Kisakye Moses – Assessments

As a Man Thinketh
Assessment by Kisakye Moses (Uganda)

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

The work of the mind and thoughts in influencing and shaping man in regard to his success in 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 own life.

i. The people who live in a fear of disease are the people who get it.
In this case I will use an example of a person who fears and thinks much about getting high blood pressure that person may end up weakening his immune system and heart beat and in the long run with continuous thinking and worrying that person may get the disease. Therefore we should avoid thinking about things which can cause negative perceptions about life and health.

ii. Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. In life, to accomplish any kind of goal one needs to have a purpose for doing that. It’s like a bout without a compass .we need to first think and ask yourself why you are doing that. For example one wakes up in the morning and just walks aimlessly with no direction to his destination. We need to have a purpose when doing certain things in life that will help us to stop waiting time non developmental things and in order to avoid problems.

iii. Good thoughts bear good fruits, bad thoughts bear bad fruits.
That’s true basing on this example of two people where one is thinks negatively and other positively but both aim at becoming rich .one thinks of robbing a bank and get a lot of money while as the other thinks of work working hard and start up many businesses. Everything we do in life moves step by step taking short cuts and wanting things on silver plates leads people into trouble. People should always work hard and avoid such bad thoughts because they only result is misery, suffering and regrets. Good thoughts bear good fruits hence prosper in life.

iv. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be. your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. Having a vision is very important in life for a person. A vision is a starting point of everything accompanied with the dreams and that help in leading us where we want to be. For example a person having a vision of becoming famous politician that vision acts as a pushing factor for that person to work hard with a lot of sacrifices and do what politicians do in order to reach his vision ,that needs a lot of patience and time.

v. A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped.
An example of a best mathematics teacher is taken to teach a weaker student yet the student himself lacks in interest in the subject he will not improve his grade unless the weak student picks interest in the subject and strives to put in more effort and cooperate with his teacher.

vi. A man can only rise, conquer and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak and abject and miserably refusing to life up his thoughts.
A man who refuses to lifting up his thoughts will remain weak and live miserably in this case I will use an example of a business man who comes up with a thought of starting up a business in order to increase and improve on his production and welfare, with that he is already lifting up himself and that will make him strong and prosperous .however if had decided to sit back without any thought he would remain in the same state with no change in his life hence make him weak and a miserable.

vi. “Thought in the mind has made us, what we are.
Everything we do and achieve in life is a result of our thoughts in the mind. The characters and behaviors we attribute which show what we are, are a result of thought and mind because the characters brings out the inner thought of a person ,therefore what we are depends on the kind of thoughts we have in our mind. For example I personally I have a thought in my mind that reading books and working hard will make me famous , achieving my dreams, goals and a good citizen of my country hence making this idea very important to me.

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 and lessons will help me in dealing with my daily life experiences and situations especially in knowing my weakness and how to go about them in order to change my life and the entire world .in life it’s better to know who you are that will help one to move on.
In creating a better world people should always work upon their minds and thoughts in order to be good people because minds and thoughts play a big part in influencing our characters and perceptions about certain things face we in life. Therefore good and right thoughts lead to greater achievements and accomplishments plus fulfilling our plans and goals we intend to achieve.

The ideas and lessons have encouraged me to always look up to people who are already successful in life and befriend them because they are blessed with brilliant ideas on how to be successful in life instead of envying and hating them.

Having a vision and a dream in life is very important therefore these ideas have helped me to realize that to be successful in life one needs to have a vision and dream is working towards and to achieve, it requires hard working accompanied with consulting already successful individuals on how they made it to their dreams.

These lessons and ideas have made me realize that in order to be a good person, successful whom other people can admire is due to achievements one has acquired, I need to start working upon my minds and thoughts. The way I think and perceive things matters a lot I need to think purely (positively) that will help me remain focused on what am arming to achieve 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 were important to you.

“How lucky he is!”
“ How highly favored he is!”
“How chance aids him at every turn!”
These quotes are very important to me because in my daily life I always meet people who say such quotes and words to others especially to those who have already succeeded in life. For sure I don’t like such quotes because are always said by people who have already lost hope in life and losers because they don’t say it in good heart but inform of cursing yet it’s the responsibility of such people to work hard so that they change their conditions and their entire life.

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.

Yes.

The idea that man is the master of thought, the molder of thought, the molder of character, and the maker and shaper of conditions, environment and destiny didn’t understand it because in my own understanding I think environment plays a big part in influencing and Shaping a man’s character and with that man can also determine his destiny depending on the kind of environment is living in.

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.

Yes. The chapter which was very interesting for the reader and pulled his attention plus not giving him of her time to breath or blink. This is because when a reader is reading a book there are certain chapters he or she finds more interesting and gives him more guts of reading the book.

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? 8

 

 

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Moses Kisakye (Uganda)

1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
A person who is over ambitious

2. What were the seven ideas which were personally most important toy 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. “You must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.”
This idea is very important to me in life when we are planning to do something; we need to count ourselves winners before we even start doing it. Take an example of an athlete who is going for a competition or a person standing for any post.

b. That “there is more to life than eating or fighting, or power in the flock?”
This idea is very important to me and I will base my explanation basing on the biblical view. As we human beings there is a reason and purpose for our existence, therefore we should always avoid fighting for power because we want to eat, there are more important things which matter in life. We should always live in harmony, love one another and looking after our beautiful environments plus the creations within them we should further avoid fighting and create enmity between ourselves but rather working hard for the transformation of our nations. In addition to that we should also have our own purposes in life instead of fighting for power and oppressing our fellow people due to power struggle.

c. Another hundred again to get the idea that “our purpose for living is to find that perfection and show it forth.”
In this case I will explain this idea using an example of a man who has a purpose of marrying a beautiful woman promise to be committed to her, taking care of her and the fruits of their marriage .perfection comes in when that man fulfills it by being committed to his wife and look after her without cheating and be with her in whatever situations they are undergoing. Therefore it’s important for people to have purpose in life and work towards them.

d. You didn’t need faith to fly, you needed to understand flying.
In a practical life, at times we do things just for the sake, or because we have faith in them but faith its self is not enough we need first to understand how that all thing is about. Example Jonathan knew nothing about flying but had faith that he can fly which was wrong. Therefore we need to combine both faith and the knowledge we have on that same task one is planning to do hence making this idea very important to me.

e. The idea of keep working on love.
I really like this idea. Love blends everything we do in life and these are accomplished out of love. In this case love acts as a determining factor for our successes and achievements. Take an example of a society where love doesn’t exist, there will be no success due to lack of togetherness but rather jealousy , conflicts, enmity , hatred and false accusations therefore we should always love ourselves and everything we do that will make us good people and reach greater heights

f. Jonathan’s instructor said that they had also gone into a lot and missed a lot to reach heaven.
I agree with this idea. Apart from those who were born blessed, for a person to reach heaven or where he wants to be, one needs to go through a lot and make a lot of sacrifices accompanied with constant efforts and hard work. Therefore this idea is very important to me because it encourages hard work and give it all in order to reach were we want to be or achieve our dreams and goals. An example of people who don’t or hate sacrificing and working hard such people will not achieve their dreams and goals because they want things on a silver plate and such things are very dangerous because they always have strings attached as their price.

g. 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.
In a contemporary world, freedom is very vital when it comes to development and transformation of societies. Take an example of social where people are denied freedom there will be no development because thing will be free zed. Freedom allows people to what they want and that helps them to come with new ideas of how to help themselves, people will be more creative and hence development thought it has its own consequences. Therefore in creating a better world freedom must exist

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 personally these ideas and lessons will help me on how to go with life, they encourage me to be hard working and always to remain focused on what am doing plus having hope as the beginning of everything in life and hence being able to create a better world.

They further teach me not to rush into things, everything go step by step which to be followed in order to avoid regrets in life because there something we do in life and cause harm to others hence many turn against us and that hinders us from achieving our set goals and dreams. Furthermore, these lessons and ideas I have thought me that there is more to life than eating or fighting for power in this world but rather we should live with a purpose and avoid things will set us apart because we are all striving for better lives in a better world.

Ideas and lessons are important in that they helped me to realize that in life, we need to know who we are, that help in building a great career. They also provide me with knowledge on how to prosper and become successful in life through learning from others.

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 were important to you.

The quote of “keep working on love “this is very important to me because everything we do is out of love you can’t do something you don’t love, our parents spend sleepless nights working hard due to the love they have towards us they don’t want to see us suffering that’s why in families and communities where there is no love nothing good come can out of them apart from the fights, conflicts hatred between parents and the children plus the people in the entire community. Love blends everything in the world, we do exist because of love our creator had for us that’s why he protects us, guides us in everything we do both those who believe in him and those who don’t.

“We’re free to go where we wish and to be what we are.”
This quote really got my attention and that has made it very important to me because it encourages me to work hard without resting so that I fly where I want too and be a person I want to be but however many people think becoming what they want to be just comes from the blue or as a byway, they forget that it needs making a lot of sacrifices, constant effort and hard working. Therefore to be what we want to be we need to be ready for anything standing on our ways.

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? Yes
The quote that “life is the unknown and unknowable” I didn’t understand it. Because me I think life can be predictable.

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? Yes
The exercise about heaven. According to the book heaven is being perfect but in my own view, heaven is real, paradise where the obedient (the perfect or righteous) will be welcomed.

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? 5
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 5
D. Would you recommend it to others? 5
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 6