Augustine Philip Ntomola – Assessments

As A Man Thinketh

Assessment by Augustine Philip Ntomola (Tanzania)

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

The main idea the author is trying to tell us the success of anyone comes from the self belief of the man. The outcome and acts of everyone comes from the thinking capacity of the man’s brain. Therefore the author clearly defines the success is only within man’s heart and brain. The author calls upon every individual to give all too every task, job, project or activity so as to attain the expected results from all partners and stakeholders involved.

2. What are the seven ideas which were personally most important to you and why? List these seven ideas followed by an explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your own life.

(a) Thought and Character

This is explains who are you? Why are you doing this kind of activities? What you like and distinction from one another. A man is as is by thought and character possessed and expressed. For example I am considerate person and from the environment I grew up, I always learn how to sacrifice for others. I never thing of my benefits first, put you first to achieve ones ambitious and in that we all achieve. I like to give rather than to receive.

(b) Effect of thought on circumstances

Circumstances are anything that surrounds an individual. This gives one the play ground and opportunity to success or failure. It depends on how well one sacrifice to achieve positive results. Human beings never want failure but they never take seriously the circumstances around to make prosperous results. We are all we are not by accident but with a great purpose from God. And from him the circumstances to test and remind us our sacrifice is our success and not otherwise. For example here in Tanzania we have a proverb say “mtembea na mlevi, naye ni mlevi” meaning “a man who accompanies a drunker is a drunker too”

(c) Effects of thoughts on health and body

We are weak because we think of. But we succeed because we sacrifice. Our health is very important as our brains and body. People associate these elements as they imply with how good one is can be as long as is health in body which most of the times is also in mind.

Poor man has little to think of as mostly will be looking for the daily bread to ensure his/her survival for today and not beyond.

Another fact that holds good diet and health man may still have weak thoughts.

(d) Thought and purpose

Purpose is the core of every man to live in the world. As of God had purpose with us that’s why he made us of his kind. What most of us lucky is the food of thought to reveal our purpose and be able to accomplish. The good thing of a man with purpose is never say die attitude towards the set agenda until accomplished. Thought is the food for good purpose, we need good thought to unveil our initiatives for others to know and understand.

(e) The thought factor in achievement

Every man in the world dreams to achieve as per whatever has been in ground for the relevant time. But one can achieve if well planned and organized thought taken together to the cause. Therefore it is very true as to basis of good thoughts is equivalent to marvelous success. We had an idea to establish the SME’s platform for the East African states to link them with financial institutions. The thought when presented was dully, but today it is taking shape and deliver what was once seemed a mere dream.

(f) Visions and ideals

A human being is full of visions and ideals. One cannot visualize or dream to make it real. If that being the case what we need is a good thought so as to purify our visions and ideals. The two may give results only after thorough thought behind it.

The book gave us few examples of people who had vision and made them to reality. The lesson here is for us never to kill our own visions and ideals. Every human being has a vision to accomplish. My desire is to have youth and underprivileged to get access to education and especially basic one that can make them employment and sustainably support economy of their countries. Another thing is free flow of information to everyone in need of any particular information for his/her day to day activities.

(g) Serenity

Good thoughts are the origin of good success. Getting them is as easy as losing them. The key element that everyone needs to it is calmness. Thus the Roman Catholic clerics do go for the retreat. The reason for that is believed to be one must be absolute free of any circumstances to attain full potential of good thoughts. A state of calmness is what we need to collect our thoughts and make them work for what we dream and expect to achieve, the character, health, circumstances around us and visions we have in our subconscious minds.

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

These ideas surely are the completion of human kind. They are helping me tirelessly to accomplish and go for every idea or vision comes in my mind. They have increased my confidence and the best way to analyses the issues coming across. Apart from that they demonstrate and remind us that success or failure of anyone is within him/her self and not otherwise as we always complain that you are the reason for the failure.

The circumstances in our day to day activities are the challenges we need to understand and make a sound decision for the achievement we expect. For me these ideas must be part of my reform as currently have been looking into my whole way of thinking and approaching everything in my life. These ideas shall help me to improve the way I look into the world.

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.

“Thoughts of fear, doubt and indecision crystallize into weak, unmanly and irresolute habits, which solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence and slavish dependence.”

This quote impressed me as clearly demonstrate how most of unexposed people are in difficult to fulfill a number of decision making.

To my country I relate it with the undecided issues in the East African Confederation, fear among our people, leaders make us weak while we have competitive advantage over all member state. We have large area, we can produce enough food to feed entire eastern bloc, every region of our country has minerals, natural tourism attraction of Zanzibar island and Kilimanjaro Mountain, plains of Serengeti, Selous game reserves to mention a few. To African countries and the rest of developing countries, the quote proves to be true on how they usually ask for assistance in most if not all development monies for projects that keep them in power.

“As a man thinketh in his heart so is he”

The quote is very true that we always do what we have thought of and planned. What one does has essence and the origin of every man’s doings. Though biologically brain is the part believed to initiate and do decision, it is very difficult to separate the two sensible parts of the human body. Apart from the brain’s job in thinking and decision making all we do has full support from the heart of human being.

“How chance helps him at every turn” Human beings are curious for every success one achieves but has never ever be in the position to at least take courtesy to ask how did one make it to the ladders prevails. God created human being with Thomas’ doubt on everything one does. This most gives scare nature to human on every project one want to accomplish. Sacrifice is virtue in Christianity. We human beings are in constant struggle to look for the better life. But the better life is not easy to achieve, needs passive and perseverance in all we do. The road to success has never been smooth. The quote reminds us that one cannot simply sit and believe in “chance” to get good life. All those who succeed have passed a difficult, discouraging, life and even sometimes may wish they could not be born. What is seemed by others as chance is the never say enough heart in the passion of success, belief in what one knows, willingness to learn and readiness to accept challenges and be able to view, grab and initiate opportunities.

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and if so why?

Actually the book is very interesting in reading, it is eyebrow of everything we have been doing and thinking as human beings in our day to day life. I am so happy to get this reach knowledge. The one thing that has not come to my mind super clean is the thought of health and body.

As it reads seems very simple but I see it a bit confusing and difficult to link into the real life. I understand good health is all a body needs to move forward for positive achievements.

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?

I have not seen any written but I really sense the whole book to me has been an exercise for me to complete to achieve what has been part of my dreams. I have not been able to complete all since they are in day to day life. Every chapter if conceptualized is more than an exercise in any education schools or universities.

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 think everything has been covered by the book, but the proverbs style of the author is good and needs calm mind to get to the real picture of what the author refers us to.

Please rate the following questions on 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? 6
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10

 

 

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Assessment by Augustine Philip Ntomola (Tanzania)

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

The main idea of the book is to let one understand the capacity, ability and acceptance of oneself. The author goes further to describe how these things may cost one at the life if not taken care off. For every action we do these are the most elements to be observed.

Responsibility – like Chiang seagull, showed how one must be responsible for his/her actions.

Identity – we need to understand our identity and cherish it. We must be proud of our identity. The seagull was unhappy of the failure on high range flight enjoyed by others, but one thing we must remember is be proud of whatever we have as from that angle we can be able to reveal our true nature. Togetherness – unit is the weapon of all time. If we cannot be together then it is difficult to achieve our ambitions. Trust – this is the most valuable treasure one need to be confident and work out every token detail. Most of problems we face on the world today originate from honest issues and the like. We can teach each other, share visions, ideals and commitment. If we do not trust one another we cannot work together to the common goal.

2. What are the seven ideas which were personally most important to you and why? List these seven ideas followed by an explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your own life.

a. Trust: The seagulls have shown as how we human beings have no difference to them. Reflection of how Jonathan seagull has been a true revelation of how we must trust in ourselves and never ever think of a failure. Our life is not about getting food and sleep; we must see our lives beyond that angle. We must always trust what we possess and what we dream and visualize achieving in our lives. It is with trust that one can express true ability and capability to climb the highest ladder of success. Most people in the world fail because of trust. Jonathan has proved us wrong and Mama Theresa of Calcutta showed us the way in believing others.

b. Manage and control: Jonathan seagull had to learn to fly differently from other seagulls. That was not to show others that he is from other flocks of family, but to express the capability and potentials they have which has never been exercised by anyone. The success of the story was for him to be able to manage and control his movements, speeds and stops. As Chiang the head of the seagulls flock and one of the oldest said, understand what you are doing is the key factor for success. Unless you understand is when you can be able to manage and control.

c. Forgive and help: Youth are always in hurry of success and never sometimes think the outcome or tend to ignore the hard way ahead of them for success. We tend not to like sacrifice from our struggle to get good living standards. We always scone others and never like to give in which has been

d. Belief in oneself: if you want you can. Most people fail to unleash their potentials due to the lack of self belief. This has been the centre of weakness as depicted by other seagulls that were afraid of long flight, speed. The main reason for lack of self belief to living creatures especially humans, is habit of liking to hear from other without any initiative to make things happen on the ground, unwilling to learn from others and accept exceptional circumstance we leave in could be the factor for ones belief.

e. Right for everyone: Every man has the right to live and equally to enjoy everything that falls in line with whatever is entitled too. We cannot be the reason for one not to live, as the God has given this life so as we may replicate good deeds to our siblings so as others from different parts with different views, ideas, visions and perspectives. People today are willing to kill anyone who stands for justice as long as it affects the activities which are illegal done by them.

f. Expectations: These are the outcomes of the input by one to the particular task. The seagulls had never tried anything extraordinary in their lives. But here comes Jonathan, at tender age has not hesitate to demonstrate what today we say is a good example for our lessons.

Always high expectations may be frustrated by lack of commitment. We need purely to commit ourselves our life and activities we persue and the best answer of all times for one to succeed is to have passion of what we do and like to do. Jonathan Seagull showed us the passion of his readiness to learn how to fly, has never hesitate despite of ups and downs along the way, he remained focused and finally attained what was seen by all seagulls as impossible.

I got my friend who completed university with high hopes to be employed as his brother had been in mining industry which is the heavily paying industry in Arusha, he did not even abide to principles of exams at University where he was caught with prohibited materials in the exam room. All hopes fade away. As at today has not got any job and life is tough to him.

g. Liberation: We human beings must have purpose and we need to understand why we are in the world. We need to be ready to use the freedom we have to the better of our lives and all around us. We need to release what we have so as to be able to share with our friends and other human beings. If we see ourselves into others, life will never be difficult and success will never be a problem at any time.

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

These ideas are vital in day to day life that might help one to create a better world. We need to show and practice trust among one another for the job to be done. You trust in my application and gave me the opportunity to learn without any difficult and discouraging reasons. The motive is for me to know and you to let what are good to many.

We can be successful when we also manage and control our situations and proceeds in the ground.

In manage and control issues, in today’s life we must manage what we want to do and understand how to control them if we want to succeed. We need to be focused on the cause of the action we want to per sue and then easily we can manage and control our destiny.

Forgive and help is the core of Nelson Mandela call when came out of jail. If Mandela could not think of reconciliation we could not have the rainbow nation which is proud in the economy and political success they experience today. The great man did not take it for himself but for all human nature. Personally happened to me at my work station in 2009 when the subordinate staffs spoke ill of me to the management intestinally for someone to be appointed to take my position. It was very difficult for me to understand why and what did I do wrong. The person involved came to me a year and half later 2011 and apologized for what he did. Most problem we face either come from within or from others who wish to use other for their ambition. For my case, the person had no problem with me, but was just fed with wrong information which was to support the cause of the other person out of her own grief’s and ambition to be a leader and not to help them as she proclaimed at the start of the initiative. Currently I am helping him to stage arts and culture festival to be held at Arusha in 20-28/10/2012 dubbed Jambo Festival.

Belief in oneself is the task to many youth in the world. We need to have that in our minds and show it openly in our day to day activities. I have belief in myself as a good leader, human and considerate man. I know I can achieve a lot if I share what I know with others and that’s why I need to get involved with many across to polish and nourish what I have and make proper use of it.

Right for everyone: as Christian believer justice is among of the chastity we are obliged to live with. I always ask myself why the world is said to be rude, and has no right to anyone. I do not believe in that as we are the ones to make a better today and tomorrow for generations to come. I strongly advocate the right to everyone in theory and want to see it put into practice.

Expectationwe visualize and dream to expect the best out of everything we do. Personally I expect to achieve a lot in the life ahead such accessibility of relevant and right information to youth and others at large. This has been a problem in our life especially in my country.

Liberationof youth begins with us. We are the world leaders of today, others say tomorrow, but what I believe is today should not wait tomorrow as the determination of tomorrow starts today. If we shall not emancipate ourselves no one can do for us.

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.

“True law is that which leads to freedom”

Our home, schools, nation at large have laws, rules and regulation to support and help one live better. So everything in human has been built in the law block.

We shall only experience the true law if we are ready to live it. True starts with oneself and run to the rest.

“You are special and gifted and divine above other birds”

We always admire the few who have succeeded without looking how difficult they struggled to achieve what they have today.

It is true few people like Mandela Nelson, Mama Theresa and others are special in what they did heartily from the outset to date no one can ever replicate it today why? My thought is we ignore the most principles of law and operate mainly in personal basis.

“The hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free and that he can prove it for himself if he had just spend a little time practicing”

This quote explains how difficult for one to appreciate the freedom we have. The reason is that we do not know the basic things which guides us and for those who know have never been ready to openly declare each and everything to others. Most people do take ignorance of one as the advantage of success to others. We never like to take things in togetherness attitude of wining for all. This is due to selfish nature of human kind.

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and if so why?

I disagree with the idea of how difficult to convince another person if you have all it takes for him/her to see vividly what you mean and refer to.

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?

Actually I have not seen exercise for me 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.

The phrases are so demanding which needs one to think critically to get the meaning. I have not seen anything that has not covered in other questions.

Please rate the following questions on 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? 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? 9

Success through a Positive Mental Attitude

Assessment by Augustine Philip Ntomola (Tanzania)

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

The main idea here is that we as the human beings should at every point in time be able to positively see and understand things. One cannot see the opportunity ahead if does not let the gifted brain which is the most valuable asset (according to me) on earth to freely articulate and manipulate our living success. What most of us do today is to hinder the positive mental attitude that could lead us to success. Few have the courage to see to that principle hence they achieve abundantly in everything they do.

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 example from your own life.

i. Truth

The positive mental attitude tells us the truth on how human beings have no difference to one another. Like Napoleon writes we are poor not because of God. We are what we are from what we think and live. One cannot successes if will not accept the truth and concede defeat when truly happens.

We need openly to understand the reality of life for us to move into the right direction. I have been in constant thinking on how we do not want to accept the truth at any point in life, in my working environment my board of directors never want to hear the truth whether be demand of pay rise or managerial procedures. It is always difficult to say the truth and I have been trying to achieve it, but people do not believe even if you tell them the truth.

We need to achieve what is necessary in life, we live once and die once, let our minds be ready to see the desires our hearts dreams of and the dream must be put into reality.

ii. Extra Mile

We human have soft hearts that when massaged and relaxed ought to believe have reached the destination no one can reach today. We lack persistence and perseverance we lack bold hearts and always we accept the results and failures as easily as ice melting.

We need to strive and in day to day life be ready to go extra mile for one to succeed. This mile you take gives a cutting edge of further understanding, wide knowledge, capacity to review and view things in all possible angles one can think of during any time in life.

It is true that if you manage to achieve the constant thinking of success, solutions for every problem in the fore head, then there is no doubt that you have managed to go an extra mile. This is what most people lack and especially to most of my community, we tend to afraid to move into challenges and torture our minds for the future benefits as we always live today and not tomorrow.

iii. Initiative

We fail to do a lot of things due to lack of initiative efforts. This is the major problem as the modality of how we are groomed and trained during our growth circles has never create an opportunity for self reliance education to equip our youth for the ready environment we live today.

In today’s competitive environment where we find a number of angel’s fathers and partners who are ready to work with, the key success thing is your initiative. One must have something at hand to get to the destination of the dreams and hopes of good life and success.

My initiative is to create a level platform for entrepreneurs to find markets and be able to showcase their products to the public. I believe by so doing they will benefit and the community and nation at large must benefit too.

iv. Generosity

Being generous is the key to success as many parties you get into work and business find it had to resist your offers and deals. I am learning and practicing so as to achieve my goals and I know I must be able to determine and understand the extent to which offers the generosity levels are relevant.

v. Hope

This is the heart of most human being. It is from hope that people get success. We always hope for our future and current life but we fail to find means to work for the hopes to accomplish. Initiatives in minds without hopes are nothing. We must take them together and work them out for the better of our lives and world at large.

vi. Courage

This makes us bold enough to dare and do the activities we perceive and hope for. Most people including myself fail because we take too many unnecessary loads on our positive mental attitudes because we do not trust our thoughts and minds. The bible story and the life of Jesus proofs to us, courage takes us to another level where you cannot image if you could manage by yourself.

vii. Tolerance

I strongly believe tolerance is among the virtues that most people fail to abide to. We always look for success without pain that is in the path we choose. We are told by bible in a number of stories. I once had to tolerate firm accusations of failure to bring people together in our Youth Saccos while the people involved themselves are not even committed to the course.

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

I need to be true to myself and identify what ways to others who work and live around my life, business and working place they are happy to be true to all day to day activities.

I always start and plan a new activity while showing to my family, team and public the benefit of the initiative am working on and shall stick to it up to the final completion of the matter.

Every activity and business has price. One must be generous enough to accept that with open hands and mind. This idea in mind will continue to push me to move and handle various obstacles might come my way.

The bible teaches us among other things “hope.” We must have hopes for our jobs, life, family and everything. In my works and activities I must hope for the best and good results for all actions taken. In one of the teachings of the bible we are told “take courage my son.” We are living today in the world with full of things, without courage we can never see the good of the other side.

For the one to achieve the success you dream about despite the all above thinking, tolerance must be your “motto.” The world is too huge to swallow all those who have no tolerance for the green pastures. It is like the tunnel too long to see the start and to reach the end, what you need is truth, initiative, hope and courage to move on and do everything you believe in with your entire mind.

“I was raised in the slums and that’s something you can never get out of your system.”

The quote is true in one way and not in the other. We know the PMA and NMA effects play a major role in this phrase. If your mind and brain is full of PMA this will be part of your life as a story that once upon time you were in slums, but due to the things you want to do and what you do not want to do, you managed to successful get out of the slums system and fit in the normal living systems around you.

If the mind is full of NMA you will always believe you can not fit in any other system you are in at particular time of life.

“The art of record keeping.”

This quote makes one to be ambitious and emphasize the target of achievements one must set and work constantly towards them. We have a lot going our way, history of success and failure or any history is learned from people who keep records in writings of the situations at that particular times.

“I wonder whether I had given everything in me on that final lap.”

The attitude of cross checking what you have done now and then to compare with the real capacity you posses is a good yard stick for personal evaluation.

It helps to monitor the performance you put in a number of your activities.

“I found Napoleon Hill’s formulas for success most inspiring.”

It is very true on the written formulas and suggestions from the book. We human beings always need inspiration that’s the living heart of everyone in the planet. We remember our fallen heroes for that reason; we take people to testify and give their testimony for inspiration to all others who are out there.

“The baby will live.”

This was very strong statement from a person who has no doubt at all in his mind on the divine life of human being. God did not bring us on earth to die or suffer but it is the work of anti-Christ to define the glory of God. We, who know God and acknowledge his creation, must be bold enough to proclaim the wisdom and victory of life he gave us at no price.

“I can’t stand to go on anymore.”

The sin of despair is the sin that God does not entertain to human kind, that’s why whoever say I am no longer important in this earth, devil enjoys by taking the advantage of reducing number of human being created by the free will of almighty God. We need to learn and understand the will of God in human nature and live without fear.

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and if so why?

I disagree with the idea of how difficult to convince another person if you have all it takes for him/her to see vividly what you mean and refer to.

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 contains thoughts to steer by which actually is enough exercise to ascertain how one can acquire positive mental attitude. I completed them as most of thoughts need personal reflections of how I can or get energy, how well do I use positive mental attitude and other people’s money wisely for wealth creation. The thoughts helped me to think every day that I need both physical and mental energy to achieve my tasks and to use other people’s money with high degree of honest for success.

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.

The parts are well arranged in a clear sequential manner which gives a reader a clear map of the journey to success. I would like to add one thing after action the phrases are so demanding which needs one to think critically to get the meaning. I have not seen anything that has not covered in other questions.

Please rate the following questions on 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? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it others? 8