As a Man Thinketh
Assessment by Julius Omoga (Kenya)
1: What do you think that the author is trying to convey in the book?
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” 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.
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 life.
i. A Persons Character is the Sum of Their Thoughts
“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.” To put it simply, we are who we are because of our thoughts. Our thoughts influence our emotion which govern our actions and behaviors.
Everything we do in our lives can be traced back to a single thought.
Whether our actions are spontaneous, unpremeditated, or deliberate, they all stem from our thoughts.You don’t get successful; you become successful. Likewise, you don’t wake up one day committing crimes; you become a criminal.
Thoughts have a direct correlation with our identity, and our identity is our destiny.
“Man is a growth by law, and not a creation of artifice.” Artifice: “clever or cunning devices or expedients, especially as used to trick or deceive others.” We can act and speak words that deceive people of our truth, but it is our thoughts that make us. We only grow into the person we want to be perceived as by the thoughts which consume our mind the most.
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ii. Circumstance Doesn’t Create a Man, They Reveal Him.
“Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. This does not mean that a man’s circumstances at any given time are an indication of his entire character, but that those circumstances are so intimately connected with some they are indispensable to his development.”
We are not at the mercy of our circumstances; we create them.
There is only a limited amount of circumstances we’re born into, of which we do not choose. Our parents, our location, and how we’re raised are a few, but it is our choice of thought that cultivates an unlimited possibility of circumstance we experience later in life. Many people are born into the same circumstances, yet only a few will discover they are the master-gardener of their soul and director of their life.
As soon as we’re able to leave home and make our way in life, we can choose the life we want to live.
Unfortunately, by the time we reach this age, we have picked up all the habits and beliefs of our parents and the way we see ourselves.
If we were raised to take responsibility for ourselves and developed a healthy self-esteem, then we will probably make better choices and create a fulfilling life.
If, however, you are one of the unfortunate ones (like myself), childhood could have resulted in a poor self-image, crippling attachments, and unhealthy habits.
It’s then common to feel like a victim to your circumstances, and believe the only way out is for someone of something to save you.
You know, like in the movies.
This is the difference between the two mindsets, which is that one person is working from the outside in and the other is working from the inside out.
When you work from the outside in, you see the circumstances in your life as happening to you. Bad things happen and it makes you feel bad. Good things happen and it makes you feel good.
The alternative is to recognize that you have all the control from within and the choice to feel good no matter what’s happening. Yes, bad things might still happen, but you choose not to let it affect you because you don’t take it personally.
iii. Sickness Is a Manifestation of Thought
What is the difference between two people who receive bad news from their doctor with only a few months to live. And then, one dies three months later and the other lives for many years? The difference is that the one who died took the news as fact and that there was nothing they could do about it.
iv. A Life Without Purpose Leads to Worries, Self-Pity, and Failure
Without a purpose, we drift in life not knowing our destination.
“Aimlessness is a vice.” And to those who hold true to a vision and purpose, avoid the shortcomings of what an aimless life brings them.
When we have no path to walk, we wander around, allowing our thoughts to run our minds. And if we allow our minds to be run by our thoughts, they take over our lives and produce a weak man with no self-control.
A life purpose with an aim to accomplish it produces thoughts that strengthen our character, which holds us accountable to see our purpose through to the end.
Those who think with purpose recognize failure as a pathway to its attainment.
v. We Don’t Get What We Want in Life, We Get Our Habits of Thought
“All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his thoughts.” We only achieve things through unconscious repetition. If our thoughts are filled with lack, unworthiness, doubt, and sickness, we manifest only what they reflect.
vi. Your Life is the Sum of Your Vision and Ideals
“You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.”
Up to this point in the book, Allen speaks mainly of our past and present.
Whether it be our current circumstance, character, health or self-image, they can all be traced back to thoughts about the past or present. Chapter four touches on thoughts of worry and failure, which are said to be thoughts driven by fear of the future.
But to think of the future without fear depends on our strength in Vision and Ideals.
To hold a vision of ourselves greater than our past failures and worthier than our present self-esteem is to bring that vision into existence.
Becoming aware of our thoughts and making a choice to change them creates a new vision for ourselves.
vii. Serenity
Serenity is finding that center of ourselves where presence and inner peace live.
When we return there often, it expands, and we realize that awareness is who we truly are. This is where genuine life exists. Not in thought, not in suffering, and not in hoping and wishing
3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping to create a better world? If so, how?
This ideas will help me and my society to understand that our thinking is key to our lives, as a man thinks so he is, when we see someone it tells us a lot about how he thinks, thoughts should go hand in hand with action, our action speaks a lot about ourselves, so I will be more alert in my thinking on a daily life.
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.
“A 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.”
“A strong man cannot help a weaker unless the 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. None but himself can alter his condition.”
“The outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state…Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”
“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”
“A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile, and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of the hidden powers and possibilities within himself.”
“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.”
“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts
and actions can never produce good results. We understand this law in
the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental
and moral world although its operation there is just as simple and undeviating
and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it.”
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 well stated and clear it’s well understood too.
6. Did the book contain exercise for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all the exercises and did you find them helpful?.
The book contains very important points which are crucial in our lives, our brain is the power house how we think is very important and we should take good care of our mind.
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.
None.
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 Julius Omoga (Kenya)
1. What do you think that the author is trying to convey in the book?
It is about how someone can be ordinary and make themselves become exceptional, and that that truth lies in everyone. However this is no easy thing, and Jonathan Livingston Seagull runs through all the ways that most people react to the extraordinary. Jonathan becomes an outcast, when he transcends ordinary gulls.
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 life.
i. Most people around you will not believe in your success.
Even if you prove it to them, they will not be ready to accept you but that’s just fine. That’s the price you pay for extraordinary success. You have to be happy with what you achieved. The same people will accept your success when they see you achieving it, we have so many Thomas in the world they want first to see the outcome before the process so we are not supposed to give up because of few individuals but work hard and achieve the goal.
ii. It is pointless to share your dream with others who do not share the same dream. They will never be able to visualize what you are able to visualize from your position.
You are the driver of your vision nobody cares about it unless you share the same vision but you need to do it because it is your vision not theirs, so keep moving forward for it is your dream not theirs, if anything wrong happens you will take personal responsibility.
iii. Behind all the hatred, jealousy or evil, there lies pure and sacred beings. With practice, we must learn how to see that pure being.
We see through the process how the seagull never appreciated what Jonathan was doing, for them it was pointless and what they valued it was just a simple life as long as they get food they had no issues so it is our own dream to do what is best for us not minding what others will say.
iv. We don’t need much help from outside if we keep finding ourselves a little more each day and approach the infinite within us.
That infinite is our instructor, our torch bearer. We need someone to guide us in whatever we do, honest and sincere people to hold our hand in order for us to move forward.
v. Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. The right understanding is that we are all an image of God.
Sometimes we see the giant ahead of us, but little do we understand that once we start working on it , it becomes easy, starting something can be a challenge but once we start we are good to go.
vi. Every goal has a limit. It’s only perfection that is limitless.
We have to set our limit in our goals so that they are achievable, without limit we will be working endless in our goals, so we have to exactly have our time frame with our goals.
vii. The only true love is the one which leads to freedom.
Freedom is the key to success, because you will do what you want without prejudice or intimidation, you can explore the world without fear of being judged, and you will achieve your goals in a quick and better way.
3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping to create a better world? If so, how?
These ideas will help me achieve my goals without fear and without caring who is supporting me or not, because it should be my vision not others vision, I will engage with people who have similar vision in order to move forward and I will get the right person to guide me in the entire process, afterwards I will educate others so that they can also achieve their life time potential to be happy in this world and do what they are meant to do without fear, intimidation of being judged.
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 have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way.”
“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.”
“Jonathan sighed. The price of being misunderstood, he thought. They call you devil or they call you god.”
“Overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now.”
“Your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip,” Jonathan would say, other times, “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.”
“He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all”
“We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill.”
“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.”
“Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect. -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.”
“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.”
“He spoke of very simple things- that 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 or limitation in any form.
“Set aside, came a voice from the multitude, even if it be the Law of the Flock?”
“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 alhatross? Why don’t you eat? Son, you’re bone and feathers!” “I don’t mind being bone and feathers mom. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can’t, that’s all. I just want to know.”
“Sully,for shame!” Jonathan said in reproach, ” and don’t be foolish! What are we trying to practice everyday? If our friendship depends on things like space and time, we’ve destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don’t you think that we might see each other once or twice?”
“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?”
“A moment later Jonathan’s body wavered in the air, shimmering, and began to go transparent. Don’t let them spread silly rumors about me, or make me a god. O.K., Fletch? I’m a seagull. I like to fly, maybe.”
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 well stated and clear it’s well understood too.
6. Did the book contain exercise for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all the exercises and did you find them helpful?
The book contains a life time exercise whereby to achieve our vision we need to know that it is not a straight line but lots of obstacles to make us strong on the 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.
None.
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