Roger Hakizimana Tuyishime – Assessements

As a Man Thinketh

Assessment by Roger Hakizimana Tuyishime (Rwanda)

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

The author is trying to teach us how powerful our mind is, or could be. How our only thoughts can effect our body, he is teaching us that man is a creator of his own circumstances, he is reminding us that we should be careful on what we thinks, because even though they might be lay in your head, thinking that they are your only poor thoughts, they affect you some how.

In this book they gave us a nice example of a poor boy who cherish his thoughts, who have beautiful dreams, and positive attitudes, who have hope of his future life, and that young man have to become what he believes in, but a rich young man, who have impure thoughts and negative thoughts, who don’t have hope to his future life despite the wealthy that he was born in, that such man will become a failure, no matter what they will try to make him be, he will be what his mind tells him to be.

I had such experience about thoughts in itself, it is something that we noticed when we was studying in high school and even in University, when someone would say, I will fail this paper…i am scared…and then that person would fail, but an other one with a positive thoughts even though he did not ready that much…and then he pass the paper, his only thoughts builds confidence in him and he shall not fear during exam, and when you have fear your mind don not work properly, it shuts down and you fail, even though you had studied that much but with out putting in your self that you will pass that paper, without building confidence in you, then you will be what you tell your self to be.
So as some of us don’t really know how this things work, how something you thought about, with out even speaking it loudly can effect you personality.

A few months back, when I was going to pass my driving license exams, with us there were different people and different thoughts about the exam that we were about to pass, I noticed some people who were scared, but who were determined that they will pass, and others who were scared and not determined, I couldn’t see the point of them being there. There were others who were not scared outside but scared inside…in their Thoughts which is bad, those people would act as if there were ready but their mind was not….and others who were not ready physically but ready in their mind, such people would analyze the truck where they would turn tiers while they would be in the car and those people did find good results.

So we have to be brave and careful with things that we tell our selves, we have to control our mind to be able to make from them something good and interesting, we have to know that they are the only ones that create our circumstances. And that we should plan for the circumstances. t is true that thoughts control us, whether they are known or unknown, there are some thoughts which once came in our heads and they affect us years and years later.

For example, our president when he was young, he used to tell his mother that he was going to become president of our country and bring back their people who were in exile all the way to Uganda, his mother that time thought that it was only childish talk but she never discouraged him, even though she couldn’t see the way for his son to end up being president, in that young man’s mind, there were positive thoughts, pure one and after he seed that thought in his mind, he grew it and it became something real.

In all steps that he made during his life, he made them with that thought in his mind, and later he finally became what he wished to be, I once watched his mother’s documentary that’s when she was saying how she was astonished with her boy. May she was just saying but could all be lying. Even when Mr Barrack Obama was young, in his school they were asking them what they would like to become when they grow up, him he said President, that he would like to become president. That time it was a funny thing to say as a black young man, but now his thoughts made his circumstances.

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 for your own life.

i. Man is made or unmade by himself, in the armory of thoughts he forges the weapon by which he destroy him self. He also fashion the tool which he builds for him self.

Let start from the bottom, when a man is born…the environment that the man was born in, it is the one that he will learn to live in, he will think as that environment , he will work like it and walk always like walking in it, so this means that our thoughts have its source, but those sources differ from one an other, so during that time when a man is in the environment that he can not control, like a kid who lives with evil parents, that kids have a high risk to have such thoughts, but still he will have to forge himself, even though he will likely be what his environment is, but himself as well will have a participation in what he will become.

So that young man will fashion the tool to build him self, something to help him in that condition that he found him self in, it won’t be an easy war to fight, because as he grew up, bads thoughts had been cultivated in his mind, unwillingly, but because he found him self in that place, that’s why his weapon will guide him in order to be a different person from its environment. But if that young man fail to fashion that tool to help him out that environment, then his thoughts will always be like he found him self, just like the environment that created him. Sometimes that young man will not even notice that his environment is corrupted by bad and evil thoughts.

ii. 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-seed will fall there in and will continue to produce their kind.

One shall never have good thoughts with out using his mind, we use our mind to think, to have thoughts, and our mind is liken to a garden. A garden which contains, thoughts, and those thoughts are cultivated whether intelligently or poorly.

You can cultivate your mind intelligently in trying to use it often, think beautiful thoughts, and not letting it shut down…for example most of irritated people have a poorly cultivated mind, that is because they did not use their mind that much in order for their mind to become intelligently cultivated, in my country I know so many people who did not go to school even once, and others who went to school for this people sometimes you realize that their mind is poorly cultivated and they never allow new things to enter it, which is even sometimes impossible, but for these people because they didn’t get that opportunity to start cultivating their mind since they were young, their case is understandable, but there are other people who went to school almost the whole years of their life, but who also have the same poorly cultivated mind, those people are pure. For them they have been in a place to which they could intelligently cultivate their mind but they did not, whether they refused or they couldn’t, they putted useless seed in it, and it also produced their kinds, because there did not make any change.

When I read about these ideas of our mind being like a garden, I thought of my mother’s garden, when we were young she used to have time to take care of it, and it would grow so many kinds of fruits, vegetables…you would realize the time that she had spent in it, but later she started getting busy and she was no longer able to get the time for it, and then the joy of eating fruits from our garden, or nice soup from our vegetables…they all went, so now I see how I shall never get busy in cultivating my garden of mind, I can not stand seeing my garden of mind being like that garden we used to have, it was rich once and poor again, but for me I want my mind to stay rich, and even grow richer and richer it might be not that rich but it is some how.

iii. Nor does a pure minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress of any mere extend force, the criminal thoughts had long been secretly fostered in the hearth and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power.

I have heard so many scenes of crime and all accused say that it was because of stress that they encountered, but one can not fall into crime by stress. It is totally true that stress could be the promoter of that crime, for example, a person in his house was enjoying his friends company, but there were his neighbor who always felt jalousie seeing cars of many kinds parking there. And anytime he would try to come to their nerves but he would fail, the owner of the house would say, “I will kill that dog” just saying. And later there was a time to which this man was out of line, and he blasted in his house and he started taking out all his anger on them, and it happened.

That’s how the scene is in what we see, that what’s we hear or read. But there is an other scene behind, that most of us do ignore, but the think is before he hurt the annoying man, he had been cultivating his bad thoughts in his mind and slowly it grew to become bad one. So even though him might not realize it, the criminal thoughts had been secretly fostered in his mind and he later made a crime. I understand he can say that he had never planned it, but if only he can remember the time he started having bad thoughts about the man, he can answer himself.

This is just a random example, but there are thoughts even small ones which we hide in the back of our minds, in those thoughts there are bad ones, and later they become a big one, which turn into a crime, so criminals can be treated before they become criminals if only they could reveal those bad thoughts, if a young child has the usual to kill animals yet he is still young and then in that case it is dangerous, he will grow up killing even people, I remember when I was young, my parents couldn’t let me, watch where they would be killing Christmas animals(Goats), that’s because they did not want me to grow a such mind, because when you are still young you can not control the fact you seen blood shade, it comes to your mind like that thought behind others, and fall into a crime, later.
Personally this idea was important to me to hear my self before I fall into a crime, now that I might know those kinds of bad thoughts that I might have, I will control them because I know that they can become big and turn into crime thoughts.

iv. Men do not attract that which they want but that which they are, not what he wished and prays for does a man gets, but what he justly earns.

It is not enough for man to wish for something, or pray to get that thing, it is necessary for that man to also be that thing that he is praying for and wish for. Let me give a very clear example, in high school while we would be going to reach the periods of exams, especially the final ones, people would start pray and wish to succeed those exams, including me but sometimes some of us would forget to do so. We would forget to be what we wanted to be.

In human needs, it is possible that every time he wishes for something, and want something he prays to God “ God please help me get this” but he does not just sit home waiting that thing to come to his house and knock, no as he had wished for that thing he do all it takes to get it, if he had prayed to get a nice car, he get out there and try all means it takes to get enough money to buy that car (Bugatti or Lamborghini), even though he might get it for credit but also the bank can’t just give you credit, there are basis that they consider, so that such man he will get what he earned.

So even for us we would pray together so that we could succeed but some of us would study hard knowing that it is the only way for them to succeed but others would make it hard for God, saying that he will be with them, but after all God was not going to cheat for them, he also wanted them to study hard so that they could pass those exams, such students who would pray but also study would get what they earned but also which they are, here prayers I consider them as a weapon or that tool that man forges to take him higher and then for those who pray and then wait for a miracle of God, not only they make it hard to God but also to them, them also they will have that what they are not what they wished for, “failure” so for such persons them also purchase that weapon and tool but they do not know how to use it, it take them down it self.

This is a clear examples, it is Good for man to have wishes…but man should know that wishing equals to working, there would be no opportunity which will come to your door knocking, even that one you got with out suffering, somehow you made some effort to achieve it.

For example when we see someone, after he finishes his studies and wish for a Job, later we see him on television as a managing director of any particular big company in his country, and we say that he got what he wished for, and then it is what we have to thing about only, it is true that he wished the very nice Job that he could get, but he did not attract what he wished for but what he is, in order to be that man he is, he passed to some ways, he had to writer some assessment about him self, and he was selected on that job because he interested his interviewer. It is true that may be he wished and prays for that job, but he got what he earned. There wasn’t just going to know that he was out there.

Recently after my studies, when I came back home from India. I realized that it is not easy at all in our country to get any Job, there is no longer the performance but connection, as I had none, yet I needed any job that I could get, I had to work hard, I spend a couple of months at home, submitting my essays but no one would call me, but because I wanted to get what I was earning, I desperation was not on my to do list.
Later I was selected for a voluntarism program that I had applied for in our country and being selected in that program is not easy, it is called international citizen service (I.C.S) for that one I am not sure whether I wished for, prayed for because the morning I came to know about it, was the dead line of it, and I was selected.

This showed me that what a man wishes for can get it even by passing in other ways in other to reach to it later. I found that program very interesting, we were living together and work together with United Kingdom volunteers, and in that 10 weeks that we spent together, we learned much. Two weeks later one of the in country volunteer got a very nice internship and we started feeling like we needed to get job so that after that program we won’t be going home, we did work hard on job offers and we would submit our personal statements all over the country, not only we wished for a job after wards but also we were earning it.

And ten weeks later, the day of our final event I had a Job interview which I have now. It is what I earned, even thought there might be others posts that I think I might have earn but not get them, after all it is the one, there is a reason to which it is the one I got, but I know that it is not enough, and now I want more than these, and these that I got for the first time, will help me to measure the other one that I am earning now. This is how this idea was important to me.

v. A man may be honest in a certain directions, yet suffer privation. A man may be dishonest in certain directions yet acquire wealthy.

This is clear in our dairy life, where a man would lie about his success or failure, when we are acquiring some wealth we lie, we are dishonest in that case, because we do not want people to take attention on us, because we do not want people to start planning events for us, and in an other case when we are suffering we also do not want to show, we are honest yet suffering.

So this shows that a man may be honest in a certain way yet suffer privation, for him he shows that everything is all right, nothing is wrong, Bouyaa. and in his mind he knows how much he is encountering, and other one go out there and tell the complete lies about him, and people feel sorry for him, yet in his mind he knows that he is acquiring wealth, he is happy in an other way.

Am not sure whether this is a natural human behaviors or not, but I am sure many people do the same, sometimes it may be in order to protect our selves from our world, and another time it might just to avoid other things in advance.

For example I have this friend of mine, we met in the activity of voluntarism with Tearfund in I.C.S, ever since we met he would always show us that he was these vulnerable boy, who lives with his son, and the mother of his boy was away, well it was true all of those story, and due to that he really took our attention on him, we knew the fact that he is orpharn and single father, that we could understand how vulnerable he was.
No one knew that he was playing us, he used his personal life to get our attention, that man he was dishonest in a certain way and he acquired wealth, which was attention…
so he started borrowing some money from us and because we knew him, we had to give him that money due to his story, the time we met for the first time in other to know each other. His life was sad, according to him.

So a team of eight people, four U.K volunteers and four Rwandan volunteers, he would get time to borrow all of us money in a way no one would notice, well for us as in country volunteers he knew that we did not have much money, but for UK volunteers he did his best, and still now he hasn’t paid yet.

The thing is he had a plan, because if I would have tried to borrow some 400 pounds from a fellow that I had just met and was going to spend 10 weeks together, no one would have even hear me, but for him, there were a lot of reasons to do so.
And after others went back to UK, he had staid with us, he took his time to tell me how he had borrowed money from many of them and that he had paid through on-line money transfer, and I believed him, the same day he borrowed from me, I even ignored the fact he had borrowed from them, later I was charting with one of the UK volunteers and she asked me about the guy, and I told her that we met, and that he was ok, she told me the clear picture of what was going on there, where we were that I ignored, and I told her that I also gave him some money, she told me that later he will ask me other and that happened, and still he hadn’t pay us. So this made me also lie to him in other to avoid him keep asking for money and I am dishonest yet may be I am acquiring wealth, meaning I may have the money to give him, but I can not because he will never pay back.

An other clear example which shows a man being honest in certain way yet suffer inside is that, in our country it has been like a culture, when someone ask you, “how are you” the response is “I am fine.” So even in the hard moments, when someone is having troubles in his life, we all say that it is fine, this show me that many people are honest in a certain way yet suffer.

These helped me realizing that no matter what man is saying in outside, it doesn’t mean that his thoughts are saying the same thing, even though it is hard to read mind, but man can not keep his thoughts a secret because any time his thoughts reveal its self to the outside world.

vi. As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training “so the man of weak thoughts cam make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.”

When I was a young boy, with my friends we used to train our selves in order to be strong so that girls would notice us, it was amazing to see the strength that we had just to get attention of girls, we were these weak boys who wanted to become strong, and it was helping because before I was so weak that I can’t even say but after i grew being a fine man, well not that tough but at least it no the same thing.

No one can doubt about this, weak man can make him self strong by patient and careful training, but is it really possible for thoughts? Yes of cause it is true but it is even harder than a weak man who want to be strong, to control our mind need patient and routine exercises, and because our mind can’t be touched or seen so that you can see how your mind has improved, that’s why it is not easy but not impossible. All you have to do is right thinking.

When I am not happy, I try to make my self not angry, and in order to do that I have to think right, but it is the hardest thing I realized, you try to think of good things, that might make you happy, and those bad ones still you and you can’t even know when, but as you force you self more, you get to be able, and those bad thoughts go away, when you are having bad thoughts, you feel weak but when you are having right thoughts you feel strong, which brings me to these, that man weak man can’t become strong with out right thinking, with out believing in himself that he will.

So by exercising yourself in right thinking the more and more you become to have strong thoughts. And the more you have right thoughts (strong thoughts) and then you shall become strong in thoughts.

There is something I don’t understand about people when they say, that they hate someone and they keep saying it and over and over, that weak thought even thought it might be that one person will grow other of its kinds(hateful) and you will find your self hating everyone and hating everyone mean hating yourself which leads you to bad health that’s how they make their mind weak. Just love every kind, you would be loving you self. That how you will make your mind stronger. Think big, think positive and your mind will grow stronger as you wish it to be.

vii. Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results, bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. “this is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettle but nettle.

Someone with a bad heart is worse than killer, well the truth is that even the killer has the bad heart, but he became the killer because his bad heart, same thing as bad thought can never produce good result, same as nothing can come from corn but corn. So this is clear that having bad thoughts is the source of all of those bad acts, and having good thoughts is the solution of them.

Let’s take an example of two men with different thoughts, I have been thinking of bad news I kept listening through all media of people who just go around killing innocent people, I don’t want to make any accusation but we know these kinds of deeds.

But before those things happen, people plan them, they have bad thoughts before and then those bad thoughts produce bad result, for example a group of gang which is planning to go around the city just killing innocent people, they will not have a good think on their meeting agenda, and they also know that they are doing bad things but thinking that it is a right thing to do, so on their meeting agenda, they talk about weapon supplies, area of target…and escape plan, even though they are planning to kill, they don’t want to be killed, that’s why they make an escape plan, so it is clear that nothing good can come from those people.

In the other hand there is a group of people who are working hard to protect people from those kinds of bad guys, for them on their meeting agenda they do not talk about weapon supplies, or escape plan but they talk about a plan to catch unknown man. And we know that nothing bad can come from those people.
So if you have cultivated bad thoughts in your mind over and over then bad results will come from them, and if you cultivate good thoughts in your mind, good results will come from them.

There is someone who told me a joke “ well I thing I can call it a joke” but which is not funny, about how those people grow to be terrorists, they say that when a kid is born and his parents want him to be terrorist, they start in his early age, they give him a bread and they take it back saying for example it is America who took it from him, and they do that often, and that kid grow thinking that that particular person hates him so much that he can sacrifice his life to kill that man who took from him his bread ever since he was young. So there is nothing good can come from that young innocent mind, they cultivated bad thoughts in him, he will grow being a terrorist and for you because you were grown in a different way you will not understand him, nor he won’t. These idea of nothing can come from corn but corn means that, you won’t find a good person with bad thoughts, those bad thoughts have to make him bad, and good thoughts will make him good, and If we say that someone is good…we mean his thoughts.

Ah there is an other idea which came into my mind as I read this idea, I had a dog when I was young, and that dog was what we call a dog a dog which is so peaceful, yet in Africa we expect a dog to be dangerous for protection, and that dog produces other of his kind….it was the same thing also for the puppies, we couldn’t find a really dog to replace the dog, and we realized we will never find one, because a dog was never going to give a dog. I know most of countries expect dog to be as it is, but for us we expect it to bark often to terrorize people in order for the lobbers to know that it is there. And later we got an other one, and we bought that because we have heard that his mother (Dog) had fought with a leopard and it came to save that only puppy, for sure we knew that that one won’t be just like any dog, and now it is the one we have, for sure it was not going to be a dog dog, yet his mother was a dog, it is a dangerous dog that any one should have. There is also an other context in our tradition which says,“ Mwene Samusure avukana isunzu” but I am not sure if I can be able to translate it properly but it talks about this kind of bird which have something like hair on the top of it’s head, and they want to mean that all birds which will come from that bird will have the same hair, so this is true as you will not find a corn grow from an eucalyptus, or good results from bad thoughts.

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?

Now that I know that controlling my mind is what matters in order to change my life, that my mind is like garden if cultivated properly it can grow many kinds of good things, but if not meaning let all kinds of bad thoughts grow in it, it will later became wild, and that will ruin me.

Goods thoughts can never produce bad results, I have adopted this principle, I shall never allow bad thoughts in my mind ever, and even though doing that might not be easy, I should make a plan, by thinking positively always, to never allow negative thoughts in my mind, because they are among bad thoughts, and when you have negative thoughts then you life becomes negative, you can never accomplish something positive, in my first assessment I talked about my sisters who had this positive thoughts about the exams and that helped them to achieve what they wished for, we heard this word “ Yes I can” when Obama was campaigning for the most powerful post in the world, so I should understand that what ever is in my mind I can accomplish it.

This will help my world as well, last night when I was standing on bus station waiting for the bus, one of the street vendor, a young woman with a baby in her back, she was telling others that her business was not going well at all, she was envying them telling them they were lucky that they should sell for her, what I had realized cause she is there all evening, I had realized that for her she never make much effort as others do, for others they go around saying that they have the most cheapest chocolates, but for her she never say much, I told her that the reason that others are selling properly was not because they were lucky, that there is no such thing, but that she don’t make much effort and she should not expect corn from something else but corn, that she should not wait good results from bad work, she seemed not to understand, but if only I could teach her some tips all evening on my way home, I can change her.

I want to make all the best from this thoughts that I am reading from these books to make me someone better than I was, to grow the garden of mind, and that will not help me alone but also people around me, I told you about my bus, the one I come in each morning to work, when I started reading IIGL books, most people also tried their best to find something to read in that time we spend in the bus, students read in their notebooks and others some novels and so on.

There was one of them who asked me whether I love reading or what, I replied that I love what is from reading, sometime you do not realize how a book changes you, but later you do, and cause reading is a good thing.

For example, after I came to know that I was going to go in India, my level of English was very low, and that time I started forcing my self in reading English books, but I would spend a day and days reading a book but not catching anything, but I had put in my mind that it was the only way I was going to know English, even after I reached I continued reading books, and now I can say that something good came from that.

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.”

There is a reason to everything that a man thinks, what he wishes, and willing to become, all of us have different ideas in our heads and it is what we become, this is what this quote means, as we think in our heart, then it is true. We do not really know how we get to choose what to think of, but what a man comes to know is how to keep what he thinks, in order to achieve that you have to keep those thoughts, to hold on to them so that they will grow in his heart to be who he will be, there is sometimes you have this beautiful thought and you have this fear to forget it, that is because we know that any thought is precious, that is because we know that, that thought can turn us into other people.

There is in one of the ideas that I talked about, for Mr Obama who used to think that he would be president of united states of America, so is he. I talked about the Presidents of our nation who once told his mother that he thought he was going to become president, so is he.Even us we are what we thought to be, if someone had spend his youth thinking nothing about his future, then he is nothing now, but if he spend his youth thinking of what he was going to be, so is he. And myself as I have some beautiful thoughts there is a reason to which they are the ones that I have, so will I be that thing? Yes of cause whether it is bad or good. As I think, so am I.

“Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruits.”

We have seen some people so far who always have good thoughts, and those people have a happily life, and their face look ten years young than they are, they are always in joy, no matter the circumstance that they might be in, and with that they also get to find good solution for those circumstances. In an other hand people with bad thoughts, they look twenty years older than they are, their life is never stable, they face many circumstances and that’s because they never get time to find right solutions for those circumstances, all the time they blame the world to be the reason for their suffering yet they do not know that due to their bad thoughts, their lives is like that.

Good thoughts are nothing but, Joy, Love, happiness, compassion, humble and so many, when some one have those kind of thoughts there is no way that they can produce bad fruits, such us hate, criminal acts, arrogance and so many, once you have joy you love, you carry on with happiness, and due to that you are compassionate and humble at the same time, you can never have joy and hate at the same time, joy could never bear hate, joy bear a good fruit of love. When someone never have any bad thought, he is always relaxed, his body function in a right way, he stops aging so fast, he face turn upside down, his life is stable, and beautiful.

But when someone has different bad thoughts, those thoughts produce other of its kind, and they spread in all areas of his body like a disease, and they start shutting down his nerves system, which result in aging so fast, and because of that transformation, hate grow, because of hate he hates even him self, till he produces for himself a very big bad fruit which will take him down. Such person can never expect love and happiness in his life, you could never expect from him, compassion and humble, all you find from him, is any kind of bad fruit.

A very angry man even though he gives you any precious gift with out any smile on his face, what that gift could mean? Nothing at all that gift will always be the reminder of the bad face you saw when you had a smiley one, no matter how you tried to smile for that face, it never ceased to be bad, no one wish for a such gift, but a very happy face, smiling and joyful, when he gives you any sort of gift, it doesn’t matter how big that gift is, all that matters is the beautiful face that smiled to you and you smiled back, all that matters is love from that gift, friendship…and so many other good fruits. A such person brings joy in your life, not only a special gift that he gives to you but also he give you to that joy, that happiness, and love, but in an other hand the other ones gives you hate, arrogance and bad health.

A plant in the garden, needs enough water in other to grow and produce its kinds, a pregnant woman need good care in order to give birth to a healthy baby. A plant which loose water it perish and never grow other of its kinds, a happily woman once loose an intensive care during her pregnancy, she stop producing other of her kinds. This is to say that good fruit bear good results, and bad ones bad results.

“Circumstances does not make a man, it reveals him to him self and circumstances passes away and give place to other circumstances,”

In humans life, he faces so many circumstances and they do not make him who is, they show him whether he is stronger or weaker, once a person had experienced any kind of circumstance, then he will never have to fear that same circumstance again.

If you face any circumstance and you find that you are weak in certain ways, then after that you adopt other style to live and that circumstance pass away and give a place to others, which will give you another picture of yourself.

Before I went to India my life was easy, I was in my parents house I knew that there was some one to do all things, who were my sisters, mother and some other people like maids, but our mother is a very strict woman, she would make it hard for us and tell us to wake up early and participate, at the moment we felt like it was a big challenge.

Later when I went to India when I had to live all by my self, that was the time I realized that I was able to take care of my self, because our mother helped us to do those little things for ourselves even though that moment we did not know, but the circumstance that I faced that time revealed to me who I really was.

There was these young man in my apartment he was from Uganda, I could tell that he was a boy from a rich family, and I could tell that he had never had to live on by him self, he was lucky to have me near by, he did not have to call his mother back home to ask her how to boil an egg, he faced hard moments that time, I remember the way he used to cook, but later he got used to the situation, if he would have failed to adapt to the situation he had found him self in, the circumstance would have shown him that he was weak but it was not the case, you could see him now.

Sometimes people face challenges and the fail to adapt, it is not those challenges which make the weak or strong but those challenges show them who they are.

That time I also would face some challenges (circumstances) and feel like life was hard, and anytime one challenge would pass away, and other one would come, and it reached to the moment where I got used to them, after one problem I knew that any other one would come, I knew how I was going to live with it, though that time I thought that they were making me strong, but thinking “that there were other people in the same situation who was not becoming strong” and after reading this book I realized that those circumstances that I was living in, did not make me who I am, but they revealed to me who I am.

They say that what doesn’t kill you make you stronger, and you don’t become strong because that thing did not kill you, but the truth is, it did not kill you because you are stronger,. And because you are strong many others things will come trying to put you down and they will also pass away and give a place to others.

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

In a tranquil country, in a peaceful moments, a man’s mind work on many good thoughts, when the environment is peaceful, people get time to think positive about the selves and achieve a lot in there lives.

As I took a break outside to feel the air while I was writing this paragraph, I almost stepped on a flog and when I felt it I jumped in the air, what I want to mean here is that that circumstance did not make me fear flogs, but it showed me that I fear anything which touches me in dark, and yet it is, because it might be a snake, which I fear so terribly.

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there idea which you disagree with and, if so why?

It might be easy for someone to read about controlling one’s mind, but it is difficult for that person to put it into practice, we all have different way to adopt that good thoughts into our mind, when we were volunteering a couple of months ago, we had this session about goal achievement, and one students of us asked, what we have achieved so far in order to teach them what they could, we told him that it is easy for us to say that he will accomplish things in his life, but hard for him to pursue, so even thought one might read a such inspiring book, but it is up to him to make those word into a result.

I am not disagreeing but what I should tell readers is that, it won’t matter if they read and keep what they read in their mind, if so there will never change, but if they practice what they read, it will make impact to them and the rest of the world.

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 exercise in this book, is to be able to control your mind, to cultivate good thoughts in your garden of mind, to be able to let them grow other of its kind, and to avoid bad thoughts because they can never bear good fruits , all of these are not an easy exercises because sometimes bad thoughts keep on hunting us, and to avoid them require a big amount of effort in thinking positively, there are bad thoughts which always tries to come in our mind and in order to avoid them we have to think of beautiful thoughts, and doing that more and more, those bad thoughts perish and good ones bear others of its kind, once a man is able to do that, once I will be able to do that, will be the time I will say that i have completely completed these exercises but mean while, by starting I have accomplished some portion of it. Now I know that by only cultivating some good thoughts in my mind, they will produce other of its kinds, and sooner or later my mind will close the door of bad thoughts and use that spare door also for good thoughts.

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.

Dreamers are savior of the world:I realized how your good thoughts influence your surroundings. Once you have good thoughts even people around you will have good thoughts, I talked about the situation of my bus all the morning to my work, where I was the one to start going all the way reading a book, and them also some people started doing so, even students started reading in those 30-40 minutes we spend in the bus, there is one woman who cracked a joke saying that we should as well buy them books, because we are about to change that bus into a mobile library.

There are many times to which I ask myself, what is my contribution on this world, I was born in it, I have found many things, but there is nothing that I have contributed yet, there are someone who had a dream of flying object and that person helped me reaching in a country 4000 miles away from my home, there is an other one who made this computer that I am able to study this course, there are many things that I use in my personal life and I ask my self my contribution, and I tell my self that still there is a time, and I have to dream in order to do that something. And that is the point to which I will be someone important in my world, I might not invent an airplane, nor a car, but with the so called of whether ever talent I have I can change people in these world, still no one had made a machine to help a man think positively and good, I can be helpful with these course to contribute in a group of many people to help people use their thoughts as a weapon to their problems.

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? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
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? 9

 

 

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Assessment by Roger Hakizimana Tuyishime (Rwanda)

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

The main idea that the author is trying to teach readers is that life is about perfection, a life without perfection is boring and a life with perfection is like heaven.We live our lives without any idea of where we would be the next day, but still we plan for the next day even 10 to 100,000 days in advance. That’s because we have perfection, and for those who don’t, they always care about the past.

The author is trying to teach us that there would be no success without perfection, without performance. Challenges without dreams and courage. We all have different dreams, we do not only dream but after waking up we try our best to follow the way to the place we dreamed us being, and once we arrived, we dream again, that’s because life is a journey, all we do we recognize the effort we made to achieve our destination, even though we still want to go forward, we recognize all people who tried to stop us, and deep in our heart we thank them, cause like Jonathan as we try to prove them wrong we achieve more.

The main idea is that no matter what others think, your dreams is your go, your life is in your hands. As long as you have started your journey, people will try to block you. Telling you how stupid your ideas are, but never lend them yours ears.

A better place because we worked hard, because we had perfection, we finally achieve something better than we dreamed. The author is trying to teach me, to teach you, to teach the whole world that “No matter what, no matter the circumstances, just follow your dreams.”

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 for your own life.

i. Jonathan Livingston Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reason that a gull’s life is short.

In my life I experienced the same thing when I was living in India, finding myself in another environment, I found myself bored, in a single days my negative thoughts would be thousands, all by myself in my room of three by four meters I would feel like I had a lot in my head and I would feel sometimes like hating myself but later I discovered that if I continue living my life the same way, my life would be short, that I will never enjoy living, it had reached the point to which I couldn’t sleep without a grass of hard liquor, or a big fine Indian Cigarette. I knew that I was not living my life as it should and I knew the fact that I lacked something. That thing was perfection, that thing was find a path of my life, a way to heaven.

I finally discovered that I should use that time I use to spend alone thinking of myself only, I realized that I should use that time, thinking of other positive things, and in order to do that, I started reading books in that free time, I continued my talent of writing, I had it before but I found its meaning that time, I started writing novels, many poems and songs. That helped me a lot, and then I could sleep exhausted after a long concentration on completing my chapter, or after a composition of a hard song, I didn’t need a hard grass of liquor to sleep then, I was not bored, because I was living a life of perfection, I had a dream, and I had overcame the negative thoughts, and I was living my positive thought of becoming a well-known fine writer, song writer and poet.

I always had a lot of voices in my head. Like the one which always told me, “who do you think you are? You can never be a writer, nor a singer you are wasting your time.” and sometimes I would believe that voice, I would get discouraged…. and I would have another voice telling me, “ Did you know that even those who made it, were born like you, after nine months in their mother’s womb, and yes indeed they were born from a woman, not manufactured, that they are or were humans like you….why not you? Who knows may be you are even better!!!”

That voice would raise my courage, and hope, if ever I didn’t have a dream and perfection, my life would have took another path, bad one. And now all I have to live for is my dreams, and through that my life is not boring, I have a place to be. So was Jonathan, he wanted so bad to learn of flying and he made it. 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.

ii. They say no risks no reward, no challenges no life, he who fear challenges will never go far, but he who face them, will reach far.

It is how it is, in our life we face challenges and problems, we feel so bad during those times, and sometimes we hate ourselves, some people kill themselves but others fight, during the fight they never recognize that they are learning, they learn the next world that they would be in, future, not the past. It is true that we choose our next world through what we learn in this one.

Another example you can never find an easy life, but you can find a beautiful one, why is it that you can find a beautiful life yet not easy one, yet beautiful means good, in life beautiful doesn’t mean easy, but the opposite, all people who had accomplished things in this world, never had an easy life, if they would have lived an easy life, there was never going to be successful, to reach where we see them, they struggled. They faced challenges, they learned a lot in a life they were living in that time, of cause we did not know them until we could say that they are successful, until we start saying that we want to become like them, only them could testify, and through what they lived they came to learn and find a way to a beautiful life.

I was once discussing with a friend of mine and when I told him that a beautiful life doesn’t mean easy, he gave me an example of those people who were born rich, where even thought they could never work could live generations with out a problem of money, but I told him that only if he could live with them he will know what they pass through, even managing that wealth it not easy at all, there are some regulations that they had to adopt in order to stay wealthy, they had to invest because them also they think of the next generation, if they would sit and eat the money to which the ancestors left for them that would be egoism.

iii. Saying beautiful we don’t mean easy, Jonathan when he started flying 90 miles per hour, he wanted to do more, and he worked hard and hard until he reached even 273 miles/hour, that was beautiful.

This idea remind us that our life is about learning, since we are young trying to say meaningless thing to make our point, no matter how elder people find it funny, we keep on trying to be able to talk like them, day by day and we don’t know the day to which we come to talk properly. Still after we grew up, we learn also many things, there is no time in life you can say that you have stopped learning, and that’s because we learn to prepare our future, our next world. And if we learn nothing, we don’t change.Many times we refuse to learn new things because we are scared, and if we do not overcome that fear, we never change.

For example myself, I have said many times that I will learn to swim, a friend of mine had volunteered to teach me, but still I find excuses of not going, not because I am that busy, but because I am scared, my world about swimming will be the same if I stay like this, If I let this fear control me. That the same thing to many people in doing many things, may be if I won’t learn to swim I will live, but I can die because I did not learn to swim, that would be failure.

So just like Jonathan I should never fear learning new things, it hasn’t have to be a very expensive course from Harvard University, but day by day as I live, what to learn are all around me, and they are useful day by day..

The commitment to learning is the great weapon that we should adopt all, I remember when I was young my mother used to have difficulties in using her cellular phone, few people owned one in that time, and she used to say that it was not for her age, that she was old to learn new trick of using a mobile phone, but fifteen years later when smart phone came, she didn’t have any difficulties, she got one and she even know many things more than we do, did she became younger After those years? No but her commitment to learning grew, and she didn’t realize the time to which she was able to learn new things as she used to say that she couldn’t. If she wouldn’t have learned those new things her world would have been same.

They say it is hard to teach old dogs new tricks, but they do not say that it is impossible, hard and impossible are two different things, so no matter the age, the back ground and religion, learn new things, and prepare your next world.

iv. Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect.

I remember a time i had this feeling, it was a year after I was suspended from my school, I was a foolish teenager who felt like the school was mine not even my father’s, and after then I found another school, I was then in senior three, I had a national examination ahead, everyone who knew me, had said that I was always going to stay that ignorant teenager who felt like he had everything for himself, my parents had out casted me from perfect children, they would never have out casted me from their family due to love, but they had said that it was too much for them, trying to control my discipline, it was a tactic may be. But I felt like I had to prove them wrong, I worked so hard to succeed that national examination, in my head I have that I was going to pass that paper, it wasn’t going to matter how much I was going to get but I had to be on list, as I said the same words over and over, I did not realize the time I changed into this perfect boy who loves reading more than anything, I then forgot my friends who wanted me in wrongs deeds, and I loved new ones who showed me a right way, still my family couldn’t believe me they needed to see.

It was a year of challenges, I learned a lot in that year, and I learned fear that I never had before, a fear of defeat. Always in my heart I used to ask myself what if I don’t make it…in my school only five students used to succeed the national examination, and we were forty four students, and I couldn’t find myself in actual classes, though i knew that the national examination was not about good performance in class, that it was not about answering as many question as possible, I kept quiet and kept my Moto in me.

I would spend hours in forest trying to find good air in order to read, sometimes I would sit on snakes spot, and other animals but I never stopped of going there, because I was determined, I had a plan, and after 10 months of hard work, I was the sixth student in sixth people who succeeded in our class, so that moment, as I walked to my parents to tell them the good news, I felt like it was heaven, I was so proud and happy that I had accomplished what I had planned, then I realize that heaven is being perfect. That heaven is being in a perfect place in a perfect time.

v. You are wasting your time with me, Jonathan, I am too dumb, I am too stupid I try and try. But I will never get it. A voice of failure!!

Everyone somehow at some point had experienced the same situation as this young sea gull (Fletcher), who told this words to Jonathan, Jonathan did not contradicted him, but he told him that all he had to do was being free, in our life many people had put all their efforts to teach us something new in our lives but sometimes we don’t just get it, and we feel the same way as the little sea gull who couldn’t fly.

And for us when we hear those words in our heads, all we have to do is be free, and ignore that voice, that was what the little sea gull did, he ignored those words of failure, and he came to do things that he wanted to do. We should never say that we can never get it, that we are dumb because we are not. If we don’t get to do things in a right way, it doesn’t mean that we are stupid, but it means that we haven’t learn yet…it means that we should take time and learn. I used to have the same voice in my head when I was working hard for my national examination, sometime voices would tell me that i will never ever get it, those voices were mine, but I would overcome them, and continue my way to success.

For me it was more like fear, all I knew was that I have never passed a national examination before, cause in primary six I didn’t and those voices would take that opportunity to tell me that I couldn’t, I would sometimes believe them because at least they had a point, me I didn’t have one, there was one girl in my class, she had failed that exam a year before us, and she repeated in our batch, she used to tell us that there was no way for us(new) to succeed that paper, that even her she had made all her effort to pass but she failed, “well I understand that you did all your best” I would say.

I am trying to translate this quote in English, but they want to mean that, he who is that rich, or have a better life, he is lucky…and that he was born with it, that them they did not get that chance to be born with it…and that it has to be like that forever.

Such person could never get it…because he doesn’t even want it…that richness that better life, he thinks he wants it but he does not, his body might want to have that beautiful house and car as his neighbor but his mind doesn’t and his mind is the most important for him to get his desire. So such man all he has to do is stop believing in negative voices, why can’t he if another one did.

When I was young I used to have those voices as well, but for me I would realize that it is a matter of time, I was young and you need time to accomplish something, there is no such thing as luck, but determination and positive mind. After all accomplishment there is hard effort, hard work….it is only all it takes.

vi. Everything that limits us we have to put them aside.

There is a story of a man who was jailed for so long and he was innocent, he used to tell his fellow inmates that they should take those walls aside, those walls that kept them inside there for so long, for them they didn’t know how to do that, they needed much more than they possessed to do so, they needed a gigantic truck, so much budget that they didn’t know what to do, he promised that he will show them and that it was not hard, they waited for so long but they never seen him trying to put those walls aside, walls which limited them from outside world, but for him he had started, all he meant by putting those walls aside was to overcome the challenges of jail, and live a normal life within jail.

For us also in life we meet different thing which limit us, bad friends who limit us, bad employers who make it hard to us but we have to put those things aside, and walk forward.

Let take a wise example, it is early in morning you are driving your car to work, and arriving on the 44th avenue the road is blocked, it is a limit. It is limiting you from going to work, but the first impression is not turn your car and go back home, the first impression is to find another way, may be go back to the 42nd avenue, reach to the main road, and turn to the 77th avenue in order to come back to your work place which is avenue number 45. It is stressful and hard I know but you have to put that limit aside. Or if you don’t want to spend all your fuel in those trajectories, you will find a nice plot to park your car, and jump if the hole is Jump-able, or walk if walkers are arrowed to pass.
But putting those limits aside we have to do it wisely, if the hole that limits you of going forward is to deep and large don’t jump! Cause you will break yourself, but choose another way cause there is always an other way.

There was a time I was going to my work place, and my work place is located nearby our first ranked hotel in our Country (Serena Hotel), that day there was a special meeting of east African community countries and all five presidents were present, they blocked the road and no one could pass we had to return back 1 KM in order to reach another main road and come back to my destination which is only one block from that hotel.

I had to put that limit aside, but by not jumping, or pushing soldiers aside, no because that would be a crime, and it would be more suspicious, all I had to do is set in my mind that there was another way, there is always another way, in our language there is a proverb which states that all ways reach to Rome. So each problem has 1000s solutions. All we have to do is find a right one.

It always work and if you feel like you are in a wrong truck, there is always away to which you can overcome that problem which had been in your life for so long, for example, apart from the first example that I gave about a man in jail “putting aside the prison walls”, let me give you another one, of a woman I know who is really sick, she is in fact my aunt she had been in her bed for so long, that I can’t remember the last time she took me to the market to buy me new shoes as she used to, for her the way is clear, to accept her life, cause we are not sure whether she will get well, many people in the same situation, got desperate and hate themselves but for her she is even happier than she ever did, she knows that living doesn’t have anything to do with being normal, being able to walk, all of those are the physical qualities that help us to live better, but it doesn’t mean that if you don’t have any of them, your life has ended. It happens, life disappoint us some times, but don’t ever disappoint your self.

vii. Break the chains of your thoughts and you break the chains of your body.

After I read this sentence, I imagined the picture of myself, my thoughts were chained with hundreds of chains and for my body it was another thing, it was chained with so many things, and those chains are not this kind of chains that are metal, that we sell and by for money, but those chains are the other kind, which bloke you from going in front, those chains are not that tight but you can never brake them until you know that you can….may be is not easy to brake the chains, the actual ones, but others even though they are the tight one, you can break them as long as you believe that you can.

In life we face so many challenges and those challenges are the chains, they bloke us from going in forward…and no matter what, they will never let you go, as long as you don’t break them. So we only have one choice to fight to break those chains and they are not weak. I also had so many chains in life, but there is the biggest that I possess now and I am braking it, I am not sure when they will be broken but I have hope that they will, it is chaining my thoughts and my body…but I am braking them.

I recently came back from India, where I studied my university courses. There, life was hard and I had no hope of going back there not even a single day, I studied hard so that I could pass all my exams, I avoided being like other younger persons(Students) in order to be different, I could see how happy they were , but I never gave up with my plan.
I never had a time to amuse myself as others did but my happiness was in reading.

It is the happiness which also builds you. And now after I came back home, thinking that I have done well. I got a phone call telling me that I had to go back there, to write another exam to which I quote they say I fail well for me I feel like may be it is possible, all I know is that if I would had had a chance to review my paper, I think that I would have had a chance to not go back there, for just one exam. or it is even true that I failed, it is possible, but it is the chain that I am having now, now all my thoughts are about going back there, after that call I prayed to God to give me a job that I could pay the ticket myself, and luckily I got that Job but it is a hard one, but I need it I have to do all I can.

My parents once told me that I didn’t haven’t have to work hard, but for me I thing that I have, I can say that I haven’t even broke ¼ but I know that I will, even though this paper will make me spend all my first year’s salary on air plane to India but it will help me in my life, I learned that, in order to get everything that I need, I have to work hard for them.

When you do something or give an idea about something not everyone seem impressed…yet for you, you think that it is a best one, that’s because we are created differently but that is not my point, my point is that no matter what other things, just do your things to which makes you happy, cause you are the shepherd of you own ideas.

The thing is we have to respect our different ideas not blame someone because of the idea that we thing is stupid yet for him it is wise, this young sea gulls faced the same problem, when they wanted to do thing they loved, others thought that they were crazy, but they didn’t care, they pursued their dreams.
So can you!!!

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 are like principles that I adopted after reading this book, this book is more like a fantasy, but it show us the picture of the really courageous sea gull, the really personality of who we should be, these ideas or principles will help me to live knowing what to do, knowing that boredom, anger and fear are the reason to which my life could be short, that I should do all I can to avoid those impure thoughts, and I will do all I can to teach my fellow sea gulls(Humans) that those three impure thoughts are the reason that we should have a boring life, failure life, and short one.

After reading these book now I knew that I can choose my next world through what I learn in this one, I know that I have to prepare my next world by being perfect and know that I can, it will help my world because my good thoughts, my success will be the reason for others to persevere.

Now I know that heaven could not only be the place, that is about being perfect, following your dream, without fear and worries, and this will help me to life a beautiful life, trying all I can to live in heaven, by being perfect, by not fearing any think, by trying all that I should try in order to reach far, my world will be there as well, when once I will be living in that heaven, cause my good life could bring an impact to some other peoples in my way.

I will never allow voice of failure in my head, voice of fear, and I have to break all chains that chains my thoughts and my desire, and go forward. After these only two books I realize that there is no need to fear people, to fear my bosses, to fear any limit which might come to block me. I have adopted new principles for my 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.

“The really Jonathan seagull who lives within us all!”

Jonathan was a young boy, who had ambitions in his life, ever since he was young he believed in himself, and no matter how his people discouraged him, he did go forward, he own parents also were among them but he never had fear to continue. The reality Jonathan seagull who lives with in us, is that courage that we have in us, to do like Jonathan, the courage that help us to overcome the same limits us Jonathan, for all of us in our lives when we have a dream, we face same people as Jonathan, and we overcome them, we just go forward.

But the thing is that there might be some people who doesn’t have Jonathan living in them, for those people it is visible for them, you can not confuse them because they show themselves, they are scared of challenges, they are sleeping but not dreaming, they never worry of their future they only what to live the present…for them if a challenges block their way, so they stop. Such people should seek Jonathan and invite him in them. For me also I didn’t had Jonathan that much, I should open the doors of my heart and let his courage in me, and his success around me.

“You must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.”

When you start a very long walk, feeling that you will never arrive then you won’t, all you have to do is believe that you already have arrived, if you make each step, thinking that you will never make it, and then you shall not, but if you start with all strength thinking that you already made it, so will you.

If you start doing something saying that you may not make it saying may be….who knows, who am I, then you will never get it, because our mind control our circumstances, man is the creator of his own circumstances, so be careful what you give your mind to think of…give your mind successful thoughts, not failure ones, cause successful thoughts will take you to a beautiful place that you want to be on, but negative ones, will brake you, will take you down and without knowing that you are the cause of your situation, you will blame your Environment yet you are the one to be blamed.

I have my two young sisters, they are younger than me, when the elder one, was about to writer the Primary six exam. Not only she believed that she will succeed but also she believed that she will be among the first girls who always receive prices form our first lady. For me whenever she would say it I would say, what does she know about self-control she is young, I didn’t know that time yet she knew…and it was about us also to support her, no matter how young she was, I felt like she was older than me, she knew that she had already arrived, and she was right, then our first lady gave her a prize, as one of the young girls who performed well.

That was amazing, and it showed me that I should adopt that self-control, but what was surprising was her sister, our youngest sister, for her also she passed Primary six exam a year after her sister, and she also had said that she will even get more marks as her sister, I remember in her room she had wrote on her walls “Yes I Can” it was the time to which those words were popular after Barrack Obama’s election, she was determined and I had never seen a kid that determined, for me when I was in Primary six, I didn’t even know that I had to succeed, I was in darkness, but for her for the two of them who were even younger than I was, had vision and perfection than us their brothers.

Her as well, she passed with high marks and the first lady as well were surprised, well may be she didn’t know that they were sisters but she signed to both of their certificates, so these two young girls had determination, they already knew that they had made it, and they did, so our mind can do great things than we even think…there are some other kids in their school who didn’t have a dream, who doubted themselves and yet they were right…they became what their mind told them to be, and even myself, when I was in P6 I didn’t have a dream, I was just like a tree in a humans’ body, I am not sure whether I even used to think of myself, and I was not expecting any results from my work, but in Senior three after I had started to control my mind, that time I was waiting results and I did got them…that time as well I knew that I had already arrived.

That time, when other parents would ask my father and my mother the secret they used on their two daughters to succeed to the point to which they all received the same prizes from the First lady of Rwanda, he would say that it was because self control, he had thought them to control their mind, that they can do anything with it, that helped us to be able to control our minds, to start believing that we had already arrived, even though for me I never got the prize from the first lady, which doesn’t exist because it is only for girls, but it was a great achievement for me as well…

“I don’t care what they think.”

Say these words anytime you are about to be taken down by what people thinks, the truth is that people will always think on your deeds, for example I remember a time, my fellowship asked me if I could sing for them, that time I was scared I knew I had talent to write songs but it was the first time I was going to try to sing In public, I had a music key board that I didn’t know to play at all, but with the courage that I had I went in front of them and I sang as I could, but I could see in the public how funny I was, and some even told me that I was embarrassing myself, but I never stopped, I carried on, I am still carrying on with my talent, and soon I believe that it will no long be in thoughts only.

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there idea which you disagree with and, if so why?

Not at all, everything was clear, the courage of Mr. Jonathan, I should adopt his example in doing what I do just like him, by putting aside all things that block me, by braking all the chains that are limiting me to go forward, by believing that my thoughts are the shaper of my destiny, that luck doesn’t exist after all but performance.

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?

While I was reading this book I was curious of its’ end, and when reached to the end, I was not that satisfied, I wished to complete the book afterward, which is silly.

I wanted to read the part after Jonathan went back home, and change all the flock not only few among them but the whole flock, including the elder sea gulls, like his mother and father, it would have been a great challenges for him, that why I want read about the courage that he would use to convince such gulls, the beauty of flying, that would be the exercises for me to complete, in my mind I did complete it, and I realized that all it would have taken Jonathan was the great courage and effort mostly to be fearless. By standing in front of the flock and teach them about the beauty of flying I know he did but what I don’t know is whether he carried on.

This is not just about flying, I consider Jonathan as a young courageous man who wanted to change his community but the community had principles just like Jonathan’s flock, but that courageous man, no matter what they would tell him, he did all his best to change his community…and only with an example of a good life. Jonathan had discovered that he could get food using his techniques of flying. He discovered that living is not about principles, living is about perfection. Just because his ancestors lived a particular life, he did not have to live the same one. He had to find a better one.

7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not envered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.

When Jonathan was put in front of the flock, when he was going to be out casted, he did something that really touched me, in tradition it was not allowed for a sea gull to speak in front of the flock, but Jonathan had that courage to speak out trying to explain himself, these is the thing which made me think about our community, usually in our country or Africa older people are always right, and young people are not allowed to speak up their minds, this has been there for ages.

But now days younger people had started to speak up their minds and many older people call it arrogance, now days when parents tell their kid what seem to be right for the kid and when the kid say no, they say that the kid is arrogant, but they do not know that younger people also know what should be best for them, this Book, made me realize that even younger people could break the chains and speak up their minds in the public, and be heard.

What I realized is that parents decides for their kids, it is right thing to do I understand, but kids also should be included in taking their decision, because there are the ones affected. And once a kid is trying to follow a dream to which his parents do not like or want, they try to stop him, just like Jonathan’s parents, and many younger people do not get the courage of Jonathan to stand in front of their elders and say what they think they should do, and their dream fade away, their talent fade away, and once their dream has ended like that, the mind stop producing such positives thoughts, because they know that they will be stopped, braked down…

What I can tell Jonathan’s flock, mostly his parents is that they were lucky that their boy was brave enough to ignore them and pursue his dreams, he was ready to be alone but up in the air, he realized that he was not alone…, out there they were others kids with same ideas like him, even though them also for the start up, they were ashamed to be seen with him, yet he was out casted, but after they didn’t care at all.

This is the thing we lack in Africa, we all believe that we should go to nursery school, primary, secondary and University to get a life, and those who have different talent should do the same and follow their dreams after, that because there is no yet security in living dreams in Africa, for example myself, I felt like I loved writing songs, books and poems ever since I was young but I had to follow my studies and follow my dream after, because I do not know whether that talent of mine will give me something enough to live for in my country, I know I should not thing like that but also the environment that we live in do contribute, because we know that there is not such writer and song writer in our country how is living for only his talents, we have to study and do other things accessory.

But as we are developing, I suggest that parents should encourage their kids in their talents and dreams, they should study. That I understand but after then tell them to not give up on their talents or dreams, cause a mind with dreams and positive thoughts achieves a lot in one’s life.

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? 8
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

 

 

Psycho-Cybernetics

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

There are many powers we ignore that we possess, many do not believe that a human’s mind can create path. Our subconscious mind acts like a guider it gives signals to us to follows and we follow its direction. So this means, there has to be a connection between the two parts of our minds, because if there is a conflict between the two minds, then we are confused about what we are. Once this happens a conflict in your head occurs and the results are non-positive thinking, without hope and confidence.

A very clear example is a clock alarm! When we use alarm over and over at the same time, all days of the week, then our subconscious mind get a clear time for the alarm and it reaches the point to which the alarm is no longer necessary, at the same time you find your self-awake. No what you are going to be awake. This is the result of a peaceful mind. So If it subconscious mind has ordered the conscious mind to be awake at 5:30 in the morning, and once for example your phone or alarm do not go off, the subconscious mind will force you to be awake, to tell you oh, by the way your time is up. So what I came to learn in this book, or I developed is that my power, my strength lies in my mind.

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. C.R.A.F.T.

The method which changes you, I recently have adopted this method, it was with this car that I couldn’t start despite my driving license, I have tried several times but there was this fear in me any time I would sit in that car, in my mind I would think of the reason that I couldn’t drive it, was it because it was a Mercedes Benz? I almost was to the point to give up and say that I couldn’t. But my subconscious mind whispered to me five words:

Cancel: I said cancel to the fear I had.

Replaced: that fear with yes I can drive any car because I passed the test.

Affirmed: I acknowledged the mistake of using third gear instead of first one.

Focused: I controlled all movement then; I start to get concern about other cars conditions.

Training: that all cars now I want to drive them.

ii. Fake it till you make it

There is this thing we call, assuming; I am driving that car, I own that house, the thing is every day in your day dream you will dream of that car, you will dream of owning that house, and it is from those dreams that you will get to have what you wished for, so once you are faking owning that nice car, or being a successful person it is highly that you will make it. The more you thing about something the more your subconscious mind adopt it, and it will lead your conscious mind to it.

iii. Instead of punishing yourself for your mistakes, acknowledge them as a guide post toward growth and change.

Instead of waking up all morning saying “oh boy “I am stupid, I hate myself because of stupid things I do, bad decisions, instead of all of that, correct what make you make those poor decisions. There is a proverb in our tradition which says, instead of killing someone for a particular mistake, kill what makes him do that mistake, if you shall kill a woman because her prostitution, you shall correct why she became one, well may be to later. So they say the best time to worry about a decision is before you make it, then after don’t.

iv. How your positive or negative believes can further or lower your children’s self-esteem.

Like father like son, a young man wants to become like his father, so does a girl to her mother, so a woman called x she been straggling with her kid, she gave birth to illegal child, looking back wards she as well she is illegal child, so she tend to be like her mother and her baby girl as well tend to be like them, so her subconscious mind developed an image to be like her mother without noticing…any way the things we believes, and things we do affects our children self-esteem, if it is positive, then you children self-esteem will be positive. So better be careful, on things we do and we think in front of our children.

v. I am not judged by the number of times I fail but the number of times I succeed.

Many goals achievers fail many times until they make it, and what makes them winners is not give up, because other fail to keep up and they fail before they win, true winners keep up and finally they win.

vi. I do not own the problem, who does?

Now anytime I find myself in a problem, I first analyze the owner of the problem, and if is not me, I see who is it, and then I try to find a way for the problem, struggle are here to make us stronger not weaker.

vii. Self Image

No real behavior changes could take place unless self-image has changed these women could never change into what they want them to be unless they have changed their self-image, grow their confidence. Encouragement is necessary but I am somebody do the best job.

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 lesson will help me in a way that I will always pay attention on what my mind is telling me, now that I know that I should never use my left brain solving problem but analyzing them and the right brain to solve them, I will never allow conflicts in my mind to that point.

Now I have adopted CRAFT method in order to replace an old habit into a better one even though it is never easy to correct a habit but with this method there is nothing you cannot do, any time I find myself into a bad habit I say cancel, and I replace the old habit with new one, I affirm, focus and train.

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.

“It is the truth even if it did not happen” & “believe is seeing.”

When you believe something, it does not have to be more really, the fact that you believe it for you it is the reality, it can be personal or general, so for example at my high school they used to say that there a leopard and everyone believed it, and everyone would say that he had seen it, even I seen it yet there were none at all, just because in our minds we have developed a leopard in our minds, it was there, and it didn’t matter how we would see it differently no one would say that it was white or green, but because we knew the true exact color of it, we wouldn’t even bother think about it.

“I am somebody.”

Gloria Steinem said, “even I who had spent years working on external barriers to women equality, had to admit that there were internal ones too, in our country we have been adopting the policy of women equality, but it can be none sense if it is not followed but internal self-confidence, this method have been adopted by many philosophers and they realized that repeating to yourself that you are somebody really makes you somebody.”

This goes with self-image, no real behavior changes could take place unless self-image has changed these women could never change into what they want them to be unless they have changed their self-image, grow their confidence. Encouragement is necessary but I am somebody do the best job.

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?

How can I control the usage of my two parts of my brain, the left one which is used to analyses problem and right one used to solve them, once you mix things that is when you get stress, how to know which one to use, what to do once you get stressed how to use the right one to solve the problem.

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?

“Stress a serious treat for our health.” After reading this book I took time to think about stress, and I have come to know that it is the serious issue, but not sure how to avoid it. I took time to study myself and others around me to see whether I could detect stress. And I realized that most of us don’t even know that they possess stress. There is joke in our country which says that stress is when your own wife has cheated you in your own bed, and in your way trying to fled the area, your car broke, and by trying to hick hack somebody in your way, you realize that the only car stopped is the man who were with your wife in your own bed. All of this are things which confuse our brain, and we try to resolve problem with our left brain, instead of using the right one, so once you mind is confused in stress, it work badly and it is no longer healthy. So does you?

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.

Our subconscious mind gives directions to conscious mind to move toward to.

A day after I read the chapter about the subconscious mind, I was amazed to see the clear example, I was buying my lunch and a woman who was there told me that the price of one potato was 150. I ordered them and ate, in my mind I had calculated my bill, but when I paid she charged me 100 per one potato and after I came to realize that the actual price was 100, and she wanted to cheat me, but her subconscious mind did not know what she was about to, and she charged that price that she always do. Without forcing her subconscious mind that the price was 150 the subconscious mind forced her to do what was right.

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? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8

 

 

Keys to Success

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

It is not that easy for this book to define the single idea that the author was trying to convey in this book, because there are many of them (keys to success), everything that you can do to reach success, everything that successful people done to be where they are now, so as they are many and may be every one used his on method, but it is due to a person to determine his or hers. But whatever they used they are somehow common due to the success of them, like everyone need a definiteness purpose of his or her life. You have to know where you want to go in order to reach the destination, and unless you do that with faith, positive mental attitude and so on, you won’t go anywhere.

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. “No one gets something for nothing, people with something to give will expect something in return.”

Well I believe that most people know this, but also I know that there are those people with something to give who would want much from you, and yet for them they give you little, I am to talk against this idea, I was caught in this impossible job with a horrible boss, who can’t even treat you like an animal, he took much from us yet what was he giving? Less. for me I knew that I couldn’t resist because of this course I knew that there is a method to use which is CRAFT to protect myself before is too late. So my idea behind this is people should take and give accordingly what they receive and give, and people can even give you more than you give them once even the little you are giving is from heart.

ii. “You can never knock and be opened on a door of opportunity unless you have closed the one you were in.”

If closing that door and throw keys in a very big whole is the price to pay, so beat it. And if that door of opportunity is not opened on the first knock so nock for the second time, and third one. here is the thing, just because you know that you have closed behind you and threw keys, you know that the only option you have is to wait and be opened, but if you are knocking with other keys in your pocket, then after the 10th knock you will give up and return to your old place. I recently did this, the door of this impossible job I had, I closed them behind me and threw the key, so that I can get time to knock on doors of opportunity a better one, I threw the key because I knew that I have even tried to knock before but I would go back to my impossible life.

iii. “It is better to act on a plan that is still weak than to delay acting at all.”

Sometimes when we have an idea and we know that it is still weak, we tend to not act to wait for it to be strong, yet the results is we even forget about that idea, so always act when it is still fresh, in our tradition they say, you should catch a goat when it is still able to make a sound.

iv. “Criticize without destroying enthusiasm.”

I think this is the quality that every leader should adopt, it is ok for you to criticize your subordinates who did not meet your goals, but it is not ok for you to destroy their enthusiasm, if only I could help my dear old co-workers by teaching their horrible boss of them this idea. But with money that such bosses got, they are always right….well at least they think they are, the thing is if you put them in their employees shoes, they also would mess up, because no one can work better and right when his or her enthusiasm is destroyed.

I did the same thing when I was trying to create a group of youth, I had started to make a connection but I went away, so the idea behind this, as mentioned above about throwing the key before you knock, it is better to have a purpose, what do I need? And how will I achieve. Well again it is never too late.

vi. “The best way to receive love is to give it.”

You will never find love unless you give it, this is nothing but saying, you will never receive a call unless you make a call, people with something to give will expect something in return, people also expect love from you before they give it to you, this is same as they say as dogs can sense those who love them and hate them, so does people.

vii. “Success attract success And failure attract failure.”

It is what they say that money calls money, a successful man in everything he does, he will succeed, but this has nothing to do with his money but his mental attitude. I was once with this man and we were walking past someone’s compound and he said “if it was for me to plant that avocado! It wouldn’t have grown into this beautiful tree” well it is obvious that it wouldn’t with his negative mental attitude. It is as if that tree will understand you when planting it with a negative mind, when saying “oh let me plant you but I know you will not grow like that one of my rich neighbor” hell yeah It will understand you and stay just where it is. But once grow it without comparing it with anyone’s but yours, you will know that what that man does to grow his avocado is to water it, not that he sits there with his money and avocado grows.

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 believe that everything that happens to us has a reason, and I would stand for my pride instead of my fear, who knows what the future holds for you, and you know what? That thing is better, because we grow to be better, not worse. Only negative mental attitude ones grow to be worse.

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.

“Whatever your mind can conceive and believe your mind can achieve.”

They say that it has been proven that what we keep saying to ourselves are what we tend to become and it is important that we understand that. What we believe that we can! We finally achieve them; actually by human thinking it is impossible. But also as someone who knows life, somehow there is an example. The thing is you never get to tell when it is happening, because even you are in doubt until you make it. But what matters is to believe and hard work. You won’t just go there and believe, you also have to work hard to achieve.

“If you could plant for days, plant flowers, if you could plant for years plant trees, if you could plant for eternity, plant ideas.”

This is nothing but to say that ideas are more important than anything else, and you know what? it is because everything has came from ideas, so if you want to do something to last days it will be to plant flowers and years may be trees but eternity is definitely ideas, they will be there growing and achieving. The thing is everything that has been achieved has been once an idea. And they are here for even after life of the thinker, there are so many examples and I have heard some people saying that the old and past generation were the ones with great ideas, that for us we are just living what others thoughts. That is not true, every generation has its great thinkers, you may not realize it now but later people will.

“Where faith is a guide the individual cannot lose his way.”

Use applied faith in everything that you do, just as you develop your muscles by applied exercises, it is the same that you will grow your faith. Just as your capital can not increase without investing it, you will grow your faith as well by using 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?

Not at all everything is clear; I agree with them what matters now is to apply this ideas in my dairy life to achieve success, I do not care if people sees me with this book and say, oh you want to be rich, what matters is that I feel the change in my mind in already.

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?

It is due to the book itself, each one contains thinks that you read and make different sense to you, but this one’s exercise is to take into consideration all of this keys to success, each and one has its value and once they are combined they are beyond, you won’t wait until you see the results.

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? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9

Success through Positive Mental Attitude

Assessment by Roger Hakizimana Tuyishime (Rwanda)

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

The main idea in this book is about, Positive Mental Attitude Vs Negative Mental Attitude, PMA is the most powerful weapon that anyone could have in his battle to success, there are many stories of people who used PMA in their battle to success and the results were remarkable, so even I can say that I used this method in my battle, it has been a long time as songs and books writer but I never felt like I could do it, but after I read this book I went out and made my first song called poverty available to this link: http://youtu.be/BF2GV4ayzYI”>http://youtu.be/BF2GV4ayzYI, I realized that what I have lacked all this years was the effect of do it now, because of the NMA. So the writer is trying to tell you to find out, which one are you using? PMA or NMA.

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 for your own life.

i. “We are not poor because God will, we are poor because we do not develop a desire to be rich.”

These were the words that his mother told him when he asked why they were poor, that was S.B Fuller, and from that moment he developed that desire that no one in his family had developed, and he succeeded. This word inspired me, it was the time I was re-writing my song poverty, and that was the idea of saying “It does not make sense to me how we have failed to defeat poverty” why can’t we grow the idea of our world being Rich but not poor?

ii. “Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit”

I recently spoken about my resignation, what I did was a hard decision to make, In Keys to success there is a quote which says, You can never knock and be opened on doors of opportunity unless you have closed the ones you were in, so this was the case to me, I had tried before and I had failed to get another job while I was still in the one I had which was horrible, and I took a decision to resign in order to knock on those doors of opportunity, and as I had no where else to turn back to, I stayed and knocked so many times until the door was opened and got a nicer job more than the one I had.

iii. “If you do not have money, use OPM”

Some people used this method, but all they had to offer was great ideas, best way for those people to let them use their money. Getting a credit in Bank, is using some one’s money and achieve what you wish, bringing ideas to people is OPM. There are other many way that you can use OPM method in order to achieve what you want, the main thing is to convince those people to let you use their money, Remember people with something to give, will expect something from you in return”

iv. “You are what you think, But what do you think?”

Once upon time, there was a wise man, and the King wanted to prove him that he was not after all wise, he called him upon, and the King held the bird in his hands, and asked the wise man this question. “ Do you think this bird is alive or dead” and the wise man replied, “ The answer is in your hand, my Kind” so this man was not wise by words, but by thoughts.

v. “Do it Now”

Like this proverb says “ Never put tomorrow, what can be done today” tomorrow is for tomorrow’s people, you day is today, we have learned that success achieved by those who act quickly on their ideas, no matter what!! so do things you believe you can do sooner, cause sooner is the better.

vi. “You do not need to be ashamed to be a failure like Christopher Columbus”

After you realize that, many people who ever achieved something in this word, had never tried it and succeed at once, they tried to many times failing until they finally made something so achievement were accident, so even you and I we do not have to be ashamed to be failure like Christopher Columbus, cause this man found success in his failure, if he would have never failed and reached to Indian land, he was never going to discover America.

vii. “Positive Mental Attitude”

A PMA person for me Is a person that sees a broken bridge and see a way a cross, a PMA for me, Is a person that find him self in an impossible situation, and for him he find him self a way out, on the other side, A NMA is a person who sees everything in a negative way, who find him self in a situation and the solution is suicide.

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 had already helped me, when I read the passage of S.B Fuller with his mother telling him that they were not poor because of God’ willing, I looked for my side, first of all, am I poor? The answer was no, I might be seem poor but it is because my time hasn’t yet come, and it is near, so all I have to do in everything that I do, is to use PMA, to believe that everything that I will put my mind n to work on, will e successful, by believing I should see how to do a better job. In order to achieve success.

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.

“The most and difficult battle that you won, you were not existing”

it was not the first time to hear this quote, the was a pastor who told us that, the time we were about to born, we did struggled and we won, so if you won that time yet you were even still that little, why can you now?

“Success achieved and Maintained by those who use PMA”

I recently had crises of Sinusitis, that time breathing was so hard and I could barely speak, yet I had a job interview that I couldn’t afford to miss, I did not know how I was going to pass it, with out my voice, the night before I spent I night making my self believe that I was going to be able to speak, I was not sure about that, but in interview I got to speak with out any problem, that was the power of PMA, I believed and the results of the interview were good.

“You are what your habits make you, and you can choose your habits”

Have you ever been in a situation, where some one really challenges you to see your habits? a poor couple, was once sitting in front of their fire, and God told them to wish three things and they will be given, and with out even thinking, a man wished a meat to roast on that fire, and the meant was there, a woman was very angry for such stupid wish, and her as well she wished for that meat to be sticked to her husband’s mouth, and the meat did so they had used their two wishes and remain with one, and the man wished for the meat to get off him, and the three wishes were over, the lesson behind this, is that if our habits are poor, we will never be anything but poor.

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there idea which you disagree with and, if so why?

I know that this such inspirational books had been there for a long time, but there was a time, the first one was written, and I believe that they work because I am reading them, my question is, what do you think motivated this people to write such books, for me I might be motivated, by Napoleon Hill and I would write an other book? So what motivated those first men and women?

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, I was in a prisoner, in my own hole, I could see many way to go out but with no idea where to get out by, after reading this book, I know can say I know which way to get out from, and if ever fail, I won’t come back, but I will do all it takes to get out.

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.

“Everyone has some creative ability, but most people haven’t learned to use it.” There is no such thing as to say that, someone has better brain than other, we all have the same brain, that functioned in the same way, but the ability to use it differ, so does everyone has a creative ability, to do something new that differentiate him or her with others, but we are so lazy to learn how to use that creativity ability. “Take a time, thing of a thing that would make you, you, and explore it.”

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? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9

 

 

The New Dynamics of Winning

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

This book’s main idea revolves around the champions lives, how they work hard to achieve to the stage that they are called champions, we all are champions at some point in every things that we do and he who act like a champion do win, all effort and hard working should be in our aim just like champions. This mean nothing but nothing comes from nothings, all these athletic people had something in common continues exercises.

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. “What can I do for you?”

This is a good question that the good manager asks his or her employees, in order to make them feel good about themselves, these kind of question should be asked and it motivates the person in particular, I remember my previous job, our boss would never say something to make us feel good and the results were that we were unhappy about the job.

ii. “Champions know that what you see in what you will be.”

But the question to all of us is, what do you see? a really champion when he sees his or her opponent, he or she feels victory, and it might be same to both side but those who are characterized by fear and negative believes about themselves they fail, and for the opposite case those who have positive believes do win. Olympic athletes run through their mind how they would like to win a race, and that is what they see.

iii. “When it starts to hurt, it starts to win”

We do know that there is nothing in this life require hard working, these is nothing but to say that you can never achieve something without hard working, hard working hurts, so all the time that you feel like your things are just easy, then you know that you will not win, but when you feel like it is hurting then know that something good will come from that hard work.

iv. “Don’t rush success”

No one has ever reached success in one day, there is a proverb that says the Roman empire was not build in one day, it took so many days, process by process, there are people who give up just few steps back from where success was, just because they are done waiting, those people never win, because they want success to come fast, but those who wait they win.

v. If you have to fail, fail Big

This mean nothing but in life you should never fear to fail, fail is something that all people face at some point, but how we react about that situation differs, winner never fear to fail, if they fail today, and they try to fail again, because at some point you will win, if you fail today try to fail big tomorrow because the other day you will win. FAIL means First attempt in learning, if you fail today you know then what you will change to not fail again.

vi. A puppy becomes a bull dogs

This is same talking like the idea number 4, there is nothing on this earth that comes to its existence at once, there is always process, from puppy to bulldog, baby to old man, cub to lion, raw materials to finished good, poor to rich.

vii. Champions know that what you see is what you will be.

The really champions know that they will win before they do, because they program their mind to win, their subconscious mind are trained to win and because of that they do.

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?

During a couple of days I have spent reading this book, I felt like I was living with worlds most athletic champions, their stories are similar which means that if you too or I too follow how they lived you to you win, they are were hard workers and believers. There is a situation that I am living now, difficulties in my job, I am a commercial agent in a certain microfinance, and the person who held my post before me, has been recruited by and other bank and they want that person to steel all my customers, in first days I felt like I was over for me, I am new I need my contract to be sign and there is no way that will happen with that competition, but I know that I can find my own way.

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.

“Losers let it happen, winners make it happen.”

This quote made me think about the discussion I used to have with my friends, about certain people being poor and others being rich, we used to ask ourselves that does people who are poor is it their fault? Or those who are rich what did they do to be so, so the thing is no one is made to be poor, we all have the same capability to be rich, but we do not use that capacity the same way, there are people who knows what it takes to be a winner, and others just sit there thinking that it was how they were meant to spent their lives, and those people let it happen, and others who know what it takes to win make it happen.

“It is mind over muscle, mind over competition, and mind over everything”

This was the first quote that I read from this book, when I was reading the cover note, it hit my mind, when you have the mind you have everything, you can lose your leg, and another part of your body but when you have your mind you have everything, there was once a man who did not have both of his arms, and he felt like life was nothing, he went over a building to suicide, reaching there he realized that there was a man in the street who did not have both of his legs and arms dancing, and he wondered the reason of that, he realized that he too can be happy without his arms.

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?

Nothing at all, everything were clear, I loved the stories in this book, how all this people reached success with hard effort, no one of them has ever lived a soft life, they lived a hard life to a achieve a better one

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 exercise of 21 day plan, when you are focus on achieving something you achieve it, I started forcing myself to plan everything in my life, 31 days to have a perfect weight, 14 days to a good diet.

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.

“A story of Jackie Robinson.” I knew this story before I read it in this book, I have seen the movie about this story, what I seen in the story was the courage, I know how it feels being the victim of racism, I lived in that situation 3 years in India, I would not say that East Indians are totally racists but there are some most uneducated ones, who are. Even sitting in a bus in my first day I would feel bad because at some point someone would come to check whether there was no black oil on my body, but we had courage, to live perfect in that country and come back home, but for this man, the place he called home was his nightmare.

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? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7

 

 

Real Magic

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

The author is trying to awaken us, the magic he is talking about isn’t that magic to cut a woman into two parts and bring her back to life, the magic is telling us is that magic you use your mind to create a path to your life, to make a way where there is no way, using our mind there are things that we do ignore that we could, for those who don’t believe in real magic they say it is that kind of magic, but for those who believe in the Real magic there is no doubt.

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. Be the person who accepts no limits in your life

If they tell you that you shall not reach the work place because the bridge is broken, tell them that you can swim, there are many things in our lives that limit us, but they shall not, they limit you because you allowed them to, if you are that kind of person who use real magic they won’t broke you, they won’t limit you.

ii. Real magic in human’s mind is another force

I believe that there is a force which help people to write meaningful poems, songs, and books, some believe that it’s God who speaks through them, others believe that it is Real magic, I myself haven’t been declared as writer or song writer yet, but I know that magic, there are voices which speaks in my mind when I am about to write a song and I know that I should write down those words because they fly after wards. That is what I consider as real magic.

iii. Just because I cannot see it or feel it, it does not mean that it does not exist.

It is a human nature to not believe things which cannot be seen with our eyes, but believe has something to do with our mind, first of all our mind work against us, but when you believe in your mind that it is possible then it will be for you. But for other it will not be, there was a friend of mine who used to do magic, and he would tell us that it is nothing but illusions, but for us we couldn’t believe, and one time he revealed to me how he did some of those tricks, I couldn’t stop be amazed.

iv. If you can conceive it in your mind, then you can bring it to the physical life.

All things that we see, were once a dream, were once a thought, and we do not get to have same thoughts no matter the circumstances might be the same, some of those thoughts were so hard and unthinkable, but because their owners believed that the can bring them to a physical live, they did. Everything that you see was brought to life, they were first dreams.

v. You shall never be someone else apart from you, nor your beloved ones, nor any other one, you are what you are, your thoughts, your behavior.

When I was young, I fell in love with this little beautiful girl, she was my classmate, and I would dream about her all nights, and all days I would think of her, it was the strangest feeling I had ever experienced, I did not know what to do, all I used to do was to wish to be that girl, if I was so obsessed by what she was, may be if ever I could be her, I was going to find peace, but it was the most stupid wish, I am who I am, not matter how that girl made me suffer with a true love, I finally realized that the mutual feeling was all I needed, not to be her.

vi. The power of meditation

During my time in India, we used to have yoga session, all my classmates who were not Indians (Christians) used to say that yoga was against christianism, that I was worshiping their gods, but for me I felt like there was nothing that could ever come from me without think about it, I knew that my mind was pure, all I wanted was meditation, and it does help, it clear your mind, and I realized that those people who do meditation till they fly, that could be possible.

vii. Intuitions

We often hear people saying, some voice told me to do that and that voice was right, before I used not to believe in those things, but as I grew up I believed that such things are possible, it doesn’t have to be this kind of voice that all people could hear, those voice can be your own secret, like a song writer when he feel a song in his mind, or a preacher hear the word to preach about next Sunday. Those are such voices, that people say they hear, and everyone has them, but not all of us believe in them.

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 will help me in my dairy life, I will practice the Real magic in everything that I will do, I will believe in impossible, but also knowing that there is something that I should do to erase that verse which says impossible in my mind.

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 can never get enough of what you do not want, and they also say.”

“When you seek it you cannot find it.”

These two quotes are against each other, but not that much in conflict, the first one says that in order to be satisfied in anything, you should want to be satisfied in that thing, which means that if your mind wants something, then you will get enough; first of all you should have the desire. And the second one says that wanting is not what matter, because when you put in your mind that you want something that bad, that you can do anything to get it, then you never get it, it is also in our tradition when they say, because I want it won’t show up, but when I do not want it it does show up.

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?

In this book they say that, if you love someone back because he or she loved you, then it is not love, love should be between two people without one ask for it, I kind of understand that, but I believe that most of couples, have someone who loved first another one, and that other person came to love him or her back. So if is not love, then what is it, is it true that it is not love yet those people seem to be in love? I know when two people find themselves in love it is the most beautiful thing ever, but what I don’t understand is if I find a girl in a metro station, and fell for her, she does not know me and nor do I, when I do all things possible to make her fall for me, and she does!! How should I call that, love or not?

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?

Not at all

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.

As I was reading this book. A friend of mine sent me a speech to which Mr Fidel Castrol spoke in 1973 saying that they (Cuba) will be friends again with America, when the president of united state will be black and the pope from south America, I thought about that speech, and asked myself why did he think about that in 1973, the two things were even impossible to thing about them, but he did, and it happened, so I called it Real Magic.

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? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10

 

 

Giant Steps

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

The main idea in this book, is that the author is trying to make us see that the giant steps in everything we do has its roots, it roots which is our mind, there is nothing that we can do which does not come from our minds, this means that we should take care of our mind more than anything else, we should nourish our mind with important ideas and those ideas transform themselves in a giant step and steps

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. “You and I can make our lives legendary inspiration.”

Although we cannot always control events in our lives, we can always control our response to them and the actions we take as results, this is the secret on having a fine secure life, we know that there is nothing we cannot do about events that occur in our lives, but the secret is how to control them, there was a time I used to feel bad to everything that would not go well with me, but somehow now I know that it is how it is.

ii. “The real purpose of a goal, is what it makes you when you pursue it.”

At every first step on pursuing a goal, there is somehow this question: what if I do not make it? But for those who know they never lose time with that question because they know that even though they won’t make it, they will never remain the same afterwards.

iii. “If you keep focusing on what you fear is where exactly your will end up.”

In life people focus their minds on what they do not want instead of what they want, and the more they spend time to those things they do not want, the more their subconscious mind thinks that it is what they really want, and it follows that road, so if you do not want something then never waste time on it.

iv. “Nothing in life has meaning except the meaning we give to it.”

When I was a young boy, I used to ask myself what if life is not life after all, what if our lives is just a dream, that someone is dream and we think that we are living, I guess many people had to think the same when they were young, but this means that your life and everything in it, nothing has the meaning, we all give meaning to those things in different way, we might have the same life but not same happiness because the meaning you give to your life I poor but me rich.

v. “Achievers usually see problems as transitory while failures see even small problems as everlasting.”

When I was young my grandmother once told me a story of a courageous man, who once wanted to cross the bridge to happiness, and the first time, he found that the bridge was guarded by an angry lion and it almost ate him, but he was determined to go back, and the second time it was a leopard, and third time a giant snake, but he kept coming hoping that one day it will be a rabbit, and after all dangerous animals had made their shift there a was a rabbit and he fought it and cross, so for those who see problems as everlasting, would never had returned on the second day fearing for his life.

vi. “People are not their behaviors, understand what drives them, and you will really know them.”

As my job involves working with populations who take loans in our bank, I was once having a meeting with them, where we were celebrating the 47th loan in our institution, there was this man who was abusing women, saying that women are the most bad creation, but we would remind him that even his mother was a woman as well but he seemed to hate her as well, I couldn’t understand the man, and I was even annoyed, but they told me that his ex-wife gave him a hard time, and that was the reason that that halted to women.

vii. “Remember ask and you shall be given, knock you shall be opened.”

Even the Bible say so, in our life we live a life which require us to need our fellows, and we ask for their help, and they do help and others don’t but how can they know that you need help once you have not said so, if you want to enter someone’s compound then knock they will answer, this is nothing but to say that in our life we need to get out and try, there is a proverb in our tradition that says there is no one man, a man I a man because of other men.

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?

The giant steps, are the ones that I should make in everything that I do, always aim high, there was on friend of mine who once told me that the reason I haven’t got job that time was that I always applied in powerful institutions and in city, and I told her that the moment that doors of opportunity will be opened, it will be in that beautiful institution and in city.

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.

“Pain can be your friend if you use it effectively.”

Everything that cause us pain do open our eyes, it is sometimes trough sufferings that our lives are shaped, when a young kid play with a knife and the knife do cut him or her, then that kid know that it is not his friend, if pass through a bad road in life and it gives you a hard time, then you know that you shall take the other road next time.

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 is nothing that I disagree with or which is not clear to me, but the book is really written in a good way that help the reader to focus on important point, which makes it faster to finish and understand the book, the way good ideas are highlighted is the most thing I liked about the book, it shows where to pay attention.

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?

Yeah, the book was containing the exercises for the reader to complete, all of those excises that they require me to write down my ideas and see of they give the meaning, I did all of those and they are helpful, once you take a pen and write down ideas it is more helpful than just keeping those ideas in your head.

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.

Nothing at all, but I would like to comment on this book, this book had been more helpful to me ever since I started to read it, the first time I seen it, it was looking as if it was going to be boring for me, because it seem different but the more I read it, it was really amazing, thank you to Anthony.

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? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

The author is trying to show us, a best way to deal with people, now that I have completed this book, I came to realize my mistakes and I feel them any time I make one. In order to get along with people, you should always think in terms of their point of view, make them feel important, show them that they are your superior, never excel people but let them excel you, and be honesty.

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 toUse personal examples from your own life.

i. “People don’t criticize themselves.”

The thing about people is that no one really want to admit whether she or he is wrong, we always take credit of good deeds, only few does the opposite. That is why you should not handle them by criticisms, for them they think they are right, and you could do the same if you were them.

ii. “The benefit of being friendly to your employees.”

A man with 314 employees said “Before no one greeted me, and no one looked me in the eyes because I never cared of what they wanted” this man never understood the importance of his employees and he never bored to even care. But this man seen the difference after he started making his employees feel good, he said “even the janitor calls me by my name.”

iii. My dream

“I was a janitor in one butcher shop, a woman came in claiming to have bought a bad fish, my boss denied her claim and she was agitated.” And I said “Boss, she is right, this fish smells like a rotten dead animal, we should apologize and replace the fish with condolences.” And guess what happened then, I was fired and what next?. I became a manager of my client butcher shops. Well that was just a dream, but a dream I had because of this book, I am sure if that janitor (me) would do the same in a really live the credit would be the same.

iv. “How to get cooperation.”

Readying this book made me think more about things I used to do, I would take for granted little thing but which can take me far away, there is this woman who sells fruits in my area. Few days back I went to buy an avocado and she looked me eyes and she told me, “I know you are my customer, I have bad avocadoes you would not like them” and telling me that would make any one go away, but that honesty got my attention, and I bought them any way, and I was not unhappy to eat them. So this woman got my cooperation with her technique of telling me the truth. And now that I know that she tells me the truth I shall never buy anywhere else.

v. “If you want enemies excel your friends, but if you want friends let your friends excels you.”

As chesterfield said to his son “be wiser than other people if you can, but do not tell them so.” People don’t like if you show them that you are better than them, I remember in high school we used to have kids who would because of their ego, excel their friends and no one liked them, they would do so to win other peoples attention, but they were wrong, the best method was just in front of them but they would do the different, me as a young boy I was different I always had this bad feeling about my self that everyone is better than me some how, but I would take it in a negative way, as I was reading this book I came to know that I was wrong, what I was doing was right but i felt bad about it, now in my job as a commercial agent, I can never excel my customers telling them that I am better than them, no we all are better, and this method is being a success to me.

vi. The five most touching principles in this book are:

First one “be interested in people,” show them that you are glad that they are living, the second one “smile,” a smile can transform a picture, a smile make other peoples feel welcomed, the third one “remember names,” have you went I a shop that it had be so many days since you left and the teller calls you by your name? It is an amazing feeling.

The forth one you should “listen,” hear what they have to say, do not interrupt or argue, make people feel important that is the fifth “always show them that they are your superior” there is nothing to lose in that, and “talk in their interest” make them even believe that you best ideas are theirs.

vii. “If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive”

There are some proverbs in our tradition that complement this one, like the one they say “if you want cows be alert to sleep like them”, or the other one they say “you should not cut a branch of a tree that you are sitting on it”…. So how can you say that you want honey and then you do not want a beehive? Or how can you explain cutting a branch of a tree that you will fall with? So even In live when you want a service from someone you should not show your ego, be humble, show that person that he is important to you, but if you show that you are the one important then he won’t help you. At my work there is this accountant who also is in charge of archive, we are suppose to go in archive Monday morning only for the whole week, and recently I went in and forgot to take what I was really looking for, Wednesday morning I came back to ask him to open for me again, he had never ever opened there unless it was Monday not under any circumstances, and I said like this “Good morning, first of all I would like to start with an apologies, Monday I forgot to pick some file and yet I need it, so if there was a way you can help me go back there, which I know that you don’t like. But do me this favor; ” and he said OK.

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 am going to print out a copy of this assessment which will be hanged all over my room that I can use this methods day and day. In my work, in my free time and, every where that I will be.

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 with out a smile face must not open a shop.”

For Chinese know that if you lack smile you should not open a shop, they know the power of a smile, yesterday entered this bank near by my work and a security woman welcomed me with a big smile and I felt so happy about that, she noticed me when I entered, she is loyal to all customers and when I went back she said good bye with a big smile. Now I know that any time I will go back I will feel welcomed, but there are such places that you even talk to them they seem to not even hear you, and sometimes you feel like you are invisible.

“If you are wrong, admit it.”

It takes a lot of courage to do as this quote says, but people who do so go far. Most people feel like they are ashamed to admit that they were wrong but they do not know that not admitting is what makes them even more ashamed, if you admit means you have followed that principle to not argue.

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?

Now I have understood that I can not win an argument, that any one that I meet is some how my superior, that I should make people feel important, but I know people when you show that you are that interested in them then they tend to push you away some how, especially females, so my question is what is the limit?

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 exercises in this book are to follow these principles, and I shall do so.

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.

Not at all.

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? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8

 

 

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

The author is trying to show us, a best way to deal with people, now that I have completed this book, I came to realize my mistakes and I feel them any time I make one. In order to get along with people, you should always think in terms of their point of view, make them feel important, show them that they are your superior, never excel people but let them excel you, and be honesty.

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. “People don’t criticize themselves.”

The thing about people is that no one really want to admit whether she or he is wrong, we always take credit of good deeds, only few does the opposite. That is why you should not handle them by criticisms, for them they think they are right, and you could do the same if you were them.

ii. “The benefit of being friendly to your employees.”

A man with 314 employees said “Before no one greeted me, and no one looked me in the eyes because I never cared of what they wanted” this man never understood the importance of his employees and he never bored to even care. But this man seen the difference after he started making his employees feel good, he said “even the janitor calls me by my name.”

iii. My dream

“I was a janitor in one butcher shop, a woman came in claiming to have bought a bad fish, my boss denied her claim and she was agitated.” And I said “Boss, she is right, this fish smells like a rotten dead animal, we should apologize and replace the fish with condolences.” And guess what happened then, I was fired and what next?. I became a manager of my client butcher shops. Well that was just a dream, but a dream I had because of this book, I am sure if that janitor (me) would do the same in a really live the credit would be the same.

iv. “How to get cooperation.”

Readying this book made me think more about things I used to do, I would take for granted little thing but which can take me far away, there is this woman who sells fruits in my area. Few days back I went to buy an avocado and she looked me eyes and she told me, “I know you are my customer, I have bad avocadoes you would not like them” and telling me that would make any one go away, but that honesty got my attention, and I bought them any way, and I was not unhappy to eat them. So this woman got my cooperation with her technique of telling me the truth. And now that I know that she tells me the truth I shall never buy anywhere else.

v. “If you want enemies excel your friends, but if you want friends let your friends excels you.”

As chesterfield said to his son “be wiser than other people if you can, but do not tell them so.” People don’t like if you show them that you are better than them, I remember in high school we used to have kids who would because of their ego, excel their friends and no one liked them, they would do so to win other peoples attention, but they were wrong, the best method was just in front of them but they would do the different, me as a young boy I was different I always had this bad feeling about my self that everyone is better than me some how, but I would take it in a negative way, as I was reading this book I came to know that I was wrong, what I was doing was right but i felt bad about it, now in my job as a commercial agent, I can never excel my customers telling them that I am better than them, no we all are better, and this method is being a success to me.

vi. The five most touching principles in this book are:

First one “be interested in people,” show them that you are glad that they are living, the second one “smile,” a smile can transform a picture, a smile make other peoples feel welcomed, the third one “remember names,” have you went I a shop that it had be so many days since you left and the teller calls you by your name? It is an amazing feeling.

The forth one you should “listen,” hear what they have to say, do not interrupt or argue, make people feel important that is the fifth “always show them that they are your superior” there is nothing to lose in that, and “talk in their interest” make them even believe that you best ideas are theirs.

vii. “If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive”

There are some proverbs in our tradition that complement this one, like the one they say “if you want cows be alert to sleep like them”, or the other one they say “you should not cut a branch of a tree that you are sitting on it”…. So how can you say that you want honey and then you do not want a beehive? Or how can you explain cutting a branch of a tree that you will fall with? So even In live when you want a service from someone you should not show your ego, be humble, show that person that he is important to you, but if you show that you are the one important then he won’t help you. At my work there is this accountant who also is in charge of archive, we are suppose to go in archive Monday morning only for the whole week, and recently I went in and forgot to take what I was really looking for, Wednesday morning I came back to ask him to open for me again, he had never ever opened there unless it was Monday not under any circumstances, and I said like this “Good morning, first of all I would like to start with an apologies, Monday I forgot to pick some file and yet I need it, so if there was a way you can help me go back there, which I know that you don’t like. But do me this favor; ” and he said OK.

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 am going to print out a copy of this assessment which will be hanged all over my room that I can use this methods day and day. In my work, in my free time and, every where that I will be.

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 with out a smile face must not open a shop.”

For Chinese know that if you lack smile you should not open a shop, they know the power of a smile, yesterday entered this bank near by my work and a security woman welcomed me with a big smile and I felt so happy about that, she noticed me when I entered, she is loyal to all customers and when I went back she said good bye with a big smile. Now I know that any time I will go back I will feel welcomed, but there are such places that you even talk to them they seem to not even hear you, and sometimes you feel like you are invisible.

“If you are wrong, admit it.”

It takes a lot of courage to do as this quote says, but people who do so go far. Most people feel like they are ashamed to admit that they were wrong but they do not know that not admitting is what makes them even more ashamed, if you admit means you have followed that principle to not argue.

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?

Now I have understood that I can not win an argument, that any one that I meet is some how my superior, that I should make people feel important, but I know people when you show that you are that interested in them then they tend to push you away some how, especially females, so my question is what is the limit?

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 exercises in this book are to follow these principles, and I shall do so.

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.

Not at all.

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? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8

 

 

Leadership for Dummies

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

The main idea is that, everyone can be a leader, Leaders are trained not born, but there are measures that you, as a leader have to take in order to be a good leader. Like elicit the cooperation of others, listen well, and being sensitive to the need of others.

To be a good leader, you have to understand that all leadership is temporary, as long as you are so called a leader, people expect much from you, and if they do not get what they want they will blame it on you. All you have to do is show them how they should do things, not to do things for them.

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 great thing in this world, is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.”

I always wonder whether people who have a certain life (Money and success) once asked themselves the same questions like me and my certain generation ask themselves. When are we going to get a fine life? Without lack of money, lack of employment, but there is always something everyone acknowledge “The future is bright.” Today you might be in a bad shape, poor, no job, but you have to focus on preparing your future, the past is past, the future is still yours.

ii. Self Awareness

Which is the ability to recognize and understand your mood, your mistakes like Michel Jordan used to do, any time he would miss a shot, he would smile meaning that he acknowledged the mistake, so there is even a proverb in our tradition that says, if you want to hear a disease you make it public, it is a poor translation but the point is, you have to acknowledge the mistake to not repeat it again.

iii. Just because you are on lead, don’t think that you will always be on lead.

I think this is the problem that most African countries has, we do not understand that being a leader is temporary, that when you can no longer satisfy needs of you followers you are no longer a leader, they consider you as a leader because you have something to give, so you should always be having something to offer. And a good leader should embrace the fact that he or she is no longer needed and step down, my ex boss was no longer fulfilling her responsibilities, and they told her to be a simple employee with same salary as CEO but she refused, because we take leadership as permanent.

iv. “In dreams begins responsibilities.”

Every things in life that you need to accomplish, takes time and effort. Have you ever set some kind of goal, and it challenges you in achieving it? Just because the first day you set that goal, you took a responsibility to accomplish it, and the fear to fail gives you a hard time, this is nothing but to say in dreams begins responsibilities. Once you dream you get this fear of not realizing your dream, and that fear makes you work hard.

v. “There is no new things under the sun.”

We as humans we have the possibilities to see things in the same way, once someone had discovered something under the sun does not mean that he created, no but it was there but he had the ability to see it, we all can have the same ideas, creative ones but we do not use our brain in the same way, so the point is once you see someone who had made something that cool, do not consider him as a god he took his time, so should you!! Every things that we see under the sun, were there but we never had the chances to see them the same way.

vi. “A poor leader will push opponents away.”

When you make all people your enemies, it is dangerous for you, but once you make them your friends no matter of your differences it is safer!! The thing about poor leader is to push away anyone who is against him, in company once you give an opinion he or she pushes you away, but what that leader does not know is that he or she is making her or his enemies, and those enemies will always work in order to make him or her in a bad situation. When you listen to your opponent and hear out what he has or she has to say, then that is it, he or she will be satisfied, but in another case, she or he will try his or her best to prove you wrong, to put you down.

vii. K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid)

Though I am not sure about the meaning of Stupid, but I do know that keeping things simple is important, there is one professor in high school that we had, he used to tell us that we were not on war, studying was not a war. That we should not make it a war, we should keep it simple, even stupid, by stupid for me I understand not that serious.

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 appreciated all of these ideas, they are going to be like my weapons, because not only they can help a leader who is facing problems in his or her empire, but also they can help a man to rise and reach the above, these ideas will help me in my daily life, how I do my work, and how I live my life, I should know that being a leader, you only have to feel like one, all leaders are trained not born, so all I have to do is feel leadership in me.

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.

“Rome wasn’t built in one day.”

I have came close so many time with this quote, anytime I would get discouraged in doing something, people would remind me that, it takes time to achieve a goal, this means that you should not give up, keep on trying, because even the Rome empire, took centuries to be built. So do not expect achievements in a short time, they take a while. And each day is an experience which will take you to that goal. Did you know that people who fail, always give up when they are almost there, and all their effort just burn down, this is the reason why I feel like I should never ever let the habit of giving up in my life, always believing that something is out there is my motto. For now I have a low paid job compare to my level of education, but I know that getting a job you need in my country is not easy, but I am learning experience, unlike some of my friends who find it not fair, I know it worth it, it take time to be someone.

“If you do not have strength use other people’s strength.”

That is what leaders do, the ability to make people listen and do something for the common interest, a leader all he or she has to do is to think of something in interest of his or her population, and the people execute the plan with their forces and with their resources. For example a leader sits in his office and realize that his or her country need a very beautiful stadium, but the government budget cannot afford it, he or she propose to her or his country to make a fundraising in order to get his or her vision in action.

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?

Not at all

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?

None.

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.

Planning process:

The idea behind your business

Vision that drive the idea

Why it will be successful

Why and how you can make it successful

I took time to think about this planning process, I think in everything that I do I should plan and follow steps.

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? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8

 

 

Goal Setting 101

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

The main idea in this book, is set goals a man without goals and plans is nothing at all, in goal setting there are different precautions that we should adopt and all of them will help us achieve our goals, we should write down goals so that we can remember well, once we write down we won’t forget, because we are able to see them often. And our mind get focused on them, in that case it will force you to work toward them,

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. Write down your goals

There is an old saying that say, words fly while writings remain for the eternity, writing down your goals will help you to not forget them, as you have put them some where you can see them often, your mind will focus on achieving them, and you will not rest until you made it, but once your goals are in your mind only, sometimes you will choose not to think about them, or sometimes they will just be so many in your head that you won’t remember that you had set a different kind of goal. So you should write down your goals, so should

ii. Focus never stop thinking about your goals

This is the principle that I always adopt, thought I cannot say that I have achieved some of the goals that I ever set, no but I believe that I have this principle of always focusing, I never stop about my dream, even if I choose to they always hunt me, and once I think about them then I find peace, I love writing and I have tried to write some stories, though I am not sure what good I will use them, I have set a goal to publish my work one and I always have something to correct to my work to help me focus.

iii. Always set a deadline

Once you set a goal, it is better to set a deadline, so that thinking that the deadline is close you will work hard to meet it, if you set a goal which does not have a deadline then you will not come to realize that you have failed to achieve it, because you will always have an excuse saying that there is still a time you will not acknowledge the fact that you have failed.

iv. Only results matter

In goal setting either you achieve the goal or you don’t and that will be judged by results, in different organization they set goals and each employee set goals and he will be judged by his results, in that case he will have to set a deadline to help him or her get results and write down his goals.

v. Don’t be defeated

Know that fail means First attempt in learning, once you fail don’t allow yourself to fail, in other words get up faster after you fall down, and again and again that you will realize that there will be a moment that you will achieve what you are will to, it is so disappointing that most people who fail are almost on their point to achieve what they fought for, so before you fail ask you self what is the end is near, there is this example and that happened so many times to me and it made me think about my ability to take decision, when i sit in a bus waiting passengers to come with no idea that they will and sometimes I would just think that walking would be faster than the bus, and reaching 400 meters the bus would pass me with all passenger on board, so what I would get was being late, there was even one day I did the same and once the bus driver passed me, he refused to take me, he told me that I should think of my decision making, and he was right.

vi. Go the extra miles

Always do more than is required, once you have achieved something do not stop continue to get even more, do as if everything is money, no one can be satisfied so make everything count as if it money, in fact they all point to money.

vii. Learn to manage fear

There is a time I used to run away from challenges, anytime I would see a challenge ahead of me, I would run away or find another way, like the time I would always avoid someone who would talk to me English not that I was that bad but because I did not know how to manager my fear, now I face fear, everywhere that I see I challenge I run to it, because I know that challenges do teach.

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?

From now on, setting my goals I will be doing it with different precaution, set a deadline, write down my goals, and always focus on my goals, that will help me first to know whether I have achieved a goal on time, they will help me to not forget my goals and set new ones before I finish others and it will increase my focus, set few achievable goals.

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 goal is an end toward which you direct specific effort”

I would consider a goal like a tunnel, once you are on one side, you can only see the end, and it is a terrifying journey because you cannot be able to see what challenges will broke you in that journey, only you can see the destination, though that long journey will not discourage a true winner, he or she will direct his specific effort to that end, and in his way he or she will never allow anything to be on her or his way.

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?

Not at all everything was clear. No further comment.

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 exercises were included.

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.

Before I read this book I used to misinterpret goal and plan, I would say something like, “I have a goal to buy a car” yet buying a car is not a goal, it is a plan, I am planning to buy a car because I have money, but something like I have a goal to lose weight by 2016 that is a goal. There are specific efforts that you will do to achieve it, and there is a deadline on it.

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? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7

 

 

Nonviolent Communication

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

The main idea in this book is that there are ways that we can communicate and be heard, most of the times we are expressing our needs or massage in a wrong way that causes other to not respond to us, yet there is a way we can make them respond no matter how. Because of lacking this NVC you can blame your pattern that he or she is not giving you what you want but it is because she or he does not know that you really want, so we should know how to say what we want.

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. Comparison

This is the issue you would get when you have the problem of emotional slavery, me as well as a young boy i was always quite other would make fun of me and me too I would think that they were better than me, somehow I would always feel that they were right but it was because my test was different to others, we all can love different things and still be normal, like Ruth said what some of us call crazy, some call tired. So we should not compare ourselves to anyone.

ii. Expressing our feelings

In my country we have this cultural of not expressing our needs and feeling, I would say that most of communication we make contains lies and lack of telling the other person what you really need him or her to do. Like when you are asked this usual question like, how are you? The answer is always, I am fine even though you might know that you have a serious problem the answer remain the same.

iii. Differences

I have had a chance to live with different people from different countries and I realized that we are the ones with this issue, I spend 3 months living under one roof with other volunteers from United Kingdom and we had this challenge of not expressing our needs, we are a group of eight people 4 UK volunteers and 4 National volunteers, they would tell us how they feel and what they need us to do in order to live a perfect life together but for us we would just not say anything and that would not make them saints, during those three months we tried to change.

iv. Request and demand

This two ways of communication in our tradition there is sometimes you can take it normal or abnormal depending of who is communicating to who. For example a child should demand not request something from the elder, but an elder can do both and still the communication has to be answered. Or if a boss is telling his employee can use both but an employee should be better to choose the right way in order to keep his job, I know that this is not right but it is how it is. I am sure it because we ignore the way of better communication and which is NVC, if a boss uses a better communication that will motivate employees and their work will be favorable.

v. Observation without evaluation

It is what we do to observe because we are aware of what is happening around us but we should not evaluate others when we evaluate we judge and we shall not judge others because what some of us call crazy others call it easy going.

vi. What do we want and do not want?

Many times we determine what we do not want more than what we want, like we seen in this book where there are complication between couples of what they do want and do not want, like a woman would always tell her husband that she does not want him to watch football or come home late but they forget if they only say I want you to be home with me often she would get what she wants and the husband would continue what he like.

vii. “Do not judge and you will not be judged, for as you judge others, so you will yourself be judged.”

Judging others sometimes it is easier because we only observe what others are doing and we forget that we are not perfect, we have different ways of understanding if someone does something different we should understand the reason he or she is doing so, a typical example we have different believes when I was in India in first days I was shocked by their believes but what I realized was to not judge them because there is a reason they believe what they believe and me too, who knows whether my believe is better one, maybe there is better, we should just live our life without judging.

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 idea will help me to communicate effectively and live a better life with who I live with and work together, I will try to express my feelings and not blame them for not receiving what I want yet I did not say what it is.

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.

“What some of us call crazy, some of call tired or easy going, what some of us call stupid some just call a different knowing.”

People are different we can have different understanding to different thing and what I do not understand I shall not call it crazy, I know we do call crazy things we feel we should not do but it is not right because them also they might see things we do crazy, and if we do this there would be no violence in our world, I recently heard shocking news of ivory coast where agricultures and farmers were having misunderstanding ones say that their work is better other also and those misunderstanding cost more than 20 people lives, really I couldn’t understand one part calling others crazy and others also yet they all are complementary.

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?

Not at all. Everything is clear.

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 exercise in this book is to train myself with NVC I shall use it often and I am sure it will give me positive results. I have a good example of my conversation with my neighbor I should have gone over and say something like, stop smoking you bastard. Or who do you think you are smoking this late can’t you see that we cannot sleep because of you? But I am sure he was not going to sleep and we would have had a fight and I think I was not going to win, but I won with non-violence.

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.

I would say something more about expressing our feelings even I do not express my feelings because we always fear to brake the relationship with others, there is someone just next my room he once light a cigarette at night and I couldn’t sleep at all I was out of oxygen an with my problems with sinusitis and I went over and have a conversation with him:

Me: Hey I see you cannot sleep me too.

Him: yeah!

Me: why is that?

Him: different problems and why is that you are not getting to sleep?

Me: yeah I feel like I am out of oxygen and the cigarette is taking the few I had.

Him: oh sorry I will not do it again.

The guy is a soldier and I always fear him with his silence but he understood me well without any complication because I used not violence communication.

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

 

 

The Law of Attraction
Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

The main idea in this book is that things which happens in our life had it source and that source come from our minds, the way we think, the way we react to think, are the results of what we get. In this book the author talks about how our negative vibration will give more of negative result into our lives and positive vibration will bring more positive results. He reminds us that if you have something that you are not happy about the answer is not having negative vibration about it otherwise you will get more of it.

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. If you like what you are observing then celebrate it and in your celebration you will get more of it, if you don’t like what you are getting then it is time to tap into the law of attraction and change your observation.

Here I would talk about the phenomenal of getting a job that you feel comfortable with and that answers all your needs, in our country we say that the bad job will give you the opportunity to get a better one but this will happen if you celebrate that bad one and the law of attraction will give you more of it, I believe in this theory. I am talking about this because now days it is not easy to get that job and some of my generation and friends had swore to me that they cannot work for lesser salary according to their lever of education, me I am and I feel happy about it with hope of my future, though for them they choose to stay in their parents’ house till that day but the problem is they could stay forever because the law of attraction could give them more of their vibration. We should celebrate what came into our path because there is a reason you are there.

ii. Coincidence

Have you realized that how things we see and get are the ones we focus our mind on? I have realized this that sometimes we don’t see things not because they are not there but because we do not want to see those things, a good example is have you realize when you buy a car thinking that it is not that popular because you think you never seen much of them, and after the first day riding in it, you start seeing the same kinds of it. So even in life we can have things we want.

iii. Whether it’s a positive or negative vibration the law of attraction will give you more of the same.

If you spend all your days complaining about your life, that there is nothing right you can do, that you are poor, that everything that you do are negative then your subconscious mind will always make you fail, remain poor no matter how much money you make etc, but no matter how your life is celebrate what you have, understand that you are not poor but your time hasn’t come yet, acknowledge that fail mean First attempt in Learning the law of attraction will give more of the same, just like it will when your vibration is negative.

iv. Don’t, not and no

In human nature when they tell us to not do this, it is what we do. If you tell kids “don’t play in the car” it is obviously what they will do, Adam and eve did the same when God told them to not eat that particular fruit in their garden and they did, so our subconscious mind to does what we tell it to not do, this is nothing but saying instead of telling yourself this words don’t, not and no in order to stop doing something negative about you, you should say I have decided to do so as we see in the book. In the year 2015 when I started my first job I had told me self to not spend a lot of money so that I could have some savings but every month I couldn’t realize where the money went, but it has been a couple of month I said the same like I have decided to save more money.

v. The power of allowing

Having strong desire with strong doubt means your desire will not be manifested.

Sometimes we have ideas but with full of doubts, it has been affirmed that when you want to manifest your ideas or desire with full of doubt saying that may be it won’t work because of a particular obstacle your desires won’t be manifested because of you, the thing is there will be always obstacles as long as we are in this world, once you have an idea something against it pops up from nowhere.

Having strong desire with a little bit of doubt means you desire will come through slowly.

And if you assume it to be less successful it will be accordingly because you will invest less for the result that you want.

Having strong desire with no doubt means your desire will be manifested quickly.

But if you say that who cares if my desire don’t be manifested, I have to try anyway to know and if you fail you say the same sentence of full abbreviation of fail and get out there again the results would be astonishing because there is no doubt.

vi. Get rude of doubts believe in positive not negative

It has been proven that if you have doubt in everything you do you will definitely fail, not even probably, sometime doubts are caused by fear, fear to loose, fear to be seen as failure and so on, but who cares if you fail? If you fail make sure that you fail with positive vibration.

vii. Three Steps for Attraction Formula

Identify your Desire: a person have so many desires and we all do have some desire which sometimes we try to get at once yet it is impossible, on this stage you have to choose which one you want more. So this person would say may be Desire no 1 and he will continue with it to stage two.

Give your Desire Attention: Then on this stage that person will give attention to that desire, he or she will focus on that only desire which Is Desire no 1.

Allow It: He or she will then allow that desire to come all the way from others and come to an existence, by going to college and do his or her best to get good marks and so on and then after get his or her desire the second one would be somehow easy because of the first one.

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?

Now I will pay attention on my vibration, I will try to have positive ones no matter what the circumstances are because the law of attraction we have seen that whatever is you vibration will give you more of it, so the things of complaining about my life that I should be on a particular lever of my development like some of my generation did, shall not come into my mind but I shall think of positive means that I have which will get me to my own place of development. Don’t compare yourself with others because you have you own 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.

“Don’t concentrate on what you do not have. Because you are sending negative vibration and the law of attraction will give you more of it.”

For me what they are advising us here is not think on things that we do not have at all, but the way we think about them, sometimes we think on things we do not have comparing to others who have got them, they may be our generation and we would say that it is over for us. And we say I have failed to build a house, yet you don’t even have a land property. Here you are sending those are negative vibrations, but if you say like with my low salary I have decided to save some money each month so that I can buy a land property by next year that is a positive one.

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.

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?

None.

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.

Nothing.

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? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9

 

 

Goals

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

The main idea in this book is goal, in the bible they say, where there is no vision people perish, life without goal in nothing at all, you have to know where you are going because you cannot take all directions at the same time, choose one thing you want the most don’t try to do all things at the same time. And by setting goals you should set those possible goals, the ones you thing you will achieve and remember to write your goals because it does helps, you can set goal and forget them, or ignore them but when they are written, it is like someone is pointing finger on you reminding you what you have set as a goal.

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. “Success is goals and all else is commentary.”

They say that behind everything that we see with our eyes or every accomplishment there were an idea, there were an idea of each song that Michel Jackson wrote, there were an idea before the creation of an airplane, which means that idea is nothing but goal. Action without planning is the cause of failure.

ii. You Create Your Own World

Perhaps the greatest discovery in human history is the power of your mind to create the aspects of your life, we are the one to create our own destiny, things that we focus on in our mind they are the ones that we get, that is the reason why they urge us to be careful with what we think about the most, we should think like leaders, they think about the future, not the present or the past, if you think much about negative things then you will get what you wished for.

iii. Why People Don’t Set Goals

Here is a good question: If goal setting is automatic, why is it that so few people have clear, written, measurable, time-bounded goals?

There are reasons behind this:

Fear of failure:

I remember when I first set a goal in 2007 when I was in senior 3, I set a goal to win a national examination and I had never show a sign of being a bright kid before, I was scared, what if I don’t succeed, for that I studied hard and I got what I wished for.

Don’t know the importance of them:

Once you set a goal the stamina to work hard to achieve that goal increases, that is why it is recommended to write our goal where we can see everyday like on the fligder or mirror to remember it often, so the importance of setting goal is that you feel happy even if you haven’t achieved it but on the way.

Don’t know how.

Well setting goals isn’t easy as many think, I had set so many goals but there are few that I accomplished, this is nothing but I did not know how, and sometimes I would lie to myself that I set a goal yet it was not true at all.

iv. The Key To Happiness

Setting goals, working toward them day-by-day, and ultimately achieving them is the key to happiness in life, this is what we use to call building castles in Spain, when you set a goal to achieve something you also think yourself living that life, and it is always a better life, the joy comes in your mind as you think about it.

v. Take The Wheel of Your Own Life

From this point forward, see and think about yourself as the master of your own fate. See yourself as completely in charge of your own life. No one owns what is in my mind, I myself I am responsible to transform my ideas into reality, if I do not anyone else will. I am the one with a wheel.

vi. “You become what you think about most of the time.”

What is it then that leaders think about, most of the time? And the answer is that leaders think about the future and where they are going, and what they can do to get there.

Non-leaders, on the other hand, think about the present, and the pleasures and problems of the moment.

vii. “What does it benefit a man if he achieves the whole World but loses his own soul?”

A rich man once took his son to show him how poor people lives, on their where back he asked his son:

Dad: Son did you see how poor people lives?

Son: Yes dad

Dad: what did you see?

Son: I realize they have four dogs, we have one, they don’t have television but they have friends, they don’t have guards but neighbors.

Dad: what?

Son: thanks dad for showing me how poor we are.

Well the answer is nothing.

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?

From now on I am going to be serious by setting my goals, because I know the importance of it and I know how I can do this, I will not have that fear which stop most people to set their goals and I will set reality goals, I will remember to write down my goals because it does helps to not forget. These ideas also will help to know what I want, because without knowing where you are going you cannot reach anywhere. Where there is no vision people perish.

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.

“Success is goals and all else is commentary.”

Everything that we see were once a dream, were once a goal, so in any where before you do something you first set a goal, it might be in a way where you do not really know that you had set a goal yet it is a goal. So before success there is goal, others are complementary.

“A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with a man is what he makes of himself.”

“L’homme est bon, c’est la sociéte qui le change.”

I have thought about this French quote which means that a man is perfect but he or she is changed by the society, this is nothing but to say that a man is changed after he is born, and he is changed according his thinking, his mind is the one to change him.

“We greatly overestimate what we can accomplish in one year. But we greatly underestimate what we can accomplish in five years.”

Most of our goals are short, we see near us, and we set goals that are impossible I that short time and we fail without knowing that those big goals can be accomplished in a long time period.

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?

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?

“I am responsible.” Now I know not only after reading this book but ever since I started reading this books that I am the one with a wheel, I am the one to direct my life to a better life or a worse one, and nothing else is going to do that for me except my mind. I am responsible.

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.

Hello, Mr. President!

I remember one speech that our president say about the responsibility of being the president, I also want to feel the same responsibility in my life, in my setting goals, and my work, no matter how dependent I am, I will act as the boss of myself. I will fake it until I live it.

View yourself as self employed, “Do what you should do,when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”

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? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 7
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8

 

 

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

The author is considering our life as a paradigm, as a map, you follow the wrong map you will reach somewhere, you also follow he right map you will reach somewhere, the important thing is to choose the right map, because once you have the wrong map no matter how you will try you will never reach the right destination.

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. Each of us tends to think that we see things as they are, that we are objective. But it is not the case. We see the world, not as it is , but as we are or we are conditioned to see it.

The situation of more people trying to narrate the scene who were all present, their story is quite different, we can see things differently but it does make the thing any different, it is us, the way we see those things which is different. When we were younger in primary school there were this idea of a husband and a wife sitting in the living room and there was a mouse that passed in between them, so they started telling each other what they had seen, a man said that it came from right to the left yet the woman said the other side, that was a result of endless fighting.

ii. In all of life, there are sequential stages of growth and development, a child learns to turn over, to sit up, to crawl and the to walk and run. Each step is important and each one takes time, no step can be skipped.

I remember before I learned how to ride a bike or drive a car, the first time was hard but by learning I get used to and now I am better, but sometimes I feel like what was I learning? It is easy now. So this is the same to success you cannot just have it, in everything you do you will first learn to sit up, crawl and then walk even run, each step has its own timing do not push it.

iii. Dependence, independence and interdependence

In different organization they all have different way to delegate their power. Some preferred dependent which means employees depend 100% on the boss, the boss tells what to do, he or she makes all decisions and she or he is blamed for the results. For the employee he or she is like you take care of me, tell me what to do. Some others prefer Independence, here the employee can do it, he or she is responsible, he or she can make decisions and he or she has to be blamed for the results. Here the boss trusts in his subordinates, Interdependence here the whole team work together. There is no I, no you, there is only we.

iv. When you make mistakes, admit it, correct it, and learn from it.

It is ok to make mistake, we all make mistake but it take courage to admit the mistakes that we have done, mistakes are not there to make our life miserable, mistake are there to give us lesson, a person with great influence must seek the skills to admit the mistake and learn from them.

v. Gofer delegation and stewardship delegation

Gofer delegation is kind centralized, the source of ideas is limited, it mean go for this, go for that, do this, and tell me when it is done, the power of decision making is in the hand of few people and other there is nothing they can do unless they are told to, in other words stewardship delegation focus on the results, it give people a choice of method and makes them responsible for results. Here the decision making is not limited. In gofer there is dependence, and in stewardship there is independence.

vi. Emotional bank account.

Our emotional bank is a trust and friendship that we consolidate with our friends, family, coworkers in order to maximize the deposits there are a lot to sacrifice with, like understanding, which means what is important to another person must be as important to you as the other person is to you, when you do this you will deposit on you emotional bank account. Also keeping a commitment or a promise is a major deposit, breaking one is a major withdraw.

vii. Win-win, win-lose, lose-win.

Win-win method means that we all win, we support each other and we get to the final destination together, we can gain less but together. Win-lose this method is for selfish they want to win alone, they do all necessity to make others lose so that they can win, and sometimes they end up losing. lose-win, this kind of method is sometimes hard to adopt because we always want to win, but sometimes it is better to lose now In order to win much in the future, you might buy an item in a store reaching at home you realize that it is in bad shape, when you return it the store manager might adopt lose-win and give you a new other item, or win-lose denies to replace it, the think is he might win for that time but you will definitely not going back. On the other case you will go back

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?

Now on unlike other days I should understand that we see things differently, if I think that my friends argument is non-sense, I should think again because we do not see the world as it is but as we are, and another lesson is that there are steps that we have to follow from the day we are born to the maturity and no steps should be skipped this is same as human intelligence’s development each step count.

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 thousand-mile journey begins with the first step.”

When I see a very big tower I think of the day it was just an idea, when I see a beautiful engineered object I think of the day it was just a script and it followed steps to be what it is today, see a very successful leader you might not realize it but there are steps that he or she followed to reach there, so use your steps accordingly.

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?

Not at all.

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 there were some exercises and they were helpful.

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.

Here is a comment:

A story of a poor farmer who once discovered a golden egg in his goose’s nest touched me, all he had to do was to be satisfied by the one egg each day but his greed and impatience couldn’t let him, he wished to have all golden eggs at once, he killed the goose and it was empty. Result zero golden egg, it also reminded me the story in high school that we studied of a man called Sebwugugu, who also discovered a hole that produced one bean a day and him also he tried to expand the hole so that he could get many beans but it stopped. Lesson behind, there is no short cut to success. The elevator to success is out of duty.

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? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 6
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8

 

 

Unlimited Power

Assessment by Hakizimana Tuyishime Roger (Rwanda)

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

The author is trying to share with us that made the difference in changing his life for better, he tells us the story of success, that if we follow the path it could lead to success as well, and also the main purpose is explaining us what is power which is ability to change your life, in early life power was strength and being faster, but in today’s word power is in mind.

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. Man is not the sum of what he has but the totality of what he does not yet have, of what he might have

This idea got my attention, a man is about dreams, our dreams determine who we are, for myself I feel like there is nothing else I have to live for except my dreams, who I want to be and that make you who you are.

ii. The power of state

Understanding the state is the key to understanding change and achieve excellence, as the author said, “I know there have been times in my life when while in a particular state, I did and said this that later I regretted or was embarrassed about” to be able to understand your state is to get the key that will unlock your ways to success.

iii. The difference that make difference

“There is only one success to be able to spend your life in your way.” “Man is what he believes.” “Our bodies are our garden, our will are gardeners.”

iv. Belief

“The magic of drugs resides with in the mind of user, not in the drug itself;” if you believe in success you will be empowered to achieve it, if you believe in failure, same will happen. Remember that things we tell ourselves most of the time that we can or we cannot, we are right. “They can because they think they can.”

v. Seven lies of success

Everything happens for a reason and a purpose and it serve us.

There is no such thing as failure, a good example can be Abraham Lincoln or Jack Ma the founder of Alibaba

Whatever happens take responsibility

It is not necessary to understand everything to be able to use everything

People are your greatest resource

Work is play, do you know any person who has achieved massive success by doing what he hates? Nope.

There is no abiding success without commitment, we need commitment for our belief to be I action, because with commitment that is the time you will not see failure bit results

vi. If you ask for almost anything in the world in the right way with enough conviction and enough commitment, you will get it.

There is a bible verses that says, knock you shall be opened, if you need something people with it will wait until you ask for it, it is likely for a big company to notice you as a young graduate that you are in need of a career opportunity before you go to them and ask, you shall not take the responsibility to say no to your self yet there is the one who is supposed to.

vii. Power= ability to change

At an ealier time power was strength, then as civilization came power from heritage, in industrial time power was capital, then in today’s world power is knowledge , knowledge is available to all of us, which make it easier and possible to all have it, unlike in earlier days it was not available to all, but for me I would associate knowledge with capital, because there are those with knowledge but capital becomes an obstacle, but I remember a quote that says, “if you do not have money use other people’s money, so for me I would describe the formula of power as follows. Power= Knowledge+Capital+Actions.

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?

From now on I know that in order to succeed in life I need commitment, I need knowledge and most of all I need actions.

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.

“One, who is too insistent on his own views, finds few to agree with him.”

“Respond intelligently even to unintelligently treatment.”

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.”

There are two things to aim at in life, first, to get what you want, and after that, to enjoy it.

“Begin at the beginning, the King said gravely, and go till you come to the end, then stop.”

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?

Now this is my last assessment for Level Two. When I started IIGL lessons back in 2015, I considered IIGL just as a new sentence to fill my CV, as an opportunity to opened job giver’s eyes to give me a job, I had no other motivation at all, as a job seeker every time I would think of the attention it could give to people so that they can hire me, I was not really sure what I was doing, but for now I got the point, even though I am still looking for that job in order to survive. I know that IIGL lessons have nothing to do with that, in fact it has many things to do with me, to change my way of thinking, to change my communication skills, to strengthen my mind and other things will come following me.

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 exercises in the book.

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 further comments.

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? 9
B. How helpful was the content? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 7
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 8