As a Man Thinketh

Rating:
Summary: Change Your Mind Change and You?ve Changed Your Life
Review: James Allen's wisdom is priceless, timeless, and eternal. He compares the mind to a garden, and you WILL reap what you plant. Additionally. When you are not conscious of the thoughts that are floating about in your mind, your life might seem aimless, floating around and going in circles, all due to non-directed mental focus, with laser sharp precision as to what you will allow to enter your mind, along with the "weeds" of negative thoughts that must be uprooted in order for your life to bloom in its own fertile soil.

One of my favorite sentences in this phenomenal book is: "Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment." "They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planted seeds, to failure, unhappiness and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving universe."

This book will teach you about the POWER in your thoughts, as much as it teaches you about the how the negative thoughts will wreak havoc in your life if you do not take conscious control over them.

Buy this book, and refer to it when you are facing difficulties. It will re-ignite your mind, and you will then be able to re-ignite your life.
Barbara Rose, author of, `Individual Power' and `If God Was Like Man'

Rating:
Summary: Odd little book with a few bright gems
Review: The basic assumptions of this book completely contradict sociological theory established by C.Wright Mills and others. Throughout the text there are many assertions put forth at "true" which seem to be no more than the author's opinion.
Some of it is far fetched and in a few spots down right bunk. Still, with all that being said, I found about eight statements that are absolutely classic and feel very worthwhile to me. Worth reading for those with open minds who can think for themselves. First read will take less than an hour, but if you are anything like me you will continue to think on the precepts for many days to come. LJB

Rating:
Summary: The Power of Your Vision
Review: The greatest invention of all time - started in someone's brain.

That Person is what we call The Visionary.

What is amazing is that we are all visionaries. However because a negative visionary is not called a visionary, we don't perceive ourselves to be visionaries. This book shows you that you too are a visionary. You do create your own future. That said, what type of future do you want in your life?

Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works and Founder of www.EmpoweringMessages.com


Rating:
Summary: This book is priceless!
Review: The man who recommended this book to me did so by saying (I'm paraphrasing here), "You can read this book in 30 minutes if you want. If you do, you didn't get it. This book is not fast food, this book is a 5-star restaurant. You don't go into a 5-star restaurant and wolf down the food as fast as you can, do you? No, you want to savor it and digest it and give yourself time to enjoy it. Same is true with this book."

I couldn't have said it better myself. Keep this book by your bedside and pick it up when you need that inspirational push. or anytime. And read just a few pages at a time. Invest some time thinking about it. Believe me, you'll be a better person for it.

Rating:
Summary: Didn't do a damn thing for me
Review: This book can be summed up in 3 sentences:
'If you think bad, bad's what you'll get.'
'Do the right thing.'
'You have the power to control your mind.'

If you're looking for self help, I recommend Dr. Laura. If you're looking for philosophy of the mind, I recommend starting with Roger Penrose. Then again, for 2 bucks, if you just want to read some flowery english to make you feel 'smart,' then this book might be great for you. I think they could make more money if they put every sentence from this book on a desk calendar. so you could pull off the date and get a little message each morning.

A desk calendar would at least do something useful! The fact that there are so many positive reviews for this book caused me to sit down and read it. after completing it, I fear even more for the human race.

whatevaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Rating:
Summary: Changing your thoughts, changing your life
Review: This excellent compilation of essays by James Allen truly holds the key to success, amongst other things! I feel so inspired after reading this book, so ready to put into practice what this powerful, little book is teaching. This "classic" has been around since the turn of the century and it seems to be even more relevant in today's stressful and competitive society. I underlined so many wonderful and inspiring passages that I intend to refer to on a daily basis. As Allen states, "a man is literally what he thinks", or as the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out! Or put another way, "All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts."

I have learned that I cannot blame others for my life, or my state of affairs - they are my creation, the end product of my thoughts and actions. Allen states that man makes or unmakes himself by the thoughts he keeps and cultivates. Man is truly is his own worst enemy!

I really resonated to his quote on fear, "Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplish anything, and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in." How profound and how true. How we let fear run our lives - again proving how powerful our thoughts can be. Allen further expounds by saying, "He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure."

The garden of our mind is only cultivated by us. What kind of crop we want to consistently yield is solely determined on our positive, enriching, and encouraging thoughts or on our doubting, destructive and negative ones. We alone hold the key to our future, and our success, and our attainments in life. We can either have a feast or a famine - it is only up to us.

This highly inspirational book cannot help but to motivate you in some degree. I feel like I have been given the keys to a door that was once rusty and would not open, but now will yield freely in my hand. Another great quote is, "The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, this you will become." This is one book that you will want to keep constantly by your side, especially for those times when you get discouraged, or when the road seems rough. Just reading one page will have you having a change of heart, with its motivation putting you back on that right path.

This book is a MUST read if you are desiring to change your negatives into positives! The power of the mind is incredible - in all areas of our life!

Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Book
Review: This is one of the most wonderful books ever written. James Allen explains in his "easy to read" way, how we are the ones responsible for the present state of our own lives (not someone else or some circumstance in our life). As he says, "Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself". That's why two different people can see the same event and view it in a totally different way. He also stresses that fighting the outer circumstance or "effect", will not help, since the real "cause" is in our hearts. He makes it very clear that if we wish to change the world, we will have to start with ourselves. And a big part of the work, will be to realize that we aren't usually even aware of our thoughts (which means we don't know what we're asking for). If you truly want to change your life, for the better - this book is a good place to start. James Allen wrote several other books, that are sometimes difficult to find, but well worth looking for. "Out From the Heart" is one of my favorites, as it gives "more basic" instuctions for those of us who have a lot to learn about ourselves. If you like James Allen's books you may also like books written by Vernon Howard, Guy Finley, Maurice Nicoll (who studied with P.D. Ouspensky and G.I. Gurdjieff), and J. Krishnamurti.

Rating:
Summary: Priceless Life Values Gained and Lessons Learned
Review: This is the type of book that is short and "to the point." Allen basically emphasizes that you come to be and are, based on what and how you think. My first impression of this book after the first chapter was that there were way too many elaborate and confusing words. I felt overwhelmed and just wanted to forget about the book; it wasn't worth looking up all the words I didn't know just to try to possibly comprehend what the author was trying to get across. However, once I did decide to read further, I admit that the book eventually grew on me. I began to see the validity of many of the author's very important and yet basic points. Based on what I learned from this book, I think that this is very educational and "mind-expanding," as the author takes you on an adventure, exploring another incredible skill of the human mind. In addition to this, I think that it would be very beneficial for anyone and everyone to read it, as it gives you a very different perspective afterwards about how one's thoughts are able to create and destroy many aspects of your ever-developing life.

As A Man Thinketh is book that shows and guides - not dictates and demands - someone how to change their way of thinking so that it is positive and fruitful. Allen writes, "Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions. But when he realizes that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself." This statement itself could sum up the entire book. However, there are many ways to look at and decipher the meaning of this quote.

As stated in the book, the majority of people today have many negative outlooks about different things for different reasons. That's human. However, what all these people who think negatively don't know, is that by their negative and unconstructive thinking they are inevitably just hurting themselves and unconsciously bringing negative situations upon themselves. What this book repeats over and over again is that for good to come to you, you must have good and positive thoughts. If you breed and harness negative thoughts, chance is, it will be highly unlikely for much good to come your way. As said in this book, the fruits and misfortunes of your thoughts clearly show by the type of person you have come to be, and what you have and don't have.

At first I thought this book as kind of a hoax. I kept thinking, "yeah right, like I'm going to be rich if I think it." But then once I continued reading this book, I realized it was true. Let me give you a smaller and less high profile example than becoming rich: if someone always thinks they are sick and is always fearing the thought of becoming sick, they will usually be sick. It seems that the more you think of something, the more it is prone to being drawn towards you. This book just teaches you how to bring forward the good-not the bad.

After completing this book, I would definitely say it has had a positive influence on me. I am now always conscious of what I am thinking and constantly analyzing many of my thoughts, considering the possible benefits of each one. I would definitely read more of this author's books, as I have no doubt that the lessons I learn from them will positively help me for a long time, as did the many lessons I learned from this book.