heath when one always has the thought that he would wash his hands always will hardly contact disease which are related to unclean eating habit ’’
v. Thought must be link with defined purpose before intelligent accomplishment could be achieve, one must align his thought to a defined purpose, when thought is allowed to drift it will always will head to clear catastrophe and destruction.
A man should have a clear purpose, I see it as set objectives at what he tends to accomplish and set thought in ways to achieve them making those objectives as a center point in his life which he must divot his mind in solving them making it his supreme duty this leads to self control and true concentration In achieving once purpose, failures of trying to achieve them should not alter such goal but rather learn to re-adapt and create for himself other ways in which to confront them. Those who are not prepared for attaining great purpose should fix their thought upon performing a faultless service no matter how insignificant their task may appear.
vi. A man should set a clear and predetermined vision.
Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be, there is no such ideal vision which is impossible to achieve, it only cannot be achieve if one’s heart is not set in finding ways to achieve one’s dream or aspiration, if one could cherish his vision, inspiration and thought will be devoted in achieving them and your world will at last be built. The way a man dream so shall he become and his world will be changed around him.
vii. One must learn to posses these qualities self control, calmness and patient, a man must learn to govern himself rightfully make peace with his environment and love it. The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, and there is great strength in a calm mind for his energy is directed in developing a beautiful thought and mind. People tend to be at ease with a calm mind and learn to confine in them for comfort and hope. A serene mind is always at peace with the world he lives in and propagates hope to the hopeless. A calm mind always develop beautiful thought and the strength to achieve them, he is more than purest gold in the world.
3. How will these ideas or lesson help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you create a better world? If so, how?
The book was helpful overall.
4.Quotes: Are there any statements which the author made that particularly got your attention? If so, please quote them and comment as why they were important to you.
“Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.”
For the way a man act and behave are results of what he thinks, attitude here equals to what the man bear in his mind and whichever way his thought is directed either positive or negative his attitude will always manifest in such direction.
“He that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. For only by patient, practice, and ceaseless importunity can a man enter the door of the temple of knowledge.”
This quote has always been misinterpreted by many religious leaders by failing to mention the core indices on how to seek and knock diligently one has to be patient and practice hard on the things he has set his mind on achieving.
“Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.”
People fail to accept the fact that their present circumstances are result of their thought, I see thought as a path to circumstances, impure thought will always lead to circumstances that are unpleasant, I see thought and circumstances as magnetic force that attracts in an order of positive thought to positive vice and positive circumstances and negative thought attract negative vice to a negative circumstance. If one always find himself in an unpleasant circumstances should not blame it on hard luck but rather on his impure thought.
“Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.”
For one to rise from their present level of living he has to improve on himself by undertaken the necessary sacrifice to achieve his endeavor.
“They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles and self pitting.”
A man must have a purpose in life and decided his true purpose in life and work towards achieving it without bias and fear. Only then will he find the true answer for him here on earth. There is no entity, company, NGO and corporate body without purpose how much more a living man created for a defined purpose. We are not meant to exist but rather to live.
“Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force.”
When one ceases to fear and have doubt in his thought he tends to become constructive when he encounters limitation in achieving his purpose or goal.
“A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thought.”
Great thought will always manifest greatly, when one thought is shallow he tends to become insignificant and fails to produce good results and has fail to rise and conquer his domain and hope for achieving becomes hopeless.
“Victories attained by right thought can be maintained only by watchfulness.”
One must continually groom his thought, it is like a garden that must be reed off weeds, pure thought or right thinking mind requires continuous guild on positive path.
“Dream lofty dream and as you dream, so shall you become.”
Dreams that are created by thought are seem as vision and this dreams or vision will portray where one will be some day. Your ideal is prophesied of what you shall at last unveil.
5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
Not really.
6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?
There were no exercises.
7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous question? If so, please comment.
I see the mind of an individual as a nucleus and the nucleus is the engine house and carries the genetic makeup of the cell so as the mind of an individual, the mind houses various thought in an individual the good thing about the mind is that it’s is nurtured and built up to posses its true characteristic, what makes a man to become a man is the way he thinks and approach to challenges, his thought tends to transpire into all facet of life presented to him, from the very moment a man begins to have pure thought the man begins to discover something new in himself that he never knew existed within him.
The world now needs leaders that prove to posses beautiful thought to propagate ideas that would foster peace to the world major crisis around the world are influenced by man, this tends to leave the Big question Are we running out of leaders with positive thought? Currently most leaders tend to think of themselves than rather on how to solve global issue that will better their followers.
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Nwafor Emeka Patrick (Nigeria)
1. What is the main Idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
The main idea Richard tend to portray in the book is “Freedom” to find once through path, we should overcome ourselves with the burden of our limitation, believing on the fact that there are no limit to what we can achieve.
We should open our mind to achieving endless possibilities, there are no boundaries in life except the one we make for ourselves, what we can do or can’t do depends on us.
According to what the author wrote, I understood that one should think outside the box away from the basic necessity of life by asking the basic question on the fact of life, about the purpose of our true existence, we are not just here to multiply and leave behind genetic makeup but rather there are other aspect we should discover by ourselves and set ourselves to free from the burden of our physical nature which limit our true existence.
Jonathan Seagull never stop at any level of achievement he made but rather took each level reached as a stepping stone for the next and remembered to pass such knowledge acquired to others thereby setting the other gulls free. We should not fail ourselves in discovering our true purpose we should seek to find the true person in us and set out to achieve what we seek, we will always encounter challenges and limitations and even when we tend to have break through and expect others to be part of the joy the case might come out differently.
2. What were the seven ideas which were personally most important to you and why? List these seven ideas followed by an explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your own life.
i. Stand out of the crowd.
For one to achieve true purpose in life you have to make clear to what you want to be, not just following the idea of just getting a job and raising a family but decide on who you want to be, why you are here on earth and the purpose on why you are created? By finding true purpose he has started discovering himself, by asking the right question and finding the role we tend to play our true existence begins to manifest around us, critical thinking and evaluation of oneself is needful in identifying what you intend to become before propelling to achieve it .
ii. One has to believe in himself.
For one to achieve and progress you have to believe in yourself, by believing that nothing is too great for one to achieve. One has to believe the fact that there is nothing that is impossible to achieve rather those boundary that we encounter prepare us for future challenge on things to come, when task are set one has to believe in himself to achieving it without doubt or bias, one has to break the barrier of fear for failure.
iii. Always aspire to do more by going beyond what one has achieved.
New records are set by breaking old records. When one achieve a particular quest or set new records, we should always see that achieving level as a stepping stone for greater things and great discovery are yet to be made. We should not say because this has been found or discovered them we should be comfortable with the way it is rather we should think of new way on improving such task or discovery.
iv. On should never give-up on your goal or on a set target.
A dream or an idea remain the way they are when not put into work or practice, when we begin to apply our vision it becomes a project or program, applying this vision are bound to encounter challenges and limitation this should not be seem as a barrier but a test in building a solid foundation for once idea to flourish properly and stand the test of time, for whatever we do we should always keep focus on the goal to be achieved.
v. We should always continue to practice with perseverance.
We should continue to practice on ways to implement our idea through continuous practice leads to perfection , when one continue to practice, he or she develop new idea or other ways to confront challenges and solve them effectively people would say continuous practice brings perfection.
vi. We should learn to pass back knowledge gained to younger once to better our living environment.
One should learn to give back, teach others ways for them to expand their horizon, knowledge should be shared to better own living environment. New findings and idea tend to develop more rapidly when they are taught to people, and as people began to gain interest, them these set of new findings tends to develop, I believe that too many good mind are better than one.
vii. We should learn to love and respect.
One has to learn ways to love and respect this would bring peace and foster joy within him, peace can be achieve in the world only when there are true love among men, the love of nature and mankind. Only when true love exists can we begin to see those challenges confronting our very existence.
With love and respect to the things of the world, only then can we begin to derive true satisfaction on the things of life and propel ways to solve problems facing mankind.
3. How will these ideas or lesson help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you create a better world? If so, how?
I would start by answering this question by saying before reading this book I used to hold myself down by blaming some limiting factors responsible in hindering me from achieving what I intend to achieve, I would give excuses on the present day government, chance to meet better opportunity, the part of the world where I find myself, and inability to financial freedom as some of the factors holding me back from achieving greatness, but after reading this text I discover this limitation are bounds that I have set for myself that held me back in achieving my true purpose in life, first I would say I always had the plan of getting a good job, have a family and live happy ever but right now I see getting a job is not really the purpose for our existence, I have learn to look beyond and create a meaning to life by trying to find for ourselves the path for our true purpose, our physical nature tends to make us or break us for one to overcome this physical nature one most discover its true reason for being here and find a way of discovering divine purpose for our existence, right now I have learned a lot by not pointing and blaming other people to the cause of failure but rather to myself, I should hold myself responsible for not finding a way to overcome challenges ahead of me. I discovered I have to stand out of the crowd leaving behind that nature of just to exist by seeking material wants rather establish myself by asking, what is the true meaning of life? Every being that has been created has its purpose for it to be here, to find one’s purpose, one must ask why are we here, is it by chance or rather for a purpose, we tend to attach lot of weakness to our self and create boundary in achieving our goal but rather we should learn how to overcome this boundary by confronting our challenges facing us as men and see this limits as a challenge to overcome by perseverance and determination, there is nothing that is impossible to achieve except of what we have made impossible. we are the only limit to achieve a divine purpose, right now I discovered new ways to look at challenges, barrier and limitation all this are product of fear and doubt, when one those not confront them then we denial ourselves ways to break them.
When we set our goals and objective people tend to look at it as unrealistic and unachievable and call it a waste of time and madness many would cite examples of failed dreams, hopes and unachievable results others have made have and what happened to them. They intend placing you within their own limit of comprehension and derail you from set goals and ideas.
4.Quotes: Are there any statements which the author made that particularly got your attention? If so, please quote them and comment as why they were important to you.
None.
5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
The role of the character chiang got me a confused, is it that at some point on our quest there will be a divine intervention to rediscover or overcome tougher limitation? Or do chiang tend to act as a spiritual teacher? What lesson can we derive from chiang? Or should we believe in a supreme being? But from what I read Jonathan could achieve what chiang did with proper guidance.
6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?
There were no exercises.
7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.
No.
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10