As A Man Thinketh
Assessment by Yayo Mohammed Hummed (Ethiopia)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
As to my understanding the main idea the author tries to convey is the power of thought, the cumulative effect of thought on character or circumstance. These mean the entire effect of thought that had made as what we are. In other words the main idea the writer tries to convey is that, how thinking can shape the character and complete behavior of some body. As James Allen states on his book, he tries to convey the whole idea by comparing the thought factor vis-a-vis reproduction of plants, he said, “As the plant springs from and could not be with out the seeds, so every acts of a man spring from hidden seeds of thought and could not have appeared with out them”. It is really wonderful explanation. Mind is master power and all thoughts are emanated from mind. So the source of every activity we are going to do, whether it is bad or good is from our mind. Generally, the main idea the author, tries to convey is that, thought is a comprehensive phenomenon that shape the way of thinking and helps to reach out every conditions and circumstance of the life’s of a person.
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.
There are more than seven ideas in the book that are so much important to me; even I can say all the content of the book is important to me. But from all the ideas the following are most related and important to improve my personal thinking.
a) The way of acquiring right thinking
It is to mean that, understanding how to reach positive and right thinking. Most of the time I surprised with those people who are positive and always try to see things in positive way, but after reading this book I understood that good characters or positive thinking is not simply what we come up or it is not favor or chance rather they are the result of continued effort of those people towards right thinking.
As to the author, only by much searching and mining are gold and diamonds obtaining and man can earn a good character, happiness and joy if he dig deep into mine of his soul and when he work hard and use all his potential.
b) The effect of inner character on the outer circumstance
This is to mean that, the outer condition of a persons life will always found to be harmoniously related to his inner state, but this does not mean that, mans circumstance at any given time are an indication of his entire character but those circumstances are so intimately connected with some vital elements within himself. So mans inner state is essential to his development.
If man believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions , when he realize the inner character is the creative power of the outer circumstance, then he can correct and purify the hidden soul of his thought and become rightful master of himself.
c) Fighting against circumstances
This means if we want to make our thinking and life smart, we need to fight against the circumstance that hinder us from achieving what we want to be. Most people are eager to improve their life but they are unwilling to face all the challenges that follow, so they therefore remain bound. On the other hand there are people who are always on the track to change and to be changed, when ever we see them; they are patient, never give up and successful to catch up the object up on which their heart is set.
For example, I understand that as young leader a lot of efforts are expected from me to change my thinking, life and ambition. To realize all what I said above, I must be ready to fight against circumstances including challenges and I need to prepare my self to make great personal sacrifice before achieving what I want to achieve.
d) Linking thoughts with purpose
To explain more it is to mean that, until our goals are linked with purpose there is no health accomplishment of thoughts, those people who have no central purpose in there thoughts, simply fall into hardship, fear, and worries, so in order intelligently accomplish our wish, hope or goal, it is important to harmonize our thought with purpose.
A man who wants to acquire high level of positivity in his mind should have to make all positive things the central point of his inner thought and devote himself to its attainment.
e) Thought factor in achievement
All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts. This means that before a man can achieve any things, whether it is spiritual or worldly things first he should put away all selfish thoughts fear and worries, if so nothing will avoid him to accomplish what he wish.
f) Valuing our beautiful vision and ideals
Our beautiful vision and ideals are the promises of what we shall one day. Visions are what we dream today and the greatest achievement for what we shall be at last. So vision is like dream therefore dreams are the seedlings of realties.
People who don’t have vision are like a car without driver, they always stop and move with zero speed, they are always remain thoughtless, ignorant, seeing only the apparent effect of things not the thing themselves always talk of luck and fortune, they don’t see the trial and failures encountered. So what matters is valuing the visions of your heart, the vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart, this is the way we build beautiful vision and ideals to the higher level of satisfaction.
g) Serenity
I really understood from the book that, it needs a lot of effort to become serene person. it is not simply becoming silent or calm rather it is calmness of mind. When somebody knows that he is thought evolved being, he understand the paradigms of others and become calm in the measure that he develop the right understanding of things and sees more and more clearly the internal relation of things.
A serene person knows how to govern himself and knows how to adapt himself to others and they in turn respect his strength and feel that they can learn more from him and relay upon 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?
Really all the ideas that I read in the book including the above seven ideas are helpful to me in personal and practical way. For example I know there are outer circumstances that, have influence on the things that I will going to do but I don’t know how to control them and how the internal power is so creative to mange those circumstances. I get a big lesson that thoughts are a comprehensive system that shapes our ends.
Again all these ideas are motivational to me to become strong now in my education and better life for the future, because it is all about vision, self improvement and about personal sacrifices. For instance, if I want to be a good business man it helps me in all the circumstances of the level of difficulties that I face in each step of the business. I get a big lessen that with out the higher effort expecting the higher thing is insanity. So to get greater thing I need to apply greater effort.
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.
When I started reading this book, I try to find quotes, unfortunately all of the ideas are written in quote form and seems like quote but, I try to find those statement that are more attractive to me. Such as
“A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped” (page, 34, paragraph, 2)
I personally believe that, with out asking what we don’t know, we didn’t feel our gap or weak side, the same to this statement the educated cannot help the ignorant unless that man is on the way to change himself. It also need additional effort of the man in need of help should develop the strength that he experience from the other people.
“Strength of the effort is the measure of result” (page, 43, paragraph, 1)
The more we struggle to wards some thing the more beautiful the results are. This statement transfer a great message to me to develop the habit of sacrificing more to get more.
5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
I can say no, but some words need additional meaning, I mean search from dictionaries. So it may be time consuming for new students like me.
6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?
No.
7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.
I don’t have comment.
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Yayo Mohammed Hummed (Ethiopia )
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
As to me the main idea the author wants to convey is that, breaking limit that hinder us from being what we want to be. On the other hand the author try to convey the idea that, to be ready to learn more, self motivation, and breaking rules. He tries to demonstrate the whole of this idea through the character and behavior of Jonathan Livingston seagull. For instance, Most of the seagulls don’t bother about learning more than the simplest facts of flight, i.e. only how to get from shore to food and back again. For most of the gulls it is not flying that matters but eating. When I see the thinking of Jonathan, it is not eating that matters for him, but he wish to fly more than anything and also this kinds of thinking he found is not the way that to make one self popular to the others , he just want to know what he can do and what he can’t .
When I interpret this in to our context, these kinds of old thinking that lives in the minds of seagulls are also found in the social lives of the people. As to my understanding what the author tries to convey is that, there is a reason to life, there is the purpose that, God created us. Like Jonathan Livingston seagull , we the people need to think life is more than eating , if we didn’t straggle to change our life from traditional and old way of beliefs , we may stay there as ignorant and finally , familiarized ourselves with bad thinking and keep our statuesque, live to eat, become poor and poorer.
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.
Changing challenges to opportunities
Here the main idea that, I personally feel important to me is when ever we face challenges, it is very important to look for different angle and try to minimize that challenge. These mean rather than going for additional help, we can use our internal ability and knowledge. For example, personally am facing challenges related to experience while am learning my MA degree in leadership and good governance, but it is great opportunity for me facing challenges in this stage , because, if I take this challenges a means to over come the next short comings I will succeed in my study.
Persistence and endurance
In life there are always ups and downs, what matters is being ready to face that obstacles. Persistence is important to patiently overcome that challenges and realizing that one day comfort will come. Jonathan faces a lot of challenges but he demonstrates endurance and persistence. At last he try to discover that, the main reason for the short living of gulls are boredom, fear and anger, in this situation they lose persistence and endurance. The main thing that I understand from this is, without making mistake no way to perfection and with out facing challenges there is no way to comfort.
Ready to change and to be changed
When ever we talk of change there is what we call resistance which is contrary with change. But, if we are ready to be changed, no matter the level of resistance is strong, we will succeed. For instance, Jonathan, was out casted because of his hope full thinking to be changed and to change the life’s of seagulls, finally he stay alone, every body give him their back, but, he didn’t stop the journey that, he started, he become famous and change his life. The main thing that is important to me for the future is, being on the right path, no matter how people are opposing you, how much they are putting hard on you, one day success will come over and they understand you.
Being the first to start
It may be difficult to do what we think, still it is very important to start and know how it is difficult to deal with that problem. For example, when I was learning my BA degree it was difficult for me to do research on the problem that has no finding and data, do you know my fear? I lose confidence to start that research, didn’t take risk to be the first to start and change my title. But, after I finished this book, I feel it is important to be the first to start. You may fail to correctly respond to the problem but, at least you put aside the stepping stone for the up coming generation.
Identifying your weakness
The main thing that is very interesting for me the author tries to demonstrate by the book is differentiating what you can and what you can’t, this means knowing your weakness and working more towards them. With out knowing your weak side you will never change your knowledge and the problems live with you forever. The moment you understand your weakness, evaluate your performance and know how to improve, every thing will become under your control. What is very important for me is knowing my weakness and to work hard to improve all my weaknesses as much as possible.
Feeling victory
The main Idea that is very important to me in the book is, feeling victory before we start what we wish to be. If there is victory in our voice like Jonathan we will become strong as we wish to be so. For example, whenever I think of some thing like, holding higher position, scoring higher result and creating some thing of new I put my self in the dilemma and didn’t feel victory. The main lesson I gate from the character of Jonathon is power of feeling of victory, adopt I can do behavior for every time and every thing that we wish to accomplish.
The power of kindness and positivity
The author state that, working on love, kindness and positivity is important. For example in what ever religion it is advised to think positive and demonstrate kindness in what ever time, for what ever person, weather they are male or female, white or black, old or young, rich or poor. In the book Jonathon was demonstrating love and kindness in what ever action he take and finally he attracts more followers who thought as he thought. I personally understand the power of positivity and I feel how it is interesting, make simple and attractive things when we look things from positive side and being kind to every body.
3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you to create a better world? If so, how?
All the ideas help me to evaluate my performance; it gives me clue about the thinking that is in peoples mind. It can help me to realize my future goals and I take a big lesson from the behavior of Jonathan. I understand that there were always chains in life that hinder us not to reach the level of excellence we want to achieve. The very idea that is helpful to me is that, “when we really want some thing, sometimes we have to go with it through deeper, we must began by hoping that we can achieve it ,believing that things may not come easy, we should have to over come the obstacles and face all the fears the come on us. But finally I understand that every thing become worth while, I take a big lesson that life is full of ups and down, but if I believe in my self I will come through success and full of pleasure. So, to create better and good life, I should have to value friendship, love, kindness, faith and positivity. I eternalize that if I believe in my self and never underestimate my self, I will break all the chains that hider me from achieving the level of excellence I want to reach and create better world for my self 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.
“You didn’t need faith to fly, you needed to understand flying” (page 11, pargraph, 4)
It is the very statement that really got my attention, I agree that, it is not the belief that only makes us to achieve some thing that we need to accomplish, it very important to know it well and professionalize it trough practice. It is important for me to be strong by my leadership study, initiates me to read more and understand what I want to do, before I am going to practice it.
“Give me one chance; let me show you what I have found”(page 6, paragraph 5)
As to my understanding this statement indicate that, some times there are people who have the potential to do some thing, but we forget about their ability and focus only on the ability and skill of those people we know before. This statement helps me to understand the paradigm of others and to look them how they are dealing with things. In addition to these it is very helpful to give the chance to new idea and thinking. I realize that, knowing the potential in the other people and giving them the chance to explore the knowledge they have will help me to understand, back and see the level of understanding I have before. I know that it is not the only statement that I have found important, there are a lot. With little level of understanding I have, I try to elaborate what the author need to advice me with the statements.
5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
No.
6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?
No, there are no exercises that need to be completed.
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.
May be it is because of the level of my understanding; I have nothing to comment on the book.
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? 10
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