As a Man Thinketh
Assessment by Japheth Oino (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
The very first argument Allen lays out is that man is the sum of his thoughts. Just like tiny seeds turn into big plants, a single thought often turns into a major decision, which makes your thoughts the roots of your actions. Over time, these actions shape into patterns, which will eventually make up our character. This is why most pessimistic people tend to give up more easily on the things they care about, because your attitude and your actions are directly linked to one another. If you don’t start out with confidence and expect very little of yourself, that’s exactly what you’ll deliver.
But if your thoughts shape your actions, then by changing your thoughts, you can change your actions and subsequently, your character too!
The time to start weeding out bad thoughts is right now. Today is the day to stop accepting negative thoughts as normal and fight back. Take control of your mind, and you’ll take control of your life. The reason your thoughts and actions are so deeply connected is because they live in a constant cause-and-effect relationship with the outside world.
What does that mean? You might see your life as mostly determined by external factors. The weather, the economy, politics, your co-workers, your boss, whether you have good luck or bad luck, your life depends on so many things you can’t influence. But it’s not as black and white as that. Playing the victim is easy. You can just push off responsibility and blame the world for everything.
In reality, your thoughts, your actions, your character, they all take at least as much influence on the world, as the world does on you. The thoughts and attitudes you have are what lead you into the situations of your life, some of which you then end up assigning to good or bad luck, when it’s really yourself that got you there. Therefore, you can’t describe a person’s character just by looking at the environment she lives in, or predict the circumstances she’ll end up in, because of the way she is. There are many admirable and probably genuinely good people in jail, while some greedy bastards live happily off other peoples’ misery.
A crucial aspect almost no one looks at when examining thoughts is your health. When we talk about the power of positive thinking, we usually speak of affirmations, goals, priorities, etc. But not about health. Yet, what you think massively impacts your heart rate, sleep, chronic pains like migraines and your skin. Yes, you can think yourself to wrinkly skin. Do you know that saying “be careful what you wish for?” This book extends it to “be careful what you think about.” On the other hand, thinking very positively and dwelling on energizing thoughts can keep you young. So take every chance you get to weed out negative thoughts. Pretend your mind is a garden, and everything that doesn’t help it grow has to go. You’ll thank yourself for years to come.
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 Power of Thought
Our thoughts shape our character, circumstances, and ultimately, our destiny. We are the architects of our own lives.
ii. The Law of Cause and Effect
Our thoughts are causes, and our circumstances are the effects. Positive thoughts lead to positive outcomes, and negative thoughts lead to negative outcomes.
iii. The Importance of Self-Mastery
We must learn to control our thoughts and emotions if we want to create a positive and fulfilling life.
iv. The Power of Choice
We always have the power to choose our thoughts and actions. We are not victims of our circumstances.
v. The Importance of Positive Thinking
Cultivating positive thoughts and beliefs can help us overcome challenges and achieve our goals.
vi. The Power of Visualization
Visualizing our goals and desires can help us manifest them in reality.
vii. The Importance of Self-Discipline
Self-discipline is essential for overcoming negative thoughts and habits and creating a positive life.
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 book is filled with timeless wisdom that reminds us of the profound impact of our thoughts.
“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”
“Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”
If we consistently think about obstacles, we focus on limitations. But if we focus on opportunities, we create paths to growth.
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 soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened desires and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.”
“Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.”
“Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.”
“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results.”
“Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe; justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life; and righteousness, not corruption, is the molding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world”
“The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying combinations of colors, which at every succeeding moment it presents to you are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts.”
“A sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts.”
“As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.”
“Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.”
“He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.”
“A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another.”
“By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well-directed thought a man ascends; by the aid of animality, indolence, impurity, corruption, and confusion of thought a man descends.”
“He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.”
“Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.”
“Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as the realities which it shall one day see and know.”
“To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to, achieve.”
“Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.”
“As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them.”
“Act is the blossom of thought; and joy and suffering are its fruits.”
“Man is made or unmade by himself.”
“Man is the master of thought, the molder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.”
“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 continue to produce their kind.”
“Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful and pure thoughts.”
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 book is well explained.
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 exercises since our mind needs to be cultivated on a daily basis in a positive way
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.
It’s well covered.
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? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Japheth Oino (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
The main character is Jonathan Livingston, a Seagull who dreams of becoming a “high-performing” bird. The problem is that the flock hates individuality. To belong, you must fit in. To do this, you must act like all the other birds, squawking and flying slowly.
“This kind of thinking, he found, is not the way to make one’s self popular with other birds. Even his parents were dismayed as Jonathan spent whole days alone, making hundreds of low-level glides, experimenting.” Jonathan’s struggle to find belonging and acceptance resonates with me.
So often, organizations make it easy to fit in yet hard to belong.
Compliance is preferred over creativity. Innovation is desired, but rule-breaking is not. Diversity is encouraged, yet differences are dampened.
Like Jonathan, employees don’t want to fit in. They want to belong.
“You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way.” Back on Earth, Jonathan takes on several students who have been made Outcasts by the Flock, teaching them not only to fly more skillfully, but also to understand their true spiritual nature. The students struggle to understand the latter, and Jonathan ultimately decides that they must all return to the Flock and resume their lessons there. Jonathan and his students show off their skills, and slowly, members of the Flock begin to take notice and join in. When one gull with a bad wing manages to fly after speaking to Jonathan, rumors begin to spread that he is divine.
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.”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.”
ii. “Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flights; how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.”
iii. “We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill.”
iv. “Do you have any idea how many lives we must have gone through before we even got the first idea that there is more to life than eating, or fighting, or power in the Flock? A thousand lives, Jon, ten thousand!”
v. “We choose our next world through what we learn in this one. Learn nothing, and the next world is the same as this one, all the same limitations and lead weights to overcome.”
vi. “To begin with,” he said heavily, “you’ve got to understand that a seagull is an unlimited idea of freedom, an image of the Great Gull, and your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip, is nothing more than your thought itself.”
vii. “You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way. It is the Law of the Great Gull, the Law that Is.”
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 book helps me to unleash my potential no matter what others say and it helps me to pursue what I want individually without caring what others are saying. It is my life and I have to take charge of it, even if I will be an outcast as much as I achieve my dream.
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 don’t love hatred and evil, of course. You have to practice and see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and to help them see it in themselves. That’s what I mean by love. It’s fun, when you get the knack of it.”
“His one sorrow was not solitude, it was that other gulls refused to believe the glory of flight that awaited them; they refused to open their eyes and see.”
“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.”
“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation.”
“By morning the Flock had forgotten its insanity, but Fletcher had not. ‘Jonathan, remember what you said a long time ago, about loving the Flock enough to return to it and help it learn?”
“I don’t understand how you manage to love a mob of birds that has just tried to kill you.
Oh, Fletch, you don’t love that! You don’t love hatred and evil, of course. You have to practice and see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and to help them see it in themselves. That’s what I mean by love. It’s fun, when you get the knack of it.”
“Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly.”
“Look at Fletcher! Lowell! Charles-Roland! Judy Lee! Are they also special and gifted and divine? No more than you are, no more than I am. The only difference, the very only one, is that they have begun to understand what they really are and have begun to practice it.”
“Why is it,’ Jonathan puzzled, ‘that 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’d just spend a little time practicing? Why should that be so hard?”
“He spoke of very simple things; It is right for a gull to fly, that freedom is the very nature of his being, that whatever stands against that freedom must be set aside, be it ritual or superstition out limitation in any form.”
“A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water, and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed through the air, till a crowd of a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food. It was another busy day beginning. But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was practicing.”
“Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flights; how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.”
“The only true law is that which leads to freedom, Jonathan said. There is no other.”
“Why, Jon, why?’ his mother asked. Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can’t you leave low flying to the pelicans, the albatross? Why don’t you eat? Son, you’re bone and feathers!”
The Flock values conformity to such an extent that even Jonathan’s own mother chastises him for his love of flying, outright asking him to “be like the rest” of the seagulls. Her remark that Jonathan is “bone and feathers” is especially noteworthy. In context, it seems to be a comment about Jonathan’s weight; Jonathan, she implies, has neglected eating to pursue flying but it’s also a broader statement about the nature of the self. To Jonathan’s mother (and likely the rest of the Flock), seagulls are physical beings made of “bone and feathers.” This is an idea Bach challenges in Parts 2 and 3, suggesting that the self is essentially spiritual and not limited by the physical body.
“It’s all so pointless, he thought, deliberately dropping a hard-won anchovy to a hungry old gull chasing him. I could be spending all this time learning to fly. There’s so much to learn!”
Unlike the other seagulls, Jonathan is not content with a purely physical existence centered on fighting for small pieces of fish. Although he tries to obey his parents and fit in with the Flock, he’s unable to suppress his urge to fly, which is itself symbolic of his desire to learn and grow beyond his prior limits.
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 book is well explained.
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 practical life exercises.
7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.
It’s well covered.
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? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10