Ewalbleh Enongene Ajah-Ebongweh – Assessments

As A Man Thinketh

Assessment by Ewambleh Enongene Ajah-Ebongweh (Cameroon)

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

The author’s main idea is that the human mind is the world’s strongest machine and it defines how man lives depending on what man himself feeds it with. The author puts the human mind at the core of human existence to such an extent that it is fair to say that man’s entire being is based wholly on the thoughts he himself harbors. How man

feels, what happened to him, what he becomes, what he achieves and even how others perceive him is as a result of thoughts which he has fed into his mind and they have become his reality. According to the author, man simply becomes his thoughts or more accurately, man is a combination of his own thoughts put together.

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.

A. Thought and character

This was particularly important to me because the author was able to demonstrate in fine language and profound clarity how human thoughts have a direct consequence on character. He explains that our character whether on the spur of the moment or the result of premeditation is an offspring of our thoughts. Therefore it is the thinking of men that

fashions their characters. As joyous thoughts invite a harmonious character with self and others, so to persistent thoughts of weakness and depression invite a low self esteem and weak personality. Your energy level depends on your state of mind. Positive thoughts bring about positive energy and a positive character and the reserve is also true. A man can not harbor thoughts of evil, war, scorn and pride and the same time live a life of white, peace, love, and humility. Those thoughts will force their way into his character thus the saying If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through his thinking,

damages his personality and makes him landlord to a ghost.

B. Effects of Thoughts on Circumstances

I have drawn enormous inspiration from this idea of James Allen that our circumstances are not simply chanced but the consequences of thoughts which we ourselves have harbored and which have fashioned our characters and since human character is expressed in circumstances those thoughts find their end in our circumstances. This is amazingly true but not easily believably until one gives a close look at his life and tries to establish a correlation between his thoughts and his character and begins to see that the

circumstances that he has been in are a birth child of that marriage between his thoughts and character. I remember very well how I used to feel after I quit my job for a while but when I started looking again, I could not find the kind of job I wanted. I became depressed, I moved in with my elder sister, my wife was expecting a baby, I was always in conflict with myself because I always saw her trying to be mean to me because I was broke and found myself mostly in circumstances of people trying to be mean or trying humiliate me, I became very reserved, distanced myself from friends developed a very defensive character. The more I tired to be defensive, the more reasons I found to be,

because my circumstances kept challenging me. Friends, whom I used to give money to, started making their own money but were hardly nice to me. My thoughts were merely of getting back at people who had been mean to me, my esteem suffered a great deal but nobody could figure out since I kept to myself. Then I recalled who I am, how people look up to me, I made a decision to change my mental attitude, I started by

pouring my heart in a family meeting and promising them that I am upward bound, that I am rising again, then I decided not to mind my sister at all any more, I decided to go public, post on face book every day, go to events, meet new people, wear my suits and look good. I did not have money yet I accepted the nomination to be the President

of my JCI chapter which was in arrears of her dues, I had dues nearly a million to pay and members had all left yet I did not doubt. I saw my personality lighten again and so did my circumstance, I met a JCI Senator, our very first meeting and He offered me a job. I started meeting important people and my life changed again. Your circumstance

is neither reward nor punishment; it is result, the consequences of thought.

C. Effect of thought on Health and the Body.

Just as our thought affect our character and circumstances, so too they affect our physical health because the mind rules the body and transmits to it what emotions it harbors and the body simply responds accordingly. Happy people are always healthy people. Some times I work very hard, use up a lot of energy, manage multiple tasks and I am

happy because things are going well for me, and I do not feel tired at all not to talk of sick. Other times I do a little work, one fifth of what I normally do, if it is not going on well I get frustrated and depressed, I feel terribly tired in my body, I start having a headache and sores start appearing all over my mouth. I lose my appetite and

fall very sick.

I have zero doubts that our thoughts have a direct impact on our health. Sick thoughts invite sickness and when you are already sick, no matter how sick positive thoughts can boost your immune system, lower your sugar level, strengthen your white blood cells and even heal broken bones, I believe it.

D. Thought and Purpose

When one makes a definite purpose and goal in life, develops passion and obsession around his purpose, it produces positive energy that will help him achieve success. Without a definite purpose in life, it is difficult to think straight and impossible to achieve any level of success, the worse thing about not having a goal is that you can spend

all your time just drifting around the field without ever scoring. Our thoughts are more focused when our purpose is clearly and definite, and when we positively direct good thought towards a definite good purpose, success is bound to abound.

E. The thought factor in achievement

This one is really amazing and inspiring because it is so true and common to find people trying to blame everyone else for their situation. My parents are poor, it is colonization, the Anglophone problem, it is corrupt statesmen, or it is Paul Biya, the government

is not helping us, as we often hear in Cameroon. Take the blame, be the change. Own your failures, only then can you move forward. No one can humiliate you without your permission and no one can make you a slave unless you think like a slave. When your thoughts are responsible, you achieve more because you keep yourself in charge.

F. Serenity

The most powerful man is the one who has power over himself and that gives him power over situations. Calmness, discipline and humility are a strong charm that attracts respect and success. Discipline your thoughts to remain positive inevitably produces good character and of course a successful and happy life.

G. Vision and Ideas

Our vision is reflected by the ideas we stand for and our lives are fashioned by this. Once we have a vision, we develop ideas that reflect that vision, our thoughts become aligned to that vision and inevitably we become the content of our vision. Chance or luck can not

take a man up or put him down, what he become is as a result of his vision, he can not rise beyond the point he had visualized himself to reach. My vision is huge and ambitious and as I keep achieving great things, my emotions unlike some of my peers are not pride and satisfaction, but rather more desire, passion, obsession and energy to achieve more. I know that a good man is hard to be because the wrong way is always easy and appealing, yet I set my ideas around toughness and hard work, I do not want to fly into my future, I want to go through every obstacle and reach my dreams, bruised, yet strong and

happy.

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?

The idea in this book, every world is full of power and inspiration. They have changed my life forever; I have learnt to master my life by mastering my thoughts. As a young motivational speaker and life coach, I have learned to create more peace with others. These lessons will help me inspire many people to live happier and more successful lives.

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.

”The outer world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought, and both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which make for the ultimate good of the individuals. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss.”

This particularly caught my attention because of how personally I have experienced this. In my early presentation, I said this profoundly true but unfortunately not too easy to believe, because men are accustomed to attributing their circumstances to chance or factors beyond their control. I have hardly come across people who believe in

and master this principle, that your circumstances are the birth child of your thoughts. I have seen myself move from a depressed mindset and finding myself in circumstances of people looking low on me to a positive and confident mindset and finding my self in harmonious circumstances of people showing me plenty of trust and respect.

“A man can only rise, conquer and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak, abject and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts.”

This tells me one clear thing, that failure is in the mind ,a man cannot think backwardly and advance in his life, neither can he think positively and live a negative life. To move from your state of affairs, you must first depart from your present state of mind, else

every other effort is useless.

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.

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.

Not exactly, the question gave me the chance to go into every aspect of the book, however, I just want to add that this is the greatest book I have ever read, it is a great inspirational and all authors of motivation seem to draw inspiration from James Allen. He has just thought me how to live.

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 was the content? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you’ll give? 10

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Assessment by Ewambleh Enongene Ajah-Ebongweh (Cameroon)

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

The author’s main idea in this book is about a new dimension and a new horizon out there to explore. Most people are content with their present state and they don’t want to make any progress in their lives and so you find them doing things the same all way for donkey years. The author shows that we are powerful beyond measure and we are limitless creatures who are capable of doing far better, anything which they can do now. The entire gull flock was satisfied with flying

for food all but one, Jonathan was different, he fought hard to discover more and even though he was misunderstood in the process he became great in the end, where others stood, he stood out, where they stood out, he was outstanding and for these who wanted to be outstanding, he was the standard for being outstanding.

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. Fear is the enemy.

The worst enemy to great achievements is fear. Nothing holds us back like fear. The moment we conceive a fear in our minds it percolates through out thinking and makes impossible anything we try to achieve. Fear is the enemy because it keeps showing us how difficult it is to go about achieving our dreams; fear mystifies every obstacle and makes mountains of anthills. A very important step to achieving success is overcoming fear. Our fears are some times very genuine; however we

must rise above them if we are going to reach the peak of our dreams.

ii. Passion.

Nothing spurs men towards achievement like passion. If we ever hope to achieve anything, it is very important to love what you do, to admire the excellence you want to achieve, to be passionate about reaching that height and then that passion soon translates into an obsession and of course the one who is obsessed is unstoppable. Even when Jonathan tried to be an ordinary gull like everyone else, his passion still hunted him, it kept telling him that there is far more “swag” in being standing out than in just standing like others, that there is a greater peace and fulfillment out there to discover which will be far more fulfilling than the approval of the flock. This is because he had become obsessed with flying and it had become impossible to keep his

mind off it.

iii. Persistence.

I have often heard people say that persistence breaks resistance, and in the story of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, I was able to see a perfect demonstration of this profound truth. Success is certainly not convenient as the road to success is full of many obstacles and challenges which most people succumb to. This is why most people never reach their goals, they give up half way, they find good enough reasons not to keep going or they soon become content with one little achievement forgetting that they are far more capable than that and that there is a lot more to explore. Jonathan had his failures and the voice of defeat was very appealing and convincing some times, telling him to give up, that he is trying things greater than him, things

meant for superior species far better than his kind, but he found the courage to rise above failure and to keep going because he knew that he was upward bound.

iv. Your only limits are the ones created by you.

Immediately after reading this book, this was my face book post “If you think you can of course you can. If you think you can’t, you’re right you can’t.” This sounded controversial to some small minded people who kept asking me what mix up I was trying to do. However, I was just trying to put forth the principle I just learned, that the human mind is so strong that what ever you feed it with, it reproduces it in your life and makes it your reality. You have no limit except that which you place in your path, only you can stop you and it’s easy, it suffices to stop believing and impossibility sets in. As I told my friends the other day, your mind is stronger than your bones and if your conceive and believe in your mind that you cannot move

forward, your bones will never carry you a step further. When Jonathan convinced himself that he was trying too hard and that it was ok to just conform, his body responded and the moment he traded his thoughts for strong positive thoughts he became unimaginable even to himself.

v. Practice makes perfect.

Like the Latin saying goes “repititio est mater studorium” which means repetition is the mother of learning, the story of Jonathan clearly demonstrates that you can attain perfection by practicing everyday and trying to do a little better than your last try. Jonathan spent long hours and sometimes whole days practicing some times at the expense of food, but his excitement was to b better each try and so it was. To become perfect at anything one must practice continuously. Sometimes I find myself in front of a huge crowd giving a talk and I see how the audience is staring at me with amazement, mesmerized by my eloquence hardly thinking at all of how much practice it would have taken to become so outstanding at the art. I remember how I used to stand in the mirror and speak to myself, trying to practice memory skills by trying to memorize long passages of books or repeating lines from a movie. Now I am a confident speaker, I could jump from a tree to the stage and start speaking to inspire. I knew what I wanted to become, a motivational speaker, I read widely and practiced the art of public speaking, in school my friends knew that I was good but none of them know how hard I practice.

vi. There is magic in self believe.

In life you must believe in yourself because almost everyone else doesn’t believe in you until you give them irrefutable evidence that you are worth believing in. You must not doubt yourself as there are many who would do you the favor. When one believes in himself in a strong way, no one else can tell him otherwise. The entire flock did not believe in Jonathan, it was the only community he has ever known, his family and world, they shamed and banished him, this kind of a situation could destroy some people’s esteem and shatter their dreams but not Jonathan. The believe he has in himself is so magical that it

over-shadows the disbelieve of an entire flock. Most of us always need the approval of others and worse still count on it fro strength and when we don’t get it, which most often the case, we crash. I learned this lesson in a very bitter way and since then I always score myself high, I pay very little attention to what people think, especially the ones trying to discourage me and steal my self worth, no one can make me feel bad about something which I think I did good, not anymore, not after now, and seriously I don’t even care anymore how many they are or how close they are as long as they just want to tell me how less I

am capable of.

vii. There is Joy in giving.

Most rich people are hardly generous, they want more and are so afraid to share for fear that someone could become like them. They like to keep others under control so that they can stay in charge and be looked up to with hypnotic admiration. However, the pure of heart know that there is great joy in giving and it is the true reason for ever having anything that we may share with others. After having acquiring his “hard earned” skills, Jonathan did not hold back anything from anyone who wanted to learn from him, he was open and humble. As he thought them, he himself learned more and found more

fulfillment. Most people I have come across don’t know how to give and they like to tell everyone how hard they worked to acquire what they have. Many young lads come to me asking to learn the art of oratory, to learn how to be a good trainer like me and some want to learn my leadership skills. I have found a lot more fulfillment in sharing my knowledge than in keeping it and priding myself of knowing something. Just as I finished reading “As A Man Thinketh” I organized a talk on

the power of though, based on the book and the power of positive thinking. It was a life changing event for many who testified how their lives were taking a new turn from then on.

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 boost my self believe and enhance my ability as a life coach to inspire self confidence in other people. I have also tapped the courage to be a high flyer and to be unstoppable at the things I do no matter how many people don’t believe in 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.

“My father was right. I must forget this foolishness. I must fly home to the Flock and be content as I am, as a poor limited

seagull.”

I picked this because this is how the voice of discouragement come in and may of us follow it. Most people are at the brink of giving up, they just want somebody to discourage them a little bit so they can jump off the cliff and say that someone pushed them. We must not limit ourselves in any way.

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.

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 was the content? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you’ll give? 10