As a Man Thinketh
Assessment by Sharon Shiro (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
The author states that we are what we think, as a man thinks elaborate the importance of our thoughts, our brain is the powerhouse of who we are it automatically reflects who we are. ny action we see or behavior it results from the inner thinking, all things we see good and bad they are the results of our mind, and that is why the brain is a powerful tool that can create good things or bad, we have seen a lot of bad things happening in the world, all of this bad things are manifested in the brain and what we see is just a results of someone’s thoughts.
In our brain and thoughts we have the power to attract good or bad things, whatever we plant in our brain it grows and we harvest through the action, we should cultivate and irrigate or brain and thoughts with positive ideas, reading quality books having a healthy discussion or debate with brilliant people for our brain to grow, if you do not weed your brain and feed it with the right nutrients then you will not grow into an intelligent person as much as the weed will cover your brain then you become a useless person in the society.
Like the food we eat to make us healthy it is the same thing to feed our brain with the right food, the people we associate with also matters a lot in our growth, if you have right company they will challenge you to think critically and do positive activities, if you walk with 5 millionaires definitely you will be the 6th millionaire and if you walk with thieves soon or later you will join them in stealing, because what you talk and share during your discussion will develop your thinking and brain in that manner.
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. We are the masters of our lives.
We usually blame people because of our failure without knowing that we are the masters of our own life and we have the key to unlock our potential, our brain can open all doors when used properly, because you become who you want to be by practicing in your brain, there is that internal conversation and agreement in between yourself, all the people we are seeing today who are successful, they made a decision to be what they are, our brain drives us to achieve what we want and it is the only independent thing that you can decide to do as per your thoughts or not to do.
ii. We decide on whom to be.
We are the makers of our lives, we determine to be who we are because the power is in our brain, i have practically seen people who were very poor but decided to work hard and smart to achieve a lot in life, the moment we know ourselves and evaluate our situation we can build and become better, in Kenya we have a musician who was a street boy no education background no connection he started singing and destiny connected him to the right people who nurtured him, today he is a celebrity from the streets to dine with higher and mighty people, he decided to use his brain well, by being creative and today the story of his life is different, he lives a luxurious life through hard work and making a decision to achieve greatest desire of his life.
iii. Nurturing our mind and brain
We need to feed our minds and brain with the right information, you cannot be thinking negatively and expect positive results, i remember during our school time we did not like mathematics it was so much difficult for so many young people, some could escape mathematics lessons intentionally and eve created negative attitude to the teacher, since they did not feed the brian with the right information there was no way we could perform in that subject unfortunately we were the losers, so whatever you feed the brian will automatically affect you in one way or the other, if you feed fair in your brain you will never have courage to do anything, so we need to nurture what we feed our brain, the kind of books we read, the friend we keep matters a lot.
iv. We determine our lives
We are where we are because that is where we have accepted to be, we have set our brains to be comfortable where we are and justify the situation, this is evident if you go to the slums of Nairobi the are people who are comfortable in that situation not that they do not have power and resources to move out but they are comfortable being in the slum with such challenges, even if you try to advise them to move out and go to a better place they are not ready because their brain is locked in that situation or circumstances. We have seen people die in toxic marriages not because they cannot move out but they have locked their brain and they rather die there than moving out, so anything we see in life we are the people who have determined to be where we are.
v. Our actions and outcome
Our thoughts reflects our actions and they go co currently, whatever we see is the outcome of our thoughts, we make every move and every step in our brain and what we see is a predetermined results, if you are a good driver before you start the journey you have already arrived in your thoughts, awaiting the action, you draw a map in your brain the route you will take where you are going to fill the gas, if you have to eat where you are going to park in that journey and have your lunch, and when you’re going to come back home, it is a complete determined journey in our thoughts, so we understand that this is the route to follow.
vi. Our mind and brain is the engine that drives us
It is so funny that sometimes our body suffer because of our mind and thinking, your brian process abusive information and you abuse someone, our body will suffer by being tortured or going to jail, you make wrong decisions that affect our body, because if you want to go somewhere the brain will direct you, same having a heated conversation it is the brain the brain and mind guides you to hit someone, and the results are felt later both good and bad.
vii. Brain gives out results
By whatever we feed the brain it will give us results in the same measure, when we weed and plant fruits in our garden we harvest what we planted, there is no single day you will plant maize and harvest beans, what you plant is what you harvest, same what we think is what we get, if we think being successful we will be successful because that is what we have planted in our brain, if you plant evil you will harvest evil, if you ask people who have committed crimes they will tell you what their thoughts were and doing that they thought they will solve the problem so we need to be careful with our brain and make good use of it.
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 make me more sensitive in what i think and be a positive thinker.
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.
“Strong pure and happy thoughts build up the body in vigor and grace.
Whatever we desire we can obtain it by aspiring to achieve it.
“It does not matter whether it rains or shines, or what changes comes to those possessing these blessings for they are always sweet, serene and calm.”
“Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.”
“Clean thoughts makes clean habits.”
“Until thoughts are linked with purpose there is no intelligence accomplished.”
“Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him to himself.”
“Any circumstances we go though be it bad or good they reveal to us who we are and how we handle them.”
“To desire is to obtain, to aspire is to achieve.”
“The so-called saint who does not wash his body is not a saint.”
“The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves and also that which it fears.”
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?
The book is well covered and easy to understand
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 book contains a lifetime exercise of nurturing our brain and understanding our 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.
It is a nice book and easy to read
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Sharon Shiko (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
The author in this book is referring to us but using birds, we re the people he is talking about in any situation we have to be smart in our brain, if we keep on being controlled on what to do and what not to do the we will not amount to anything, seagull had their lifestyle being dictated by the flocks who were leaders, that is why when he wanted to fly higher he became an outcast sometimes we do not have to do what people want us to do but to do what we feel is good and what we like, the seagull had to leave his home and look for a new place and new friends who supported him in improving his flying skills. This is same in the current life we are living, some people will discourage you to do something which you love because they do not see the importance of doing it, but if you listen to them you will fail, in fact they will even give you reference to those who have tried what you want to do and failed, we have also tamed our children like robots, they do not have that freedom to choice to do what they want, we design to them to do what we want and stick on that, no room for discussion, they either take it or move out of our place, this is why we have failed system in our world, qualified doctors but not committed because they were forced to do the job, once you do what you love you feel free and do it to perfection without fear , we see how gull did his flying skills in professional manner and passion because it was what he loved, nobody pushed him but he learnt more and more until the other seagull wanted him to teach them, the moment we stick on what we want and perfect it, those who were against it are the first one to want to be associated with us.
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. Comfort zone
When you reach comfort zone you cannot do anything, most gulls never bothered to learn new skills because they were okay with what they had, so for them learning high skills of flying was a waste of time and unnecessary so they did see the reason to do that, and they had their own way of justification, if we can get food why fly higher, this is exactly the mindset of the poor people, once they reach comfort zone they will not see the reason to go an extra mile, they will not even try to do things differently, and remember you cannot get different results with the same thinking.
ii. Be ready to be an outcast
When you do things that people do not like or support be ready to be an outcast, be ready to swallow the bitter pill, nobody will be associated with you when you do things contrary to what the society demands you to do, during old generation, women in Africa who not allowed to work, their work was to cook and take care of the children and go to the farm, no white collar job, in fact even they did not have identification, so the people who used to work are men, slowly things started to change, some bold women started demanding for their own identification and they were not popular, they were rebellious and given names and branded spoilt brats but today it is normal for women to have big position in our continent, so once you are ready to swallow the bitter bile at the end you will be counted.
iii. Give your best in whatever you do
The Seagull was determined to achieve highest flying skills even sometimes he could not eat but wanted to learn more and more, so once we want something we should give it total concentration and our best, especially when people do not believe in what you are doing work hard to prove them wrong, do it with all your strength and skills at the end you will achieve it, and those who were doubting you will be the first one to celebrate with nobody likes to associate with failure but people like to associate themselves with successful people whoever they are not part of your successful struggles.
iv. You are unique in your own way
When people tells you be like so and so tell them you are who you are and they are who they are this idea of comparison as killed our generation, especially the young generation people fake life style on the social media making young people believe that that is how life is porch lifestyle making young people do impossibility to have such life style and at the end they become depressed, seagull knew what he wanted and never listen to negative vibes, he wanted to have new skills of flying higher breath fresh air and get fresh food, if he did not believe in himself he could have not achieved what he wanted in life, he never wanted anybody to give him negative thoughts and that is why he had to join those who believed him him and made him achieve his goals, the same with us if where we are we cannot get the peace we want we should move and get a place where we can get our peace to achieve our goals.
v. Trust yourself
Sometimes we become doubting Thomas but it is good to trust your instinct and believe in yourself, if you believe you can make it nobody should tell you know, all this things we are seeing today it is because someone trusted himself or herself to achieve it, it does not mean they did not have challenges but they persisted and made it through, seagull had many challenges before reaching where he is it was not easy but he made it.
vi. Giving a deaf ear
Sometimes to achieve what we want we need to give a deaf ear especially to those who are discouraging us, never listen to a person who doesn’t wish you well, positive mind makes us positive in what we are doing and it gives us new energy of doing it, if seagull had listen to other flocks he could not achieve what he achieved and he could not be celebrated this same to us, those who advise you negatively will be the first one to change the narrative that they indeed helped you achieve what you have achieved.
vii. Be ready to be mischarged
When you succeed be ready to be mischarged in our society when you make it in life not all people will believe that it was through hard work, especially for us ladies we will be called names, we got it because of connection or we sold ourselves, we slept with the boss that is why we got the position, or we are doing wash wash and that is why we are filthy rich so be ready to be branded a lot of names when you make it, same thing even when you do not make it. People with saliva in their mouth will alway speak about you in any manner.
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 to move out of my comfort zone and work harder and smarter towards my goal.
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.
To fly as fast as thought, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.
Your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip, gives you freedom of the sky.
We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!
Jonathan was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all.
Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know and you will see the way to fly.
The only true law is that which leads to freedom.
Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short, and with these gone from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed.
You don’t love hatred and evil, of course. You have to practise and see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and to help them see it in themselves.
You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way.
Break the chains of your thoughts, and you break the chains of your body.
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?
This is a great book and easy to read.
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?
This is a wakening call that we should be determined and it’s a continuous exercise.
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 nice and easy book to read and well elaborated.
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10