As A Man Thinketh
Samuels Adebayo (Nigeria)


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 As A Man Thinketh is rated very high among the few books I have read so far simply because of its truth that whatever a man imagines he makes come true, such that man is the maker of himself by the thought he chooses.

The mind is with constantly filled thoughts; it never will be free, we are fortunate however, of being able to tailor our never vacuum minds to think and dwell more on our true desires through practice, ceaseless search and conscious effort which will eventually be what we really are.

I discovered that persistence thinking on that which I really want helps me to achieve it, just as dwelling my mind so much on that I don't want comes my way; a very good example is when I was in the university, in my third year precisely, I was having a very difficult time in financing my education, I spoke to friends and distanced relation, I got help that could solve about one tenth of my daily challenges, I struggled really hard with part time job and challenging academic works- I could not cope, so I dropped.

After about six months out of the university I knew I was meant to have a degree, i switched my mind to going back to school, day and night I think of myself being a graduate, in fact my mind refuses reflect on possible challenges of rejection at school, ridicule by friends and several obvious academic stress. In less than a month of persistence thinking, I went back to school and I discovered that my mindset on going back to school helped my course, I overcame all the troubles that I was faced by. Surprisingly, I graduated ahead a couple of my colleague.

Little wonder I am never caught unaware of whatever happens to 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, your values, etc? Please use personal examples in your explanation.

On the 13th day of January, 2004 I wrote;
Believe me
Nothing happens to me as new
Good and bad
The bad and the good
Now it happens again
Some twice, some thrice
And some once- the once will sure repeat
Nothing happens to me is new
Only some are yet to happen
But they won't be new
Because, they'll have once happened
When it happens again
You say One, I count two
You count two, I say three
When it happens thrice
It's a fine tune of the second
When it happens twice
Its transmutation of the first
When it first happened
It was in my imagination
Nothing happens to me as new
It was new, only in my imagination
Believe me, we are product and manifest of our imaginations.

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

I learnt that circumstance does not make man, it reveals him to himself, no such thing as destiny, I am solely responsible for whatever I become; I nursed it, that is me and that I am.

I can turn around, however, by being conscious of what I think of me, deliberately filtering away that which I am not, be very willing and ready to fight the good fight and earn myself a rapid transformation for good.

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

By my native name ANAWUNREYI meaning the popular one, I dream lofty dreams-
Each time I think
I think how small I was
I think how small I am
I think how big my thoughts are
I think how big I'll be
I fear the thoughts
I fear the bigness
I see myself too big for the space the world provides
I think each time.

Haven written this in 2004, I was robbed of my dreams simply because I followed majority who will never see possibility, who believe in smallness and I fear being alone, I allowed myself to be lied to.

This book has and is challenging me never to toy my thinking, to be very mindful of it, and not to trade my dream for whatever, keep them strong until they become reality.

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

James Allen's little volume is inspiring as the ideas are all true and very agreeable although I know more than what is written in this book is required to achieve a clear and sincere result.

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

I found very helpful the fact that man can find every truth that is connected to his being, if he will dig deep. Work is involved, sacrifices must be made and result is also sure.

When I first read the book As A Man Thinketh in 2004, I became troubled because it aligns with my inner self but conflicts with some other beliefs that I have blindly picked through religion from parent and through friends and some distanced environment.

I became conscious of what I think thenceforth but was very fearful, thus was not strong enough to follow through, I also became very lazy, I think big and do small, could not act on the learnt lesson from this book and many other book that are meant to build me up. I lived a life that really was not mine. I followed crowds and ran after shadows, I lost my mind, I allowed others to create path for me to follow- I was never happy, I lost confidence and lost valuable properties which today I wish I had never loose but I intermittently remember that As A Man Thinketh In His Heart, So Is He.

I am now aware of the uncertainty in walking the path created by others, how disappointing others value, expectations and standards are, how burdensome it is to suppress ones thought for another's and how easy it is for someone to work hard just to attain failure. Now, I am awake.

Being awake means knowing that I am responsible for what become of me through my thinking, being responsible and being the rightful master of me, trusting my dreams enough to follow through despite challenges and all oppositions to achievement. This is 2008, I know how much work I need to put in, do that which I ought to, and make sacrifices and become the popular one- ANAWUNREYI.

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

The main idea conveyed in the whole book, I have summarized thus;

Except you stop thinking
You can't help making
Except you are dead
You can stop living
If you can imagine
You can make come true
Except you stop thinking
You can't but create
It's simple yet true
What you think is formed, created and made manifest
And that is who you are.

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? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Samuels Adebayo

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.

Gulls are sea birds that earn their normal livelihood from scouting for fish, a daily routine that may be boring but it's a way of life!

The idea that even in every way of life, inquisitiveness is no do without for some none ordinaries with some amount of fear, doubt and convictions. I am not any different from this class, I seek beyond routines.

Being aware of my supernatural? Possession, I feel a Trans of possibilities, happiness, joy and physical upliftment- a feeling had to comprehend by the powerful many. It's just like erringly weighing small amount of truth on a scale alongside popular and even enormous lie. The lie will seems to be right but a great quest keeps growing inside the true identifier of both; to stick by the small inner truth- hungry, happy and learning. To abide by the routine and the majority is boredom and failure.

Each time I follow my heart on the issue of spirituality, thoughts and feelings I celebrate achievements, although small they are but big enough to give me real happiness. At each time I try to transcend to a higher realm, I face challenges that could ordinarily be worked over, but, I follow outer voices perhaps, and victory becomes short lived, I feel ordinary again and without warning my focus changes and no longer do I control myself. Jonathan Livingston was never left alone, some other seagulls had been in that state before him and he was not to be the last to be an outcast and a happy seagull that achieves desires.

2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Please use personal examples in your explanation.

The feelings, although during meditation is very great, pure and independent of outsiders opinion and not biased with any religious theory. I sit uprightly with my eyes closed and transcends into a higher realm.

As felt by Jonathan Seagull, his sorrow was not being alone but that other gulls refused to believe the glory of flights that awaited them, I feel same, not solitude but those others I try to explain to never understands, and will not comprehend the possibilities of outward peace and fulfillment from inner calmness, and they will rather discourage me. I am learning to know, however, that to follow a meaning higher purpose for life, rejection will be faced along.

While I was in the university, I was seen as weird, experimental, different and par adventure stupid. I was financially poor, so I took to improvisation of forms and materials, I think of the extra ordinaries, I used junks, produces seemingly strange pieces of work as I rightly recorded thus:

Cheap colours
Found objects
Rugged surfaced pieces
He covers a canvas with colours
Heavily motifed in lines
The title- irony of the colours
He picked the objects from street
Bind them into finish
He calls it great
Seen as been stupid
Gets no attention
The critics ignore
He keep growing in the manner
Unacceptable, not reckoned with
He stages an exhibition
People could not understand
Quite unusual
Stupid
Beautiful works?
Most unusual
Too different
Great curation
Great exhibition
And suddenly
Known for his art
Scouted for by the critics
The press' respondent
The society's love
The great one they concluded
A man his work.

Another good example is a time in school that we were to produce a piece using plaster of Paris (POP), I could not afford one so I had to improvise, I mixed some white cement which was given to me by a colleague with a large amount of white powder and some marble dust I got from a construction site in school at he time, all of these gave me a result that marveled everyone, it was soft to carve and the marble dust gave it a shining effect that arouses lots of question and amazement. I got a distinction in the course.

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

One of the most important new ideas I learnt in this book is that at the end of every tunnel as commonly said, there is a light. Despite the rejection faced by Jonathan, he was peaceful, happy and was not sorry for the price he had to pay. That very evening he was welcomed into a new school.

Having come to understand the reward of pushing through, am afraid I am still scared, I don't really know how much rejection I might have to face, I fear, I think I need some encouragement, but from where?

The new school I seem to have seen from a distance, it's splendid I will say, but what stops me from living in this foreseen environment?

As I write at the moment, I am confused; I have tried a religious sect that is perhaps of true worship but it bores, the routine is very tiring and burdensome. Being a true member will requires more than I am ready to part with or even more than I have got. Because I have shown some amount of interest, met with some people when I first attended some of the meetings and now, I find pulling out a bit difficult yet following through will mean I will become a hypocrite, which I really do not want. I want freedom, happiness, trueness and peace.

Anawunreyi the great one
The popular one Anawunreyi
Seeing more than others see
Wearing a look that saintly seems he hate the most those things others love
Others beauty is not his
Ever looking higher or lower
He loves solitude
What manner of man is he that he's here and yet not here?
Like the weed in the desert waste
Others to him are either fool or he is to other men.
Anawunreyi the great one.
I am willing to learn and be mentored; I am open to advice now more than any other time in my life. I can distinguish from right and wrong, I really need help now.
"Tell me what to do" "YES, I WANT TO FLY"

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

I challenged to wanting to know beyond what I see and see beyond what I already know, learn to listen to the inner voice within me and to prove what I shall get to know from henceforth. My thinking is been challenged once again that I am responsible for what I become, that I don't have to be ordinary after all, that I should seek to find, find and experiment with, be daring and bold and I will not be alone at the long run. I really want to fly.

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

None to disagree with but I know everyone need a Jonathan, I need Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

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

Knowing that I can learn to fly is most helpful discovery I have found in this book because I now know it all begins with curiosity, questioning the norm and reasoning extensively and beyond the ordinary.

I feel I am to be compared with one of gulls listening in the darkness for hours on end, not wishing to see or to be seen of one another, fading away before day break.

It is also very encouraging that after reading the book I feel I someday will spread my wings and fly, then will I discover myself and my true self will launch out, learning, knowing and teaching others.

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 we all can learn to be better that what we are at the moment, without any limitation.

A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9

Comments

Without constant persistence, without vibrant brilliancy
I think, I want, I wish

My wishes;
Swept away over time
Brought back with time
A proper tool of my impersistence

My wants;
Ever getting higher
Never gets lower
Chiseled by fear
Gouched away by friends
Eroded in flood
An implement of my impersistence

My thoughts;
Too heavy for a mind
Sometimes I wonder if they are mine
Really mine they are
Seen being stupid
Yet they ever get higher
Never gets lower
Chiseled by fear
Gouched by friends
But were never eroded
A residue of nature's brilliancy.