As A Man Thinketh
Assessment by Sam – David Adah Abutu (Nigeria)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
A man is the author of his own destiny and he is responsible for everything that happens around him.
The mind is the place where every man dwell and thinking is the activity that is made up of a man. The product of every man’s thought is his action before the people he find himself. Man’s thought is the nature of him the creator put inside him. As a higher being among all the creatures in the world our thought make us higher than every other creature because anything that happen to us is determine by what we put into our thought. Everything that happens to us started from our mind and end with our action for men to see and identify the stuff we are made up of.
The greatest weapon of a man is in his own thought and every man needs to engage in the activity call the positive thinking because he is the lord over his own life for that reason he need to have a new thought to live a fulfill life . God created us, but we have major role to play since we are the builder of our life through the thoughts of our mind, even what we think is what we eventually take and our action is the picture of our thought. As a Man Thinketh is a very great book that we need much understanding to apply to every day situation of life. The whole function of a man is the sum of his own thought. Everyone’s success is hidden in his treasure box, “the mind.” Every solution to our lives problems is in the power of thought and tongues. The tongue and mind are in control of men.
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.
Before now, I thought whenever I am to speak with someone; I always have think that the grammatical structure is not correct. At the end of the conversation I ended up being corrected by the person. But from the moment I began to correct my thinking, my words and action changed.
Before I use to have a feeling that people never tell truth so if anybody is saying anything to me most of the times I never believe it is true. But from now I will change that perspective to believe that so many people speak the truth but not all of them lie or used to lie.
c. Circumstances does not make the man, it reveals him to himself.
This is true because somebody visited me and I sent a boy to go and buy soft drink for my guest. And it looked as if the boy was taking so much time, I went after him so when I returned to the house, my guest said to me that I am naturally impatient. That very circumstance revealed me to myself.
d. You cannot travel within and stand still without.
The opportunity to attend school in my state capital was my first time in the state capital. And before then, each time I see the picture of the state’s popular run about, I imagine myself in that run about. It was few months afterwards, that I found myself attending school in the state capital and I pass the run about all the time. So this quote is true.
When I was growing up, I always wanted to be an army officer. So I began to work towards it, while I was still in secondary school, many of my teachers requested that I teach my fellow students subjects they needed more clarification and I was also asked to role-play some scene from our literature classes for my fellow student to better understand and furthermore, I copy teachers’ notes for my fellow students too. After my secondary school, I joined the army camp to be trained as an army officer. Even in the camp the culture of teaching others continued until I left the camp due to illness. Afterwards, instead of staying idle, I enrolled into the national teachers institute program to study for certificate in education. During my period of teaching my counterpart, I discovered that I am meant to become a teacher. And now, I am a professional teacher because I did not become an army officer as I wanted but became a teacher whom I am!
I was once face to face with problem that led to disorganize a classroom that someone mistook me for the reason behind the situation and slap me thinking I am the cause of what took place previous day, and I was not around when that happened. So when I came to school the following day, a young man slapped me thinking I was the one who is behind the problem and I was calm at that point, some people that were around when that problem happened came out to defend me saying I was not the one so they were complaining that I am always calm
g. Who so have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to worries, fears, troubles and self-pity.
I was one day duped by a set of people in the name of encouraging people to set up small scale business with low interest rate because I was not purpose driving that time I end up being dupe by this people but now that I am reading these kind of book I will not be a victim of that kind any more.
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 are the lesson that will help me; it will enrich me because I pray to use it rightfully because now I know my thought will help me to keep faith strongly on things I want through the application of both my thought and what I learn from the book. My ability to have peace and be happy in life I need to establish a habit that will bring my dream into a reality. I will begin to use the weapon of my thought to make things work for me. it will also help me because I want to be inform so that I can be able to perform in my generation. Even now I know that the only fruit of wisdom is my ability to be calm in mind and act whenever I am face with challenge.
It will help me greatly to understand and identify my purpose in life.
It will really help me not to struggle with myself as I am preparing for my vision to come true. It will help me to work on my personality to achieve my goal in life and for my generation. It will also help me be at peace with myself and my dream in life. It will enable me to co-ordinate myself for my vision to see the light of the day (reality). It will also inspect my daily activities that will enhance the achievement of vision.
It will empower my thinking ability to grow larger so as to have a better environment for my vision to materialize.Thinking and acting is what made up human nature this statement will help me to act rightfully that will make me out standing in life and in destiny.
The lesson will help me to understand the principle of achievement that for everything to become a reality in life it need to start from somewhere which is the mind, the center for human nature . And the mind is the seed of achievement every man need in life. It shouldn’t be taken for granted this lesson is an eye opening for me to see the future that the Creator place before me and to pursue it with passion and attain it for myself and my generation.
It will bring idea that will make me a better person in my time and on how I can affect my generation with positive impact. This lesson will help me to make use of my unlimited mind to gain the future I desire to have and also to be myself at every giving time to enjoy peace with myself and to have speed with my goals.
It will help me because sometimes the principle that we hold to in life previously may want to fight against us when we set a better one in life. It will also help me to forgive in my heart if it has ever misled me in the past to become very light to fly or move with my vision or goal. The lesson will help me to be at peace with myself and people around me, it will also enhance my ability to do the right thing in the society because man is responsible for what happen in his environment.
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.
“Cherish your vision, cherish your ideas.’
This quote will help me greatly because the best person that will cherish my vision is myself and I am now learning how to value and protect what I have inside me and the ideas on how to cherish my vision and the ideas of how I can become the original of whom I am in my daily walk with my ideas to bring it to reality.
“Men do not attract what they want, but what they are.”
This is also very important to me because I will learn to apply this into my daily life, by this I will work harder on myself to attract what I am but not what I want. I will try to do my best by improving on myself so that I can be the best that will become.
“Every action and feeling is preceded by a thought.”
I will use this quote in my daily living by the grace of God. Since every actions and feeling is proceeded by a thought I know, I will try to cultivate and nurture the right feeling and action in my thought to help me when I am face to face with issues
“Every man is where he is by the law of his being the which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all the results of a law which can’t err.”
Now that every man is responsible for making self, I will try my very best to think positively because now I have discovered that every man is where he is today as a result of his own thoughts.
“A man is literally what he think, his character being the complete sum of all his thought.”
From this moment I will think right so as to have a better character in the society.
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?
No.
7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.
Every human being is unique in his own way to offer by the use of mind power the application of his own thought. What we think is what we get in life. If we don’t have correct mind set, we can‘t make a change in our life. Every change begins within our mind so we need correct mind set to operate them. Every tool we need to make things happen in our life is in our mind if we don’t know how to use our mind power. In the games of life what we think is what we would get that is the rule.
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? 10
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Sam David Adah Abutu (Nigeria)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
Men who have some where to go in life need the right company to keep so that his potential will find expression. Self-help has to do with awareness as an individual, which has to do with mental picture of an individual; whenever we are with the right people our potential will naturally find expression. Also how much we feel valued, love and accepted that will make others to have much value, love and accept us and it will point direction to those that come to us positively or negatively. A man’s vision can become a reality simply through the People he meets as he journeys to his destiny. People with healthy self-esteem are the type of people that have good feeling about themselves. if we don’t have right company we can’t have a change of direction or aspire to put more effort in whatever we are doing or want to do in life. A man will always find people he need to help him to the next level in life.
Another main point is positive thinking on this I think the author mean A life of success and achievement is the major reason why our dream come through. The source of our dream is the mind and if we don’t have positive thinking it make our dream die. The ways we think affect our lives and our dream, no matter what we see or how well we live with our dream we need it (positive thinking) positive thinking is an activities that we need to embrace to enhance our vision and elevate us to next level in life.
New thought: Whenever we have a new thing its say to believe that we having a change of that thing into another so, when the author mean new thought, he means before someone can have his dream come through, he needs a new way of thinking from what he usually has; if is not good enough by so doing, there will be great opportunities that will enhance our abilities beyond normal level we use to operate into a new realm.
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.
a. You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now and nothing can stand in your way.”
Before I used to think that to make it in life is by the level of legacy your parent left behind. Until when I read a book “power of positive thinking” by normal Vincent. He said we can change any negative thinking into positive thinking. If not we cannot move forward in life. By changing our thought pattern, nothing can stop a man from where he is to where he want move to in life.
b. The gull sees furthest who flies highest.
I have a friend who always inspires me to put more effort into anything I am doing; one day he introduced me to International Institute for Global Leadership (IIGL). He did that because he saw the best in my life and my future.
Before I went to higher institution, each time I look at my background, I feel I can’t make it through school because of finance but after a year or two, I gain confidence to finish the school.
d. Our passion pushes us to learn more about ourselves.
A personal reason why it is so important to me is because anything I have in mind to do something and that thing will help me in times to come and somebody is doing it or knows it better than I do, I will make sure I see the person to do it if not I will not rest.
e. Jonathan continues his effort to reach higher and higher, flight goals found him. Jonathan is only capable of this after practicing hard alone for a long time.
It is so important to me because a man is capable of something after practice enough this has great important influence on me because as from now on I am going to be practical in everything I need to be capable.
This is really a word that what will make me to reason for my movement and anything at all I most think of what I will gain out of if not I don’t need to go into it if it does not have reason. And I always tell myself that anything that is worth doing is worth doing very well.
g. We can’t lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creature of excellence and intelligence and skill. No matter where I am today, I need information to push me forward in
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 friend I make enhance my ability to make dream come true in life that is to say the more I go to people that matter to my life and destiny the clearer my vision to me. It will also help me to understand that is not every people I need to associate with in life.
My friends inspire me to work more on myself to make it happen in my time and to learn more from them but never to copy them but to be myself.
It will help me because now I know that a man will always find the kind of a person he or she is, the best way to describe a man is the company he or she keep.
This lesson will help me greatly from now on I will not be keeping it at least not all thing to myself again because if I fail to share some things with my friend, I make that thing bored to myself my friend could be the letter that I may need to the next level of life I imagine for myself.
There is a great happiness and joy when I am with the right people to my life because whenever I am in the midst of the company I need, I will feel happy and joyous.
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.
“Overcome space, and all we have left is here, overcome time, and all we have left is now.”
This quote make me feel I should not waste any time given to me because to make my goal come true there are unseen battle needed to fight and win i.e. overcome procrastination and learn to attempt to issues promptly.
“The gull sees farthest who flies highest.”
I like this and it sound personal to me because my friends and people around me see the best of my abilities and bring out the best of me or worst of me.
“Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short, and with those gone, from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed.”
This is so important to me because when I use to keep things to myself very well but now I know how fear and even anger used to affects me negatively as the result of that. I destroy things because of anger and even sometime fear used to torment me but from the moment I share with other of my friend that makes me free.
“Your whole body from wingtip to wingtip, Jonathan would say other times is nothing more than your thought itself, in the way you think is the only way you can see and break the chains of your thought, our thinking place us ahead of other people around us and never to take things too personal if only I will take the matter to mind and think for awhile and allow time to have his own say over that thing that look to me too difficult to handle at that moment.”
“We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creature of excellence and intelligent and skill.”
This is another important quote to me because now I am going to forget myself and I will begin to locate my ability as a creature of excellent and intelligent and skill that I am able. When I allow myself to be rooted in my abilities as the object of creation of ability, the excellence and skill will show face in me and everywhere I go people shall seek these things in me.
“He was not bone and feather but a perfect ideas of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all.”
As a person the knowledge of something take me to greater height in life and ideas of my heart, if I can have ideas of something then I can’t be limited by anything but it will bring freedom to me.
“You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan in the moment that you can touch perfect speed, that is not flying a thousand miles an hour or a million, or flying the speed of light because any number is a limit, and perfection does not have limits perfected speed, my son is being there.”
I found it very important to me because I can’t touch the pick of my goals without the right people in my life and also the moment I fail, this my speed which is my passion to get to the peak of my vision in life can be reduced and slowed down in the pursue of it to become a reality. The only speed I need to the vision of my life which is my future is the perfect people that will enhance my speed to where I am going in life.
5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
A man will always find people that he need to help him to the next level in life. so everyone need the company of those that matter to our lives and destiny. Every man of impact need to befriend people of the kind of vision he wants in life. We need to be around people that have something to offer us and destiny. To learn the road of impact, we need the company of the great mind to nurture our own mind to grow to the level we want to go in life.
Our best is discovered when we are among the company of those that matter to our destiny. The friends we make today is a seed that will germinate and harvest tomorrow, for that reason we need to clean off every company that will not profit our generation. If a man is really truthful to himself, he is really indeed free and anything can’t stand on his way to achieve his goal in life. A man who respects himself is a man of authority. When we follow the right people we learn more skill on how to get to where we want to be in life. The only mirror we have as a man is the friend and people in our life.
6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?
No.
7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.
No.
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10