Mugenzi Frederic – Assessments

As a Man Thinketh
Assessment by Mugenzi Frederic (Rwanda)

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

The book reflects the important responsibility of a man in shaping his own future. The author shows that it is in his hand to make it brighter or darker. The quality of food we feed or mind will determine the quality of harvest we will collect. The positive thinking results, with no doubt, in joy. In an opposite way, the negative thinking results in chaos.

2. What were the seven ideas which were personally most important to you
and why? List these seven ideas followed by explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your own life.

i. Foolish Master and Wise Master of his life.

No matter the situation you are living in. You are the master, the governor of your own life. In his weakness and most abandoned state of life, one becomes a foolish master by abusing and applying the thought wrongly, thus, descends below the level of the beast. On the other hand, by the right choice and true application of thought, the human, the wise master, ascends to the Divine Perfection. This reminds me the consequences of excessive drug consumption, ones think that taking drugs may help them recover from stressful state of life, however as they become accustomed to them, they are adducted and their life becomes worse than ever. On the other hand, the application of “If boys can, why not Me?” principle governed the young girls’ mind in Rwanda to show the society that they could do at the same level, why not better that their brothers at school, which was culturally unbelievable. But they made it and their lives changed to better.

ii. He that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

The author tries to highlight the one’s responsibility in whatsoever happened to him. It is for the man to dig deep into the mine of his soul to find out every truth connected with his life. By this search, the one can predict even his future. In our culture there is a saying that:” People are born with their blessings that go along with them the whole life” This saying tends to discourage the every effort that a human being can make to conquer blessings like: studies, Good job, good money, good car, etc. This pessimistic understanding of life makes people sit, idle and still judging others to be the origin of their situation. This reminds me the simple theory to become rich: minimizing the expense. Consume little than your income. Our teacher used to tell us that if for example you income per day is $3, your daily consumption should be covered by a third of the total of income. Two people of the same condition may differently apply this thought: To one, it may work, but to another, seems not to work. It is very clear that the future for these two people will differ, they certainly not convey to the same destiny.

iii. Good thoughts bear good fruits, bad thought bad fruits.
Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. By this point, I understand that what we harvest is the exact image of what we have sown. Our dangerous actions come from bad thoughts, which also depend on the kind of food we nourished our soul. This explains what would be the result of long time dissemination of segregation ideology against Tutsi, feed to the Hutu’s soul. The genocide against the Tutsi of 1994, in Rwanda, was a terminal action that massacred over one million of Tutsis within only three months and the results were nothing but bad fruits: a fully destroyed country, fled by a big population and full of wounded people, orphans and widowers who were suffering all over the country.

iv. Thought cannot be kept secret.

A thought comes from a nourished soul. This soul, full of information leads into an act which soon or later produces fruits. A thought is like a baby in her mother’s womb; later or sooner the baby will come out and be seen by everyone. As an example of Rwandan situation, Now, after 25 years, the Genocide against the Tutsis was stopped, the descendants of extremist Hutus may manifest some acts of genocide ideology. Despite all the efforts deployed by the government entities, NGOs, Civil Society in mobilizing the Rwandans of every age against genocide ideology; surprisingly, some acts like destroying Genocide survivors’ properties, harassment through the use of wounding words, terrorism using leaflets, murdering, and using genocide denying words etc, may be found.
The criminal in this case keeps the thought long time or learned it from the environment until they disclosure it, and arrested to be judged into courts.

v. The body is the servant of the Mind

Any operation in the mind has positive or negative impact on the body, whether deliberately chosen or automatically expressed. At the bidding of unlawful thoughts the body sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the glad and beautiful thoughts, it becomes clothed with youthfulness and beauty. The way, sometimes, couples solve their problems illustrates the statement. The time one of the couple realizes that his/her friend chits on her/him and he/she decides to do the same to revenge by: “a tooth for a tooth, and eye for an eye” principle; the body will be there to obey, and if it attracts diseases, it will be the first to suffer the consequences.

vi. No achievement without sacrifice

To desire is to obtain; and to aspire is to achieve. A human life is full of choices. When you choose one item, you take it from others. If you choose a car, you leave out a house. When you need both at the same time, you have to prioritize. When you choose peace, you have to fight and win at whatsoever price. On this battle, of cause there should be sacrifice. You invest yourself, your material and your time, you may get injured, why not die! In our country for example, as Rwandans, there was lots of lives lost on the battle to rescue people who were being persecuted and massacred during Genocide against the TUTSI in 1994. The image of Rwanda Today, peace, security, self reliance, unity, prosperity for its people it is the end result from the great sacrifice paid by former RPA (The Rwandese Patriotic Army).

vii. He who cherishes a beautiful vision will one day realize it.

Life is full of dreams. Optimistic people never get tired of thinking of bright future. When one knows the way to lead him to happiness, the rest is to follow it with all commitments. If one chooses to live without objective, he will be misled along his way until he gets lost. I remember when I was staring my university studies; I had a wish of becoming a Tutorial Assistant at My University, which required to have scored with a distinction. This was a first requirement for my dream to be realized. I was committed to get it and soon became a Tutorial Assistant as was my dream.

3. How will ideas or lessons help you in practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you to create a better world? If so, how?

All lessons I learnt from this book taught me to bear in my mind that I am the shaper of my life. That I am responsible to my future and the actions I make today will no doubt have an impact on my life and produce a new behavior that may lead me to happiness or sadness. They reminded me to always look for positive thoughts to feed to my mind in order to hope for positive end results.

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 a man thinketh in his heart so is he.”

A man’s character is the complete sum of all her thoughts. A thought is for a character what a seed is for a plant. This quote is important to me and will always lead me in feeding my mind positive thoughts, which, later, will produce a promising environment.

“Thought and Character are one.”

The relationship between thought and character is like the one exists between seed and flower. From a seed, a plant will grow, from a plant, a flower will arise and from a flower, a fruit is found. It is obvious that a plant produces a fruit of its character.
A peaceful, joyful, stress free environment will be exactly the result of positive thoughts. And the body, serving the mind will enjoy that circumstance. Thus, I always need a joyful life; I understand my responsibility to get there: It is always to feed my mind positive 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?

No there isn’t any.

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, the book contains any exercise for the reader to complete.

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, there isn’t any.

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 Mugenzi Frederic (Rwanda)

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

The main idea in the book “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” is the tireless character of a visionary man. What matters in life is having the cause of starting an action. When one has on objective to start, he might have done an assessment to make clear the way to follow to achieve the objective. The assessment should not leave out some stones, barriers, and warm walls that he probably may meet on the way and plan the strategies to apply to overcome those barriers in order to achieve the set objective.

While reading, I found in Jonathan Seagull that character. Being firm, close to his cause-of-action, regardless de-motivating factors which may include even your close relative. Among the great challenges that met the Brave Jonathan is the misunderstanding on the side of his Elder. “When one decides to win, should not fear the challenges.” “No gain without sweat” hate, isolation, judgment done by his fellows, especially the adults in his society, trying to show him that he was trying the impossible deal, did not prevent him from getting finally on the great achievement! He did never get tired of trying, trying again and upon a failure new strategy and effort was provided to win the next stage.
Within our life experience, the change to better sometimes meets the discouragement. Trying to attend class, our neighbors never stopped to say:” Impossible, you will never reach far, a poor family should not dream of a bright destination!” What a discouragement! To get on fruits I am getting now, it is a result of patience, and getting close to my objective to target beyond the Sky.

2. What were the seven ideas which were personally most important to you and why? List these seven ideas followed by explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your own life.

i. The one’s inner motive to perform an action may be hidden for other
people around. Better to Stand firm and ignore their negative views.
The decision to start an action is personal. Sometimes people around discourage you. They may refer to your history, or to the existing belief in your culture. However much you explain the advantages to start and conduct the action, your fellow may ignore, and keep on telling you that because nobody tried, you also couldn’t. They can tell you that they do not see any potentialities in you to undertake the action, thus intend to discourage you. In “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” most gulls did not bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight- how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it was not flying that was the most important, but eating. For Jonathan, though it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, he loved to fly. This love was the inner motive that nobody else could remove from his heart. We all should have love of action before we start it. The same to me, when I was 16 years old, I was many times attempted to never go back to school. Discouraged by a big number of educated people perished during Genocide against the TUTSI in my Country, Rwanda in 1994, after which, many people were pessimistic about going back to school. By the time, I was in secondary school, year Two. Many of my classmates had been killed, others discouraged to go back to school. Many got married early, others started small businesses, and other had chosen to stay at home doing nothing instead of going back to waste their time at school. I, also was told that there was no importance to go to school, since our friends were killed. I got a firm decision to go back to school in that time, resisted to all negative ideas from my brothers, through difficult situation, as the country was being recovered, rebuilt, I struggled until I completed my schooling up to Masters’ level now.
One needs to stay firm to his idea to develop, regardless the others views.

ii. Win or die trying to.

Undertaking an action until the end experiences good and bad moments. The inner motive in the heart of the undertaker encourages him to overcome all barriers on his way to success, the awaited seeds to harvest are the only reason for him to move and move again forward to his target. Jonathan Seagull is an example of a decided man towards a great achievement. However much this exercise could make him tired, discouraged to the extent of giving up his decision. Back to my case, there was the moments I felt I could not make it. The crisis after Genocide was too tuff, and it was not easy for my father, to find even meals to feed my family of 8 members. We had forgotten to eat 2 times a day like before, and adopted an alternation of family members on meal table at noon as well as at evening respectively. Hardly schools were re-opened later July 1994, No possibility to stay in boarding school because almost all infrastructures had been damaged during Genocide. I was obliged to walk 10kms (go and back to school), sometimes empty stomach but tried to make it because I had a vision.

iii. Through failure, new lessons are learnt for next performance. Never give
up!

On the way towards the success never miss the failure! But a determined one never get tired of trying. As repetition is mother of knowledge, also more trials is mother of success. From two thousand feet, Jonathan Seagull tried again, rolling into his dive, beak straight down, wings full out and stable from the moment he passed fifty miles per hour. I took tremendous strength, but it worked. In ten seconds he had blurred through ninety miles per hour. Jonathan had set a world speed record for seagulls! It is exactly the same when I was back to school, just after the Genocide, at the beginning performance was not good, but as days went on, my performance was increasing day after day which helped me to conquer the neighbors’ and my family members’ support.

iv. Another failure, another set of new standards. Good results will conquer
other’s support.

Failure may occur several times, but another failure, brings in new strategies. Some times during Jonathan’s exercise, he could get discouraged and say: “…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. This decision might be the sign of instant discouragement caused by the failure, but did not stay long in mind. It was pushed by the thirsty of reaching far, of achieving his objective. In my job, once I was discouraged by the first appraisal. My performance was rated poor by my supervisor, whose comments were to improve on my professionalism and innovation in performing my job. The marks given and the comments discouraged me to the extent that I was going to resign and go search for other opportunities elsewhere, since I judged my performance rate unfair. A friend of mine approached me and shared me his experience. He requested me to try one more chance. I improved on by respecting my supervisor’s advice and from then, three consecutive years passed, my performance increased at a promising level.

v. Sometimes other people’s experience counts.

Nobody, on Earth is an Island. Whatever moves around us may leave us a lesson if we see it with a positive thought. Our elders can teach us with their experience; the struggle they passed through in life and strategies used to overcome all difficulties met on their way. When Jonathan met Sullivan and Elder, they inspired him, taught him to achieve more, to discover new heights in his thinking. To learn from one’s positive behavior will help us to shape ours to achieve more and more. In my schooling, the only left person to encourage me was my Father, who was a senior six graduate and a primary teacher by then. He used to tell me that there is no “sweet without sweat.” He used to repeat several times to me how they struggled to graduate senior six in his time. This impacted in me courage to continue with the ultimate goal as: “If others made it why not me.” Jonathan stayed firm and courageous to undertake several stapes ahead, and made it. This achievement attracted some of the rest Seagulls to become his disciples.

vi. Never doubt about your actions on the way to success. Just stay close to
your ideas until you get on great achievements.

The partial success on way to ultimate goal should be a reason of staying safe and close to our objective. The hills to climb may be the great obstacle preventing you from reaching your joy, but there should be no reason to surrender since there was a reason to start the journey. Jonathan Seagull is a good example in his exercise. He loved his lessons, which lead him to success. He could come back to the flock not because he wanted to show off his skills. His objective was to attract disciples and to show them how far they could also reach. When you love your carrier, you are always attempted to attract your fellow to follow. You wish your success should be experienced by all of your people. There should never be doubt about our actions nor be diverted from the decided way, until we get on great achievement.

vii. When won, do not celebrate alone!

Once the objective is achieved, the next step is to celebrate. It is time to sell your achievements to others. Now, there is no doubt that things can work. Many can try with hope, Many can now adapt their previous views to the new victory. The number of supporters increases. When Jonathan became successful, those who blamed him to have started the exercise became supporters. It’s time to set new goals, and think about next achievement. Now Jonathan is a mentor, a leader, a brave seagull. I remember when I completed my senior six; I thought I could not add on. I was too tired on concentrating in books; but after one year, serving as a Primary Teacher in my village, I got a new idea: Upgrade my education Level. This was done out of my family’s consensus, because for them, having completed senior six and being employed as a primary teacher was enough.
I went on my studies and when completed, the success was shared also with those who previously opposed the idea.

3. How will ideas or lessons help you in practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you to create a better world? If so, how?

In my life I am a man of theory, I used to memorize and copy on walls strong Personalities on Earth like: Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and so on, but never put in practice what they have said fearing that some of them could compromise with my religion’s culture. I was a man of words that could convince people but with fear for putting in practice. I could for example gather youth and tell them ways to success in their businesses but I did never start any, even, small business.

I could teach them how to build a business plan, do SWOT analysis and set SMART objectives, but failed to build any of my style. From Jonathan Living Seagull, I learned how a positive idea could be followed until its last point of success. I learnt to select positive company to support my project, not to discourage it. I learnt how to be firm, calm, close and committed to my thoughts, and change my difficulties into opportunities.
For example in field of education, where my country is facing students’/pupils’ high level of dropout, I am going to introduce a “Student’s Education Financial Project” to help pupils/students generate kind of revenue to support their education. This needs first, kind of mobilization: meeting parents, schools administration and pupils/students to explain about the project, its importance, their role to play together and the output targeted. I do hope a big change because students/pupils would find another reason of staying at school: Being a shareholder in a Project. This project will not only help them solve school needs, but also improve on their social economic status.

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 didn’t need faith to fly, you needed to understand flying; now try again.”
Agreeing on that some activity can be completed hardly or easily is not enough. I understand that I have to practice it, that I have never to get tired of trying. I may fail today, but tomorrow, I am sure, I will make it by applying new strategies.

“It always works, when you know what you’re doing.”

I understand that knowledge matters. The first step to undertake the activity is to understand it. How it works, why it works like, when it works like and what it needs to work like. When you are aware of all these aspects, you never be surprised of whatever can happen on the course of action. When you fail, you learn; when you succeed, you get proud, but you make sure, it works.

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?

There are none.

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, there are no exercises for readers to complete.

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, there wasn’t anything.

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