As A Man Thinketh
Assessment by Thomas Basikolo (Malawi)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
In this book, the author is telling the reader about the power of the mind. In this, the Mind is powerful, it can create and destroy. Using the mind, one can create an environment that is conducive for him and others around him and one can make his dreams a reality using the same power of the mind, being able to be responsible for your actions whether good or bad and trying to live a fulfilled life. Thus a person can choose what he wants and want to be in life.
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. ‘A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts’.
From this, it shows that a person’s character is as a result of his thought. If a person in most cases thinks about bad things happening to him, then this kind of person will develop fear. For example when I was in my first year at Chancellor College, people were saying that most students in my field get withdrawn on academic grounds before finishing. This created fear within me and upon writing my exams I was not sure if I could survive, so because of the mindset that was created at that point it was difficult for me to believe in myself that I can pass with good grades and finish my course. Thus from this scenario my character towards the approach of my school was influenced by my thoughts because I was full of fear in most cases and I if fail something I just thought the coming year I will be withdrawn.
b. ‘a man is continually revolting against an effect without, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart’.
Most people when they are faced with difficulties they tend to deviate the problem to other people so that they don’t take responsibility of that problem (their decisions). In most cases when I was left home to take care of things, when something bad has happened before my parents came back, when they ask me about that thing which is wrong, I would tell them to ask my siblings even if it was me that has done that wrong thing. This was deviating my actions and responsibilities to others which is not the case with a leader, because a leader has to be somebody who takes responsibility of his decisions and actions so that he may see where he was correct and where he was wrong in order to solve the problem and move on.
c. ‘Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results’.
The type of person that we are is as a result of the type thoughts and actions we make. For a person to acquire knowledge on something he has to be able to know what it takes to gain that knowledge, this is the same with thought and action. The type of thought, and the action associated with that produce the results that is a person with a certain character. When I was young boy, I had a friend whose Dad usually beat up her Mum whenever she has done something wrong without even asking, to him also when someone has done something amongst the group in most cases he resorted to fighting and one day unfortunately broke his hand because of this bad behavior that he had. But these thoughts and actions were bred by the parents in this innocent young man but all the same resulted in a bad situation.
d. The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed.
In this idea, one cannot claim that I have done a bad or good thing because of the situation I was in or because of the feelings that I had at a particular time. We do something because our mind has told us to do so and the body only obeys what our mind is thinking about since we can control our thinking. When I was a going for my first hiking trip even though the body was weak in terms of body pains that I heard would develop upon coming back, I had already made up my mind of hiking and I was really excited so I just had to go and everything was left to be taken care of at its own right time. Although I could not have gone because of that feeling that would develop, the mind was already made up, so the body was left to just follow.
e. They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planned sins (though by a different route), to failure, unhappiness, and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power evolving universe.
For a person to live a healthy and contented life, one has to develop a purpose of his life. In this a person must have direction and be focused, evaluating in the course of achieving that purpose. For example, when I was doing my secondary school, I really wanted to go to College to do an undergraduate degree, this led me to find out how I should perform in my academic life, the subject combinations for the course of my choice and helped me a lot in my performance in class since I strived a lot to be over average so that I can have a Chance to be selected to purse a degree programme at the college of my choice. For people who do not have a purpose in their lives, they are not focused and in most cases worry over a very small thing bad thathas happened to them.
f. Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
For a person to develop or to be somewhere in life, one has to dream of that and strive to be there and at the end of the day one realize his dream and at this point it is a reality. For me I had at to dream to become a graduate, I had a vision that helped me a lot in that direction and now am left with no more than a Semester to finish my four years of college which is the ideal when I was young and a reality that is unfolding to me for now. Your
g. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control.
For a person to be calm and mature he is supposed to know who really he is and what is it all about his life. One has to know the full self. For me to make a decision to accept the leadership positions that I have, firstly I had to realize my full potentials and what people have seen within me that they want me to do for the organization and together as a whole entity making up the organization. This helped me a lot because I realized other potentials within me that I didn’t know for a long time.
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 a lot because they are as for now helping me in reflecting my daily activities, having a purpose for my life, living a life full of dreams and making ways of achieving those dreams. It has also helped me to be a responsible person in terms of the choices, ideas and decisions I make in my life. Whether good or bad, I have to take responsibility, if they are bad I have to sit back and see what went wrong, try to analyze the situation and how I cannot make the same mistake again. This can help me in creating a better world because as people with a purpose in life, with dreams and visions, we can strive to reach to a common goal in our respective lives by incorporating everyone in the leadership styles that we use, and also by creating a conducing environment for everyone in order to achieve his or her dreams.
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’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently ultivated or allowed to run wild;
In this the mind can make so many decisions but it’s up to the person to direct his mind in a good direction so that he can make decisions that are good and helpful in his life. In the same fashion one can make his mind to think in the bad way which leads to destruction.
b. a man is continually revolting against an effect without, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart.
In most instances we try to do away against the circumstance without dealing with our own direction of thought. It is because of our line of thought that we do some good or bad things. In the same manner that most people want to do away with the effect rather than the cause of a thing
c. A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances.
A man’s circumstance is as a result of his thoughts which turn into action and produce results. Thus the type of thought that one has, it is the same line of results that will be produced. For a person that is striving to do good in his life, his actions will be good and only good results will follow in his life
d. ‘who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully’
For success in life one needs to have a purpose, realize the challenges of that direction and be willing to conquer them and move on with life. Without these, one will develop fear when he met any difficulty in the process of achieving a dream.
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 written only that some words used in it are difficult
to understand but I have understood it without much difficulties.
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 did not contain any exercises.
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.
There is nothing I can contribute because the questions have asked me in many aspects of the book as related to my life. But the book has acted as an eye opener to me, since I didn’t know how powerful my mind to me and how can I as a person control my thinking
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? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 4
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Thomas Basikolo (Malawi)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
In Jonathan Livingstone Seagull the author is trying to tell the reader to have the courage and power to pursue his dream even if the society has problems with it but if it is for a good reason that you are doing that then it is worth pursing without fear of any bad action
against you. Thus for one to achieve a goal in life, practice needs to be frequent and also to give in your heart towards achieving that goal and lastly one needs to be focused.
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. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.
As living creatures we need to have something that we want attain in our lives and this should not be the thing that everyone else is doing in our society but we have to be unique. Also we need to find out what we really like in our lives rather than living as everyone else around us. For example it is not common in Malawi for one to be a student at a college doing a degree programme and studying something else, as for me it was difficult for my friends to accept that I am doing a Leadership with IIGL but I had to enroll for it anyway because I had all the reasons to do it
b. ‘If you must study, then study food, and how to get it. This flying business is all very well, but you can’t eat a glide, you know. Don’t you forget that the reason you fly is to eat’.
In most cases people do things because they have a few options for survival. They do not realize that even on those few options one can choose an option that is satisfactory in life. We should not choose to do things because all people are doing that. When I finished my secondary school my parents wanted me to do medicine but from my childhood I never thought of such kind of thing, thus I didn’t choose to do medicine because it was not the field I wanted to be in.
c. But victory was short-lived. The instant he began his pullout, the instant he changed the angle of his wings, he snapped into that same terrible uncontrolled disaster, and at ninety miles per hour it hit him like dynamite. Jonathan Seagull exploded in midair and smashed
down into a brickhard sea.
Though we make decisions in terms of what to do in life, we have also to be conversant with the challenges that will be associated with that. Failure at secondary school upon making up mind that I want to go to College was a big challenge and whenever I fail in my exams I just thought it was the end of everything else.
d. The same rule holds for us now, of course: 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.”
For one to progress from one level to the other, he must be able to fully understand what he is doing, be able to overcome the challenges and move on to the next level. If you are not open to new ideas and learning new things in life you cannot progress. In my life one my hobby is adventure, this helps me a lot in opening up new ideas and learning new things about life, nature and the world.
e. “To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived”.
Most people in the world fail to do things in their lives because they think they are limited mostly in terms of resources since they cannot thing beyond the resources they have. For me, even in first year, I wanted to enroll in another institution to gain some other skills that may be helpful in life but the only barrier I had was money for tuition, internet and examinations since my parents cannot afford to pay for that. But I didn’t realize that there are other institutions like IIGL who can help me in that direction. Thus I was not able to look across the resource line.
f. “Each of us is in truth an idea of the Great Gull, an unlimited idea of freedom,”
For one to do better in life you have to realize that you are an idea of freedom, someone who is liberated and a person who is able to do things without limits. For me to have the courage to make a choice of wanting to go to college after finishing my secondary school, I had to realize first that I can on my own and with the knowledge that I have I am going to make it. Though the type of school I was in was not that good but I made it a point to myself that I will go to college whatever the case thus I had to work hard in and out of class.
g. “The only true law is that which leads to freedom,”
For most people the only thing that they need in their lives is food not freedom at all. For the case of my country Malawi, if people have food then thus all to them and most people are satisfied even if they do not have rights i.e. they have no freedom at all. This is dangerous because most people do not get what is rightfully theirs. They get things intended to the majority poor for themselves since they know that they cannot ask if they have food in their homes.
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?
Being limited in life cause a lot of problems because you know that even if you can do something, you will not attain thee result of that thing at the end, which leads to most people not doing anything towards a thing because of limitations in life. If you believe that your unlimited, you will be ready to meet any challenge in life, and achieve the your goals. If in a country for example people have freedom, they will be able to freely contribute towards the development of that country, give their contributions to the leaders on how things should be in the country, justice will be there and peace will prevail. This will create a better world for everybody.
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. “I don’t mind being bone and feathers mom. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can’t, that’s all. I just want to know.”
In this one should not be limited by the body or because of what people around him are saying. One has to make independent decisions on how to do things his way in his life. This will lead to a contented life because one will do things he likes most and will do it wholeheartedly.
b. “Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Stand to Center for Shame in the sight of your fellow gulls!” Sometimes when on have embarked on achieving a goal in life, there are challenges that you meet along the way, one has to be ready to meet these challenges, conquer them and move on with life rather than getting worried over problems you are facing.
c. Life is the unknown and the unknowable, except that we are put into this world to eat, to stay alive as long as we possibly can.” Most leaders because of lack knowledge and leadership skills tend to mislead other people by telling those people things that are contrary to the issue being raised. Most people don’t know the impact of exploring in life and choosing among alternatives.
d. Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect.” We sometimes don’t have an idea of how something is. Creating a better world for us and those around us begins with knowing what is food for us and for others thus if we are perfect ourselves, we will create a heaven for us and other people around us.
e. “keep working on love.” Each and every day, our lives needs to manifest love to others. The way we think, talk and walk, we need to show other people love and with that we can live a life full of satisfaction since it will be a fulfilled 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?
The book has talked very well about the body not being limited and lining each and every day in love i.e. loving others. To this extent I have understood the thing that the book has talked about.
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, the book did not contain exercises.
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 don’t think there is something I can add on.
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? 5
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 7
Keys To Success
Assessment by Thomas Basikolo (Malawi)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
In this book, the author is explaining the 17 principles that people have used in their lives and have achieved a lot with these principles. The author further point out that these principles if applied in one’s life carefully can help him/her so much. This is reinforced by examples that the author has given in almost all of the principles as applied by people in order to achieve a lot.
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. Your progress towards success begins with a fundamental question: Where are you going? In this, definite of a purpose is the major ingredient, where one has to exactly ask himself what he wants in his life and being precise in that. This helps a lot for an individual is well focused about the goals of his life and also a person tries as much as possible to achieve this though problems might arise on the way but you keep focused towards achieving that goal. As a young boy wanting to be one of the people who are highly educated, I kept moving from one school to the other in search of a place where I can do better since in our country not more than 2% of secondary school graduates are selected to pursue degree programmes in our universities and there is much competition. This movement helped me a lot, because I had a purpose that I wanted to achieve by then, though there were hiccups since moving to new place was not easy to cope with the environment, I tried a lot and now I am in my fourth year of studies.
b. There is no scarcity of opportunity. There is only the shortage of imagination. This is a powerful statement to me because when I look around people that are close to and in some instances myself, I try to ask people for opportunities in life whether work, school, or even a scholarship and if I don’t get what I want I get frustrated and stop looking, this statement clears tells me that I don’t do enough and rather than looking for opportunities from other people I should make opportunities for myself through my own imagination. Many people also do not realize the power of their minds, and thus they are limited to what they do in their lives.
c. A positive mental attitude is the right mental attitude in any given situation and is most often composed of the plus characteristics symbolized by such words as faith, integrity, hope, optimism, courage, initiative, generosity, tolerance, tact, kindliness, and good common sense.
PMA is very crucial indeed in the lives of many people, according to me it can refer to a make mindset while NMA is a break mindset. One can have a make mindset that can help him to make good decisions and also to be sure about that, it helps a person have self-esteem since one is sure (has faith) of what he is doing. With this a person has self-respect and is able to understand the differences that exist among people. As a first year student at our College, I had NMA because people around me constantly reminded me how many people were withdrawn from the college on academic grounds that had the same combination of courses as mine, I had the feeling that I too could be the victim, though I was working the only thing that could prove to me that this won’t be the case was the end of semester results, after I got the results it’s when I developed my PMA that this won’t be the case and made the decision to finish my degree with good grades and thus what I am striving to do and I will do it.
d. An important part of opening your mind to faith is riding your mind of the fears which limit your belief. Fear is more destructive to the mind because it creates NMA in people. It makes a person not to believe in what they are doing and people just accept what life has brought to them without challenging it. It creates unnecessary contentment in people whereby a person just says its ok/ it’s alright I am used to this and I can’t do otherwise. People just accept how they are claiming that it’s God’s plan for them to be like that. Many people for example in my country live less than $1/ day and they don’t see something lacking in that. Sometimes I do experience fear that makes me feel not achieving what I want to. This makes me feel like quitting in whatever I do and make life miserable.
e. The mind is like a piece of land. Through diligent, planned work, it can be cultivated into a beautiful and productive garden. Or it can lie fallow, overrun by weeds sprouting from seed carried by passing birds and the wind. The mind as powerful as it is can be productive if the person using it realizes its potential, and maximizes its use. This can help the person reach His fullest potential in which he can develop as individual to greatest heights. On the contrary, if a person does not use the mind effectively, it can be likened to an uncultivated land which has a potential to produce a lot but does not. At home I have a young brother who likes electronics, though he doesn’t have the equipment and the expertise he tries a lot to do something and really some things work because I think he think beyond what the society requires him to, because there are very few people who can do that at his age. In this proper planning with a purpose can lead to great achievements in life.
f. Your success depends on the strength and quality of your controlled habits. Thinking is a process that helps an individual do something. It is the first step towards success. Not any type of thinking can lead a person to an achievement; the same thinking can lead a person to destruction and confusion. Powerful controlled thoughts here can help you to achieve in life. These thoughts should be well focused and of high quality because they help an individual gain self-discipline. Though, not to larger extent, I used accurate thinking when I was organizing a youth conference with my friends. We were the two of us, me and my friend Chawezi, we had to run around searching for accommodation and transport for participants and we achieved it because we had proper plan.
g. “Concentration upon a single idea has been the hallmark of success for countless people and organization”. Concentration of the mind towards a single idea is significant because it leads people to have controlled thinking with self-discipline in that whatever they do, they try as much as possible to achieve their definite purpose. This helps one to have a proper planning, and schedule of events as to how they are going to happen. When I was in secondary school and wanted to go to college I tried to concentrate a lot on my studies, in my last year at secondary school months before the national exams I went through sleepless nights, reading so that I achieve that which I wanted to with all my heart.
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 principles as outlined in the book, I think and believe that if I can use them or apply them in my daily life they can be helpful because they cannot only lead me to succeed in life but also help me live a descent life. The principles try to teach a person to live a disciplined life, and also a person to have self-esteem. These can also help me create a better a world since I will be able to work with others, make others believe in themselves and also teach other people how to budget time, have priorities in life, have a purpose and see no limits when doing things in life which can create self- disciplined cititzens.
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. “Win without boasting, lose without squealing, and others will soon respect you”. Many people embarrass their friends when they have achieved things in their lives, at this times being close to them does not do just to the person that is close because they thing they are the only one that are capable of achieving in their lives and no one else can surpass their levels of knowledge and thinking. This is wrong thinking and puts the person close at an awkward state and embarrassed. As human beings we need to respect other people knowing that they also can achieve as much as we do and may be also more than that according to way the use their mind.
b. “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”. Faith in oneself is important, and faith that what you want to achieve is possible is of paramount importance, this helps you to on the track of achieving whatever you want to. Many people may conceive an idea to achieve something in their lives but to believe that it is achievable is the main problem and many people have failed to achieve in their lives because they lack faith in whatever they are doing. To me this statement is a command to believe in whatever my mind has conceived that I can achieve it with faith.
c. “Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit for those who have PMA and apply it”. In most cases, when we are faced by a problem, we feel like we cannot do anything other than just saying “let it be” and do nothing else about it. This makes the situation worse because we accept the problems and in some instances put the blame on others rather than accepting the problem and try to figure out the ways and means of how to solve that problem. In my opinion this statement always tells me to do something more rather than seeing the problem as the end of everything but realizing that at the end there is something big for me. And this thing is very big than the problem itself that I am facing.
d. “The mind is a reservoir in which you store up potential power”. The mind is a powerful tool in which the potential to achieve a lot in life is stored. Though this is the case, many people do not realize that they have such a potential. Many people do not have self-discipline in which they can think about a situation before acting in a certain way. This is also a problem to me because at times I think l lack self-discipline in how I do or act. This statement will act as a reminder when am faced with lack of self-discipline in whatever I will be doing.
e. “The Lord will provide”. The joke carries powerful words that are helpful to an individual because in most cases we do not work in order to achieve what we want in life instead we fill God will do everything to us so that we have what we want. We wait for a miracle to happen without realizing the power of God amidst us, this may be through friends, and even relatives can be on this part. This statement tells me to appreciate the power of God in my immediate environment rather than waiting for a miracle to happen that is supernatural.
f. “Creative vision belongs only to people who have the habit of going the extra mile”. If you want to achieve something or succeed in life, you have that feeling of doing something more, and you are not contented with what you have done because when you look at it your mind tells you that you can do better than that. In this the mind sees no limits in doing things because it sees itself as the limit. On my part as a student, being a college graduate was my primary purpose and now because am almost done with it I feel like doing more and am planning of enrolling for a masters programme in the soonest time possible.
g. “Your attitude toward life determines your attitude toward time”. In this the two types of people: Doers who have a definite purpose in life uses their time effectively and efficiently since they know how precious it is and how each second is significant for personal and group success, while the drifters, those who are controlled by circumstance wait for things to happen and follow. In this the doers do act in order for something to happen while the drifter, react to a situation that has already happened. Thus doers are able to budget their time, in this they priotise tasks, realizing the most important ones and the lesser important ones in achieving their definite purpose.
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?
I had difficulties in understanding the last principle which is the use of cosmic habit force, though after further reading I grasped what some of the ideas were trying to communicate to me but not the whole of the idea.
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 did contain an evaluation at the end that the author tried to help the reader to apply the 17 principles in their daily lives in order to start in the journey of success. This is a personal effort in which one is supposed to make plans that are essential in success.
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 don’t think there is any.
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? 7
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? 8