As A Man Thinketh
Assessment by Pacotto Emmanuel Dessy (Uganda)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
The author is advising all men and women alive that, they should discover the truth in their mind and the nature in them and know rather that we are the makers of ourselves and so we should believe in ourselves and our environment. Bad thoughts provide negative outcome and positive thoughts are the direct opposite of bad thoughts. This he emphasizes in the forward of the book that, It is suggestive rather than explanatory, its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery and perception of the truth that-“They themselves are makers of themselves.”
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.
The seven ideas that personally capture my attention are; thoughts, acts, vision, character, destiny, love, and nature.
A. The first and very important idea to me is thought.
This is so because as humans with brains that cannot think clearly is nothing but in most cases a failure in most aspects of his/her life and would be regarded as one with mental issues. This is so because I experienced it myself when I was in my S.4 vacation when I totally failed to think of something productive to do for my life rather waking up in the morning brushing my teeth bathing and watching TV for rest of the day. Later I realized that I had failed to use my brain to think to better my life during that time, believe it was a blow for me.
B. Actions are the direct products of what we normally think of.
This captures my attention in that, time and again I have always failed to act what is not in my thought. In many occasions I first listen to my conscience before doing a thing or two.
C. Vision is a core value to be achieved in action.
A path taken to achieve a desired goal. Before I joined secondary school I knew less or more less nothing completely about vision. And on joining secondary school life, I later realized that one can only do little or possibly nothing valuable without baring a vision in mind because I remember perfectly well my results for term one senior one in 2005 I did not perform the way I expected, and this came to my knowledge through a friend who looked at my results and barely told me that you can only make it if you have a vision in mind.
D. Character is the attribute, quality or value be it bad or good that someone bares in them.
I realized since my primary three that a person in history who is famous is remembered for something incredible or intangible that he has done in the past or that he is still doing. This helped me a lot in my growth up to date, because I have role models in life that I look up to like, Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King Junior. The character I portrayed gained me respect all my days of school and to date I am remembered for that.
E. Love is a passionate/mature feeling that someone has towards someone or something.
A core value for success that I have always admired so much from Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Junior and my former head teacher who always loved their job. This I copied and practiced it for anything that I choose to do and it has always shown me amazing success.
F. Nature is the gift entrusted to the earth by the Almighty God.
It could be anything that surrounds us or the talents inbuilt in each and every individual. I had always continuously failed to find sports that I can play perfectly well but later realized I loved but cannot play basketball and rugby. But on discovering the nature in me that I can speak something that can transform someone’s life that became the nature I liked about myself.
G. Destiny is the final point of our journey in every assignment or vision in life.
Sometime back when a youth leader at our local church asked of how we wanted our destiny to be, I failed to give an answer for myself. This experience taught me a lesson to choose how I wanted my destiny to be and how I can approach it and so I realized that a journey without a destiny is like a train without a pilot.
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?
Developing a habit of thinking positively I highly believe will take me to greater heights in action because I strongly believe that my visions will be positively shaped and molded by my thoughts and acts that will create an admirable character in whatever I commit myself to doing and love automatically becomes my driving force to always protect and adore the Almighty for giving the nature that I have for successfully reaching my destiny with little or no divergence of the original plan. This can help me in creating a better world because they become my foundation of attracting the youth to develop love and a good name to gain respect, which same youths I believe will join in to transform or creating a better world.
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.
Here are the statements that the author made that for sure got my attention:
“They themselves are makers of themselves.”
This quote therefore claims that, a man can only become who he takes himself to be, because positive belief in oneself bears good fruit, band negative belief, bad fruit. A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer, of the man with his surroundings.
“As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.”
Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry. This means that I am who I am today because of what I thought yesterday.
“Thought in the mind hath made us, what we are. man can only thus become by discovering within himself the laws of thought; which discovery is totally a matter of application, self analysis, and experience.”
Discovering the nature we have makes us what and who we really are and become.
“He that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
For only by patience, practice, and ceaseless importunity can a man enter the door of the temple of knowledge. Whatever a man wants is in his conscience of knowing when, from who, where and why he should achieve that which he desires.
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?
Of course there are some statements that are a bit difficult for me to understand because they are quite ironical. Though there is truly nothing that I can bear any disagreements to because the book touches all kinds of men and their lifestyle.
A man may be honest in certain directions, yet suffer privations; a man may be dishonest in certain directions, yet acquire wealth; but the conclusion usually formed that the one man fails because of his particular honesty, and that the other prospers because of his particular dishonesty, is the result of a superficial judgment, which assumes that the dishonest man is almost totally corrupt, and the honest man almost entirely virtuous. This statement is as well confusing for me because I thought that a good turn deserves another and so why do the dishonest have all they want and the honest don’t.?
6. Did the book contain any 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 is not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.
Yes for sure the questions do not consider the effects of thought like; Bestial thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease: impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting and adverse circumstances: thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into weak, unmanly, and irresolute habits, which solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence, and slavish dependence: lazy thoughts crystallize into habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty, which solidify into circumstances of foulness and beggary: hateful and Condemnatory thoughts crystallize into habits of accusation and violence, which solidify into circumstances of injury and persecution: selfish thoughts of all kinds crystallize in to habits of self-seeking, which solidify into circumstances more or less distressing. On the other hand, beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances: pure thoughts crystallize into habits of temperance and self-control, which solidify into circumstances of repose and peace: thoughts of courage, self-reliance, and decision crystallize into manly habits, which solidify into circumstances of success, plenty, and freedom: energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness and industry, which solidify into circumstances of pleasantness: gentle and forgiving thoughts crystallize into habits of gentleness, which solidify into protective and preservative circumstances: loving and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of self-forgetfulness for others, which solidify into circumstances of sure and abiding prosperity and true riches; which truly captivated my attention as a reader.
Years later we see this youth as a full-grown man. We find him a master of certain forces of the mind, which he wields with worldwide influence and almost unequalled power. In his hands he holds the cords of gigantic responsibilities; he speaks, and lo, lives are changed; men and women hang upon his words and remold their characters, and, sun like, he becomes the fixed and luminous centre round which innumerable destinies revolve. He has realized the vision of his youth. He has become one with his ideal. This statement is not covered in the questions but it is necessary because it is the one thing that really that inspires me the most from the book, it gives me the courage to think that the world is waiting for my transformation from my thoughts.
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? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Pacotto Emmanuel Dessy (Uganda)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
Persistence, endurance, commitment and focus have a prize for their cause in our life, keeping in mind that we don’t drift away from the main goal and mission or whatever cause we are persuing in life. In line with all these we see Jon the gull going about his daily practices without paying much attention to what he owes his background, but rather,he focuses mainly on to the future more than his past and present state. So basically the author is saying that, we can achieve anything if we look at things the way they should be and not the way they are or the way things have been.
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.
These seven ideas are; Love, Persistence, Freedom, Perfection, our Nature, Discovery and finally Learning. These are the most important ideas to me because they were and are still a part of me.
A. Love always knows that, everything is difficult before it finally becomes easy and attemptable.
And so it is always easy for me pursue a task that I do love because, though there could be hindrances along the way, I do find them as a chance to make me grow even stronger in love with what I do. Because going about challenges and emerging victorious over them gains me experience over it.
B. Persistence is another idea employed by the author in that, to persist is push on even when situations seem to be unbearable to handle.
In other words persistence is never to give up on what one is doing. This is important because I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor without any questions behind my back like in this book we later see Jon ignoring the outcast title that has been labeled on the gulls who have joined his company to pick from what he learned from his personal breakthroughs.
C. Freedom
Nobody whatsoever in anyway would want to be oppressed or hindered in any way from doing what they want, or would like to do. Even those who do and are doing the despicables like the al-Qaeda, Alshaabab, theTaliban among others and so freedom becomes another idea that is so ideal to me in this book because as long as I know that, what I am doing dose not negatively affect those I am doing it for.
D. Perfection.
Perfection is one aspect of life that each human desires to have in possession if at all they have not lost the hope of living a better life tomorrow, because the common English saying that, “… to human is error…” is very true because, much as I or anyone else strives to bare perfection, this can never be achieved 100% and so that gives me the room to always perform my best and leave the rest to those that can do the rest or more less to the creator of the universe coz to Him alone lies perfection.
E. Nature
Nature is one other aspect that covers the universe over and without it nothing would be in harmony/existence due to the fact that the universe and everything in it was designed with a purpose in life and the truth is that nature dose lives in each one of every living things that exists.
F. Discovery
Equally very important to me in the book is the idea of the amazing discovery that Jonathan seagull makes in his daily flight practices at least he makes sure that he comes up with something new every single day and every moment he sets out to fly. This is important to me to always bring to my knowledge what I sincerely do not know or alternatively expand on my horizons of knowledge by accepting the truth that I am not one hundred percent informed due to the fact that the world is cropping up with something new every single minute that passes by.
G. Finally one among the most important of the seven ideas in the book is learning.
Learning is a lifelong process of acquiring knowledge either through a formal or an informal experience. This whole process can only be ended by death and so it is very ideal to me that, the life Jonathan seagull is living is the one that the rest of the gulls deserve to embrace due to fact that the elders of the flock tended to be so conservative and instead of supporting Jon, they instead branded him as an outcast to the rest of the family for having broken “the law of the gulls.”
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?
Love is a passionate feeling towards/ the mature acceptance of someone or something with or regardless of their weaknesses and strength. I have learnt over time that, If I do love what I do and bare no complaints on/against them, then that is the first step towards success and definitely excellence in the end. I do strongly love myself and because I love myself, I can never attempt to commit myself to any practices that will bring harm and shame to me and or even my family by indulging myself in unworthy practices to me like smoking, drug abuse, sex before marriage, theft, robbery and alcoholism among others. I would rather devote myself to assisting those that have made wrong choices to restore to them the hope of reconstructing their life and begin a new chapter or trend of life again.
Equally true is that, persistence is a tool of success, excellence and prosperity. This will always be an aspect that I will never drop out of my life because it is one aspect of life that someone out most especially the youths out there need to realize and adopt as well. This can help in creating a better world by giving I and other young people and even some adults the courage of going to places they have never been to only if we persist in any mission in such a place and I know the world needs such value like Jonathan bore and displayed to the rest of the flock.
You will agree with me that, everyone wants to have the freedom to do whatsoever they please like me, but sometimes I am denied the chance to do so even if I know that it is good for me. I think that this has always been so silly of me because I realized I was so cynical by behaving that way. So the form of freedom that Jonathan was pursuing in this case was not the one I always wanted. This drives me back to the many wars that are ongoing at present most parts of the world are being fought by cynical fighters that makes me believe the world needs very competent diplomats added onto those who exist already to save the situation.
I believed in myself to be a perfectionist, but now throughout the experiences of Jonathan seagull I came to my senses and known that the moment you come to think that I am perfect, in anything is when I should get to realize that I am actually not yet there at the line of perfection. I believe that this message can help me reach out to someone not only in my community but the world over and let someone get to realize that, the idiom, ‘to human is error’ is actually perfectly true and that nobody can ever be truly perfect in what he/she dose.
Nature is all around us everywhere and in almost everything that we do as well as inside us. Now that I know that nature actually lives in me like Chiang said to Jonathan, It will be an objective for me to let other people discover the nature in them so as to get to have a positive and not a dreadful living. Additionally I believe that to discover the nature in me is truly to give someone happiness and a hope for living.
I practiced sculpture way back in secondary school (O’ Level) or what is commonly known as the ordinary level down here in Uganda and so practically I still would love to engage myself in the same at the university but because I discovered the nature in me, I came to a realization that I love human beings and Psychology is actually my passion and priority career. To the world the only thing that I can possibly do is set up a Human Resource firm and an art gallery and create employment opportunities for jobless artist through which scheme other projects may probably spring up.
Due to numerous discoveries that were made generations back in the centuries, the technology sector has continuously continued to tremendously grow into incredible and amazing systems that dates back to decades. This has of no doubts captured my attention and will always do. If I do discover something that I know is of an importance to the world, then that would be my pleasure because it could be of very high value to someone who really needs it out there.
Conclusively, on learning or acquiring knowledge on an exceptionally valuable aspect or idea that I am well pleased that it will not have an adverse negative effect on my community, will always give me a go ahead and the confidence that I deserve to capture the world with an element of truth.
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.
These are some of the quotes that have truly captured my attention;
“Those who put aside travel for the sake of perfection go anywhere.”
This statement captures my attention because, for those who are not focused cannot easily achieve their dreams.
“To stall in the air is for them disgrace.”
Which I believe is not a character for the gulls because it brings shame to them.
“Keep working on love.”
Is another you will agree with me that without love, it is truly impossible to achieve something of very high interest and value.
They are important to me because they ease the understanding of the book and bring about enjoyment.
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?
Personally there are little ideas to disagree about only that Jonathan seagull the main character though over whelmed by his unusual discoveries should have listened or consulted his elders first. So I disagree with the fact that he disobeys his parents because they tend to be the same parents who feel the pain of seeing him as an outcast yet they warned him.
6. Did the book contain any exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?
Unfortunately there were no exercises to be completed in the book otherwise I would be more than glad to respond to them.
7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that is not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.
I wouldn’t risk failing to comment in the areas of mischief that the questions do not touch on. We see the elders of the flock terming Jonathan as an outcast due to his actions which does not bring the mischief they expected but rather brings transformation to some of the flock members who are compatible to positive change.
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? 8
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 6
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10