Who was James Allen?
Although his book, As A Man Thinketh, has inspired millions around the world and is partly responsible for launching an entire self-improvement industry, very little is known about its author, James Allen.
He was born in Leicester, England in 1864 and worked as a personal secretary for an executive of a large English corporation until 1902. At the age of 38 he "retired" to writing and moved with his wife to a small cottage at Ilfracombe, England. He penned more than 20 works before suddenly passing away at the age of 48.
As a Man Thinking has influenced many contemporary writers including Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale, Denis Waitley and Tony Robbins, among others.
His "little volume", as he called it, has been translated into five major languages, inspiring millions of readers to recognize that man's visions can become reality, simply through the power of thought.
Below is a personal review of the book;
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
The main idea is making the best of your thoughts and thought process.I learnt from the book that some of the things that happen to me are a manifestation of my inner thoughts. Good thoughts will yield good results and bad thoughts yield bad results.
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.
My character is the complete sum of my thoughts- one of my greatest fears was public speaking.Throughout my education life I always made sure that I was not the one to make a speech, debate or read a poem in class. I feared public speaking because I thought that everyone would not understand what I was going to say and in the end I will be a laughing stock. Because of my thoughts I was a quiet student. This is important because when I change my thoughts I can change my character which should be good news to every one who is struggling with some thing in their lives.
Another idea I learnt is to always keep positive thoughts- When I think positively I will have positive results and the reverse is true for negative thoughts.I failed an exam in my final year because, from the time I started revising for that exam I had these thoughts that I wont pass this exam.And this was true, for the last two times I did this exam i failed. I already thought that I failed before the results came and when they did, it just confirmed my thoughts of failure. Realising that I am a creative power is key, because I need to focus on growing good thoughts and getting rid of the bad ones.
Thoughts should be in harmony with your actions- You cannot have good thoughts and bad actions and expect good results.Its just like a poor man who wants to be rich but misses work occassionally or a person who knows and is afraid of cancer but continues to smoke, this person doesnot deserve being rich or healthy because he doesnot know what he/she wants.If you want to excel at school you should not encourage negative thoughts like I hate school, my teacher doesnot know how to teach or I cannot afford to buy text books for my classes.This is how we (Man) cause our circumstances unconsciously.
Donot blame others and circumstances for things not going on well- when I was working with a team on implementing a project on HIV/AIDS, we faced challenges regarding organising,implementation,hence not meeting some of the participants expecatations.When a meeting was held and asked what went wrong most of the answers that we gave were about others…….we blamed other people and factors but no one talked about himself or gave a comment like I did not follow up on the pendings that I had and that’s why we donot have money for the project. So we spent most of the time blaming others instead of searching for solutions and looking at how we could have caused the mishaps.
Let a purpose drive your thoughts- My friends and I set a goal of starting a business by the end of 2009. Ever since we set this goal every one has been looking for a challenge, opportunity that we could take advantage of to start a business. We have studied business books inorder to learn more about business and more than ever we have managed to connect with what we are doing and came up with brilliant business ideas that will be implemented.So our purpose or goal was to start a business and this stimulated our thoughts into thinking about studying exisiting businesses and looking for a business idea.its been an easy and rewarding experience because we have learnt and got some results.
Think about what you want first and not how to get it- I like computers and when I was at the university I admired fellow students who had laptops. Since then I could always think of myself with a laptop and sometimes I would borrow a friends’ laptop just to have that feeling of working on it. I badly wanted a laptop but I had no clue how to get one, because it was very expensive and I couldnot even afford a desktop. After some time I got a job and I was given a laptop.This was a very exciting day, I could not believe I had a laptop all to myself. The point is I focused on wanting a laptop and even without knowing how to get it I got one.
Having self control-I have to be calm in bad or good situations.Calmness means I take control of my thoughts which if not controlled will be manifetsed in terms of how I react to other people. We need to understand and adapt to each other if we are to have self control. Lack of self control leads to hot or explosive tempers which ruin your relationship with others. My dad has a high level of self control, even when he believes you are wrong, he wil give you an opportunity to explain yourself so that he can understand you before he comments or says whats on his mind.This has helped him create and retain many friends. Taking control of my thoughts will help control the results I would like to have im my life.
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?
The lesson of character being a sum of my thoughts will push me to face my fears because they will become my character. I will do the things that I fear doing like public speaking which will improve greatly my personal life. I learnt that FEAR means False Evidence Appearing Real, I want to comfirm everything before I fear and you can only confirm by acting on the FEARS.
To keep positive thoughts I will avoid statements like I cannot, I will not because they will negatively influence the results I want to achieve. So I will get the negative statements out of my vocabulary.
When faced with challenges or get variant results from what I expect, I should ask how I contributed to what happened and focus on finding solutions and changing so that I donot repeat the same mistakes. I will seek for both positive and negative feedback from my colleagues and then use it to evaluate my thoughts and actions hence taking 100% personal responsibility.
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.
“Man is made and unmade by himself”-This is important because it tells me of how responsible I should be in whatever I do. What I think will affect who I want to be and the results I want to get.
“The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do”- knowing that you can do something is a good start to doing something.You cannot do something if you don’t know that you can do it.Most times I have accomplished tasks and roles by by knowing and believing that I can do them.I donot have to know to do a task so that I can do it, all I need is to know and believe that I can do it.
“There can be nor progress or achievement without sacrifice”- if you want to be given then you have to give; it’s a two way traffic. Receiving after you have given is the only way you can be paid back.So I have to give inorder to receive.
“To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve”-You cannot find what you are not looking for,hence you need to desire something and then go and get what you desire.When you desire something you attract it in your life.Its also important to act on your desires by aspiring to achieve what you desire.
“The universe does not favor the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious although on the mere surface it sometimes may appear to do so”-In this world you can be unfair, unjust and sometimes get away with it.But it’s always short lived and at one point you will have to pay back for all the injustices. This is a reminder to me that I have to strive to be good and do good at all times.
5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?
I disagree with the statement that people who live in fear of disease are the ones who get it. I think that when you donot fear to get the disease you will be irresponsible.People who fear to get diseases are more cautious about their lives. If people did not fear HIV/AIDS, then they would have unprotected sex or multiple sexual partners hence contract the virus.
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? There were no exercises.
7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.
I would like to supplement on thinking about something and it happens with a story. I have a friend who joined SHELL Uganda, a big multinational company. Part of his employment terms was that he was entitled to a car which he got straight from the show room.It was new and sleek. In Kampala we have boda boda’s (Motor bikes) as a means of transport. My friend had always thought of being knocked and scratching his car, so he drove carefully and avoided the heavy traffic jam. One day he was driving back home from church at a speed of 20 km/Hr with no traffic jam and from nowhere a boda boda knocked his car and scratched it. So there he was “I knew it would happen”, he commented. From this story I believe that when you think about something it will happen.
