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Assessment by Olukoju Kelvin Olukayode...
As A Man Thinketh 1. What ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain why they were important to you, using personal examples. The mind is the master weaver both of the inner garment of character ant the outer garment of circumstances. The mind of a man is his seat of thought. You must have thought of an action before you take it. I have found that most of my actions or behaviors are premeditated, whether at the moment or long before the actions are taken. The way a man reacts to situations or circumstances makes up his characters. Man is always the master, even in his weakest and most abandoned state. I had been in some situations where I thought there was no way out, that I could just manage and tolerate. I thought there was no way out until I made up my mind to get out of it. I never knew why I did that until I read this book. 2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Please use personal examples in your explanation. I personally believe that a man is a product of his thought. Your thought life shows who you are. You don't have to ask a person what he is thinking or what is on his mind, but you may study him by watching the way he behaves. Thus you can know what he has been spending his time thinking about. I want to be a very good software developer. I believe that nobody can stop me but 'me' from achieving this goal. I just need to focus my thought on this goal, think about the tools and materials I need to get to where I want and take action. I always think about being successful in this area but not otherwise. This is because I'm the master weaver of my character and circumstances. 3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain. Oppressor and slaves are co-operators in ignorance An oppressor has chosen to be an oppressor by the reason of his unguided thought; so is the slave who does not see himself as free and independent of the oppressor. The two are ignorant that they have made themselves to be what they are by not taking cognisance of the kind of thought they allow. The slave sees himself as been oppressed and the oppressor on the other hand is bound by his thought that his own power and liberty lies in the continual 'keeping of the slave in bondage'. Thus he sees himself as the supreme. No one but you can change your present condition It is true that you will always be pulled toward your secret love and desire. Bad habits just do not start to manifest in a day. It what you think about and secretly desire that you finally manifest. A plan desired and conceived in the mind is a finished product that needs an opportunity to show up itself. You are thus the only one that can alter your condition because you are the direct result of your own thought. Knowledge develops into will You will always have the will and the strength to do whatever you desire and can conceive in your mind if you can have and accept the knowledge that you have the potential to do it. Many people do not want to leave their present condition or comfort zone because fear and doubt will not make them to accept that there is a 'life' beyond the comfort zone. It is just like an imprisoned cat which is set free for a moment. It finds it difficult to accept the knowledge or fact that it has been set free thus lacks the will to take a step and run away. 4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how? This book has greatly challenged and changed my way of thinking. Sometime I tend to overlook or not to take much cognisance of my thought life. This book has really caused me to sit and think deep and then ask myself why I do most of the things I do. I ask myself what is the force or power behind every action I take. Most of the answers to these questions can be directly or indirectly linked to what I think about or spend most of my time thinking about. No matter how bad a man's environment may be, the environment does not have a power of its own to influence what goes on in his mind. He has the power to allow or disallow the thought. A bad environment does not necessarily bring bad thought and a good environment does not necessarily bring good thought. However a bad thought can bring about or create a bad environment and a good thought can create a good and peaceful environment. For example, armed robbery does not come about as a result of a bad environment or a bad economy. A man may choose to be an armed robber because of thought of being oppressed or because of the different negative thought he allows to pass through his mind, and nurtures. The mind of a man is just like a farmland. A farmland left uncultivated grows different kinds of weeds or plants. You cultivate your farmland according to the type of plant you want. You sow the kind of seed you want to grow. Unwanted plants are regarded as weeds and are thus removed. No matter how a plant is beautiful as long as it is not wanted it is regarded as weed and must be removed. There are some beautiful thought that pass through our mind. These thought are so beautiful but have nothing to do with our goal or vision. These thought must be removed because it may endanger the thought that has something to do with our vision. There are some weeds that look almost exactly like some plants. One should not say that the weeds must not be removed because they look almost exactly like the plants. Thus, there are some thoughts that seem un-harmful to our dream or vision but we must not allow them to grow with other thoughts. They will at the end inhibit the growth of the other thoughts thereby causing a failure of a dream or vision. Good plants that are left uncultivated or uncared for will finally dry off or be choked off. So are the thoughts that are not nurtured. They will end up fading away and not useful. As a new born baby requires nutrients from the milk of the mother to grow so are our thoughts and dreams need to be nurtured with necessary and adequate nutrients to grow and mature into a fulfilled dream which brings out the success in us. I think the most important nutrient that our thoughts need is the action that we take. A dream should not continue to remain in the realm of thought; it must be followed by actions we take to see the dream come true. We are corrupt by the kind of thought we allow to flow through our mind. We are the vessel that carries the thought. The state or the condition of the vessel is determined by the kind of thought that flow through it. For example, a pipe that channels water to a particular place serves as a vessel that transports the water and also serves as a vessel that gives the direction of flow of the water. If the water is dirty the vessel will also be dirty. Just as the vessel gives direction to the flow of the water so also we have the power to channel the thoughts that come to our mind to the right place. We must channel our thought to the right thing and not to the wrong thing. 5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why? I think there is tendency to disagree with some of the ideas in this book if not well understood while going through it for the first time. For instance you may not want to accept the idea that a perfect compassion embraces both the oppressor and the oppressed. There are no ideas that I totally disagree with in this book. 6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book? The fact that the power lies within a man to control every thought that goes in and out of his mind has been most helpful to me in this book. However cherishing a beautiful dream and vision is not enough to make a man. There is the need to follow up your vision tenaciously and diligently guiding and guarding your thought to make it come into realization. People with vision do not only sit but sit, stand and walk. 7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey. A man is either made or mar by the thought he allows to flow through his mind. Continually dwelling on this thought makes and brings out the character which will manifest itself when the environment gives it the opportunity to do so. Thus it can be concluded that through or by the power of his thought a man makes his circumstances. Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good
and one is poor. Jonathan Livingston Seagull 1. What ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain why they were important to you, using personal examples. Not moved or concerned about the things that move the majority I believe that a lot of people fight for survival and do not make every
effort to live above the level of survival. Many people are satisfied with
fighting for what they will eat and wear everyday thus repeating a vicious
circle over the years. One should not be moved by the things that move the
majority like scrambling over food and the things of life. Our concern
should be eating to live and not living to eat. We train ourselves to give
food and not to scramble for one. I once heard that rat race is only for the
rats. We need to make up our minds not to settle for the better but for the
best. You don’t stall or stumble when you are at your comfort zone There is tendency for one not to want to venture into an unknown ground because he’s so satisfied with his present level and thinks that that’s all to life. It is when you want to go otherwise that you face challenges that will make you to stumble. And you need great courage and effort to forge ahead. What you love to do is the force that propels you What you love to do is enough motivation for you. Knowing well that this is what you desire, you will not be swept off your feet when challenges come your way. A man that enjoys what he does, does not give up even at every obstacle he meets. He continues to try even against every failure. It may take him a great effort but will finally work. People give you many reasons why you should not do what you are presently doing or why you will fail Don’t listen to negative and discouraging words when you are on the right way of your vision and desire. People may label you an outcast but you need to shut your ears to these words if you want to reach out to where success lies. The desire or the search to know gives you the opportunity to discover what you can do or who you are In my search to know more than I did, I found that there were some potential in me that I never knew about. A man of vision feels uneasy with mediocrity even if he wants to be a mediocre There are some things I tried to do just because I wanted to please my friends; but I found that I could not just do these things no matter how hard I tried to. An arrival at your goal is just the beginning of a greater achievement The fact that you succeeded in one thing does not mean that you have automatically succeeded in others. There are many other challenges coming on your way which will definitely give you an opportunity for a greater achievement. There is no time for celebration at every success because celebration of victory is always short-lived by the on-coming challenges of life I was included in a football team because I proved myself to be a very good footballer. But the celebration was soon short-lived when I was later replaced by another footballer for lack of good performance 2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Please use personal examples in your explanation. To achieve your goal, you must see yourself different from every other person that does not see what you see, believe in you or in your vision and does not want to take risk you take. Get the ingredients and the materials you need to achieve your goal (i.e. the information you need) The wish to end it all sometimes come to me after a failure and the thought of my limitation always tend to bring me thus far. Since one learns as he journeys through the way of success I have found that mostly my excellence and achievement have taken me above the level of survival and there I learn new things that may mates may not know. You will get to the level that your mates may never have got to 3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain. Determination and persistence backed up with right action shoot you above the wave. When you are determined and persistent in following your vision and desire. You will find out you are taken to a new level of promotion and knowledge at every risk you take. This will shoot you above the wave of fear and doubt and you will look back and wonder why you made the mistakes you made in the past. The reasons you give to life are despised or rejected by others if they don’t see what you see, or believe or share your vision, passion and desire. They do not have the foresight you have. It may even take many years for them to reason with you but people will
always despise and reject your ideas and principles as long as they do not
understand, believe or share your vision. The step of success you make (to
find a higher purpose for life) trying to achieve what other person has
never achieved might be seen as a reckless irresponsibility and violation of
dignity and tradition. Then there is need for you to make every effort to
convince them to Boredom, fear and anger will not allow you to venture out of your comfort zone. Fear is like a policeman that is trying to stop you from going to a ‘restricted area’. The fact that you are angry or against a just principle or an idea does not make your wrong to become right. Many poor people are busy nurturing their anger and annoyance at the rich and wealthy and forget how to better their lot You will always know your own by putting them to the right test It is good for a man to choose who his friend is. The choice of your friend lies in your comparing his desire, vision, goal, principle to yours. The people that share your vision and understand your passion will take you beyond your dream As you go higher in your success, you will find out that there are few achievers and you will be engulfed with the desire to reach out and touch perfection in what you love to do Why is it that there are few unique persons in the world? Being unique in the sense of their goal, desire and how they affect their environment. As you go higher in your ladder of success you will meet these few achievers and you will find out that they are doing what they love to do (to achieve their dreams), despising rejection and discouragement. 4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how? This book has changed my thinking. I have come to realise that no matter what odds are against you or your vision, if you don’t give up it will get to a time where you will meet people of like passion like you that will be an additional source of encouragement to you. 5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why? No, there are no ideas in this book that I totally disagree with. 6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book? I find these ideas most helpful: However it is not a thing of honour not to help those that were against you in the beginning of your search for fulfilment of your desire or goal, to grow and begin to see what you saw. You should make every effort to make them to come to the level of your understanding so that they will know that it is not absolutely impossible step out of your comfort zone. 7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey. To achieve your goal or desire you should not give up trying and you should not listen to discouraging voices. Although challenges will come but you need to make up your mind not to settle for mediocrity. In climbing the ladder of success you may find out that opinions of majority may be different from yours and what they see may be different from what you see. You will achieve your goal if you do not give up. 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
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