As a Man Thinketh
Assessment by Oluremi Isaac (Nigeria)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not only embraces the whole of mankind’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his or her life. A person is literally what she thinks, her character being the complete sum of all her thoughts. As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a human springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. Man is a product of his choice and decision whether good or bad for every choice man make there’s a consequence and for every decision of man there’s a destination. Thought is the seed for action. If you control the cause- you can control the effect. The main message of this succinct, yet powerful, book is: the quality of your thoughts determine your quality of life. If your thoughts are pure and good, your life will also be good; and vice versa.
“Man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will produce their kind.”
The author maintains: The man is the master of thought, the molder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny. He compares the human mind with a garden and the man with a gardener. Just like a gardener removes the weeds from his garden so must we discard the impure and useless thoughts from our mind and must concentrate on cultivating the useful and pure thoughts. By the right choice and true application of thoughts, man ascends towards perfection.
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. Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.
The man who does not shrink from self crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set. This is as true of earthly as of heavenly things. Even the man whose sole object is to acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices before he can accomplish his or her object; and how much more so he who would realize a strong and well-poised life?
ii. Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life.
iii. Let a man cease from these sinful thoughts, and all the world will soften towards him, and be ready to help him; let him put away his weakly and sickly thoughts, and lo, opportunities will spring up on every hand to aid his strong resolves; let him encourage good thoughts, and no hard fate shall bind him down to wretchedness and shame.
iv. If you would protect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew your body, beautify your mind.
Thoughts of malice, envy, disappointment, despondency, rob the body of its health and grace. A sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts. Wrinkles that mar are drawn by folly, passion, and pride.
v. There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no comforter to compare with goodwill for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow.
To live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy, is to be confined in a self made prison-hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all: such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor.
vi. A man can only rise, conquer and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak, and abject and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts.
v. Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all, heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
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?
This Ideal will help me properly position my thought to be well structure. I have understood now that my thought determines my reality .what I think on is what I become. I have known now that I have to think wisely to become wise. In as much as it’s not every food I must eat the same is the information I feed my mind with and be careful of the information I feed on.
4. Quotes: Are there any statements which the author made that particularly got your attention? If so, please quote them and comment as to why they were important to you.
“Dream lofty dreams and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.”
ii. Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.”
The beautiful words of Stanton Kirkham Davis: “You may be keeping accounts, and presently you shall walk out of the door that for so long has seemed to you the barrier of your ideals, and shall find yourself before an audience – the pen still behind your ear, the ink stains on your fingers and then and there shall pour out the torrent of your inspiration. You may be driving sheep, and you shall wander to the city-bucolic and open-mouthed; shall wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit into the studio of the master, and after a time he shall say, ‘I have nothing more to teach you.’ And now you have become the master, who did so recently dream of great things while driving sheep. You shall lay down the saw and the plane to take upon yourself the regeneration of the world.”
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 oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities. Your ircumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without. I don’t understand this statement clearly.
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?
The Book is very helpful and very succulent to read,
7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions; if so, please comment..
There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice, and a man’s worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts, and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and the strengthening of his resolution and self-reliance. And the higher he lifts his thoughts, the more manly, upright, and righteous he becomes, the greater will be his success, the more blessed and enduring will be his achievements. The universe does not favor the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious, although on the mere surface it may sometimes appear to do so; it helps the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous. All the great Teachers of the ages have declared this in varying forms, and to prove and know it, the individual has but to persist in making himself more and more virtuous by lifting up his thoughts. Intellectual achievements are the result of thought consecrated to the search for knowledge, or for the beautiful and true in life and nature.
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? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Oluremi Isaac (Nigeria)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
The main idea is that we can all be so much more than we believe, That God or fortune, if you wish – is on the side of the bold, the adventurous and the free in spirit. Have you ever heard of the expression “thinking out of the box?” It means going beyond the accepted limits of imagination and daring to explore new possibilities. Jonathan Livingston Seagull was such an out-of-the-box thinker. He discovered that for those who dare to dream, even the sky is not the limit. Jonathan lived as all seagulls do – in a flock. This flock was quite unremarkable. Seagulls are basically scavengers that inhabit the seashore, feeding off the debris that the sea throws out. Like all other seagulls, the members of this flock fed, bred and flew south in the cold winter months. But Jonathan sensed, in the core of his being, that there could be more to life. There is more to life than what we currently see now, we may not look at it yet but with perseverance and patience we would always reach the top.
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. The human spirit was meant to strive and achieve great things.
There is, in each of us, a still, small voice that tells us; “No. That’s not all there is to it. You were meant to live life to the fullest. Abundantly.” When we hear that voice, we feel cheated. We realize the truth of it, but we feel helpless to obey the implied there’s a dominant force inside of us that instruct which way to go. For example taking this particular program was hard taking the decision based on the time factor but then I have to listen to my inner voice to guide me through.
ii. Jonathan’s answer was that he was not content with mediocrity, especially if he knew that he could attain greater heights.
The rest of the flock became very angry with him – they called him a dreamer who did not know the realities of life. When he insisted on pursuing his vision, they cast him out of the flock. Following the crowd is a path to mediocrity, we must be able to dream and focus on our vision without losing focus. A lot of people are going to leave us just because we want to attain a great height but we shouldn’t get carry away because the way of success is a path of low or no crowd.
iii. The human being has limited capabilities but then, we only think of the capabilities we have actually demonstrated.
We never think of the possibility of hidden capabilities that never see the light of day because they are not called upon. Our ability is in our capability which we have the capacity to bring it forth, there’s a whole lot of things inside of us that we fail to recognize talk less of using them, we are embodied with so much potentials. We carry the gene of greatness in us, the gene of possibilities, the gene of victory so much of value inside of us that we failed to use. It’s high time we awake the giant within us and put them to work, so much treasure inside of us. Jonathan’s belief in the Promise convinced him that the power to achieve his dream would be given to him if he put in diligent effort. He was a changed bird – he suddenly felt that he was no longer alone. And so he practiced flying higher. It was a painstaking process, but something had changed. Great things required diligent and discipline. To get to a higher height we must keep taking action and practicing, little practice consistently done over time lead to perfection with time.
v. We can achieve anything if we’re willing to abandon our own delusional, self-limiting story and tune into a higher bandwidth.
We have the option to live our lives beyond a flock that is bound by chains of fearful, intimidated limitations. We can be super-charged by empowerment from beyond ourselves.
vi. Confidence
We should have confidence in ourselves but more importantly we should have confidence in a force that is greater than us; the supreme being. Our power are limited but relying on a greater power speedy our way to the top.
vii. Jonathan Livingston Seagull decided that he wanted to claim the Promise now.
He wanted the power to fly higher than he had ever flown, to see sights he had never seen. I learnt that I have to have a curious mind and have a heart that great things. To lead ahead I have to see and ahead.
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 to prepare more for the greater heights I am aiming for, I should be prepared always! I should prepare for the future I prefer, I should dress for the future I want to address: Preparation is key, if I want to have a picture of the future I want to feature in, then I have to always prepare like it can be a reality in the next seconds.
Preparation helps me to get myself ready to dominant and achieve my dream when the opportunity shows up. Though it takes patient, perseverance, discipline, diligence and commitment to get to the top. There is a popular saying that one may not get a second chance to make a first impression. I should always Dressed in the Robe of the future I want to feature in.
4. Quotes: Are there any statements which the author made that particularly got your attention? If so, please quote them and comment as to why they were important to you.
“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know and you will see the way to fly.”
“You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there.”
“Your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip; is nothing more than your thought itself, in a form you can see. Break the chains of your thought, and you break the chains of your body, too.”
We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill.
“Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short, and with those gone from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed.”
“To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.”
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?
Jonathan had heard of the Great Seagull, of course. It meant nothing to him, but there was a question that did haunt him – the question that haunts us all when we have nothing to distract ourselves with. The question we ask ourselves when, for some reason or the other, we find ourselves sleepless at night. The flock asked itself no such questions. The mundane preoccupations of life had them too much in thrall to consider deeper questions. But Jonathan knew that he could drink deeper of life than they did.
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?
The suggestion of this book are very helpful and good to learn from this great Book. This book was very 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.
Our seagull is bored with the mundane struggle for food every day and disheartened by the lack lustre passion-less lives the seagulls around him love and expect him to conform to. The lack of encouragement from his fellow folk does not deter him from following his passion and he continually keeps pushing himself to learn all he can about flying.
This lack of conforming to the norms does not go down well with his folks and he is subsequently expelled from the flock, bringing shame to his family. A new outcast but free nonetheless, he continues to learn, coming closer and closer to his goal of achieving perfection.
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 8
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8
PsychoCybernetics
Assessment by Oluremi Isaac (Nigeria)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
The main idea that this book convey is about success mechanism and for success to be a things of realization then perspective of our self Image must be well understood.
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. Imagination
The First Key to Your Success Mechanism. Imagination plays a far more important role in our lives than most of us realize. For imagination sets the goal “picture” which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of “will,” as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination. A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment. This is a basic and fundamental law of mind. It is the way we are built. When we see this law of mind graphically and dramatically demonstrated in a hypnotized subject, we are prone to think that there is something occult or supra-normal at work. Actually, what we are witnessing is the normal operating processes of the human brain and nervous system. For example, I can imagine and program my mind that am in Abuja whereas am in Akure.
ii. Dehypnotize yourself from False Beliefs
Within you, whoever you may be, regardless of how big a failure you may think yourself to be, is the ability and the power to do whatever you need to do to be happy and successful. Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible. This power becomes available to you just as soon as you can change your beliefs. Just as quickly as you can dehypnotize yourself from the ideas of “I can’t,” “I’m not worthy. De-hypnotise from inferiority complex. You are can do it.” Stop limiting your. For example thinking I can’t achieve my goal is a false belief and fallacy.
iii. How to Utilize the Power of Rational Thinking
Rational thought, to be effective in changing belief and behavior, must be accompanied by deep feeling and desire. Picture to yourself what you would like to be and have, and assume for the moment that such things might be possible. Arouse a deep desire for these things. Become enthusiastic about them. Dwell upon them and keep going over them in your mind. Your present negative beliefs were formed by thought plus feelings. Generate enough emotion, or deep feeling, and your new thoughts and ideas will cancel them out. If you will analyze this you will see that you are using a process you have often used before worry! The only difference is you change your goals from negative to positive. When you worry, you first of all picture some undesirable future outcome, or goal, very vividly in your imagination. You use no effort or will power. But you keep dwelling upon the “end result.” You keep thinking about it dwelling upon it picturing it to yourself as a “possibility.” You play with the idea that it “might happen.” This constant repetition, and thinking in terms of “possibilities,” makes the end result appear more and more “real” to you. After a time, appropriate emotions are automatically generated fear, anxiety, discourage-mental these are appropriate to the undesirable end result you are worrying about. Now change the “goal picture” and you can as easily generate “good emotions.” Constantly picturing to yourself, and dwelling upon a desirable end result will also make the possibility seem more real and again appropriate emotions of enthusiasm, cheerfulness, encouragement, and happiness will automatically be generated. “In forming good emotional habits, and in breaking bad ones.”
iv. Relax and Let your Success Mechanism Work for you
Consciously practice the habit of “taking no anxious thought for tomorrow,” by giving all your attention to the present moment. Your creative mechanism cannot function or work tomorrow. It can only function in the present today. Make long range plans for tomorrow. But don’t try to live in tomorrow, or in the past. Creative living means responding and reacting to environment spontaneously. Your creative mechanism can respond appropriately and successfully to present environment only if you have your full attention upon present environment and give it information concerning what is happening now. Plan all you want for the future. Prepare for it. But don’t worry about how you will react tomorrow, or even five minutes from now. Your creative mechanism will react appropriately in the “now” if you pay attention to what is happening now. It will do the same tomorrow. It cannot react successfully to what may happen but to what is happening.
v. You can Acquire the Habit of Happiness
Happiness is native to the human mind and its physical machine. We think better, perform better, feel better, and are healthier when we are happy. Even our physical sense organs work better. Russian psychologist K. Kekcheyev tested people when they were thinking pleasant and unpleasant thoughts. He found that when thinking pleasant thoughts they could see better, taste, smell and hear better, and detect finer differences in touch. Dr. William Bates proved that eyesight improves immediately when the individual is thinking pleasant thoughts, or visualizing pleasant scenes. Margaret Corbett has found that memory is greatly improved, and that the mind is relaxed, when the subject is thinking pleasant thoughts.
vi. Ingredients of the Success-Type Personality and how to Acquire Them
Just as a doctor learns to diagnose disease from certain symptoms, failure and success can also be diagnosed. The reason is that a man does not simply “find” success or “come to” failure. He carries their seeds around in his personality and character. I have found one of the most effective means of helping people achieve an adequate or “successful” personality is to first of all give them a graphic picture of what the successful personality looks like. Remember, the creative guidance mechanism within you is a goal-striving mechanism, and the first requisite for using it is to have a clear cut goal or target to shoot for. A great many people want to “improve” themselves, and long for a “better personality,” who have no clear-cut idea of the direction in which improvement lies, nor what constitutes a “good personality.” A good personality is one which enables you to deal effectively and appropriately with environment and reality, and to gain satisfaction from reaching goals which are important to you.
vii. How to Unlock Your Real Personality
“Personality” that magnetic and mysterious something that is easy to recognize but difficult to define, is not so much something that is acquired from without, as something that is released, from within. What we call “personality” is the outward evidence of that unique and individual creative self, made in the image of God that spark of divinity within us or what might be called the free and full expression of your real self. This real self within every person is attractive. It is magnetic. It does have a powerful impact and influence upon other people. We have the feeling that we are in touch with something real and basic and it does something to 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?
Everything in this book was so practical and action proven to my daily activities because success in life can’t be a things of reality if all this ideas are not properly in place. Daily practice to put all ideas and lesson learnt will be useful for me and people around me.
4. Quotes: Are there any statements which the author made that particularly got your attention? If so, please quote them and comment as to why they were important to you.
“Inferiority and Superiority are reverse sides of the same coin. The cure lies in realizing that the coin itself is spurious.”
“The truth about you is this: You are not “inferior.” You are not “superior.” You are simply You. You as a personality are not in competition with any other personality simply because there is not another person on the face of the earth like you, or in your particular class. You are an individual. You are unique. You are not like any other person and can never become like any other person. You are not supposed to be like any other person and no other person is supposed to be like you. This particular shows me my real identity who I am. My peculiarities.
5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are uncertain about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
This book was well explained although at first I did not understand but later I flow with the concept of this book and I understand perfectly well maybe because I haven’t have experience enough that is why I couldn’t understand some part.
6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all the exercises and did you find them helpful?
Yes there are exercise for the reader, I do some but I couldn’t do all but the one I do was very useful.
7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions?
This book shows me that living a life of purpose is the real meaning of life, once purpose is not discovered self image is damage already.
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 8
B. How helpful were the contents? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9