Kevin Ouma – Assessments – International Institute for Global Leadership

As a Man Thinketh
Assessment by Kevin Ouma (Kenya)

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

The book emphasizes the importance of self-control in shaping our thoughts and actions. By mastering our thoughts, we can control our lives and achieve our goals. This means taking responsibility for our thoughts and emotions and making a conscious effort to direct them in positive directions.

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. Negative thoughts will poison your mind
Your circumstances certainly affect your mind, but you can choose your actions. Allen compares this situation to a garden. You can either choose to look after the garden, tend to it, weed it, water it regularly, or you can leave it to grow into a state of disarray. If you choose the former, the garden will bloom with flowers and look fantastic. However, if you leave it to fall into ruin, the garden will become overrun with weeds and become unruly. Your mind is the same.

ii. 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.

iii. 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.

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. We must fail to see our purpose come to fruition. Those who think weak thoughts without purpose fail before they begin.
Life without purpose or a reason to do things prevents us from being aware of when we are going off course. Life with purpose keeps our eyes on the ball and attention on our thoughts. When the right thoughts wane, the intensity of our vision loses its power.We can easily get into doubt, fear and self-deception if we don’t know what the future holds and great things in the future cannot happen without correct thoughts and a solid purpose for living.

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. We can only achieve what we are.
Someone who thinks of confident thoughts, abundance, wellbeing, and compassion for others, become those things. When we impress these thoughts deep down into our subconscious, they become a habitual and we can only act in accordance to what is second nature.

Our first nature is instinctual and if our basic needs go unmet in adolescents, unworthiness and lack produce thoughts of their kind. If these thoughts go unnoticed and left to roam wild, they become habitual and our destiny. For us to evolve past the point of attaining our own basic needs, we must take responsibility for our mind and choose our thoughts carefully.

Unhelpful thoughts that rule our life can only live on when we don’t attend to them.
We are not our thoughts, but the witness and master of them.
When our minds rely on thoughts to feel alive, we become addicted to them, identifying with them and what they say. This identification and addictive tendencies manifest in the physical world.
We turn to other addictions to complete the cycle of habitual thinking, whether it be drugs, alcohol, an activity, or relationships.
Psychologist Carl Jung once said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

We are doomed to repeat what isn’t made conscious. When we become conscious of how our mind has operated and we can directly link it to unwanted experiences, it becomes easier to let go of who we once were. But it doesn’t come without sacrifice. We cannot make progress without sacrifice because any kind of achievement takes effort and the willingness to become the person who can achieve them. Old ways of being need to be purged and grieved and bad habits that no longer serve us must be turned into ones which serve our highest good.

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.
When we realize the influence of our thoughts, we imagine a different and brighter future.
That vision is the driving force for new, empowering thoughts and the attainment of our deepest desires.
You imagine a new version of yourself in your vision and that version of you deserves everything you’ve ever wanted.

New thoughts arise from that vision and you become that what you think of and visualize most.
“The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart – this you will build your life by, this you will become.”

vii. Your future is in your hands

You might think that outside influences shape your destiny, or that everything is almost pre-designed, but if you think that way you’re missing out on something pretty huge. “As a Man Thinketh” teaches us that your destiny isn’t written in the stars, as romantic as it sounds, but instead it is in your own hands. You get to shape it, you get to write it, you get to create it.

They themselves are makers of themselves. Everything that you are, everything you hold dear to you, comes from what you think. This includes the things which are planned and the things which happen spontaneously. Allen tells us that if you make the right choices in life and you put forth the effort, you will go to heaven. If you don’t, and if you abuse life and place effort in the wrong places, you will go to hell.
You are in control of your own destiny with your thoughts and actions. Wake up and realize it before it’s too late! That basically means that the keys to your destiny, both in life and beyond it, are in your hands and you get to decide what you’re going to do with them. Even when things aren’t going so well, your attitude and decisions shape your future.

Did you know? The true meaning of the Bible passage “as a man thinketh, so is he” relates to a person’s true nature and that what you see isn’t always what you get. It’s about what they are on the inside.

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 ideas will help me know that my brain means everything and I should be conscious on any decisions I make in 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.

“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 moulder 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.”

“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.”

“The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good.

“People will always prefer to deal with a man whose demeanor is strongly equable.”

“The strong, calm man is always loved and revered. He is like a shade-giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a storm.”

“Only he whose thoughts are controlled and purified, makes the winds and the storms of the soul obey him.”

“Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery; Calmness is power.”

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 easy to understand and direct to the point.

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 an endless exercise because our brain and how we think is something we have to do it on a daily basis.

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 book is well covered and easy to understand.

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? 9
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? 9

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Kevin Ouma (Kenya)

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

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a young gull who struggles to fit in with his Flock; where the other birds are only concerned with finding food, Jonathan loves flying for its own sake. His attempts to fly faster and higher than his fellow gulls make him suspect, and his own parents pressure him to conform. After a particularly disastrous dive, Jonathan nearly resigns himself to the life of an ordinary seagull, only to have an epiphany: by flying on only his wing tips, Jonathan is successfully able to reach a speed of over 200 miles per hour. He returns to the Flock excited and eager to share his knowledge, but to his dismay, the Flock instead declares him an Outcast for his exploits.

Jonathan grows old alone, never ceasing in his efforts to teach himself more about flying. One night, he encounters a pair of luminous seagulls who tell him they have come to take him to his true Flock, which he is now ready to meet. Jonathan accompanies them up into the sky and to an entirely new realm he initially believes to be heaven. Over time, he learns that it is in fact simply a different plane of existence in which he can continue to learn and grow. To that end, he begins studying with an old gull named Chiang, who teaches him that true heaven and true perfection consist of an awareness of oneself as infinite. With Chiang’s help, Jonathan learns to travel instantaneously through space and time. However, before Chiang leaves for another world, he reminds Jonathan to “keep working” on the most important form of flight: love. Jonathan ultimately concludes that in order to do so, he must use the skills Chiang taught him to return to Earth and share his knowledge with his former Flock.

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.

One day, while Jonathan’s most advanced student, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, is working with a group of newcomers, he is forced to swerve into a cliff. However, rather than dying, Fletcher manages to jump to a different plane of consciousness, and with Jonathan’s help, he is then able to return to Earth. The stunned Flock concludes that Jonathan brought Fletcher back from the dead and must be a devil, so they try to kill him. However, Jonathan and Fletcher are able to jump to a safe distance at the last minute. Here, Jonathan explains that it’s important to try to see and nurture the best in the Flock despite their actions. He then leaves to teach seagulls in other worlds, putting Fletcher in charge of preserving his legacy on Earth.

You should never be afraid to learn, you never know what more you’ll discover.
1. Open your mind, be curious; stay curious. Ask questions.
2. Although Jonathan was awesome, he wasn’t immune to self-doubt and sad moments. Even the best of the best have anxious moments but still move forward.
3. He sought to teach others and share what he knew even when others were against him and he was considered an outcast by his very own ‘gull community. He showed forgiveness, and with forgiveness, we let off massive weights of hatred from us that may not let us move forward.
4. If you want to succeed, to do something you find impossible or difficult, the trick is to know that you have already arrived or achieved it.
5. Have a limitless mindest and be teachable.
6. Learn to love and show kindness. Learn it. It gets difficult to show love after we have gone through so much hardship, but you can always learn and learn again how to show love.
7. Do not let the words of others get to you.
8. Never let the accolades get to your head either. Jonathan accepted the praises other seagulls gave to him but only for a minute. Then he moved on and continued to practice.
9. He believed so much in practice making perfect.
10. Jonathan didn’t want to be eulogized as a god but instead wanted others to know he was an ordinary gull who made things happen, giving them hope that they too could make things happen and find more meaning and freedom in their life.
11. When people don’t understand you, they either call you a devil or a god. But your duty is to keep showing up and being better than your previous self.

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 ideas will help me understand that there is nothing can limit my capacity I am able to fly higher and higher to achieve my dreams.

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.”

“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.

“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.”

“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.”

“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, 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?”

“Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s reason to live! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can learn to be free! we can learn to fly!”