Stephanie Willis – Assignement

As a Man Thinketh
Assessment by Stephanie Willis (USA)

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

We are the sum of our thoughts. Profoundly simple, yet utterly ambiguous to anyone who isn’t searching attentively for the root causes of how he/she is experiencing life. Who is prepared to believe that their own pattern of thinking created the conditions they experience in life? For those experiencing hardship, this idea is an insult and is readily rejected. When I happened upon this knowledge in 2015, I was one of those people. It was a hard truth to confront indeed.

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. “Thought and character are one and as character can only manifest and discover itself. through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always
be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state.”

When I read this, I immediately thought that our ideas are like the premise of an essay. It is the key theme that drives our character (behaviors). This then leads to the choices and actions we take. Those actions build a story which becomes the evidence supporting the original premise. It’s the story of our lives in that moment of time. All too often, we find ourselves seeking change while denying proof of the premise of our story. I have become more aware of this since I started my own self search and rescue. I was frustrated with having the same experiences over and over and I knew that something needed to change so that the experiences would change. However, I didn’t understand the big picture because I was so focused on being the character in that particular story. When I resigned from my full-time position as an Analyst (the character), it afforded me the time and space needed to do some serious self-reflection (on the Self). As I began to follow the lines from patterns in my life, to the originating thought(s), I began to see some of the issues, and how they were affecting my life, yet I still hadn’t quite figured out how to shift things.

Over the past eighteen months, I have been learning how to get to the source of the beliefs creating the undesirable experiences. What I have found in the process is that some of the ideas I held about myself, my core values and life in general, were so deeply embedded in the subconscious and unconscious minds that it required more time (evidence) to uncover. There seemed to be so many layers. It was hard work, with some of the unconscious beliefs being rooted in past life experiences which surfaced themselves through consistent meditation, simply getting into the quiet space. Through the eye of the observer, I was able to see where my beliefs originated and how they had created resistance in my current life.

ii. “The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also that which it fears.”

This statement is ever so timely. The evidence is very clear. The heart of man bursts forth through the world of experience, and there is no escaping it. Recently I closed my business because it had begun to slow down to a deathly halt. I couldn’t fully understand what happened since the community loved it and reminded me daily! This morning while finishing up Jonathan Seagull, I had a deeply moving aha moment. I was able to identify the source of the rise (love) and the fall (fear) of my creation, the business. See, I had a beautiful soap making business and I loved what I did with my heart and soul, that is until I began to feel trapped, overwhelmed and consumed by it. Then my love turned to dread with an undercurrent of fear. It was an undercurrent as in, it was always with me. When I began looking at other decisions I made at the same time, cutting off my long locks of hair, moving out of my living space and longing to live “on the road” (all good things), it became clear to me that my soul’s desire was to experience true freedom. My greatest fear was losing my sense of freedom, not that I ever really felt free.

I thought having my own business would be liberating but it only offered liberation from having an employer and dealing with the associated work culture. As I traced this back further in life, more evidence surfaced that supported this truth. From the time I was 23, this innate need for freedom had already become a major theme in my life. However, I kept making choices that created an opposing experience. Using both sides of the same coin, I created those experiences. I must add a side note as this “awareness” around fear of losing my sense of freedom was greatly assisted by the work on the previous assessment of Jonathan Seagull. I resonated so deeply with the character that it unlocked something great inside of me (thank you for that gift).

iii. “Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself… As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss.

Although it flows along the same line of idea, it reminds us that the experiences in our lives are great teachers if we would slow down, be attentive to the message, and ask for the wisdom. When the bliss is blissful, we make little time for introspection, and we often see no need to learn. When the suffering is too great, it’s too difficult to receive wisdom for all we want is relief. If relief is freely given, the learning cannot take place. The message here is that our experiences are great teachers that offer us the treasure of wisdom to glean from. At the height of my business, I was in a state of bliss, however a part of that very same blissful experience also triggered my deepest fear. The more successful it was becoming, the more fear I felt. Now back to the message, it offers. There were many times my loving mother offered me financial support and I refused it, explaining that I needed to learn what brought me to the experience as I knew I should have been able to fix things myself. I closed the business still, but had I not, things would have been worse off, and I would’ve been without a clue. Having discovered the problem, I know that if I choose to return to the business, it would most certainly be a long-standing success.
iv.“Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought (input) in some direction. It is an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the Law of his being.”

Fighting against a circumstance which is causing suffering, is futile. We must change the core belief (input) from to inspire right action for a desirable outcome. This can be considered a mathematical certainty that cannot be overstated. For 20 years, prior to become an entrepreneur, I operated in the capacity of a data/business analyst because I love problem solving. Among the many ways I added value, I determined which data the company needed to collect in order to gain an accurate picture of the environment. Reviewing the data, allowed me to identify any deficiencies in data collection, as well inefficiencies in performance. Collecting additional information allowed me to see where the inefficiencies were centralized; and by making adjustments to include more detail, I could determine the process changes required to improve business performance. This information was presented as business intelligence via charts, graphs and other reports. It acts as a compass directing the business on where to focus attention and energy.

So it is in our lives, circumstance represents the graphs and charts, showing us a picture of our ‘inner’ thought performance. When we collect and assimilate additional data, through experience, we can gain more evidence of cause and effect, allowing us to get to the root of problems and make the changes necessary for the desired outcome or experiences. The challenge I have faced here in my own life is when I’ve slipped so deep into the rabbit hole of my own experience, my logical mind isn’t accessible; or when I’m so emotionally attached to my ideas, I resist letting go. Suffering is a circumstance that can teach us. I have learned that we cannot escape, we must resolve our suffering from within.

v. Don’t blame people and circumstances for your life but take responsibility for your experiences and find the cause of your suffering.

The truth can be brutal. Life is not a cakewalk. We must do our own work. Unfortunately, we lack knowledge, which makes us feel disempowered. Therefore, it’s much easier to blame the system, powers that be, the parents, the spouse, co-workers, employers, bosses, etc. for our own shortcomings. It happens. I’ve been there in my younger years, frustrated with the parents for not teaching, the (ex) spouse for not helping, the employer for not noticing. One day, I knew it was time to find the truth because I wanted to take ownership of my very existence and the experiences that ‘I’ myself created.

vi. Man must choose a central purpose life, making it a supreme duty, devoting the self to its attainment.

To develop strength of character and to prevent thoughts from wandering aimlessly (potentially causing harm), we need a worthy goal to concentrate our minds upon. Even the goal of self-improvement is worthy of achievement for the development of focus, intent, concentration and building up the fuel called Qi. The very point of which I find myself is a direct reflection of this idea. One of the reasons I wanted to give up being a store owner was I didn’t love it anymore. Perhaps I had outgrown my reason for doing it. I didn’t love it anymore. Where it was fulfilling, it had become draining. I knew I needed a new why, a bigger, more meaningful reason to get up each day with sheer determination. My business no longer provided that. I haven’t any regrets about the journey and the timing of it all was perfect. It came just upon the heels of my youngest son obtaining his undergraduate degree and moving on to graduate school. He was leaving my side for first time, but it was the milestone that gave me the freedom to fly and find my life’s purpose.

vii. Cherish your visions.

Vision is the vehicle we use to bring beautiful experiences, useful tools and desirable conditions into existence. I chose this simple statement because it’s a refreshing reminder to have hope and faith in the progression. Now that I have identified the root of my former barriers to success, it’s inspired fresh energy around living out my dreams.
I learned a great deal about vision and concentration from the works of Neville Goddard, William Walker Atkinson and Joe Dispenza. They taught me that no dream was too big and I could create anything or experience that I could imagine (believe in).
I practiced their techniques regularly, sometimes effortlessly but I could only move mountains to the extent of my beliefs. It caused me to wonder if I really had the love for the vision or if I just didn’t have the will power to bring my ideas to fruition. Whatever it was, I wanted to find the source of the block that seemed to be robbing me of faith in my vision. Stepping into this program helped me to unlock that source and get back on track with my goals.

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 book connected with me immediately, providing insights to my most recent experiences. In the previous section, I shared why the ideas were important as well as how they align with my life past, present and future. I certainly enjoyed reading Allen’s work. From the first page, it sparked something within me and I could sense immediate integration. If I were to illustrate this, I’d liken it to a software update/installation process. Interestingly, it isn’t the first time I’ve read Allen’s work. I guess I needed to have some ego-crushing experiences to prepare me to receive it.

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 human is made or unmade by him or herself; in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself.”

This first statement offers the idea that man is both creator/destroyer in his own world. I have thought of this over the past year. I knew from years of self-study, that I created the conditions in my life. I also noticed how easy it was to destroy the thing that I created, with such swiftness when I no longer desired it. However, I struggled to understand how I was also destroying that which I desired to uphold. Somehow, I failed to find the root cause of my own self-sabotage.

“Those who have conquered weakness, and have put away all selfish thoughts, belong neither to oppressor nor oppressed. They are free.”

Detaching from fear and all its cords, is the master key to freedom. Fear dis-empowers us. It is the oppressor, manifesting various prisons and other barriers to success in our lives. It’s taken me seven years to fully realize this truth through experience. I understood it when this idea was first revealed to me, yet I hadn’t realized until now, how deeply rooted those fear cords could be.

“Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.”

Our creations or manifested outcomes must be sustained by the same power of love that created it. It’s something I’ve thought deeply about as I pondered my experiences. In my experience, falling back into failure was falling on the sword of fear. If I had not had the recent experiences, I don’t believe this statement would have had any impact at all because I wouldn’t have known the real source of my fears. I am aware that I’ve lived with that undercurrent of fear I mentioned earlier but I never really knew what I was afraid of at my core. Knowing means I can be watchful with full faith and understanding, instead of being fearful of the unknown. Mastery over my mind, is the promise of victory every time.

“The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart—this you will build your life by, this you will become (pg18).

Vision is the blueprint of that which we hope for. Before coming to the point of understanding, my (undetermined) fear was weakening my vision, killing my dreams, and robbing me of motivation. Having become disconnected from my true identify, I had lost faith, hope and confidence in myself. Now I can exercise my vision with full faith in the ‘power that creates’ because now, my faith has been restored in myself.

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?

This book did not contain any exercises aside from these that were assigned. It offers additional

7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions?

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? 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 Stephanie Willis (USA)

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

The author presents the message of freedom and non-conformity. The story illustrates the idea that one must free the self of limitation, including tradition or social norms, limiting beliefs, boredom, anger, fear, and the overall ordinary so that we can fully express our maximum potential. These are the shackles that repress us and keep us tethered.

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. Finding purpose and living intentionally.

Jonathan expressed his desire to discover a higher purpose for living. This message is clear and resonates with me personally as I am now here. My life has changed significantly in the past 12 months and now more than ever before, I have been feeling the urge to really consider purpose and intent before determining my path forward. Looking back, even without truly understanding my purpose, the desire for truth, growth, and inner healing, accompanied by the small voice within, continued to light the way. Those strong desires I’ve had for two decades represented purpose and intent which became the lighthouse guiding the choices I have made up to this point. It seems in part, the purpose created for this life, was to break the cycles so that I can step into a new world of experience. Interestingly, this idea surfaced in my mind as I began to assess the book considering where I am in my life at this very moment.

Recently, I’ve come to realize how I unconsciously created the experiences I’ve had in my life. While I haven’t any regrets, I clearly see that many of the choices I made in the past were out of fear, “fear of lack” and “fear of failure” as in failing to make the right choice. Subsequent decisions were reactionary responses to those fear-induced choices. Six years ago I asked source to show me the truth and it was that day that I discovered Neville Goddard. I then discovered Joe Dispenza, William Walker Atkinson, and Joseph Murphy to name a few. At that time, I read their works every day for nearly a year. Still, it took another year to release resistance and fully integrate the idea that we create or attract our experiences by thought and feeling. What an ah-ha moment I had when I evaluated my life, having drawn a clear line to the origin of thoughts and beliefs that attracted those experiences. When I was unconscious of it all, I often retreated from the uncomfortable experiences instead of confronting them. Realizing now, that each one was a lesson to graduate from, I made a conscious decision to break those patterns of habit. Doing so has helped me to confront and overcome the hurdles that were once a hindrance. Now I know that I can choose to live purposefully, intentionally, and mindfully.

ii. Follow the heart and experience freedom from limitation, tradition, and crowd mentality.

Jonathan bravely followed his heart and boldly exercised his free will to choose his heart’s desire regardless of what it would cost him. He risked becoming an outcast to experience freedom, joy, and self-expression. I’ve learned from my own life that this something we must do because to deny ourselves freedom often leads to stuck energy which expresses as various forms of stress, including declining physical health, declining mental health and possible financial challenges. Fear holds us captive only until we release it. Stepping into the heart space opens doors that once seemed impossible and creates many positive shifts. It’s the winner’s path because in risking becoming as outcast, we expand ourselves, radiating a bright, attractive light to more people.

iii. Freedom of choice.

Jonathan’s desire to find a higher purpose meant he had to make a difficult decision to break away from the flock. He risked being alone, being an outcast, a rebel but in the end, he chose himself and was rewarded in doing so. We all have the freedom to choose but it’s the existing programming that influences what we choose and why. Jonathan Seagull’s story was simple because his life was simple, relative to human life and the burdens it carries, but maybe that was the author’s way of demonstrating that choice is a simple thing. It’s the background noise that makes our ability to choose so difficult.

iv. Freedom from judgment.

In choosing to stand up for himself and what he believed, Jonathan freed himself from the debilitating grip of fear around judgment from the elders and the flock. Sometimes the fear of judgment isn’t easily identified. When I considered closing my business, I found myself hesitant to act. I realized it was partly due to my concern that my customers and the close-knit business community would feel abandoned at a time when so many businesses in the downtown area were closing. I, my son and my business are so well known by members of the City as well as the professors at the university, I didn’t want my son, who was a student at the university, to carry the burden of my decision to close. Therefore, I waited until he graduated (Spring 2022) and immediately closed. He bounced off to grad school in Maryland and I made the trip back home to Michigan to recalibrate and realign with my true life’s purpose. Immediately after arriving, I signed up for this program.

v. Self-discovery.

Jonathan demonstrated a strong determination to discover himself. He chose to discover his talents and expand them which really resonated with the last 7 years of my life. In 2017, I authored an e-book about the path to self-discovery. It was the beginning of life changing experiences in my then bottled-up world. Like Jonathan I had a strong desire to step out of the flock and discover myself but as a single mom, I didn’t know how to achieve this without disrupting the lives of my children. My experience took much longer than Jonathan’s, but the journey of discovering myself has had major payoffs in the form of personal and spiritual growth.

vi. Belief in the self and not accepting the ordinary.

Jonathan was determined to perfect his abilities. He felt it better to be hungry and fly perfectly than to spend his days living in the mindset of scarcity, fighting for scraps of food amongst the flock. Believing in myself so that I could step out of what was familiar, was a step-by-step process. As a business analyst, I could easily push myself and challenge myself to grow. However, in areas where I was less comfortable, it took more time and uncomfortable situations to nudge me forward. My leap into entrepreneurship was the experience that challenged me most. Not accepting the ordinary was the easy part as it rides the wings of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking that I thrive on. Yet entrepreneurship surfaced my personal biases and other weaknesses, highlighting opportunities for personal growth.

vii. Compassion & forgiveness for those who reject us.

This is something we all must do. Jonathan learned how to have compassion and show forgiveness for those who rejected him. Instead of being angry, he raised his consciousness and elevated himself to a place of awareness that allowed him to be a positive force in the lives of others seeking freedom from the ordinary. Jonathan was able to light the way since he walked the path himself. It is the same experience I had beginning last year when I encouraged my family (flock) to step outside of the known (thoughts, ideas and feelings) and walk we me along a path of inner healing. It’s been a year and we’ve come a long way in rebuilding healthy self-images and connected relationships. It had to happen one-by-one, because they needed proof but as each person stepped forward, they became the visible evidence for the others. What a year!

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?

Writing this assessment helped me to see my life today from a lovely vantage point. First, where I thought I had gotten lost on the trail, I realized that I am currently right where I needed to be for the growth necessary for the path ahead.

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.

“Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short.”

Jonathan Livingston Seagull presents the ideas of conscious awakening, stepping out of the herd, letting go of the familiar, discovering the self, exploring one’s talents, finding purpose, and expressing the self with pure joy and perfection. The author takes us on a journey that shows us what we can achieve when we follow our hearts. Jonathan Seagull demonstrates for us the journey of self-discovery. His burning desire for freedom and self-expression, mirrors the struggle many are facing. The struggle and sometimes competition around getting and having that which is needed for survival, seems to rule the world around us.

It takes courage to step out of the herd and follow the heart. Jonathan’s experience somewhat mirrored my own. In 2014, I made a bold move for the same reason but it wasn’t without hesitance. I was a business analyst at a major utility company. When I started, I loved it. I could use all my creative talents to add value, save time and save the company money. While my drive and motivation to add value increased over the years, the work environment had become increasingly stressful, and depressing. As Jonathan mentioned, boredom, fear and subsequent anger began to drain me of my life force just to think about work. After years of that I was ready to get out of there, but I was a single parent, and because of my responsibilities, I couldn’t just leave. The job market had slowed down and I couldn’t find work with comparable pay elsewhere. My fear of the unknown and of potential failure to pivot kept me tethered.

One day, that small inner voice instructed me to walk away. At that very moment, I felt a real pressure release and just like that, I resigned from my employer, after 12 dedicated years. I didn’t have a plan, I just said yes! In hindsight, it would have been a good idea had I sought some guidance around next steps, but I felt the immense joy of following my heart, nonetheless.

While there were many statements in the book that resonate with my own life, the following excerpt presented a message that had the most impact, considering my current state of consciousness. It offers a snippet into the karmic wheel and the idea of having to experience the same things again and again until we become aware. It tells us that we can free ourselves from repetitive experiences in the present life and future lives by becoming aware of a higher desire.

“Where is everybody, Sullivan? The only answer I can see, Jonathan, is that you are pretty well a one-in-a-million bird. Most of us came along ever so slowly. We went from one world into another that was almost exactly like it, forgetting right away where we had come from, not caring where we were headed, living for the moment. Do you have any idea how many lives we must have gone through before we even for the first idea that there is more to life than eating, or fighting, or power in the Flock? A thousand lives, Jon, ten thousand! And then another hundred lives until we began to learn that there is such a thing as perfection, and another hundred again to get the idea that our purpose for living is to find that perfection and show it forth. 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.”

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 was a welcome read but I had to read it a few times to let it sink in. The author’s illustration of Jonathan’s adventures gives cause for pause so I could follow along both visually and illustratively in my mind. Perhaps I thought there may have been more significance to the illustration than there truly was, or the recent life changes have been so impactful that I couldn’t yet focus. Nonetheless, after a few reads, the story really connected, offering many parallels and revelations regarding the current stage I find myself in.

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 book did not contain any exercises aside from these that were assigned.

7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions?

I was fascinated to see the author allude to the idea that earth experiences are classrooms. When one grade is finished, we are off to another. It doesn’t seem to be a key theme but at the same time, it does. It illustrates the eternal nature of life. I believe in the afterlife and that earth is a school. In my quest to heal from generational cycles of suffering, I have had the pleasure of revisiting countless lives, so this idea really caught my attention.

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