As A Man Thinketh
Assessment by Evans Ichuliza Malenge (Kenya)

1. WHAT I DEAS WERE PERSONALLY MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU IN THIS BOOK? DO NOT SIMPLY LIST THE IDEAS, BUT EXPLAIN OR DISCUS WHY THEY WERE IMPORTANT TO YOU USING PERSONAL EXAMPLES.

Reading the book as a man thinketh I was driven to believe that each man living on earth that has a mind to think, has at his disposal the greatest weapon to succeed in this world we live in. That it's not just having a mind that is important but having a mind with the right thoughts that is what makes the difference in any ones life. That even though man lives in a world that is full of hostile conditions, most especially hostile economical conditions among many others, man has what it takes to determine what he or she experiences. I am driven to reason that even in the most poverty stricken areas, there are people who are doing well economically or financially for that matter. That whereas there are borrows in a particular locality there are also lenders. Therefore, if the borrower embraces the mentality and pattern of thoughts of the lender, the borrower will have the same outcome economically as the lender it's just a question of time. Every man in this life will have an outcome that is consistent with his pattern of thoughts. It is shear madness to expect success in life when you consistently embrace thoughts of failure and defeat.

For instance, me as a pastor I can not expect the church that I am privileged to pastor to grow as long as I cherish thoughts that do not promote my expectations or desires. I also understand that just as natural seeds are planted and take time to germinate and bear fruits, so also our thoughts require our being patient as we wait for their fulfillment in our lives. Life indeed is all about seed time and harvest. The experience of our lives reveals what kind of mental activities that we have been involved in, in the recent past. Our future literally lies within our thoughts. Indeed we have lived our future in the unseen realm of our thoughts before we practically experience it in our circumstances and our environment.

My outside environment and circumstance reveal what I already knew either consciously or unconsciously. I am the greatest prophet of my destiny. The world has no choice but to give me what I already have on my mind. Man indeed is unstoppable whichever way he chooses to go in his thoughts.

2. CAN YOU RELATE THE IDEAS OR CONCEPTS IN THIS BOOK TO YOUR PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES IN LIFE SUCH AS YOUR RELATIONS,YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR GOALS, YOUR VALUES ETC/ PLEASE USE PERSONAL EXAMPLE IN YOUR EXPLANATION

I very much relate the concepts in this book to my personal circumstances ranging from my relationship, my faith, beliefs as well as my goals in life. In particular, I would speak about relationship. One of the most difficult things most people can relate with in any relationship is compatibility. Many relationships grow sour after sometime due to rude discoveries of the other parties' character or short comings and weaknesses. In particular, I wish to refer to marriage relationships. Upon such discoveries, many abandon the “Wagon” It's a known fact that marriages, the world over are not in good shape. This is a reality most people are living with in most parts of the world. However, reading this book I discovered that with the weapon of positive thoughts cultivated in the soil of my mind, patiently, I can determine the kind of relationship I have because at the end of the day I will experience what is on my mind.

The above aside, just like myself, most people in life have some ambitions, visions, aspirations or goals of which they wish to achieve in the near future. However, most of the desires and heart aspirations of many never come to fulfillment talk less of seeing the light of the day. As I was reading the book, I discovered for myself the reason for lack of fulfillment of many people's goals and aspirations. Simply, most people, perhaps due to their present conditions have unconsciously become negative in their minds with thoughts that are inconsistent with their desired goals in life. Plainly put it's like a farmer planting corn seeds and expecting to harvest yams. It can never work. We must just responsibly refine our thoughts in line with our aspirations. There must be some harmony of thought and aspirations within us if we desire success.

3. WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT NEW IDEAS OR CONCEPTS YOU LEARNT FROM THIS BOOK? PLEASE EXPLAIN.

Firstly, I should say while reading this book I came to conclusion that all truth in life is parallel. With this I mean what is true in the natural world is also true in the unseen or invisible world. Just as we plant seeds in the natural we can also plant unseen seeds which are the thoughts we hold on to in our minds. That our minds, where the thinking process takes place, acts as a garden and that each of us are responsible for what we grow in the soil of our minds. Therefore, just as a farmer does not wait for his neighbour to come and clean up his farm for planting good seeds, each of us likewise have a duty of identifying the weeds in our minds and purposely get rid of them personally for our own good and that of others ultimately as our lives blossom with success.

The only suspect there is to arrest for the failure in any ones life is the individual himself because man by nature is a master of his own destiny.
It also came out clearly to me that, when my head is right my world will be right. By the term head here I mean having right thoughts on my mind consistently.

4. HAS THIS BOOK CHALLENGED OR CHANGED YOUR THINKING IN ANY WAY? IF SO, EXPLAIN HOW?

Indeed I have been greatly challenged by the ideas from this book in a very positive way. Firstly, my attitude towards challenges and difficulties of life has completely been altered. I have gained a superior attitude towards my circumstances and the situations around me. I have learned the importance of winning within me primarily. With this I mean looking at issues confronting me with a solution mentality rather than problem mentality. I have learnt that winning in the outside circumstances of my life is a secondary thing rather than primary. Once the primary war is won within me, the secondary will follow suit it's just a question of time. The book also has internalized me. By internalizing me I mean I'm more focused on what goes on within me rather than what is happening around me.

It has also given me a new drive and energy to desire to achieve more than I have already achieved. I have been driven by the book to understand that the more I see challenges around, the more I should seize the opportunity to advance rather than to cow down in defeat. Simply because by creation I have what it takes to change and determine my surrounding.

I have also received zest to communicate this truth to others because it came to me as new light to my soul. I strongly believe, there are many around me who need to know what I presently know as regards the wonder of the thought life.

5. ARE THERE IDEAS IN THE BOOK THAT YOU TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH? IF SO, WHY?

Yes there is one particular idea in the book that I do not agree with with in principle. The fact that we can realize both base and beautiful results at he same time. The writer clearly indicates in his write up that one can get a mixture of both base and beautiful. I believe this can lead to a compromised attitude towards the reader, simply because, one will not see the need to emphasize on holding to right values uncompromisingly. I believe there should be an element of absoluteness about the truth we convey to people. We certainly cannot be in between or on both ends at the same time. The writer should have underscored the fact that there is no mixture at all in what one realizes in life. The writer clearly says that one will gravitate towards that which you secretly love most. We certainly cannot love equally both base and beautiful things at the same time with the same intensity or passion. I therefore argue that there cannot be any mixture in what we realize at the end of the day.

6. WHAT DID YOU FIND MOST HELPFUL AND LEAST HELPFUL IN THIS BOOK?

To me the most important thing among others was connection between thoughts and purpose. I discovered how important it is to centralize my entire thoughts on my single purpose which I must identify. I understood from this portion that, this matter of thought centralization is the key to trigger the creative force within me to enhance the pursuit of my purpose in life.

I cannot say outrightly that there was nothing helpful, however, what I would point out in the book is that as much as the writer shows us the adverse effects of our negative thoughts, he should also have give the readers the source of obtaining good and positive thoughts. In this, I feel the writer missed out an important point that needed to be underscored. I personally believe that thoughts begin with the information one has access to. People therefore should be shown exhaustively how to source for positive information to change their thoughts.

I believe, as much us we point people to their source of their malady we should also show them where to get the remedy. The book answers the how question but does not show the where to get the answer. I strongly believe that good and productive thoughts do not just drop on people like a pack of cards rather there should be the “where” and “how” to get these good thoughts.

7. IN 50 WORDS OR LESS PLEASE DESCRIBE THE MAIN IDEA THE WHOLE BOOK IS TRYING TO CONVEY?

The main idea in the book is that the nature of our character, the circumstances we are in, our health, fulfillment of our purposes, what we achieve in life, the dreams we cherish and the valuable calmness of life are depended on the nature of our thoughts within us.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10
Ten is good and one is poor
A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you will give it? 10

Additional comment: The book is very ideal for people who are totally inclined to spiritualism and have forgotten the importance of the mental development. I am impressed by your choice however you may also wish to look at a book by Harry Loraine. He has written a good book titled SECRETS OF MIND POWER

Jonathan Living Seagul
Assessment by Evans Ichuliza Malenge (Kenya)

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

Generally reading the book, I learnt important ideas that I am finding to be of great help to me. I discovered how a whole society can get influenced by wrong ideologies which can paralyze a people from aspiring for greatness and excellence in life. I discovered that people can become so ignorant to a point that they become comfortable with their state of apathy rather than strive for greater experiences in life.

I learnt that the society we live in must never dictate what we can accomplish in life. The mere fact that we live in a society or community that seems to have come to a stand still due to the belief that it has embraced, should be a motivation enough to drive us beyond the present boundaries around our lives.

We should have a pioneer sort of mentally in life if we want to achieve more. We should dare to step into “uncharted waters” by uncharted I mean things we have never attempted before and find our true selves and our real potentials.

I also noted that the great me within, will always seek to express himself from time to time. This happens through the uneasiness and a sense of dissatisfaction that rises with me about my present situation or circumstances. A constant and hidden belief within me that keeps telling me that I can accomplish more than what I have done already. Demand is therefore placed on me to respond positively to these promptings within me. I am fully persuaded that I can rise beyond my present status, simply because that ability to accomplish the impossible lies within me.

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, AND YOUR VALUES ETC? PLEASE USE PERSONAL EXAMPLES IN YOUR EXPLATION.

Given the society that I personally live in, it is generally accepted by all that people from this part of the world cannot rise to a certain level of greatness in life. There is a general consensus among the masses that it is appointed to them by nature or otherwise to lag behind in everything. It even looks like one is proud when one talks about his great ambitions, aspirations or visions for that matter. With this, generally a large number indeed a big percentage of people live in mediocrity. Many live just for the day, I mean just to get enough for the day and by and by life has become to many a daily struggle.

With this kind of mediocre mentality, quite a large percentage of people do not place value on things like ownership, leadership, partriotism, excellence and many others. Therefore, most people get drained along as victims of every adverse circumstance.

Personally with this realization I have made up my mind to begin with even greater intensity to instill a new passion for success and excellence in the people around me. Most especially in the family and the members of our local assembly.

I believe leadership starts with an individual himself then to those close to him. I have great value for leadership myself because I believe most of the problems we have in the world today are as a result of bad leadership. For instance, most African nations have vast natural resources of great economic value. However, because of bad governance and greedy and selfish leaders, most nations in Africa and the citizens of most nations live in abject poverty.

I am persuaded that, just as Martin Luther King had value for freedom and he as one man led great crusades that advocated for liberty and equality, I too believe the same scourge of poverty can be to great extent be eradicated if only individuals can rise to the occasion and demand for responsibility from our leaders.

3. WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT NEW IDEAS OR CONEPTS YOU LEARNED FROM THIS BOOK?

From the beginning of the book I began to see the importance of desiring for more than just daily routine of life. The healthiest way to live a fulfilled life is to get dissatisfied with present state of affairs in ones life.

Sometimes in life we will be called upon by destiny to break ranks with people who have come to a state of apathy or become passive about life and make acquaintance with people who I can term as to be on the go in life.

It becomes clear from the book that, even though we come from the same set up of background each of us determine what become of us years a head.

Also, consistency in the right direction in any area of life is what leads to excellence and perfection. Surely, a lazy man or a man of excuses has no great future. There is no short cut at all to greatness we must of necessity pay the required price.

Indeed, the book shows that to be great in life among other things one will require boldness and confidence. There will be ridicule that will come to us as we break ranks and go for excellence however, we must never be side tracked or get intimidated. Life is a personal adventure after all.

There will be opportunities in life for us to challenge others. As these opportunities arise, one should seize them and help others as well. After all, life again is about positive contribution.

Above all, the passion to keep learning new things and making new discoveries should never go down. This way we keep the door to a great tomorrow wide open.

4. HAS THIS BOOK CHALLENGED OR CHANGED YOUR THINKING IN ANY WAY? IF SO, EXPLAIN HOW.

In a very tremendous way I have been challenged and made to believe that even though presently I may have obvious limitations, I can choose to ignore them and rise above my limitations, in any area of my life. That, what looks impossible today in my life can be possible with my constant practice in the right direction of my desired end. I was driven to realize that within me, lies untapped ability that yearns to be given expression.

I have been made to believe that I can excel above my present performance level. I have also to realize how important it is to rub shoulders with people who are above me in my field of endeavor.

I need to be ready to pay every cost to be with someone who will be able to challenge me to utilize the potential that lies within me.

In a great and a positive way also my approach to my ministry has been changed. In a way I have recorded success in my ministry, but as I read the book, I got so dissatisfied with my present accomplishments. I was so absorbed with the characters in the book and pictured myself being urged on to great heights.

A point that kept coming to my mind as I read the characters in the book was that until we give an attempt towards some unfamiliar or unknown grounds we may never know our true potentials. Really each day of our lives can be a day of new adventures in our fields of life. Indeed I have been challenged about what I do on a daily basis. I have discovered that we can get so used to routine activities and never see the need for improvement.
I must take time to make new discoveries that will put excitement to my life.

5. ARE THERE IDEAS IN THE BOOK THAT YOU TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH? IF SO WHY?

One thing that I totally disagree with in the book is the writer's opinion that faith is not important in our quest to do the impossible.

Because the mere fact that we have to break from the normal and achieve seemingly impossible feats in our lives, it requires for us to have faith in the abilities that lie within us. I believe that faith gives us the guts to attempt what we have not understood at all. Neill Armstrong had never been to the moon but faith gave him the guts to take the giant step into the unknown world which he later understood

A wise man once said, if you look too long you may never take the leap forward. Sometimes you have to leap without looking and this is faith. The writer himself says 'do not believe in your eyes.' With this I believe faith should be actively at work among those who desire to experience higher results and utilize the great potential that lies within them.

6. WHAT DID YOU FIND MOST HELPFUL AND LEAST HELPFUL IN THIS BOOK?

The most helpful thing that I found in the book is the fact that all I need to change my life is practice. That I should become my own instructor in my life that I should assume self responsibility of my own life and aspire to maximize the hidden potentials that lie within me.

I understand that my change starts from within me, rather than without. That whereas there may be people who may be willing to help me become all I have meant to become, I am absolutely responsible for the changes that I experience.

What I found least helpful was the writers statement that “ forget about faith” and “you didn't need faith to fly…”, this did not in any way help me because I believe virtually every man on earth uses faith. For instance the simple fact of sitting on a chair without first checking it whether it is strong enough to support your weight is an unconscious act of faith We certainly need faith in our lives daily.

7. IN 50 WORDS OR LESS, PLEASE DISCRIBE THE MAIN IDEA THE WHOLE BOOK IS TO CONVEY.

The idea being portrayed in the book is the need for possible. Individuals to aspire to maximize the highest potential possible to rise above life of routine, pettiness and mundane activities that characterize people ruled by the belief that we are limited in one way or another.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1-10. 10 is good and 1 is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? (7)
B. How helpful were the contents? (8)
C. How easy was it to understand? (6)
D. Would you recommend it to others? (9)
E. What is the overall rating you give to it? (9)

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS.
The figurative language makes the reader very keen throughout the reading. It tasks the mind to really think. A good book for those who desire to stir up their thinking and reasoning abilities. I am impressed.

PsychoCybernetics 2000
Assessment by Evans I. Malenge

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 EXAMPLE.

One of the ideas that really struck me in this amazing book is the fact that by design I am a goal seeking machine.

That at every given time in my life whether I am aware of it or not there is a goal I am gunning for. These goals may be destructive in the sense that they may bring failure in my life or constructive ones that bring success.

I learnt importantly, that this orientation either for success or failure is built up within me by major events that have already gone by or things in the past such as my beliefs, my failures, successes, people's reactions towards me and so on.

These past events sort of paint on my subconscious mind an image of who I am when I accept them. One striking thing that has really fired my life is that these self images that bring about destruction and failure is that they are not based on reality and that they can be corrected through constant practice.

These ideas have helped me to look within me for those hidden destructive self images that have inhibited my peak performance in my assignments in the ministry and my family life as well.

These ideas have instilled in me new boldness especially in my work. A new sense or feeling that I have what it takes to become great. Within me there is a fresh belief that I can change things around my life if I care to put to work the ideas in the book.

I learned that it's important to remove all the destructive information that ties us and makes us become puppets of failure. I have taken the step to begin to build up a self image that will enhance success through the right process of craft. Craft is an acronym which in full means Canceling what is unimportant Replacing the unimportant with new important information then following up to Affirm this new self image that has been developed to yourself, then remaining Focused on the proper image till it becomes a part of your mental picture and finally Training yourself in what you have accepted to be a true self image about yourself.

The effort to change ones image is worthwhile considering the tremendous changes that will ensue.

2.CAN YOU RELATE THE IDEAS OR CONCEPTS IN THIS BOOK TO YOUR PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES IN LIFE SUCH AS YOUR RELATIONSHIPS, YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR GOAL VALUES, ETC. PLEASE USE PERSONAL EXAMPLES IN YOUR EXPLANATION.

Personally, due to the setup of my background , which I should say was marked with a trail of shortcomings right from my family circles, my schooling period and the life after school of seeking employment. These period of time lasted for a period of 20 years of my life. As a result of this setup of my background, a feeling of inability and inadequacy took deep root within my system. While reading the book, I had a flash back of the destruction that took place during my formative years as a result of the environment that I lived in.
Indeed, it is a near impossibility to rise above self inhibited life without first of all having or developing a proper self image.

I discovered while reading the book that unless there is an exposure to an individual to information that will address the issue of personality or self image many people will live below what they can truly achieve in life. From a personal point of view, I can say that what triggered off a change of my personal image from that of demeaning and belittling self image to that of boldness and confidence, was the success teachings from the local churches that used to attend. But in a big way PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS 2000 came in handy to explain in detail the place of self image and how it has to do with an individuals change.

I right now in a very deep sense understand that my self image has a way it affects what I believe I can accomplish in my life, it also affects the goals I set for my future and the values that I embrace. I learnt that self image sets the pace for what my inner mechanism will strive to achieve in any area of my life whether it is success or failure.

I now understand why men who we celebrate today and in particular men like Henry Ford among others, rose from poor backgrounds to become great men of their times. If I may quote Henry Ford, he said “The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what it is one's destiny to do and then do it”

I believe this means our subconscious mind has to be guided in the right direction of success and the results will attend to us. We always tend to attract what we already are.

Suffice me to say therefore that, whether I fail or succeed in life it's all up to me but I am geared for success in life and ministry with the enhanced self image.

3. WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT NEW IDEAS OR CONCEPTS YOU LEARNED FROM THIS BOOK? PLEASE EXPLAIN.
Importantly, I learned that self image is what determines our personal achievements. I can therefore say the reason for the underachievement in life amongst the masses around the world is not necessarily due to lack of opportunities per say but due to poor self image that has locked many to a low and degrading life.

Whereas I cannot deny the role played by negative backgrounds in instilling wrong self images in many a people, we can also not deny that life is a matter of personal responsibility. That, there has to come a time that an individual reacts to the status quo in his or her personal life. Frankly speaking many people are far too lazy and sluggish about the very important things of life. I am driven to make this argument that just as a hungry man knows that what he needs is food and goes out looking for it with passion, so also should failure in life drive us passionately to go for success rather than camping with failure. I like what John Maxwell says quote “the shortest cut to success is short cut ask any failure” end of quote.

Also, I learnt the importance of following on or constancy in the right direction in order to bring about any desired change especially on matters regarding reeducating our minds in the right path. That it's not a matter of now and then but always practicing and turning our mental faculties in the right direction till that image of success becomes an in print on the mind. That the magic of a transformed life is in sticking to the right stuff in the mind. Knowledge in itself is not powerful it is knowledge applied continually that releases the power to transform life.

4. HAS THE BOOK CHALLENGED OR CHANGED YOUR THINKING IN ANY WAY? IF SO EXPLAIN SO.

To a very great extent I have been challenged by the book and changed in a positive way.
For instance there were certain aspects of my life that I handled haphazardly without any specific target or without any set date in mind about when they should be accomplished. Whereas this has been my may of going about issues it has now changed and somehow because of this targets I begun to set for my self, I have discovered with great amazement that there is always an inward reminder of the same.The mind will always remind us what we set it for. Forgetting has been eliminated to a great extend which used to be a problem in my life.

I have been instilled with a new sense of urgency concerning my assignments as a result of employing target setting to my inner guidance system otherwise known as the servo mechanism in the book.

Also, more importantly as relates to my work as one who is trying to help people rise above low standards of life, through the book, I have learnt the nitty gritties of the reasons why people are responsible for their failure or success.

This has helped me to teach my members in a more conclusive and concrete way why people never rise above substandard living. In particular I conducted a teaching on freeing yourself from false beliefs which was an opener to most of the hearers.

The book has helped me to understand why people in a given region may have similar problems generation after generation. This I discovered from my readings is due to false beliefs that are passed down from generations gone over to the next generation. For instance, there is a common belief which of course is false amongst the Africans that some things can never be done or achieved by them. That is there is a general sense of inadequacy or inability that influences most of the black folks here. As a result most of them never amount to much nor strive to achieve anything great in life. This to my psychology is a false belief that needs to be eliminated.

5. ARE THERE IDEAS IN THE BOOK THAT YOU TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH? IF SO, WHY?

With all due respect, I would wish to point out just one idea that I felt was not put correctly. The writer, while handling the subject of stress as the private enemy number one on page 98 quote, “…many of us today live in a chronic state of fight or flight and anxiety. Hormones such as a adrenaline and crystal, designed by nature to be released…” end of quote. I believe a human being as intricate being as he is, as presented by the book itself can not be a product of nature. The writer should simply have given God the glory by mentioning the word God rather than nature. After all, all religions of the world believe there is a God somewhere.
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6. WHAT DID YOU FIND MOST HELPFUL AND LEAST HELPFUL IN THIS BOOK.

The book indeed provides helpful insights in the development of an individual in terms of how one can become more effective in whatever situation in life.

Most especially, I was challenged by the subject on goal setting. I got to discover that humans are goal oriented by design. We are goal seekers. That, we function best when we have a target we are gunning for.

This knowledge has helped me a great deal especially in my work that I am currently doing. As a pastor in a ministry that believes in getting results. I have found it helpful to set targets for the church's growth. I discovered that as soon as we had the target for the church, we almost automatically begun to devise ways to achieve the target by organizing meetings in villages around with very considerable success.

This aspect of goal setting has completely changed my approach to most areas of my personal life as well. For example, the area of finances where I used to be haphazard in my expenditure, I discovered that with the personal goals that I set, self discipline came in automatically. I am drawn to conclude that most people lack self discipline simply because they do not have concrete goals in life to guard on their behaviour.

Personally, the book was a great blessing because all topics were handled with practical examples of individuals who developed themselves by applying the principals in the book.

7. IN 50 W0RDS OR LESS, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE MAIN IDEA THE WHOLE BOOK IS TRYING TO CONVEY.

Self image is the most principle factor in determining ones achievements in life. Just like a factory, humans can develop whatever destiny they desire. There is no permanent negative and inhibitive trait that can not be changed.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9

COMMENT
This is the best book I have ever read that deals with personel development on a very practical note It is a manual for personel improvement and development.

The New Dynamics of Winning
Assessment by Evans Malenge

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.

First and foremost, I wish to say that the authors plain language and vivid life examples drove home facts that any reader could pick.

From the beginning, one gets the idea that nothing just happens no matter your field of endeavor. Somehow, people who get things done will have some price to pay for the crown they wish to wear.

Those who win in life, have an inner drive that those who lose fail to cultivate. Winners see the impact of their success on their lives and those around them. These images of their success act like the fuel that drives them to achieve their goals.

One wise man rightly put it that in order for any one to succeed in any venture that he or she is in, one must ask himself the one word question, why? For instance a simple matter like weight loss may never be archived if you do not ask the question why do I have to loss weight. The reasons you give yourself for pursuing whatever you desire determine how fired up you will be in your quest for archiving your goals.

I have learnt therefore success in any pursuit is based on some unchanging principles that must be learnt and applied by those striving for success and excellence.

Personally, am privileged to pastor a church of 400 congregants and one thing that kept striking my heart as I read the book was, do I have any drive for the church to advance from where it is? In deed, reading the book made me to question myself on the need for progress. I found myself beginning to strategize in a practical sense on ways to enlarge the scoop of the Church within the community. We began initiating what we call in the church “Family Fellowship Centers”. These, we initiated as harvest baskets for the church and also acted as “Watch” centers to cater for the members needs in their various localities.

I should say this here that, even though this happens in other churches, but I was provoked by this book to implement this idea practically in what I was personally involved in.

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 explanations.

Reading the book, one does not fail to see how the ideas and concepts of the books relate with every aspect of life.

To start with, I would mention something about relationships. From the book, I discovered that success and excellence in life is largely dependent on the kind of relationship one keeps. The people one relates with have a way of influencing the general way of life of an individual. Somehow values and virtues and vices too are passed on to us as we relate with people. There is no neutral relationship as it were. One is either being built up or being broken down by those he or she relates with.

I in particular has seen that I must choose those who are like minded as I am and not only that, but those who have been successful to be my closest “relations” with regard to the success of my life and ministry.

For example, I desire to impact the people I come in contact with in a positive way such that, those with low self esteem can begin to believe in themselves. To achieve this, I need not draw my motivation from drug addict but rather from those who have helped the drug addicts.

I also strongly value leadership among many other things in life. I believe in the words of John Maxwell that everything rises or falls by leadership. From the book the New Dynamics of Winning, the writer clearly outlines some of the qualities of a good leader which to me are very fundamental for any successful leader in any position. Essentially, leaders play the role of modeling, those who are under them.

Leaders identify individuals with potentials and begin to harness those potentials by grooming the individuals in their respective areas of pursuit. From the book, I saw that to be a good leader, one has to create a conducive atmosphere that fosters the development of tender potentials. In my own experience, I have seen this to be very true. Am privileged to have staff under me and I have discovered that the more I give the staff the liberty to even make mistakes the more they grow. People must be given the liberty to be what they can be best at what they do. This will require a free atmosphere that permits for both weakness and strengths to be manifested. After all, we become more intelligent after we have failed.

I also learnt the issue of mental tenacity in the pursuit of my goals. Mental tenacity means the ability to stay on in spite of the fact that there are obvious challenges ahead of you. That, whereas I have goals that am pursuing, they will remain a day dream if mental tenacity is not applied. I call it mental tenacity because in my experience I have discovered that most people fail in life because they became worn out in their mental regions. With mental weariness, the resolve to pursue their goals against the obvious odds gets lost and as a result they let go of the zest of following on to achieve their goals.

In my case for instance, I have a desire to be successful in my pastoring vocation. Success in my case is to have a big church that impacts not only the area around my immediate community, but also beyond the boundaries of the country. With this desire however, there are challenges to face ranging from manpower, finances, to mention just a few. As I read the book about individuals who rose above all odds to realize their goals and dreams, I was fired up to know that if I stay on and stick to what I believe is my dream, it's just a question of time I will realize my dreams, just the way real my challenges look like so real can my victory be also. Am fired up!

3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learnt from this book? Please explain.
First and foremost, I learnt the idea of knowing exactly what I want at any given time. I learnt that this will enhance my focus on my pursuits. That I cannot go for what I have not identified. I can only find what I have defined.

Secondly, I learnt the importance of counting the costs of realizing my desired goals or dreams. That there is no short cut to success, only fools think there is a shortcut to success. As it is said if wishes were horses, all beggars could ride. Things don't just happen. I discovered that one has to sit down and map out plans to realize his dreams. What can not cost me anything in terms of time resource, money and other relevant inputs can never be a worthy goal and certainly can never add anything to my life.

Thirdly, I learnt that no one can succeed as an island. With this, I mean in order to excel, I must make acquaintance with those who have succeeded in that field he or she is entering in. This calls for humility of heart to know that all I know is not all that need to be known. We become narrow when we fail to open up to new ideas from other people who have excelled. Some how to me part of us as human beings in terms of qualities and virtues are put in other people.

Fourthly, I learnt the importance of having a mental picture or what the book refers to as visualization. I got to know that what I am able to visualize, I can be able to experience. After all, a picture is a proof of existence. I am correct to say that it is what I see that I can go for. The picture I hold in my mental faculty sets the pace for what I will soon experience. The picture sort of gives you direction where to head to and what to aim at. It makes you purposeful in your pursuit rather than looking like one chasing after the wind. To me a picture is like a hope that I am looking forward to actualize in the real sense. The reason why most people fail among many other reasons is that they do not see anything and as a result hopelessness sets in. A hopeless person is a helpless person.

4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?
While reading the book, a thought kept coming into my mind that with regards to people who become successful and excel in whatever they do.

They all have an element of patience within them. They are not deterred or discouraged by the challenges they experience along the way to achieving their desired goals.

They work at themselves to measure up with what they desire. They focus on developing themselves rather than rushing to get the price by all means. This understanding has made a great impact on me. Whereas I have been anxious about achieving my goals, I have changed to working on myself. My focus is on how to improve on myself in the area of my vocation. I am looking for the areas of weakness within me and see how I can improve on myself. I have discovered that it is very possible to get into competition in my bid to achieve my goals because of what other people have achieved.

Wisdom is therefore required on my part to know that I have my own time table towards achieving my dreams and this timetable may be completely different from someone else therefore competition with others is completely unimportant. The most important thing that I have learnt is to do what I am supposed to do at this moment in time. This may mean doing research, reading books, going to seminars, put to work what I have learnt among many other things and in so doing; I will end up realizing my dreams. To me dreams have to be processed patiently, you can't just rash them. A Wiseman once said, the sweetest fruits take time to ripe.

5. Are there ideas in this book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?
Mine here may just be a point of addition rather than disagreement. The author in mentioning about the most important things that entails a good leader, failed to mention something that has to do with uplifting an apprentice. Of course it's not always that an apprentice will do what is right.
There will be failure here and there as one is growing up in his or her particular field of pursuit. In my own experience, both as an apprentice and one who has apprentices with me, I have learnt that shortcomings are just what we should expect from any human being. With this thought in mind, we are able to accommodate people and help them achieve their goals in life.
I therefore feel the writer of this particular book, The new Dynamics of Winning in outlining the important words of a leader should have put something like “ You can still make it” or “try again you are able”

I feel this should have been underscored as well as others.
6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?
I really appreciate the books use of very contemporary life events of our days like Olympics and also personalities that are well known to us. These current examples make a vivid touch with the reader (me in particular). The examples were things that I could relate with. They brought the message “home” so to speak in lively way to me. These examples helped me to understand why some people whom we celebrate today got to where they are today.

I would also have appreciated the more had the writer used examples from other places and other sports and personalities around the world.

Also as much as I appreciate the use of examples mostly from sports men and women, it would have been even a richer book by far had it also included other aspects of life in a detailed way.
I also appreciate the straight language of the book and I would have appreciated it the more had it contained figurative language and the like.

7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.
Success and excellence do not just happen to people rather people follow persistently the principles that govern the realization of dreams in life. That at the end of the day you are to be blamed or blessed for the outcome of your own life, and not the circumstances against you.
Please rate the following questions in a scale from one to ten

Ten is good and one is poor
A. How interesting was it to read? 9
B. How helpful was the content? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you will give it? 10

Personal comment:-
A great book with straight forward language aimed at helping people to rise above a life of explanations for failure to a life fired up for success and realization of dreams. I recommend it both to all leaders who desire to improve on their leadership skills.

Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude
Assessment by Evans I Malenge (Kenya)

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 book arrested me with various captivating ideas from the first chapter which have placed an indelible mark in my heart.

First and foremost I discovered that there is living force which can help one become successful in ones pursuit. Simply put, having Positive Mental Attitude is the greatest force I need to bring about good results. That even though this talisman is invisible to the natural eye it's results can be evident in the person that employs and embraces it. I in particular, come into contact with difficult situations as regards people's health and marital problems. Some of the situations are completely beyond hope in a sense. As I read the book, I could not help but get greatly boosted within me. I have come to learn that even when it looks like there is no hope, I must remain positive. To me, the healthy way to live is to live positively always.

I also learnt the fact that success rides on established principles. Important of all is the importance of knowing exactly what one wants to achieve in life. This knowledge of your goal gives your life direction. That every other principle of success rotates around this one principle of knowing your goal.

I also learnt the importance of having clean thoughts in my mind. My thoughts determine my experiences. Mental cobwebs can exist in our minds as a result of our negative experiences, what people have said about us, criticism e.t.c. This was so important to me as a pastor. I realized that I deal with people with mental cobwebs which need to be cleared in love. I discovered that what I see in the lives of people around me manifesting in terms of weakness in attitude and character may be a result of the kind of environment they have been raised in which has created cobwebs in their mentality. I saw that sometimes we can despise people in stead of helping them. This truth has enhanced my pastoral ministry and my relationship with people tremendously.

The senior partner lesson was also a bombshells idea to me. I learnt that sometimes due to ignorance we forget what the divine has made available to us to help us. This truth drove me to cultivate the awareness of a partner in every step of the way. I learnt that I need to take time with this senior partner in quietness just listening to him for ideas and solutions to the puzzles I may have. It's so amazing how life turns when we connect with this unseen person. Simply I am personally happy with the turn of events in my life as a result of this communion. There truly exist invisible partners who can help each of us in the journey of life.

2. Can you relate the ideas or concept in this book to your relationships your beliefs, your goals , your values, e.t.c please use personal examples in your explanations.

The ideas in this book are very practical to life and I can relate to a great extend to virtually every aspect of my life.

For instance, the idea of having a positive mental attitude in short, PMA. I discovered that any goal that you want to achieve will not be realized easily. This is a common knowledge to all. There would be real obstacles that will attempt to thwart my effort to realize my goals. PMA is therefore required to go with me as I pursue the realization of my goals. PMA will help me to see the other side of an obvious negative or odd situation. It tells me that it can be done or achieved despite the obvious opposition.

I also believe very strongly that every human being born has a seed of greatness within them. However, I learned from the book that our greatness may remain a day dream if we do not learn the principles that bring about success in life. Things do just happen but they are caused to happen in life. This truth has helped me address more specifically on some of the areas people may be failing in their quest for success.

I personally value good health and wealth as well. I was impressed greatly to learn that the Bible is the greatest positive book ever written. This further strengthened my faith in the truths contained in the Bible. I learnt that we can achieve PMA when we study the Bible and in so doing gain good health.

Someone said health is wealth. The writer of this book showed us the source for information that can lead to the transformation of our mentality. Which ultimately change our lives for the better.

My position as a pastor also affords me the privilege of interacting with people from various social classes. However, one dominator about all people is that they have needs in different areas of their lives. Due to this needs, most people tend to resign or give up in life. They sort of do just enough in life to maintain the status quo. It's therefore my duty as a spiritual leader to help them by motivating them. I was blessed to learn how I can go about motivating others. I learnt that I myself first, must be motivated in order for me to provide motivation to others. That I have to learn to help others believe in themselves. In my particular setup, I try to show people that I believe in them by assigning them with responsibilities and tasks to do. I applaud their efforts publicly before people in a positive way.

I have come to discover in so doing, I am like one adding “vitamin” to them. They become bolder and stronger and more motivated.

3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learnt from this book? Please explain.

The first and most important idea I learnt from the book was the importance of having a definite purpose in life. Definite purpose refers to the specific thing that I want to achieve at a given time in my life. I learnt that by having a definite purpose or goal, my energies e.g. mental power, spiritual power & even physical power are focused in one particular direction or point and thus increasing my effectivity. From this point I discovered that, the reason why many people do not achieve great things was because they do not know in the first place what they want in life. There must be clarity of purpose first before we can think about achieving success. The inability to define our goals could be the reason why we seem to never have started the success journey.

While reading the book, I got the feeling that without investing personal development in terms of educating yourself in the area you desire success, you may not go far so to speak. From the examples given in the book, I got to learn that I must go for information that will lead to the betterment of my own life. That the level of information I have determines the level of transformation that I experience. I concluded that it would be shear madness for me to expect success by simply living with little information I have. This realization was further enhanced by the lesson on something more in chapter five of the book. I was struck with the fact that the little difference between success and failure is something more.
Most amazing to me in this study of “something more “ was the fact that there is always a senior partner involved who has the ideas I need that would add something more required for my success. This discovery simply grounded me in my belief of the supernatural.
This discovery also helped to see the importance of observing silence within my being in order to connect with the unseen world. I learnt that in pursuit of my goals and aspirations in life, the involvement of the unseen person is crucial. His involvement is however, determined by my disciplined life of observing silence and waiting to make connections with the unseen world.

4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?

Yes indeed, the book has greatly changed my thinking. I was hit as though with a thunder bolt with the truth about positive metal attitude or PMA. To me, this book was like a goldmine. I was inspired with the practical examples of individuals who transformed their life trough the power of PMA. It's very clear to me now, that every man or woman is his own making not circumstances or in other words, our circumstances will only determine the outcome of our lives as long as we look at our lives in the eyes of our circumstances which in most cases are negative. I now know that in any situation I found my self, I can choose to be positive rather than negative. I have been driven to realize that I should not wait for perfect circumstances in order for my life to change, but rather I change my life for the better in spite of the prevailing circumstances.

I was convinced in the book that I have energy or ability within me to help me accomplish any task at hand. That even the unknown supernatural world can come to my aid in terms of supply of power if I care to know how to position myself to tap that power.

This lesson was so important to me in the sense that it further strengthened my belief in the fact that anything can be done if I set my mind on it. I now see that it is one thing indeed to say that anything can be done, It's also another thing to know the power resource available to do the work.

Among other things that have changed my thinking is the fact that there is always something more that can be done. This triggered my mind to realize the fact that there is always enough room or space for more.

More work, more creativity, more service, more effort, more thinking e.t.c. I have more room to enhance my life or to destroy it.

Indeed time is a great resource that we can invest more positively each day to better our own lives.

5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, Why?

I would like to point out one thing that I noted in the book that I deeply feel was not right.
Chapter four of this book, starts with a statement which is very erroneous, I quote “You are a mind with a body!” This is not true about the human being. Considering the fact that man has ability to access the spiritual world, he must be more than a mind and body. In my studies, I have come to learn that man is tripartite being. I.e. he is essentially a spirit having a soul and living in a body. Further, I discovered that the spirit part of man is what he uses to contact the spirit world whereas the soul part of man which comprises of mind, the will and emotions is what he uses to contact the intellectual world whereas the body of man which comprises his five senses namely; Sight, feeling, smell, hearing and tasting which he uses to contact the physical world around him.

The body is like mans suit, within the body, is the soul and the spirit. With this understanding, I feel that the writer come short in this area. Think about it! If man was a mind only how the witches, diviners, soothsayers would and the like how would they be able to communicate with the dark spiritual world? It must be that man posses a faculty within him that supports such a supernatural communication. That is why; I confidentially say man is a spirit being.

6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?

Among the many things that I have already mentioned, that I found to be important and very helpful lessons that I learnt from the book, I would like to add that knowing or having a personal philosophy that governs my life is another helpful thing that I learnt.

Personal philosophy in this context, I mean a personal and particular system of beliefs or attitude to life that acts as a guiding principle to my behavior.

A philosophy that becomes my obsession in life. A philosophy that defines my passion in life. A philosophy that controls my behavior, something that I am known for. Something that can easily define me and is always a part of my life. It grows with me throughout my life.
From this teaching in the book, I saw that having a personal philosophy imparts a certain level of discipline or control to ones life.

My philosophy tells me or reminds me what I live for from time to time and in so doing acts as a control valve to my behavior or actions. My personal philosophy gives me my identity; it paints to people my image. It is a common thing in life that anyone who does a good thing would like to be known that way and he or she will do anything to protect his/her positive image or identity for that matter. In the same manner, when I have a personal philosophy that has to do with helping people in life I would not want to act, otherwise in a time of need because this would be a direct assassination of my personal philosophy. So, rather than assassinating my philosophy by acting contrary, I will seek to give it life as I grow up in life by acting in accordance to my personal philosophy.

My personal philosophy is to always aim at adding value to the people that come in my way in life.

I would not say the book was in any way least helpful to me. I enjoyed every bit of it and I am glad that it came my.

7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey?

Success in any venture in life is not a result of chance neither is failure in life, a matter of lack of opportunities but there are principles that underline success in any area of life. Ignorance of the required facts is the cause for many failures in life.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.

A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10

COMMENT
One has not read a truly motivation book till he has read SUCCESS THROUGH POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE three times.

Real Magic
Assessment by Evans I Malenge (Kenya)

1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
The main idea that comes out clearly from the book is that literally our experiences in life and what we become in life has to do so much with what we have within us. In essence, we are all in a process of becoming our 'yesterdays' thoughts, beliefs and every other thing that we have allowed to influence our inner life.

That we have the capacity within us to become what we desire to be in life if we dare to change our perspective towards our life's circumstances. That each individual in life is his own artisan curving for himself or herself their own kind of future.

That by virtue of our creation, we are meant to dominate our life's odd and adverse situations from within us by employing the tremendous gift of the mind to create images of our desired future.

The fact that nature abhors vacuum, men and women are always creating images with or without their knowledge and these images get developed to become realities that people live to see.

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) Miracles happen as a result of changing ones belief system

A miracle can be any desire that one has in his or her life that looks unachievable. Something that has remained as a fantasy in the mind, something that looks out of reach. It may be a talent one wishes to have it may be oratory ability one desires to develop or some kind of status that one desires to reach in life or any other thing. Important to know is the fact that whatever we desire in life we must first and foremost believe that such a thing is possible for us.

I personally learnt that, it's not some force from outside that will make me what I desire to become. That success in life will remain a day dream if I do not pattern my thoughts and beliefs consistent with what I desire. I also noted that my future is first and foremost in the “womb” of my mind before it is delivered as a reality. That there has to be a point of conception of an idea or a thought within my mind which has to be natured within this unseen realm before it is manifested in the seen realm. For instance in my own personal life I learnt that I would never own my own house until I change my belief system about the idea of owning my own house. This is because of the many negatives and opposing financial factors that prevail around this part of the world that tend to suggest and paint a grim picture of adverse limitations.

(b) Developing the art of observing quiet moments. This I learnt is for the purpose of harnessing the strength within me. I saw that within me there is potential energy to accomplish just any task that I set my mind upon. I learnt that I must utilize the early morning hours for this productive mental exercise. I learnt that these quiet moments have a way of enhancing my performance as this is a way refilling used up strength. In my own particular case, the nature of my work draws a lot of spiritual, mental and physical strength from me. My work requires me to sit in my office listening and handling peoples' life challenges all day long. Sometimes I get to the limit counseling and guiding and attending these many needs. The strain of the work takes a great toll on me on most occasions and stress sometimes gets a good hold of me. This in the long run affects my being effective in the dispensing of my duties. With this lesson from the book, I discovered that it's imperative that I observe quiet moments for relieving stress and becoming at peace with myself. This has greatly enhanced my staying power in my work in the sense that even though the volume of the work has not reduced, I have the strength to handle it. This lesson has been a great blessing to me as a minister. It added to the little I knew about meditation and has tremendously enhanced my performance.

(c) The power of choice
This was another eye opener to me. This lesson made me see myself as a master of the situations and circumstances of my life. I learnt that I have the absolute liberty to determine the way I react in any given situation. That is, I can either choose to believe that I am limited, and as a result develop a defeated mind set or I can choose to believe that I am completely limitless because of the powers I possess and as a result open up myself to all possibilities there is for me. If I may draw inspiration from the first men who made the airplane in the name of the Wright Brothers, they simply made a choice to believe that they had the capability to do what men had said was impossible. As a result they were opened up to a world of all possibility in the aviation industry. Indeed man is a product of his daily choices that he makes in life. Whether I win or loose in life it's a function of the choices that I make amongst many other things. With this information in mind, I set my face to go forward no matter the set backs that dare me. Truly, as one wise man said, the impossible is indeed possible. We must be people who keep making positive choices in life in line with our desired destiny. Recently, as a result of this information, I made a choice to start a personal project that I would have otherwise postponed for the next four months. The exciting thing that I am discovering is that one choice leads to another choice and the chain just goes on and on till the job is done.

(d) There is no liability only wrong perception.
That we are only disadvantaged if we see ourselves so. It's all a question of how do I see things. Liabilities exist in the mind only as long as we permit them. That everything around me can be used as an asset once my perception is changed. Everything can work to my advantage if I care to be positive enough to see things with a positive perception after all there is advantage in every disadvantage. What was flashed in my mind as I read this portion was that just as some fancied cloth fashions came out of mistakes made by tailors, in the same way what I perceive to be a liability may just need a change of use and it may become a great asset. I have seen this in my personal position as a leader. I have seen an individual whom I would consider to be a liability who turned out to be a great asset when I exposed him to other areas of assignment. Initially I had seen him in just one area of assignment which he was not good at. I ended up making wrong conclusions about him till when I saw him handling other tools of work with absolute wit then was I led to see my short sightedness. Indeed, seeing liabilities only is being short sighted in life. No wonder we never go far in life if all we see is the bad part of our situations.

(e) Everything exists for a purpose.
There is a reason for everything in life. There is nothing that existed just by accident. When purpose is not known, then abuse is bound to happen. It is when we know our purpose in life, that we experience the true meaning of living. Satisfaction and true fulfillment comes not because of the material things that we have but in pursuing to fulfill the reason for our existence which is purpose.

I learnt that when I am in purpose, I am more preoccupied by what I can give than what I can get out of life. I have a desire to flow out to the surrounding in a positive way. Purpose makes us to live for others rather than for ourselves. It makes as have the big picture in view rather getting preoccupied with just striving to make it through the day. Living for purpose to me has made me live in the future so to speak, knowing your purpose is like having an invitation into something in the future. I have made this the core of my teachings whenever I have the opportunity to talk to people because I have discovered that this is the greatest antidote to a life of hopelessness amongst people. Once one knows what he is here for, somehow even though his immediate environment may not have changed, there is an inner life and zest that comes to him. I speak this from my personal experience.

(f) Personal Image
This has to do with how I see myself in terms of what I think I am able to accomplish or simply how I rate myself. I learnt that the fears, habits, customs, beliefs, level of confidence and my intellectual abilities go along way to determine the personality I develop.

Whether I will be an introvert or extrovert to a large extent is determined by my internalized life experiences that I have allowed to define my personality. That, whereas life experiences may give us a wrong image about ourselves we need not become victims of our life experiences. We can strive to re-educate our minds through positive assertions to accept the proper image and identity about the kind of person we want to be. These wrong identities can affect virtually every area of our lives and completely put limits on all our potentials. They must therefore be rejected as false. I personally experienced this in my own life. I was an embodiment of cowardice. I never knew I could one day stand before people and give a speech. My first experience speaking in public left me regretting and cursing because instead of using forty minutes to do all that I was meant to do, I used five minutes and wondered what I was going to do with the rest of the time. This developed bad personal image which I have had to fight over the years. Thank God for whom He made me to be today.

(g) We Live to Give
From this point, I understood that the whole purpose of living is giving. That within me is locked up what the world around me needs. I have a contribution to make to the world around me. To help people rise in life to greater heights of success and standards of living. This was a challenge to me in particular in the sense that I saw instead of being critical fault finding, I should rather involve myself in helping change the issues I see around. It was a challenge to me to increase my scoop of impact on the lives of the people around me. With these ideas and many others from the book, I was driven to start a group in the church to address the needs of women specifically. In this group, we have women come together and air out their life challenges and how they have handled them. The main aim of this group is to help those amongst women who are suffering from emotional problems and other kinds of issues to find solutions and get the encouragement they need in their lives. Besides the women group, I also initiated a youth group which meets every Sunday evening. The aim of this group is to help the youth have forum where they can meet together and develop their talents by engaging them in activities that promote their gifts and talents. Also we help them see the importance of living a disciplined life among many other things.
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?

By applying these ideas they will help me develop a strong belief system that will become a guiding force in my life. I discovered that a person without strong belief may never make a great impact. We tent to move our lives and that of others in the direction of our strong beliefs. A good example is Martin Luther King whose ideologies not only affected himself and the people of his time but also generations after him. I see this as a principle for success in life. I am just discovering that what can not move my heart certainly can not move someone else. It is a known fact that if you can not influence anyone positively at any time then you are truly a failure. I am therefore developing a strong belief system that will drive not only me but those around me also.
The lesson of importance of choice helps me to make positive decisions in any circumstances. I understand that odd circumstances are not just the way they appear and that I have no other option but to fail or succumb to the circumstance, no not so, but that I can choose to make positive decisions contrary to the prevailing issues and this will bring about the change I desire. After all our lives are basically a sum total of the choices we make daily. I understood that I need not be a victim of every other circumstance that comes my way; no not at all, I have the freedom to choose how I want things to go for me.

Another idea that will help me in a practical way is that of my perception. Of course this has to do with how I see things around me, my point of view about the people around me and even my own assessment about myself determines my experiences in life. This lesson has helped me not to write off everything that I see as a liability. I have learnt that there is some importance in just everything because everything has a purpose in life even if it is an ordinary stone on the ground. Everything exists for a particular reason.

This brings me to my next point and that is the lesson of purpose. Knowing my purpose helps me to be focused. It gives my life direction. To me therefore an important element that I should cultivate is an awareness of purpose daily. I have personally incorporated the teaching of purpose virtually in all my teachings in effort to try and help people especially the young men and women see the vital importance of this subject of purpose. Last but not least, I consider the lesson on giving as a life preoccupation simply because as long as we live we will always have opportunities to give to someone around us in one way or another. Even a smile to stranger is of great value. Our ministry as people on earth starts with who we are, where we are, with what we have to those we have around us. That is each of us was created with a part within us that belong to others. We are doing our own selves injustice when we fail to release what has been put within us. Indeed giving is living. Consider a man who eats and does not pass out waste, make no mistake it will be just a question of time and that individual will be hospitalized. Many are not fulfilled in life simply because they are not flowing out as nature demands. I have learnt that my fulfillment is derived in giving out not holding back. We become like the Dead Sea with no life within us when we hold back. I see that there are two major forces that can control an individual that of selfishness or love. A selfish person holds back to his own misery whereas a man with love in his heart gives naturally as way of life. This is my message to the world around me. This is the key to miracles in life.

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 Below is a list of the quotes that captured my mind from the book.

“Every single person who has ever overcome any difficulty or brought about positive change in their lives, when faced with the bottom line, has had to leave behind the old habit through their own will” this means that whether or not we come out of our difficulties and change our lives for the better its dependent upon our own willingness or a lack of it. It's not the difficulty of people's situations that has made most people to fail in life, it is the hardness of their own will to accept the possibility of experiencing change. My will is the liberty I have to choose. There is a common saying that says “where there a will there is a way” this is a true saying indeed. I must train my will to be open to all possibility of finding a way out of any circumstance.

“You have the capacity to create miracles and live a life of real magic, by using your invisible self to influence your physical reality.” This means the invisible me has power to control and change what is in my visible surrounding. The unseen is more powerful than the seen. Dwelling in the unseen or focusing on what can be seen is equal to life imprisonment. Help for change comes from the within not without. I could as well conclude that the future of men is stored up within them. Men need to take a trip to their within and explore the power within them. We can become wonders to our own selves when we learn to delve to the world within us.

“All that you fight weakens you; all that you support empowers you.” This means people's focus is what really works against them not really the prevailing circumstances. It also means that in any situation we can determine what will occupy out attention. We can choose to either focus on the possibility or the impossibility. If we look at the giant we see our inability but if we look at the power that is within us we see possibility and as a result get encouragement. Somehow we attract destractive forces when we look at the difficulties and attract helping forces from within us when we look at the possibility.

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? Whereas I appreciate most of what the writer has put down, I beg to differ on a few things in the book.

For instance, the writer is talking about suggestions for becoming a spiritual being, he introduces something that would be very much equivalent to consulting the dead or necromancy. I totally disagree with this notion from the writer. This had better been left to the author himself. The dead should be left in their graves not to be consulted.

The writer clearly teaches the need to forget the past in his book as one of the most fundamental lessons one should learn as one makes the effort of developing himself. If this is true which I personally endorse as well, then it would be wrong to teach people to consult old grandfathers who have long gone. I think this would only make people live in their past rather than live in the future. I would suggest to the writer to teach and to emphasize on how one can come into touch with his/her future and consult with it rather than the past.

We become better and well adjusted people by focusing on the possibilities that await for us a head rather than going back to the past.

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?

Even though there were no clear cut exercises laid out from the book, I personally gave myself some. Personally, I have a keen interest on relationships and I learnt a lot from the book which I am applying in my personal life. I in particular, I can get very dogmatic which has caused friction in my relationship with the people close to me. I learnt and I am applying this exercise of flexibility in raising my point of views. What I have discovered in my personal exercise is that tension is reduced in any relationship where there is no rigidity to one's opinion or point of view. Indeed many relationships that have deteriorated may have been as a result of one of the parties being too legalistic in their opinions and point of views. Families on earth would be happier if there were no opinionated people as I am joyfully discovering. Our divorce courts would be without any case if people learnt this truth and applied in their relationships.

Also another vital exercise that I gave to myself in a deeper way was that of observing times of mediation. To me I am further discovering this is the key to inner strength for performance in life. I have found that I become increasingly weak when I fail to touch my inner self through meditation. It seems to me there is a power reservoir within each of us and the only way to access that power is during moments of meditation. Meditation is becoming my way of life gradually and what I am discovering is that each moment I meditate something is added to me. It's like taking a shower after a long days work. Meditation refreshes and renews one from within. This is great lesson that I have learnt and I am also teaching people.

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 would like to emphatically comment on the subject or topic that deals with the spiritual age that we are living in. I strongly believe that the author was not exhaustive as far as this particular subject is concerned. The writer clearly talks about the fact that we are living in a spiritual age and he expressly points some incidences in the world to that effect. To me, this simply means there is something more about man or human beings that is yet to be to be clearly understood. If we are living in a spiritual age, it means then that man is essentially a spirit being and what we are seeing happening in the world today in terms of spiritual awakening is the expression of the true nature of man.

If this is the case then we need to do an exhaustive study on this subject of the spirituality of man.
In my own opinion the last chapter of this book should have been the first one. To me the last chapter touches the real man in a very general way. I would have appreciated had the writer gone further to break down the reality of man's spiritual nature and how we can develop this part of man. Then after dealing with the real man which is spirit, then he would deal with the soul part of man which of course comprises of our reasoning, thinking and emotional faculties of man and how all this need to be developed to enhance an individual's life. Then of course we could talk about the body itself and its various roles.

This is my personal argument about the book because it's clear that the author of the book is talking about man himself and the fact he (man) has an inner self. The point should be made clear that man is a spirit not just a body and a soul or a mind as indicated in the book.

The spirituality of man should have been underscored.
I am sorry to sound very critical about the book but I had to answer the question. This is my personal point of view about the book and I stand to be corrected as well.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 -10. Ten is good and one is poor.

a. How interesting was it to read? 8
b. How helpful were the contents? 9
c. How easy was it to understand? 9
d. Would you recommend it to others? 9
e. What is the overall rating you would like to give it? 9

Comments:
A great book that made me see myself as a mini creator in my own capacity.

Giant Steps
Assessment by Evans I. Malenge (Kenya)

1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
Right from the onset, the idea that comes out clearly is the emphasis on the need for individuals to make the necessary adjustments to experience the change they so much desire in their lives. The fact that there is more to life than what has already been experienced by individuals. The fact that the greatest room there is in any individual is that of improvement. Indeed, the book is a great attempt to try and show people the necessary ingredients, which if applied, can translate to improved and successful lives. It's clear from the book that the good life that people desire has a price tag with it and the most interesting thing is the fact that each one of us can be able to pay the price. The price for living an improved life is not monetary as it were but a matter of embracing continually, values, habits and attitudes in ones life that aim at the betterment of that individuals life. I can only conclude here that, in the great scheme of events, our willingness to pay the price is all that matters in living the good life. Therefore whether an individual excels in life and realizes his dreams is all about his willingness to pay the price he can or a lack of that willingness.

The ball indeed is in your court.

2. What were the seven ideas which were personally 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) The place of having a dream for your life.
A dream in this case is that big picture that one must have for his or her life. It's something that is buried right within oneself, something that one aspires to be in life. Each of us do have dreams about our lives but due to circumstances we end up letting go of these dreams that we once held within us. The result is a life of emptiness, lack of direction and a life without sense of purpose.

Having a dream is of vital importance for the fact that one has direction of where heading to in life, also with a dream there is an instilled personal discipline in ones life. In my particular case, had I not known my dream for life may be I could be struggling doing something that I was
ever designed for. Discovering my dream has helped me to be in the place of my specialization.

b) The place of potential
This was important to me in the sense that I discovered that the dream of my life becomes a reality as I harness the potentials that are buried within me.

I learnt that those potentials are essentially to help me fulfill my dream.
Potentials and dreams are directly interconnected.

I learnt that in order for my life to have a far reaching effect, my decisions must be in line with my dreams from time to time.

In my personal case I have learnt that the innate abilities within me have been developed as I have kept making right decisions in line with my life dreams.

Certain decisions if made are bound to destroy both my dreams and potentials.
I have personally had to make a decision to be optimistic in my approach to life.

c) The place of commitment to learn from mistakes
This was very important to me because I learnt that what we call failure is just bad results. Failure happens when we refuse the call to go the extra mile.

Success on the other hand comes by taking the initiative and following up persistently and demonstrating my passion for my dreams. Commitment is the key in realizing our great dreams.
I learnt importantly that set backs indeed are bound to happen, but they are just events that we are to learn from and become more intelligent in our approach to our life endeavors.

In my case, this was vital in giving me the mental balance that I need in this world that strives for near perfection in everything.

I learnt that just because I did not hit the mark yesterday, it does not mean that I cannot hit it the next day. The only question I have to keep answering is how committed and passionate I'm I for my dream to come true? This has helped me to remain mentally balanced and not condemn myself and have pity parties about myself.
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d) The place of having clear cut goals.
I also saw the importance of not just having the big picture but being able to break it down to smaller bits which are what we call goals.

That these goals must be clear cut, precise and achievable.

That my brain works best when it is given specific tasks to accomplish with deadlines.
I learnt that my brain is caused to work. It is task oriented

This information further enhanced my practice of setting goals in my work of Ministry. It simply solidified my grasp about goal setting and the need to have such an orientation in everything I do.

e) The place of beliefs.
This was another very important lesson to me.
I learnt that beliefs are simply forces that determine what I try or fail to try to accomplish in my life.

Beliefs are basically based on our past experiences.

That nothing in life has any meaning to me except the meaning I give to it. If I believe I can or can not I am right.

One very interesting thing that I learnt here was the fact that even though I may not have had good experiences in the past from which I can draw my inspiration to have positive beliefs, I can use my imagination to form the kind of experiences I want to inspire me. One of the most fascinating thing I saw here was the fact that my subconscious mind does not differentiate between a real life situation from one that is just imagined. My imagination affects it (the subconscious mind) in the same way that real life situations affect it. Therefore, I can imagine myself preaching to large crowds gathered in a stadium even though at the moment I pastor a church of 350 congregants.

f) The place of knowing the principles to the success of relationships.
I understood that any relationship that will work will have to be worked out by the concerned parties. Successful relationship are not made in heaven but are made by heavenly principles. Any relationship that will work requires a certain level of maturity to know what is constructive from what is not constructive.

Ignorance has been the greatest undoing of many relationships that would have become highly successful. I learnt that one must know what the other person values, see relationship as a place he/she goes to give rather than receive, self-centeredness won't just produce any meaningful relationship. I saw the importance of having the communication channel continually open among other things.

I have seen these keys work in my case and I am totally in agreement with them. Both in my relationship with my wife and my superiors in ministry, these principles are simply fundamental.

g) The place of contribution.
I learnt that this is an ultimate gift. Each of us has something to give to the world around us in some way.

Our little contribution from time to time and day to day is what brings about the big change in the whole world.

I saw that I must muzzle the courage to take bold steps if I will ever be a hero tomorrow.
Contribution as I learnt is the key to true fulfillment in life. Contribution comes from a selfless life.

I have learnt and seen this come true in my own personal life. Somehow, as I have impacted others and brought a change in their lives, the impact sort of boomeranged back to me in way of joy and happiness and a sense of great fulfillment.

Indeed life is all about contribution and not just acquisition only.

3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you create a better world, if so how?

These ideas will help in a very practical way indeed. By having and holding to my dream, I will limit my activities to those that draw me near to the realization of my dream, not only that, I will also be disciplined about the company I keep in other words to know who and what influences my life. Also the understanding that I have innate abilities gives me a sense of competence; it instills in me confidence t?”hat I have what it takes to do what I have to do in the world around me. That I am capable as I need to be to fulfill my dreams.

Commitment on the other hand assures me daily that the best is yet to come. This assurance acts as a motivation to me daily as I pursue my goals and in so doing, I keep affecting my world positively with the burning passion within me. This motivation will definitely translate to making or rather setting daily goals short term and long term goals which when accomplished, will leave my world a better place.

My positive beliefs help me not only help myself advance in life but also help others too by inspiring them with my personal accomplishments and those from others. On a daily basis therefore, I keep moving beyond obvious barriers and life obstacles armed with possibility beliefs within me.

On the other hand cultivating positive relationship will help me to have wide impact on many lives not only that but also have the great privilege of instilling these precious values of successful relationship to those around me. In so doing a chain of changed lives will have started and I can only expect to continue and make my world a little better than I met it.
Lastly, but not least, my contribution daily to those around me will not only bring fulfillment to me but to those around me. My contribution in terms of giving information and motivational help will enhance my people relation qualities.

This sense of contribution will develop in me the desire to give always. A great man said it is more blessed to give than to receive. This is a wise saying worthy to be acted upon.

4. Quotes: are there brief quotes from the book which really got your attention? if so, please list and comment on them.

There were great quotes in the book some of which are listed here under.

a) “Those who succeed tend to make decisions rapidly and are slow to reverse a well thought out position”

The key to success in any area of our life is the ability to think and make decision and have the tenacity to stick on them. “Now and then” people have a long way to go in the success journey.
b) Pain can be your friend if you use it effectively

This means all things can work in my favor if I know how to handle them. For instance the pain of failure can be an opportunity for me to be more intelligent in my approach about my pursuit in life.

c) Just change your focus

Some of our biggest problem is where we are looking not really what is happening. What we keep looking at affects us ultimately.

d) Nothing in life has meaning except the one we give it

This simply means that I choose what I want to believe in my life. The meaning we attach to something tells what we believe both about ourselves and about that thing. Our beliefs in the long run determine our destinies.

e) Imagination is more powerful than knowledge

This means that if I can use my imagination even though I may not be so knowledgeable, I can attain to great heights in life. I consider the Wright brothers, when all the scientists of the world had resolved that no object could move in air, the Wright brothers proved them wrong. They must have employed their imagination to do what seemed impossible. Indeed imagination is more powerful than knowledge.

f) We can adapt to anything if we make the right demands upon ourselves incrementally.

The idea is that we do not need to wish for change in our lives, we must have the discipline to tutor ourselves to the desired change continually and increasingly.
I believe that's what Roger Bannister who broke a world record had to learn among many other things.

g) Every successful person I know has the capacity to remain centered, clear and powerful in the midst of emotional storm.

Our ability to keep calm in times of storms of life determines whether we come out of the storm or get carried away with it. It's possible to calm down our emotions instead of letting them run as mad.

h) “Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character”

Challenges that come our way are meant to make us not to mar us. To create us not crush us, to design us not to destroy us.

5. Is there anything in this book that you do not understand or are unclear about or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?

In general I would say I appreciate what Tony Robbins has put down, its indeed helpful and life changing. I would like to add that, whereas I agree that people need to develop themselves in the mental area and their physical areas, I feel people need to develop themselves in their spirituality as well. This was not highlighted. So in my own opinion I feel the content was limited to only one aspect of the human being. I stand to be corrected, this are just my feelings and opinions. However, the totality of the book in what it was intended to cover is excellent.
Also some sections were very scientific for an ordinary lay person to easily grasp what was being explained. For instance the subject on getting the knack of change. There was this great term NAC or in other words Neuro Associative Conditioning wow! That was enough to make someone give up reading simply because it was too technical from the word, go. I could not think about applying this because I did not understand the term at all. Robbins should have broken it down to absorbable terms.

6. Did the book contain exercise for the reader to complete? If so did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?

Yes indeed the book contained some exercises which I did though not at all of them.
First and foremost was the one where I was needed to take a moment and think about the dreams for my life. I did this and I was amazed to discover it is easy to become indistinct about our dreams as time goes by. I discovered that when one works in an institution, he or she may not know exactly what they are really living for. Sometimes people get caught up in routines for years without having a clear cut purpose for their personal lives.

There was also the exercise where I was needed to make a decision that immediately improves the quality of my life. Among other things this exercise included a simple thing as making a call to someone I have not called in a long time. This exercise turned out to be sort of miraculous to me because the person I called had the very information I needed to answer some bugging questions in my personal life. The information I received was a great relief to me.

Thirdly, I also stumbled on the exercises that required me to break the habits of procrastination. I had to exercise it there and then by stopping to read the book and embark on some things I had not done that had pilled up. In my case was signing some important cash documents that had pilled for three months. I discovered that procrastination does not give you rest or a break but rather it creates more work and stress or even worse still it can break you.

Fourthly, was the exercise on my beliefs system. Here, I was required to distinguish between my most empowering beliefs from those that were not so empowering. While doing this exercise I simply learnt one powerful thing that I need to solidify my beliefs to a point they become convictions. I saw that sometimes we tend to hold our beliefs so casually that they end up slipping away from us and we end up not realizing great things in life. I was driven to think about many of the great philanthropists of the recent past and in our modern day, men and women like Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King to name just a few. Had these and many others not had strong convictions the world surely could have missed out on something great.

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 comment.

Well, considering the modern world we are living in that is bent on money making and wealth increment, I thought something along those lines should have been mentioned in the questions. Anthony Robbins clearly sets aside a chapter on this and highlights on ways to increase wealth. This shows how important this subject in particular is. It is a known fact that everything that people do in business, career, profession etc is geared towards getting more money besides other desires like fame and prestige. Even the Bible itself says money answereth all things. I therefore feel that there should have been a question that drives towards helping the student on his/her money management and wealth creation. I believe this is fundamental because money is a resource we cannot do without no matter who we are or our position. Even dead people need money for their bodies to be buried and all that goes with their burial.

So I strongly feel that there should have been something that is directed at improving ourselves in money matters.

Thank you Antony Robbins I have been inspired greatly and I believe my life has been enhanced by the information I have received from GIANT STEPS.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 -10. Ten is good and one is poor.
a. How interesting was it to read? 10
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 like to give it? 9

Comments:
A must read for any one who may have the question. What is wrong with me? Millions in the world have this question at heart. Millions need this book.