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Assessment by Paa Kwesi Inkumsah... Assessment of as a Man Thinketh Jonathan Livingston Seagull Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude 1. What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples. The introductory pages bring to mind our ability not to dance to the tune of the time, refute the conditions that allows us not to improve and see the positive. It spells it out clearly how we should see ourselves different from any other and strive to achieve when all seems to be bleak. The focus of chapter one, WHERE THE ROAD TO SUCCESS BEGINS serves as a motivational guide to launch us to greatness and learn from the wealth of experience and a positive mental attitude cultivated by Henry Ford, Tom Dempsey and a few other characters in this book that exercised their PMA to achieve and make the impossible a reality. In our desire to achieve greatness and be realized we need to first be servants. Learning to serve teaches us how to work our ego and expresses the meaning of humility. Sometimes when we have tried all things and it doesn't seem to work, we want to give up the idea. Cultivating the habit of inspirational dissatisfaction like Al Allen. Allen after failing miserably chose to pick up his defeat and turned them into positive vibes. This propelled him to forge on and gave him the motivation and desire to launch out the next day to do the kill, same with Henry Ford. After his team had given up the idea of molding an eight cylinder block, he urged them to keep trying until success came. It's very important that we see failure as an avenue for us to develop and come up with an outcome that would be enviable. Failure actually is the beginning to a perfect work, in failure, we become more experienced and we learn new ways of doing things right. If we begin to see failure as a positive mental attitude, we are bound to achieve the very best of what ever we experiment. I liked the emphasis the author attributed to the Bible. He recognized it as the source of all wisdom and knowledge. It the genesis of all of our inspiration. Identifying and attesting to the fact that prayer is mans greatest power brings to bear that we need to consult a higher power in all of our endeavors to seek guidance and intelligence. If each of us will learn to use the 17 success principles as a yardstick in evaluating our lives, it will go a long way to sharpen and improve our sense of achievement. I like to see all the struggles that men go through not greater than that that went on when we all had to compete with millions of sperms for survival to gain the status of a fetus. Let's look at it this way as the conquering stages of life. Our lives as sperms and our ability to fight all the other capable sperms that swam close to the ovary to be fertilized already make us victors even before we became fetus. The struggle is even more competitive and very rapid than what we see in our usual lives now. People like to say, “Life is unfair” life is fair to them that see the positive and for those that refuse to see by virtue of their mediocre thinking, are those that will forever murmur and grumble about the uncertainties of life. If you could whip it in the belly, then you can survive it any way. You can make anything and everything possible by training and disciplining your mind to only accept what is positive. It's easy, confess to your self that it is possible and that you can make it constantly for at least a week and it becomes your habit. Your habits will culminate to your nature and eventually become your character. Directing our thoughts, controlling our emotions and ordaining our destiny is a sure way of exercising PMA. Also memorizing the self motivational codes from the bible in page 45 is very important in our self development and upliftment. I like to quote one of my favorite texts in this book “A positive mental attitude and definiteness of purpose is the starting point toward all worthwhile achievement” This is very true because it's evident in the life of Milo C Jones. Milo realized that he could make up for intelligence where he could not make up for strengths. Each of us can harness our efficiencies to make up for our short comings and even with time learn to clean up our own cobwebs. The beginning of everything big is first conceptualized in the mind. This book challenges us to use our mental faculties in a positive sense to project our inbuilt abilities. In our desire to obtain PMA we need to clean up our cobwebs, the most important factor I like to consider in this contest is first starting to deal with your own self when you are faced with a problem with others. Find out what it is that caused the problem from your own angle. If we learn to deal with our own selves, we become more tolerant as we develop a sense of discipline to help us tolerate others. I grew up not from a rich neighborhood; I had to make due with what my mother could afford as a single parent. In spite of her inability to afford all the pleasantries this life could give, she thought me one thing as a teacher. She said, “Paa, you can reach any height if you believe but please have a cycle of friends that would influence this thought”. I never liked my neighborhood anyway and the kind of people that I saw. Mediocre life style with no vision or purpose. It saddened my heart and angered me more each day when I thought of my environment. I decided to do something about it; I began to read about good neighborhoods, built my confidence and made friends with some of the affluent people on the other side of town. I spent less time at home after I had completed my chores and would dash off to see my new friends who took for granted the wealth of knowledge they had learnt from their parents. Each day, I learnt from each of them good manners, learnt how to use some sophisticated gadgets and refused to belong to my part of town. I had problems at home when my mum would complain about how I associated with the rich knowing that I came from a poor background. She said to me, “ son, you need to move with your own setting, you know I cant get you out of trouble if you messed something up from any of your rich folks houses” I smiled and said the contrary. Everybody from my neighborhood decided to hate me because they thought I was self conceited and sometimes would say' “who does he think he is?” after all he isn't better than any of us, but yet he wont associate with us” Soon, I was able to erase from my mind that I belonged to that part of the world and thought my mum to think such too. As my friendship with my rich friends grew stronger, I had the opportunity to go with their family to most of the nice places they went on weekends and begged that my mum was invited on one of those days. “Certainly Paa, I would love to see your mother sometime, she really has a smart kid for a son and I really would love to make conversations with her” my friends mum said with a smile. With glee and a big smile all over my face, I went home that evening with much excitement and told my mum about the good news. Eventually she became friends and spent less of her time also in our poor neighborhood. I chose to exercise PMA at the time and imagined my life being that of an achiever even though the odds were turned against me, I refused to live a mediocre life. Not satisfied with my achievements so far, I decided to go a little further and dared my self to set higher standards even amongst my rich friends. I decided to make
friends with older people who had excelled in their fields of endeavor and learn from their wealth of experience. At church one day when I was going through the last
lesson of my discipleship class, our teacher said “ after this lesson, I know you wont have this opportunity to meet me in a classroom premise again, but hey, you can come
to me for any type of assistance when the need arises”. There in the room, I met my first older friend, twice my age. A trained building consultant, he thought me most of
the things I know now, built my confidence and thought me lessons putting me through the situations. 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? Explain. To be at peace with the world, it first has to begin with the individual. Charity they say begins at home. I have had issues in the past with people and in most cases
my temper betrays me. It's quite strange but I couldn't control my temper any longer, got angry at the least provocation and grew very impatient. I tried on several
occasions to figure out what the cause of this was. The desire to change was very strong as I hated my present condition and would do any thing to get out of it. This book
teaches me to do that, it tells me to love my self. I have learnt to realize that a critical assessment of my own self and my egocentric behavior contributed to a large
extent to what I was experiencing. My family suffered a little from my temper and would have been very devastating if I didn't put up measures to change. I did a simple
exercise like illustrated in this book and added what I spoke repeatedly. “I am patient, I don't get angry at the least provocation; I will not take my frustrations on
others” constantly repeating these words to my self and using PMA has helped curbed the problem to a large extent. Truly, we are our own enemies. I justify this by using
the human mind as a case study. The conceptualization of every thought I first conceived in the mind and its actions is made evident in our day to day activity. It's good to have a dream, but in identifying the dream, it's also important to set a target as well. That is, how much time and effort are we prepared to sacrifice in making our dreams a reality? Setting time log keeps us in check and gets us to finish a particular objective on time. Giving ourselves time phrase causes us to work hard to meet specific deadline. My whole persona has learnt to be even more disciplined. I think I have to work much more on achieving set goals at a specific time frame. My enthusiasm built up as I flipped through the pages of this book. I had ideas rush through my heard so fast like lightening that I had to pause to type them before I
completely lost focus of them. Every body that has read this book will be a changed individual and like me would see things with a rather different perspective. 3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain. Self Motivation. Every thing I am and what I have become is made possible because of a supernatural force that I communicated to, in whom I have my strength and motivation. Sometimes when I am so down and feel like I can't go on again, when fear grips me and I quiver. I inspire my self by quoting the scripture in Isaiah 41:10 that says “Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness”. This book adds to my store of knowledge by further elucidating vividly how to motivate ones self. I like to always use the part of the world where I come from where the
youth very rarely have any encouragement to believe in the potentials that lies with in. Where everything is presented so hopelessly to the youth that they feel its
useless belonging to the continent. A constant reminder, that all men were created equal and have equal abilities to develop the God given talents and skills in us is
enough motivation to make us believe in the power of will. To motivate one self, one magic ingredient that comes to mind is HOPE. Having the hope that all ends well to
them that believe, is a good enthusiastic factor to sore high. To have the expectation of what is desired and to believe that it is attainable is the embodiment of hope. A
simple experiment conducted on two species of mice placed in water and covered with a container to survive proved that specimen A spent three hours keeping its head above
the water because it saw a glimmer of light in the container and it believed that if it could hold on a little longer, It could perhaps survive dead role. The other
specimen B, died after ten minutes because its surrounding was so dark, it couldn't see a thing and lost hope. Hope carried the first specimen for a very long time. Each
of us can master this self motivational trait, if we would change our mindset and convert NMA to PMA. 4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how? The experience I have had with this book has not only changed my thought but has also made me aware that I could actually use my brain a lot more than I am doing now. I thought I was doing much with regards to brainstorming, but realize that I have actually done very little after I learnt from the testimonies and personal experiences shared in this book. There is nothing under the sun that is not attainable. I realize how I can channel my energies towards problem solving and making a more positive impact on my surroundings. If I was using 5% of brain power, I think I will now operating 20% and gradually work my way up until I have fully used up my brain to achieve what is attainable as I have perceived it. 5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why? I completely have no qualms with any illustrations in this book. 6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book? The success quotient analysis is a very useful tool to self evaluation and assessment. An honest evaluation of this analysis reveals to us our strengths and weaknesses. Once we have identified what it is we are lacking, we can quickly identify what it is we must do to correct our weaknesses. Chapter eleven of this book illustrates the 17 success principles. These principles have been identified as one of the useful tools that would aid me in my journey of personal development. To maintain PMA, exercise enthusiasm coupled by definiteness of purpose and going the extra mile, would help build a culture of self discipline, a pleasing personality, creative vision, a personal initiative, a team spirit amongst others will ensure an improved, confident and poised me. 7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey. This book describes vividly the importance of exercising goodness over bad. It forecasts the advantages of having a positive mental attitude and shunning a negative mental attitude. It describes how PMA affects our health positively and why we least have to develop an NMA attitude. Please Rate each of the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor. The New Dynamics Of Winning 1. What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples. We realize in this book how important it is for an individual who wants to achieve a goal or an ambition, sacrifices to burn the mid night candle to develop his skill in order to get the expected output. “No Pain, no gain” is a typical saying that expresses ones desire to sacrifice and risk all in order to achieve greatness. Eliminating that factor, fear and converting it into a positive energy that propels us to want to excel. Knowing that fear is but false evidence appearing real. This book employs us to use to train our psyche and have a positive mental approach. Personally, the stories spoken of all these great athletes who exercised a lot of focus and never gave up even in situations where everybody had given up on them and thought they could not do it. Self believe and constant confession of positive spirited chants transforms from the inside and manifests on the outside. Like the popular saying “we are what we eat” truly, we are what we speak. Let's not forget that what we speak is a reflection of our thoughts and who we are. The good old book says that, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. The new dynamics of winning presents to us scenarios and secrets to employ in order to have a winning attitude. Let's remember as a motivational factor that, “there are no mistakes or failures only lessons”. Growth however, is the process of gaining knowledge, of trial and error and of a courageous experimentation. Let's not cease to forget that the failed attempts can be as much a part of the success process as the attempt that finally succeeds. It's very important that to achieve set objectives and accomplish targeted aims that we visualize the end from the beginning. Having the attitude of the golfer that would figure out where his ball would be located even before he pitches and the corrections that must be made to achieve the desired input should be our attitude. “Winners see the act of winning in advance-vivid, multidimensional, textured, clear. Champions know that what you see is who you'll be” This statement in pg 84 adds to the winning attitude of a champion. It clearly spells out to me how I need to psychologically prepare myself to believe in making my set out objectives a reality. I realised that listening gives you another dimension to problem solving and knowledge acquisition. I like to share a few things that I personally have learnt from the study of this book. I summarize it as follows: In order to improve our work here on this earth, we need to attempt the impossible. Am sure Bette Davis had some traits of the writer when he made this statement. Remembering also that, there is no security on this earth but only opportunity. Let's not spoil what we have, by desiring what we have not, remembering that what we have now, was once the things we only hoped for. The universe never says no to the thoughts about us, it only grows. If we only knew that we could have anything we wanted, we would set more goals. When a thing is done, it's done, let's not look back, but rather look forward to our next objective. All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own. I would like to conclude by quoting the famous Sir Winston Churchill “It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at
a time”. 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? Explain. As a young lad, I had a natural flair for painting and enjoyed poetry even at the age of ten. At school, I was thought the fundamentals of commerce while in grade school and liked to practice what I learnt. I set for my self goals, to enroll in the national library so I can visit the extension library and pick up some good poetry books as well as nature pictures to develop my skill. It brought me enormous joy when I knew that I was able to accomplish something. In my older life, I slackened and wore a procrastinator's coat. With zeal and enthusiasm, I would map up my weekly schedules and would dilly dally on most of the things that I had to do. It got better as I read books and cautiously made a point to change my perception completely especially in managing my time even more effectively. Transforming the thoughts and concepts of this book has not only worked on my discipline, but has given me a certain sense of responsibility I owe to myself and the world to give out my very best and not let pitfalls get the best bit of me. To see the solution from the beginning even though all odds are turned against me and nothing seems to be going right. A firm believe of optimism and accomplishing a goal no matter what. 3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain. The thoughts that I have gathered from this book is what I have captioned the mentoring weapon. In this section I am made to psyche my self with the feeling that I control my thought, emotions, and actions and direct them to improve the quality of health, my work, relationships and life as a whole. To convince my self that I am a good, worth and valuable person gives me the firm believe that I am fully capable of achieving my goals, trusting that my abilities and judgement in taking risks tests my limits. I have learnt that my spirit, mind and body are a powerful tem which I set free to excel. To know that self improvement and growth comes from learning from problems and setbacks. This experience teaches me to become more knowledgeable, ever thirsty for new knowledge, getting more curious, caring, more adaptable, more successful and more in control over everything. Most importantly, the most important thought that sets my soul free and gives me that inner satisfaction is completely eliminating negative happenings in my life to affect my psyche. To decide to be happy no matter how the events turn out to be in my life. The experience of the World War II and the intent to showcase art works of this world episode brings to me a very important concept. I love the caption, “for love not for money” I realise that employing this attitude in my business would go a long way to make a positive and progressive contribution towards the success of my business. Profit in any business is what every business owner desires, but I believe that delivering with passion a service to meet a customers specific need would get one the added value that we so desire. In my own words, I like to say “seek ye first the needs of your customer and all other things as in monetary returns shall be added onto you. 4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how? I begin to now confront problems calmly and cautiously and realised that my way of addressing issues have changed. In the past, I handled problem solving quiet differently, this encounter has caused me to see what is beyond the problem and the approach that I would use to combat it. It has brought me to that place of deep thinking, made me more philosophical with out realising that I am. I noticed this quite recently when a friend of mind confronted me with a problem that he had and how he painted the picture so gloomy. I smiled and answered, “It is well with you my brother, just believe” this was my introductory approach to the problem and trust me it worked a magic in this friends life. My image is boosted; my confidence level has risen and am burning with passion to be more successful. I have learnt from the experience that Disney went through that people begin support you when they see how lucrative an idea materializes. Sometimes, it's the visionary that sees where his idea is going and how far it will get to. The ordinary person needs to put on that same mentality if he wants to see what the visionary sees. Bottom line is that champions know where they are and they see where they are going. The subject of fear brings to bare a new philosophy that I just propounded. Making fun of our problems. Do you have a problem, a fear, something that is tying you down? Make fun of it! Making fun of our present situation eases the tension and makes us see how very little it is after all to find a solution to it. 5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why? The story of the old rich woman from Pasadena and her encounter with the young lad that parked at her spot wasn't a good example of how wealth must be used. Its good to have money and lots of it, but misuse of it isn't good. I think it would have been more proper if the lady in reaction to the young mans sarcasm, smiled and said “I understand you are young and full of energy, but remember that we all at a point in our lives will grow old when we cant do the things that our youthful exuberance would have permitted us” Am sure the thought of this would have made the young man think and behaved rationally either than the approach she took. Counter reactions don't achieve much. It only makes situation degenerate. 6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book? Coaching on my part was identified as a very important tool that was employed in this learning experience. Acting leadership rather than speaking it was found to be a very important proponent of entrepreneurial development which I really admire. The subject of what makes a winner is very dear to my heart because here, we are thought how to identify the traits of a winner. 7. In 50 words or less please describes the main idea the whole book is trying to convey. This experience from this book outlines what it takes to become a winner and the guidelines that we need to follow to be true champions. It exposes to the reader the secrets of winning and ushers us into the dynamics of winning Please Rate each of the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor. Psycho-Cybernetics 2000 Real Magic 1.What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples. We all ask ourselves very pertinent questions as we journey this life. We look back at our lives and we try to figure out if we have been in too many coincidences or if its by divine plan that we find ourselves in our present situation. That the experiences we go through are stepping stones to groom us and perfect us to a well defined spelling of ourselves. We need to see our experiences not as tragic, but like Wayne said, casting our minds years back and reminiscing right from childbirth up until now. I have made some very serious thinking and can only be grateful to God for all the learning processes I have gone through. I now understand more vividly, not to look at experiences as coincidences but as a means to attaining greatness. This whole scenario of misfortunes, ill-treatments, unfairness etc looking it with an eagles eye is part of the mastermind of God to fine tune us, just like clay in the hands of the potter. Mistakes, only helps us to understand this world much better and presents us with the opportunity to be good at a thing. To me, the most important thought gathered from this book is one's ability to stop an addiction. How simply the answer comes to us, of course, but it is simple. Ask your self today this question can I give up my addiction today? Answer: just don't do what you are addicted to today and ask your self the same question tomorrow. Having a private magic zone reserved to ask questions like this guides us in what direction our lives should take. If we begin to acknowledge the fact that we are spiritual beings with a human experience, we would begin to appreciate and realize that we have no limitations in this spiritual realms. Having this perception at the back of our minds would be a driving force that propels us to go all out and conquer failure, pessimism and a non achieving attitude. 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? Explain. The concepts in this book only comes to affirm that I am constantly treading the part of perfection and greatness. Knowing that the result of love is compassion and loving with out any religious attachment. Seeing or realizing God in anything we do and with any human being makes it easier to show compassion and love unconditionally. If you know that there is an element of God in everything around you, then you would be compelled to love because, in Him we live and have our being and in God is love. 3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain. In the advent of time, man has allowed economic circumstances to dictate his course of happiness and total bliss. Go to school, get a good job, make a lot of money then you would be happy and have a fulfilling life. This is quite the contrary because people still go all out to achieve all of these and still have a void in their hearts and minds. Although I have my own reservations about metaphysical meditation, I seem to appreciate this piece of words which touches my heart so dearly, and I quote: “Do not search for happiness only in beautiful clothes, clean houses, delicious dinners, soft cushions and luxuries. These will imprison your happiness behind the bars of externality, of out-ward ness. Rather, in the airplane of your visualization, glide over the limitless empire of thoughts. There, behold the mountain ranges of unbroken, lofty, spiritual aspirations for improving yourself and others” In summary, happiness isn't gained from the physical presence things that we see around us, but it is developed from an inner consciousness of heart and mind. Redefining our being as first being spiritual elements without limits, goes a long way to affect the way we think and behave. Of course if we realize that we are first made of a spiritual element living in a body, a lot of things would be made clear to us and we would know how to comfortably coexist with our fellow spiritual beings. Defining this again, I like to give my own definition as the body being that emptiness that our soul dwells. In other words, our spirit man is clothed by the body which is a physical presence. Learning to see all people not in the terms of their form but in the terms of the soul that is in the back of the form; this knowledge helps us to express love in a different kind of sensitivity. Love that is pure, free from any form of ties, a general willingness without expecting nothing. This book touches my heart in a lot of ways and I have expressed that in writing. I would like to emphasize the most important thing I have learnt. I like to define as the key to living life it self. If we stay on purpose knowing that we are in this world to serve, it would be very easy to remove our ego from any encounter and send out love. What do we do when we vie off course? Simply ask the I-factor that dwells inside you, “How may I serve in this situation?” and patiently wait for the answer. 4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how? The bells keeps sounding in my ears about how everything and anything is possible if one believes. This believe is even made more real by the numerous practical examples that Wayne has sited in his book. I like the concept of meditation as the channel to discovering the self and an avenue to visualize how we want our lives to be. I like to let you all know that meditation works any day, it will take you to the self and will help you discover true happiness within. You will begin to understand beyond the ordinary that you can create your own world when you go with in and physically manifest what you see in your moment of silence. I have felt some sort of unusual power, each time I meditated on a verse in Phillipines 3:16 which happens to be my success quote. Meditation also on Psalm 23 gives me some peace and relief that is best explained to an individual when he seeks within. 5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why? I beg to differ when the writer says in the later paragraphs about how dreams are related to our thoughts and that we create these dreams. To some extent, we dream because of the thoughts that we feed ourselves. On the other hand, I like to interpret dreams as a revelation of things yet to come. Although we envision this in our minds, its not created out of our thoughts 6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book? This book emphasizes our unique capacity to create miracles in our lives. The central premise is that we become what we think about all day and those days become our lifetime. To know that I have the spirit of God flowing through me all the time makes me recognize how powerful I am and that anything I desire to do I can do. Most of us, have been fed with wrong conceptions and we have all being made to believe in some sort of a lie. Real Magic teaches us how to erode this lie and build a new life of possibilities focusing our energies on the spiritual being that we possess to make anything we dream come through 7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey. This books helps us to identify ourselves as spiritual beings before seeing ourselves as physical, as this exposes us to our limitless nature and affirms the believe that if we believe it, we can achieve it. Please rate each of the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is high and one is low. A. How interesting was it to read? 8 Assessment of What to Say When You Talk To Your Self 1. What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples. Each of us at a point in time engages in self talk. We speak to ourselves when things go tough, when nothing seems to be working for us according to our thinking pattern. We encourage ourselves and convince ourselves that all will be well. The question here is, what do we say when we self talk? Professor Shad breaks it down and identifies five different categories of self talk. The second level of self talk appears as the solution, but realized later that it is an illusion. It identifies the reason we are not achieving much, but instead of taking us there, it leaves us helpless by just identifying the situation. This level creates guilt, disappointment and an acceptance of our own self imaged inadequacies. Level three self talk, helps us to identify the need to change, but instead of leaving it like that, like we realized in level two; it does something about the situation by wanting to do something about the need to change. So if you were somebody that got angry at the least provocation, you would now say to yourself “I never get angry at the least provocation” this thought now registers in your sub conscious and you are always reminded when you want to get mad at something. This level of thinking would be a new programming system that you install in your memory chip “the mind” Just as the computer processes any information fed to it, so will your mind behave in like manner. The final level of self talk has been discovered to be the most effective level of self talk. This is the self talk which is the direct opposite of level one. This is the level of optimism. It replaces helpless can nots with enthusiastic yes! It tugs at our hearts, touches our hopes, and paints in the pictures that color our dreams. This level excites demands, and surges us forward towards higher heights. This level of positive mental attitude strengthens the armor of our spirit and hardens the steel of our determination. We are challenged to do battle with our fears and end up the victor. We are stirred up to action and are filled with self belief. The result is that, our feet are planted in the solid bedrock of success. The final level has rather been defined as an ancient method of self talk. This is the level of universal affirmation. This level of self talk speaks of a unity of spirit, a divine and timeless cosmic affinity which transcends all worldly things and gives meaning to our being. Level five is characterized by the words, “it is…” and sounds like being one with the universe. If you ask me, this level is more of a spiritual awareness that no book can describe. It's an encounter that one must experience when he is one with the universe. It's a spiritual awakening that makes you live in that high level of perfect ness. 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? Explain. Positive self talk has helped me develop a skill that makes it possible to address any situation in my relationships with others. I employed a different practice, where I got my positive self talk written down and recorded on my cellular phone using my wife's voice. I decided to use her voice because she is sort of an angel that guides me in my daily decision and I felt it would be more convincing hearing this self talk from her. Hearing these words ignites some sort of fire in me and brings me to believe in that talk, becoming one with it and actually acting and living it unconsciously with out realizing it. Amazing! Isn't it? Just quite recently, I was faced with a challenge, and I felt this was the end of the world. Note that this pronouncement is a negative mental attitude, but I was able to turn it around and saw the situation differently. I said to my self, no situation can have the best of me; I shall rise above this storm and get the raging sea to be calm. I resides a few of my favorite bible quotations that addressed the situation. I repeated these words until I started realizing this sudden lightness within me. It was a feeling of a burden been lifted off my shoulders and a surge of a sudden confidence and boldness to face the situation candidly and be declared the victor at the end of the day. Not too long ago, I heard some complaints about a sibling of mine, it made me so angry. I lost my cool immediately and my heart decided to beat rather fast. Then I remembered something very important while I read this book. A question popped into my mind, why are you getting all worked up? Say to yourself, I am calm, I understand the situation that has been brought before me and I will solve it with out getting into any confrontation with anyone. With these words, I took a deep breathe, felt more composed and carefully analyzed each complaint and addressed it with out getting any one offended. I used to be a good listener, then suddenly everything changed and I would always want to be on the defensive side and try each time to counter react to prove my point even when the other person spoke. Again, that still small voice says, smile, take a deep breathe and enjoy this conversation with out interrupting, you might be in a better position of understanding the issues brought before. You will be able to give a better solution and understand the other person if you adopt this approach. I speak out rather silently saying to my self, I am a good listener, I don't interrupt when other people speak to me. All these approaches have worked very effectively. Again, I like to add that positive self talk is a discipline that each of us must learn to nurture. I like to share something I experimented with which would be beneficial to most of my readers. Feel excited each time you self talk, enjoy the experience, relax with the process and you would realize that it will come rather easily to you. Getting serious about your self talk won't help much, remember always that, things work well when they are simply than. 3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain. This book teaches some very great lessons, I like to enumerate a few pointers: Let's all remember that, a few minutes of anger, anxiety, negative stress and frustrations can literally toxify our physical system for hours. The below positive self talk statements are ideas I find so practical. These statements, I have recorded and play them on a daily basis until I can unconscious live each thought. 1. I know that greatness begins in the minds of the great. I know that what I believe about myself is what I will become- so I believe in the best for myself. 4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how? The idea of self talk is a practical approach towards achieving good results. Speaking a thing makes it real to me and manifests in the self as I continue to practice and constantly increase my faith levels. The different levels of self talk actually got me pausing for a minute to evaluate my self and find out which of the levels I belonged to. Once I realized where I belonged, I practiced each tool to improve upon my level and get to the final level. 5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why? Every idea and argument discussed in this book addresses a need and the reader progresses in reading. 6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book? Learning to manage, control, and direct the resources of our minds is the greatest challenge that we can face as individuals on planet earth. The key to all management, the management of others, and the management of our own resources as well as our future is self management. This is the difference that exists between living a life of fulfillment and purpose, and living out our years frustrated and incomplete, contained by the short sighted limitations of our own disbelief. Self management however is the final conquest and its solution is with in our reach. 7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey. This book teaches us that we are everything that is, our thoughts, our lives, our dreams come true. We are everything we choose to be, unlimited as the endless universe. We can harness it using positive self talk. A. How interesting was it to read? 9 Giant Steps 1. What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples. In our quest to find solutions in this life, especially on how we can self motivate ourselves and transform our thinking patterns and understand life better; we go through certain daily routines that helps us to find that rhythm that perfectly blends and fall in harmony with our selves. Anthony Robbins makes this search easier by presenting to us a couple of fact proven steps that are reliable in ascertaining what the fact is. This book emphasizes on the very small changes we can make in our lives that will bring that great impact and effect such enormous difference. Always keeping the main objective in perspective, knowing that this book seeks to inspire us and to fuel our energies into measurable results by getting us to consistently take simple actions. These daily inspirations and small actions will lead to giant steps in the quality of our lives. I like to enumerate a few of the things I felt important below: * Nothing Happens unless we first dream 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. Anthony Robbins advised that we take a few minutes to reflect on the ideas that we have read in his book. Really, adhering to what he said will make a great impact and change the way we do things. For instance a daily evaluation of each of the guides helps me do the things that I planned to do. For instance, just not too long ago, I was confronted with an issue I was trying to avoid although I knew the consequences; I always procrastinated on taking that decision that will help me find a solution easier. I took a firm step and made that move that changed everything. A lot of business could be generated with my ICT consultancy; I had
always procrastinated on picking up the phone directory to make those calls.
I took a decision one day to make the calls and sent emails to prospective
clients. Isn't it amazing that I have had some positive responses, and soon
will be generating some good business. 3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain. The ultimate success formula is one of the concepts I truly appreciate in this whole intellectual exposé. This formula teaches us to decide what we want with precision and clarity of power. We need to take action after we have made this all important decision because desire isn't enough. We need to notice what is working or not, because we practically don't want to expend energies on an approach that is worthless. The final step is to change our approach until we achieve what we want. Remembering that flexibility gives us the power to create a new approach and a new result. The second most important idea I gathered from this discus is what I will discuss below: The Success Formula For Every Entrepreneur In every instance, the founders either had or acquired the experience and knowledge they needed to startup and run the business. They recognized what their weak points were, subsequently nurtured alliances, and acquired the skills they needed to start their company off right. They also understood how the various parts of the business fit together to form a total structure and knew that if one part was missing, the total structure would break. For example, they knew that a successful sales plan is directly dependent upon support from the marketing and promotional plans, and that the strategic business plan acts as the glue that holds all the sub plans together so that they work in concert. Developing Ideas Those that make it are smart enough to recognize the symptoms of their emotional state. They are acutely aware that they may be in a vulnerable position. As a result, they may hang on to the security of their current job and start a business on the side. They'll make the move to become a full-time entrepreneur when the time is right for them and after they have thoroughly checked out their business venture ideas. There are three basic concepts to keep in mind as you develop and refine your business start-up ideas. Be Creative The day to day devotional guide set by this book, makes one critically analyze and evaluate each step that one reads. For me it has been a great challenge to practice most of the virtues of this book. Any thing I read, I tried exercising it and evaluated myself at the end of the day to assess my self and find out if I was making progress at all. The ideas gathered from this book is a reflection, a constant evaluation of an individual to be conscious of the choices and decisions that we take that has significant impact in our personal development. 5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why? No 6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book? The bit on relationship has been the most helpful ingredient to me. Anthony's vivid tips on working your relationship have been very useful to me and I have taken some good clues from it. I must confess that my wife tells me, I am a very good business man, but lately been quite a lousy husband. Well, the first time I thought and pondered why she said that, then I realized that my attitude towards appreciating those little things were gradually dissipating because my concentration was more on business and traveling, I barely had time for the very important things, my family. Anthony says, dream on, think of new romantic things that would lighten up the fire. Communicate more, and each day, think about how blessed you are to have your spouse. Never take your spouse for granted and never use threats as your strong hold because you know your spouse loves you very much. For those of us that think that having lots of money will bring that happiness and excitement in your relationship, I beg to differ on that opinion. Having more money brings more challenges. Happiness lies within ourselves, it is a state of the mind and if we search it, we will find it. The next most important idea in my reflection is the five keys to financial mastery. The first key says that if we can find a way to increase the value of what we do by at least ten to fifteen times, then we can easily increase our income. This key is the key of the ability to create wealth. In coming to this realization, it's important that we ask ourselves the question: how can I be worth more to my establishment? While we ask ourselves this question, we begin to ponder on cost saving strategies and innovative means to improve the quality of service of your company hence giving it a competitive edge. 1. Wealth Maintenance: This can be achieved if we cut down on our expenses and invest our income. Learning to build assets rather than liabilities. We need to instill the culture of discipline in investing rather than spending. 2. Wealth Increase: Wealth increase can be achieved if we re-invest in our business rather than spend the proceeds. 3. Wealth Protection: As we accrue more wealth, eyes are set on us and we need to be security conscious. At this point, getting a legal brain to advise one on asset protection is very important. 4. Create Your Own Personal Code of conduct: For luck of knowledge my people perish. It's important to keep reading and getting financial wisdom to make the right decision and be financially enlightened. 7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey. Giant steps seek to dare us to awaken the hidden potential that sits inside of us. The first important thing is to inspire us and secondly, to funnel our energies into measurable results by getting us to constantly take simple actions. Please rate each of the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is high and one is low. A. How interesting was it to read? 10 This book works miracles if the reader would not only read it as a story book, but implement the steps inside of it. Keys To Success 1. What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples. “No single mind is complete; no one person can answer every question. But two or more minds, united behind a definite major purpose and working in harmony to achieve it, will accomplish great things. Each of us in identifying the person that could pass for a team player should be someone that understands our vision, and has that same driving passion with a zealous attitude to see the objectives in perspective. This journey to identify who the right person is is what has been carefully described in this book as forming strategic alliances. In forming these alliances, we need to identify the characteristics that come along with it. We need to be principled and focused. We first have to select people not because of our relationships with them, but for the fact that they exhibit abilities to execute the job. The second most important factor to consider is if the persons concerned are able to work together in a spirit of harmony together with other members of the team. Our alliances with people can only be preserved by diligent work, having in mind that it's built upon the mutual agreement of our definite purpose. In maintaining our alliances, our attention must be on the C.U.F.C guide. Breaking this acronym down would mean Confidence, Understanding, Fairness and Justice and Courage. Confidence: knowing that the members of your team would adhere to non disclosures of the association. Understanding: That each member of your alliance completely understands and possess to a large extent situations that the group encounters. Fairness and Justice: Where every one deals with each other completely on
ethical terms, observing the code of conduct. Courage: When your alliance encounters crisis, it should be able to meet it with firmness. Our minds are constantly refreshed reminding us of the book, success through a positive mental attitude. Napoleon Hill continues to hammer on the fact that we have to see possibilities all the time and not in the least, have any mind for negative exposure, and even when that happens, lets learn the lessons that this negative experiences presents to us as we embark on the journey of success. 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? Explain. This book transforms a thinking pattern, instills some form of discipline that you are not forced to pursue, but you learn through the experiences to take a cross sectional evaluation of your thoughts, your attitudes, perceptions about work, family and relations and cause you to vie towards those principles that you set for your self which are not working. Napoleon Hill continues to inspire me especially on how to re-mould my belief system, critically making an analysis of people's success and failures and how they picked up the pieces and forged on to attain such exceptional levels of excellence. We all try a lot of things, get into one form of business or the other with little or no success and decide to abandon everything and not keep trying. We want to settle on the believe that, its not our destiny to excel in that form of business, but really, our failures presented us the opportunities all this while to excel, but our resistance to break higher grounds was partly due to the fact that we had given up on our belief system and stopped exercising our faith levels. The seventeen principles of success if carefully studied and practiced will put each of us back on track and help us achieve our set goals and objectives having no resentment of failure. I like to say that going an extra mile in all that we do, expecting nothing in return is a very important virtue we all need to cultivate. We build on our selfless nature and also work on our ego. 3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain. Fear has always being defined as an illusion which almost always becomes real force. How? This false evidence appearing real gradually finds a place to dwell in our belief system and eventually is able to settle in our subconscious becoming an end. Each of us fear one thing or the other, it could be a fear of heights, water, people etc. But the question is, why do we fear when there is certainly no reason to fear? I spend most of my midnights, taking long strolls and engaging in spiritual walks. Concerned folks caution me to be careful about this habit. I mostly smile and tell them there is no cause of alarm. I tell them, “the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not fear” I have kept up this believe system for a very long time and have not been attacked by robbers or lynched, because I always believed that there was a force that protected me at all times and for which reason I need not be afraid. Conquering fear plays a very important role in our success patterns, and if we would be very good business individuals and professionals, we would have to learn how to eliminate fear entirely and embrace risk taking. 4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how? There is something different each time I read any book from Napoleon Hill, I don't know if perhaps it's the numerous success stories that challenge me so much so that I feel like I can eat the moon itself. This is only figurative, but in perspective, this book has spirited me up in a lot of ways, especially in my interpersonal relations. Forming great alliances, identifying who should be in our alliance and fostering healthy relationships amongst other things has added to my wealth of knowledge and changed my thinking pattern always knowing that there is hope to them that continue to believe and strive for greater heights. One phrase sparks up the fire in me to excel. “To be enthusiastic…Act enthusiastically!” You see, real enthusiasm comes from with in; I like to describe it as it happens to me, as a sudden deep heat that stems from the heart that causes excitement in the belly and a quaver in the entire body system. It's an awakening that speaks to our being to rise up and achieve! Although enthusiasm can be generated from a lot of ways, including our thoughts, feelings and emotions, I believe that it's very strong in our emotions; it's a revival that goes on in our system that transforms our entire persona. 5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why? Every idea discussed and shared in this book is agreeable in most of the instances through which it was disseminated. 6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book? I like to enumerate some of the pointers I found most helpful in my assessment of this book as personal quotes for individual mentorship: a. If you know what you want form life, if you are determined to get it
to the point that it becomes an obsession, and you back that obsession with
continuous effort and sound planning, then you have awakened and developed
definiteness of purpose. 7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey. This book explains how to build a master mind alliance with ones self as well as the people around him that he identifies as team players. It continues to help us understand how this alliance can be sustained by identifying personal development pointers. Rating The Power of Intention 1. What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples. Intention (or intent) is a pure decision or choice to act on a creative impulse from the core for future execution or manifestation. It is bringing an idea into the physical world. “The mere word intention connotes that the self is in charge; makes a deliberate choice, intends to do, act, be….” Intention can be positive or negative; it can also be effortless. “Positive intention is the ability to make a choice for the unitized (harmonious) state… and will manifest in those choices motivated by love, truth, integrity, courage, harmony, and joy. It is the intention to be unified within your own being and to hold that unitized consciousness in your interactions with others. Positive intention is the intention for the flow of life to occur”. Effortless intention is pure intentionality, simply allowing things to unfold to manifest what is desired. It means no pushing and letting go of a rigid time frame and the expectations that go along with that. Effortless intention can be achieved through patience, surrender and faith. Carol, a recent graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, had
been undecided as to how, where and when to establish her practice. About a
year after graduation, she woke up one morning and decided it was time. She
set her intention to make it happen and trusted that the Universe would
provide. Amazingly and without effort, a beautiful space became available in
an ideal location at low rent. When it came time to buy furniture, much of
what she needed and liked was on sale. Her practice is now well established.
This is a good example of how effortless intention manifested in her life. Using a birdhouse as an example, one gets a creative impulse to build a
birdhouse and sets the intention to do so. Thoughts and ideas emerge on how
this birdhouse will look and finally, all the materials are gathered to put
it together. The birdhouse is physically built or “manifested” and then
placed in an accessible location for the birds to use. In identifying with the power of intention, we need to let go of total
ego identification. Most often than not, we have been disconnected from our
intention because of the construction of an idea about who and what we are.
This condition can best be described as our ego. Ego is made easy to
understand by identifying with the following six categories: a. Definition by possession, To completely have access to the power of intention, we need to rid ourselves of these characteristics of ego which stand as obstacles between self and intent. For us to connect to intention we must possess the seven principles that act as conduits. They include exercising creativity, kindness, love, beauty, being ever expansive, (i.e. to embrace the all emerging universal force that intended us to being and commences all life), abundance and finally, receptiveness. Our ego as humans always stands in our way each time we need to accomplish a task, most often than not, each of us identify with either of the categories of ego and this retards our progress. I allow my ego to dictate the pace and find it very difficult to listen to my spouse, let alone imbibe the knowledge she wants to impact. Most of the time, she had a point and really made sense, but ego had a seat in my being and dictated the turn of events. In the quite of my moments, I quietly meditate on how well a listener I was when I was in college and how excited I could be I creating my own world. Amongst my colleagues, although we all were on the same campus, I was a spirited being, always excited, happy and willing to help anybody. Why did all this change, I asked my self. Could it be that I allowed the pressures all around me to dictate and have the best of me or perhaps that I created this new state? Hmm, perhaps both scenarios apply. The ideas of this book are God sent as one statement addresses all of the problems I seem to be encountering with ego. “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change” So now applying a simple match technique learnt in this book, I choose henceforth to say, “calm down Paa, stop taking yourself too seriously and add to your store house of knowledge by listening to your spouse” am sure most of us, especially, the men find ourselves cut up in this scenario. We need to liberate our selves and set our minds free. What is it worth taking one's self so seriously? Nothing! If you ask me and this situation is as a result of misery, anxiety and energy channeled in the wrong path. 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. For some time now, I have been trying to get an appointment with a very important man in my home country. Each time I tried his cell phone, it rang but no pick up. I decided to forget about the idea and let the “tulip fall”, like Dyer described in his book Real Magic. Sometimes when we so desire for some thing to happen and it doesn't happen, we need to leave it to the divine force that harmonize everything in the universe to be one. I picked up the phone one day and called, this time he picked up the call and explained to me that he had been on the road and was even scheduled to travel again the coming week. He asked that I called again same time the coming week. I am going to form the picture seeing the end from the beginning, by creating a picture of both of us in African apparel, meeting some place serene discussing my business. As I type this assessment, my eyes are closed and am seeing myself offering a hand shake to this great personality and telling him what a pleasure it has been to meet him. “Paa don't take yourself too seriously” the thought came to mind again and this time, am thinking about taking the family out to the park and buying ice cream for everybody and feel young again. Yes, it is true that problems seems to be smiling at us every day, but we only have today to be happy. Quite right if you ask, if one isn't careful, he will never be happy because problems wont cease to exist and we don't have to solve all of them to be happy. We might spend the rest of our entire lives looking for that day when everything will be in perfect harmony. Truly, we can make today harmonious and repeat the same process tomorrow, this could be the only way we can smile in the mist of all the storms in the world. I had a tourist once come to Ghana and said something for which I would always be grateful. He said, “I haven't heard not too pleasant news about Africa, in fact I was skeptical on making this trip, but I looked on the map and I heard Ghana was stable so I decided to come. I could see a lot of development going on, I traveled to the hinterland where the poorest of the poor lived, but truly I learnt something so divine. In spite of all the hardships they were going through, they had ceased to see that as a problem. Everybody smiled and showed a lot of gratitude towards each other, this is the gift am taking back home” He smiled and concluded by saying, “The Ghanaian smile is very genuine and from the heart” I like to share this true story with all that might fight the opportunity to read this assessment; that true happiness lies with in. Two years ago, I lived in one of the best settlements in my country; just across the street was a young lady with two kids wh | |
