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BOOK REVIEWS

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Fall 2013 BBA 2

BOOK REVIEWS

Submitted to:

Prof. Col (R) Manzoor Iqbal Awan

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Teacher’s note………………………………...............................................................................5

Compiler’s note……………………………….............................................................................8

BOOK REVIEWS

1. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill- review by Anum Ghouse......................................9

2. One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard & Spencer Johnson-review by Mohsin Zahid ...……………………………………………………………………………….....................12

3. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelo-review by Tabinda Nadeem Khan.......................................17

4. Spark: the Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by JOHN J

RATEY-review by Arsal Salamat............................................................. .............................21

5. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey-review by Mishal Afzaal Malik.......................................................................................................................................24

6. Embracing Fear by Thom Ruthledge-review by Rabbiya Ijaz.............................................29

7. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz-review by Rohama Abbas..............................34

8. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Breckenridge Carnegie-review by Mohammad Ahsan Saeed......................................................................................................37

9. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne-review by Ahmed Haseeb Ali...............................................43

10. Your Sacred Self by Wayne W. Dyer-review by Pirah Aftab..............................................47

11. Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Layard-review by Syed Fahad Hassan....................................................................................................................................50

12. Self Help by Samuel Smiles-review by Aqsa Khan...............................................................55

13. Who Moved My Cheese? By Dr. Spencer Johnson-review by Zain Hasan..........................59

14. As You Think by James Allen-review by Nauman Ali Cheema..........................................64

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15. The Success Principles by Jack Canfield-review by Abdullah Nasir....................................68

16. The Road to Success by Faiez Hassan-review by Saba Gull.................................................71

17. Successful Time Management by Patrick Forsyth-review by Jahanzaib Shabbir…………75

18. You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay- review by Tehreem Fatima................................78

19. The Magic of Thinking by Dr. David Schwartz-review by Ali Hassan...............................81

20. The Goal by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt-review by Hasnain Haider........................................84

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Teacher’s Note

Of all the general management subjects that I have been teaching for almost a decade to business

administration students at graduate and postgraduate levels in various universities of Islamabad,

Self Development has been and continues to be one of the most

fascinating ones. The reason behind that lies in a fair degree

of success in bringing out in most of the students the much

needed awareness of taking control of their life and become

masters of their own destiny. Ironically that exposure in

most of the cases happens to be there for the first time. Taking

a cue from the famous dictum “you can take the horse to

water, but can’t make it drink”, nothing is forced upon the

students. Instead a hard selling and encouragement has been

yielding the desired results; almost all students without exception whom I taught this course over

the years have shown remarkable progress. And if initial indicators are to be believed, this success

is discernable even among the current lot.

As part of the syllabus for students of BBA 2 at the Air University during Fall 2013 semester, our

thrust has been on improving self-awareness & knowledge, building/renewing self-esteem,

potential & health, setting realistic goals and pursuing those with commitment and

determination, crafting Personal Mission Statement and Personal Development Plans,

overcoming procrastination and fear, instilling personal discipline, social and business

etiquettes, and above all determinants of success and happiness. In line with that, each one of

them was made to read a self development related book, and then write and present its review to

the class. In this way the class as a whole has been exposed to a total of 20 books, and through

those to a vast reservoir of knowledge that can be used constructively for becoming better

individuals in personal as well as professional capacities. An interesting revelation that surfaced

was that many of them read any book other than their textbooks for the very first time. And writing

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a book review was a new experience for all. Still they have done a fairly good job, notwithstanding

some quality glitches here and there, for which I applaud them. Equally, if not more, important has

been the contribution of Anum Ghouse whose toil resulted into this compilation; she deserves

great commendation. I must add that the reviews contained here are as submitted by the students

without much editing of the contents.

This e-file containing student book reviews is aimed at providing a source of reference material for

providing an insight into reader’s individual potential, and the role that his/her self development

can play in its optimum actualization.

Prof Manzoor Iqbal Awan, Col (R) Faculty Member and Senior Consultant * USQ (Australia), COMSATS & NUML * Bahria, Air & Preston Universities * University of Lahore * Dual Matrix Inc. & MDi Cell: +92 300 850 0732 Email: profmanzoorawan@yahoo.com & awan9ff@gmail.com Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/manzooriqbawan December 23, 2013

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Compiler’s note

A student of semester 2nd enrolled in Business Administration,

has experienced a new course named Self development, a course

through which I had learned a lot. Though the work of this course

was more than any other course, still I tried my level best to put

the right kind of effort. Starting from the time when I was

appointed as a compiler of the book reviews, I thought it would be

an easy job to be done throughout this semester but let me tell you

that when the work came on my way, it was hard for me to get

through it. Reading all the reviews, making comments on them,

correcting them, arranging them and then compiling them was a

step by step work that was prolonged to so many days.

A part from the typical feeling of getting the work load and stressing it out, I enjoyed it above all.

The activities that were a part of this course and the task which I was entrusted to do, specifically

compiling the book reviews was a time consuming yet a new and different experience. No doubt

monotony stuffs the head but the change in this compiling project has actually made me realize

how much capable I am in doing multiple tasks at a given period of time. Keeping a track of the

things and then putting a spare time for this task was a bit challenging. Most importantly, apart

from the book I have read, I learned a lot by reading the reviews which my classmates have

written. It has widened my approach and then the use of Microsoft Word again and again has

helped me in doing the tasks in less time.

Every new course has some specific spark in it, so is the case with Self development. The course,

as mentioned before had its own spark, yet it is the role of the teacher who delivers in such a way

that the implementation becomes easy in your own life. So I am highly obliged to have a teacher

like Sir Manzoor, whose effort has ignited some hidden parts of every individual in my class. And

I think it was really important for everyone of us to know where they stand and where they want to

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be in their near future with respect to the polishing of the strengths and overcoming the

weaknesses.

With the guidance of teacher, I tried to manage this e-file exactly the same way as I was being

instructed. And I hope I have done my job the right way. Hence summing it all up, realization that

you are the one who can control your own life and the constant struggle to get the point of your

success level is that seed which has to be sown in the mind of every individual.

Anum Ghouse 130001 BBA II Email: anum.ghouse@live.com

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Review by

ANUM GHOUSE Think and Grow Rich, the biggest seller among Napoleon Hill's books which was published in

1937 by The Ralston Society. The genre of this book is non-fiction which refers to the subject of

personal success and self-help. It is a book that is comprised of 235 pages and 15 chapters with 13

principles in the form of a philosophy of personal achievement.

This book contains money making strategies and thirteen principles, which when applied in the

life, help individuals in achieving their success. Napoleon’s book brainstorms the mind of its

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readers. It enables them to think critically and work for themselves in order to gain a higher status

in the world. The main area of focus is to actually SEE where you want to be in the near future and

HOW much determined you are to achieve your goal. No doubt it is one of the finest books that

helps in developing oneself and actually shakes a person to THINK and work in such a way that

will help to GROW RICH. According to Napoleon, thoughts are the powerful things which are

mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence and above all a burning desire for their translation

into riches.

The book starts with a provoking element that a BURNING DESIRE for the achievement of a

dream is required. Success cannot come to those who stay and remain the same but success comes

to those who become success conscious. To learn the art of changing the mind from failure

consciousness to success consciousness is the objective of Hill. I feel that when a person is

conscious about his/her success and the sense of realization is there then nothing can actually stops

that person from his/her path of success. Every individual in this world dreams for a position. That

position can be in the form of getting a job, having a business or making money but the primary

point is not to hope, or wish for that position but to have a keen pulsating desire which must be

definite. Dreaming of a definite goal and placing all the will power, energy and effort back to that

goal is the main area of concentration. This is one of the key points towards achieving the goal and

I am in the favor of this point that when full effort and quality time is dedicated towards an aim,

then no matter how much difficult the situations might prevail, an individual sticks to get it and

will get it in the near future. Those who are afraid of new ideas are doomed before they start. I feel

that it has become a way of thinking among people in our society that they don’t accept change

rather they resist from new things to enter their lives. A person should believe in the power of

desire backed up by faith, which is the second step towards riches, the first being the burning

desire. Faith is the basis of all miracles. It is a chemical which when mixed with prayer gives one

direct communication with infinite intelligence. When a person has burning obsession and faith

then there is a need of ‘specialized knowledge’. I think that a person should know the difference

between obsession of success and other obsessions. In this book what I came across is that a

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positive obsession for achieving the goal should be present in the person and that obsession is to

have a passion. In general we say that, that girl is obsessed with jewelry or chocolate. This is to

some extent a negative obsession that without it the girl will irritate her parents and will feel

uncomfortable until she has it. I personally don’t encourage this kind of obsession that irritates

others. Knowledge will not attract money, unless it is organized and intelligently directed through

practical plans of action to definite end of accumulation of money. What the institutions lack today

is, they fail to teach ‘How to organize and use knowledge after they acquire it’. When a person has

specialized knowledge then he/she will have the power to imagine what he/she wants to do. A

human being can create anything which he/she can imagine. What basically is required, is the

realization of where he/she stands and how much successful they want to be in future. To

everything there requires a proper planning, so do the approach of Hill states. Without any doubt,

to every successful target there are lots of hurdles in between the goal and the starting point. Those

hurdles are in the form of failures. If the plans fail at first, try and accept the defeat as a signal that

your plans are not sound, rebuild your plans and set sail once more towards your coveted goal. If

you give up before you reach your goal, you are a ‘quitter’. There is a need to stand on your own

abilities and rely on your own potentials. You have a brain and a mind of your own. Use it and

reach to your desired aim.

The need of a desire and able to achieve that with a definite purpose, faith, proper planning and to

rely on your own self is the essence of this book which is really commendable. Not every person

can think of such steps as Hill did. It takes experience and hard work to actually portray and

express the way a common man thinks. Not only this book has motivated its readers but also it has

provoked the minds that they will work for their success and will get it no matter how hard and

difficult situations are, just be strong, have a will power and no one in this world will let you move

away from your goal.

The book’s title ‘Think and Grow Rich’ has explained its significance to a much greater level than

what I expected. From the title I thought it would be about making money in practical world but

when I read the book it was more towards the aspect of motivation. The purpose of this book was

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to make people actually think what they want in life and how they make their dreams come to

reality. To have a burning obsession of making money and to actually visualize it as if you have

reached to that point is what Hill talked about in his book and to some extent it is right. Anyone

that obsessed with money probably will get rich sooner or later. In many parts of this book I

actually went back to my academic career where I experienced different circumstances and that’s

the quality of a good writer that catches the involvement of readers so much that they actually

relates their life to the experiences shared by the writer. As the title signifies that the ability of a

person to think is really important. It is one of the most influencing books that helps in accepting

the described steps and work on them accordingly. The steps explained in this book helped me in

visualizing the point of my weaknesses and accordingly my path towards success.

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Review by

MOHSIN ZAHID

The title of the book is “The One Minute Manager”. Its Author is “Kenneth Blanchard & Spencer

Johnson. It was first published in 1982 by William Morrow and it was more of a Company Edition.

The 2nd Edition was published in 1983 by Berkley Trade Paperback Edition. The approximate

reading time was 80 to 90 minutes.

I downloaded the book from Internet and started reading it on my ‘Smart Phone”. As it was another

book dealing with management and leadership, I delayed reading it until it was bed time.

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Expecting it to be too philosophically verbose and preaching a new theory, I sighed and picked my

“Smart phone” up to read. Thought if the book doesn’t turn out interesting, at least it would let me

fall asleep. But I was proven wrong. This book is unlike any other book of its genre. It is written in

a story format. Opening pages aroused such kind of curiosity that it made me jump straight into it

and I couldn’t keep it down unless I had gobbled it up all.

The story begins with a young man searching out for an effective manager. His search leads him

across the world and he keeps meeting managers who he categorizes into two types. – Autocratic

who define themselves as hard-nosed, realistic, and profit-minded and who like to be on top of

every situation. And Democratic who define themselves as participative, supportive, considerate

and humanistic. – Both the breeds pride themselves in their result minded focus and people

oriented focus respectively and this bemused him. Why? Because the autocratic ones predictably

had their companies prosper but also had higher turnover; while the democratic ones had happy

employees around but company suffered. It was as if managers of the world were primarily

interested either in results or in people.

The young man defined Effective managers as those who manage themselves and the people they

work with so that both the organization and the people profit from their presence. He was at loss

since he couldn’t find them easily. He finally stumbles across one who is willing to share his

secret. This one called himself the ONE MINUTE MANAGER and he was quite a character. The

One Minute Manager listens while his people review and analyze what they’ve accomplished, the

problems they had, and what still needs to be accomplished. Yet he doesn’t believe in participating

in any of his people’s decision-making. He is neither results-oriented, nor people oriented. He

cares about people and results equally. The man is an admired leader that is highly spoken of by his

employees, his three secrets being the key to his success. These secrets to productive and efficient

managing are revealed to the young man and they are as follows. One Minute Goal Setting is the

basic philosophy of the One Minute Goal Setting is no surprises; everyone knows what is expected

from the beginning.

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This is what it says; it says to agree on goals followed by a good behavior that is a prerequisite for

the desired result. The goal is written out in a single page using less than 250 words. It is then

re-read which only takes a minute or so. The written goals are continually matched to see the

progress of the goal.

One Minute Praising is the basic aim is to help people reach their full potential. Catch them doing

something right! It works when you tell people right from the start that you are going to let them

know how they are doing. Praising people immediately is of immense importance. Tell people

what exactly they did right and by doing so, be specific , tell people how good you feel about what

they did right, and how it helps the organization and the other people who work there. Encourage

them to do more of the same and shake hands or touch people in a way that makes it clear that you

support their success in the organization.

One Minute Reprimand’s main purpose here is to eliminate the behavior and keep the person. This

consists of the reprimand and the reassurance, both being equally important. It will work well

when you, tell people beforehand that you are going to let them know how they are doing an in no

uncertain terms. Reprove people immediately. Tell people what they did wrong and by doing so,

be specific. Tell people how you feel about what they did wrong and stop for a few seconds of

uncomfortable silence to let them feel how you feel. Shake hands or touch them in a way that lets

them know you are honestly on their side. Remind them how much you value them. Reaffirm that

you think well of them but not of their performance in this situation and realize that when the

reprimand is over, it’s over.

In my view the above three secrets are very powerful and practical but do read the book to

understand how it’s implemented and why the techniques are so effective. Otherwise risk it being

a failure. After I finished reading this book, I saw the time and it was not even my close to my

actual sleeping time. So I guess time was well spent.

What I learned from the content of the book is that appreciation is the key for influencing,

promoting and motivating anyone to do best. What I felt after reading the book was that if these

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three methods are not just restricted to any business firm but it should be carried out in every field

then prosperity would certainly prevail. I believe that if our teachers adopt these three methods

meticulously and try not to enforce their motives, opinions and decision on students, then students

would certainly find a way, an honorable way and an appreciable way to accept those decisions as

a motivation. By nature human kind is a slave and what I extracted from the content is to let the

slave best be served by his/her necessity and that is “Appreciation”.

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Review by

TABINDA NADEEM KHAN

Paulo Coelho was born in Brazil and has become the most widely read authors in the world today.

Renowned for his work “The Alchemist”, which was published in 1988 by Editora Rocco Ltd, he

has sold over 20 million books worldwide and has been translated into 42 languages. First time it

was published in English in 1993 by Harper Collins Publishers. The recipient of numerous

prestigious international awards, Paulo Coelho is a storyteller with the power to inspire nations and

change the life of many people. He says The Alchemist is symbolic book and he passes on

everything he has learned. He has paid homage to great writers who managed to achieve the

universal language through this book. They were Hemingway, Blake, Borges, Malba, Tahan

among others.

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The Alchemist is a simple story about a young shepherd, Santiago. He is a courageous young man

who leaves his comfortable life behind in order to fulfill his passion, which was traveling. He finds

joy in traveling on foreign lands and always prefers a route that he never has walked through

before. He always welcomed the new experiences the world had to offer him.

One night as he decided to rest his head under an old church, he had a dream which had appeared to

him several times before. This alarmed him and he decided that he wanted his dream to be

interpreted, but after finding no such result which could potentially explain the meaning of his

dream, he decided not to bother himself anymore but God had other plans set for him. Santiago

met an old man who claimed to be the King of Salem who tells him that there was a treasure in the

Pyramids of Egypt, which were his destiny. The boy hesitated in the beginning, but the old king

had given the boy the belief that he could change his destiny, so he sold all his flock of sheep to

pursue his dream. This act and valor of the boy tells us that there are such people in the world

which against all odds go in the direction where they know they will be happy doing what they

always wanted to do. They have the drive and will to chase their dreams and fulfill their destinies,

they are not the people who play it safe or live the way others expect us to because they know this

way they would never attain true contentment or success.

Now as he moved along he reached to the small port of Tangier, where Santiago was robbed of all

the money he had, it was the time he started to doubt his own decision. But he picked himself up

after being smashed into the ground and decided that he will work himself up with all the power he

has and continue his journey. Their comes a time in every persons when he is badly wounded by

the trials of this world for following his passion and he has two choices either to pick himself up,

determined and head held up high, or give up hope, abandon our passion and choose the easier

way. These are the lessons that we all know in our hearts but have forgotten due to the hustle and

bustle of our materialistic world.

For the next one year Santiago worked his way up to and became very famous after working with

a crystal merchant. He didn’t only help himself but also the old crystal merchant who had been

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forgotten for so long by the people of Tangier. In this time Santiago realized that the treasure in the

Pyramids was not his destiny and he should better return to what he knew, that was rearing the

sheep. The day he was about to leave for Andalusia back to his sheep, he felt his heart racing then

he asked himself that was going to Egypt his happiness and the reply came “Yes” and so he got

ready to go into the stretchy deserts of Sahara. This book speaks about the true joy a person feels

when he is on the way to achieve what he really wants his “His Destiny”. The journey in the hot

deserts went on for several months, where he met new people. The characters of the book are very

simple, but I think simplicity is one of the central themes of the book, that life doesn’t has to be

complicated all the time but even small things in life can give you immense pleasure if one follows

his dream passionately and honestly. Santiago also learned the many different ways people led

their lives and interpreted the signs given by the universe to them hence leaning the Universal

Language. This tells us that we all are a very important part of the universe, that our lives have a

grand purpose.

During the journey, a war started amongst the tribes in the desert. So the caravan decided to make

a long stay at the oasis. Here Santiago met Fatima, the love of his life. She shared the same insights

as Santiago. After meeting her Santiago got distracted from his real goal and thought that maybe

God wanted him to meet her and she is the real treasure. But after talking to an alchemist he

realized that he would have to continue and finally got the courage to find the real courage. As I

read through it made me think that the protagonist was so materialistic that he left so much behind

just for the gold, but as I read further I tried to understand the meaning beneath the surface, it

seemed that the treasure was merely depicting the dream that steals away the sleep of a person not

one that he merely sees in his sleep.

The remaining journey was however much difficult then what Santiago had ever imagined, it was

the time he had to apply all the knowledge he had learned during this time of following his passion.

After all, the actual goal lies in the journey of working towards getting what you want of your life.

He also came across life threatening situations but all this was a part of his spiritual education

hence truly producing an Alchemist. When Santiago reached the Pyramids, tears of joy came into

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his eyes and he started digging vigorously. During this time some refugees came forward to rob

him. But when Santiago told them the truth, they mocked him and one of them said that he was s

fool to follow such a dream because once he also had the dream that there was a buried treasure

beneath an old church. Listening to this Santiago looked up to the sky as it was laughing at him and

he smiled back.

The author gives us the strong message that world always doesn’t has to be an evil place rather it

becomes a source of encouragement for those who dive into its strong currents courageously. It is

not a religious book but all along as I read it on, I realized how God appears to us in the form of the

simple things. It tells us how God leads us to our destiny; if a person chooses to listen he becomes

our eyes, our ears, our hands, our legs and ultimately becoming the voice inside our heads.

Meaning we see things he wants us to, we listen what he wants us to listen, we do things he would

become happy from.

Now the question comes, is this book of any use to the students of management? The answer is

‘Yes’, because everyone needs to find their purpose in life, their passions and this book gives us

the encouragement to pursue our dreams because it is only then one can find happiness in life

ultimately. I highly recommend this book as it pulls you back to your center.

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Review by

ARSAL SALAMAT SPARK is the first book to explore comprehensively the connection between exercise and the

brain. It will change forever the way you think about your morning run. Spark: the Revolutionary

New Science of Exercise and the Brain published by Little Brown, published date is January 10,

2008, it contains 304 pages and its author is JOHN J RATEY.

John J Ratey, MD, is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School,

Research Synthesizer, Speaker, and Author, as well a Clinical Psychiatrist maintaining a private

practice in Cambridge. He has lectured and published 60 peer reviewed articles on the topics of

Aggression, Autism, ADHD, and other issues in neuropsychiatry. In Spark, Dr. Ratey guides the

reader to an understanding of neurobiology and inspires the reader to reach for their potential, and

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embrace exercise that is crucial for the brain and body to operate at peak performance.

In this book Dr. Ratey has explained the connection between physical and mental fitness. He is of

the view that physical fitness is crucial to mental fitness. Building your body muscles is not the

drill. The main thing is to build and rebuild the parts of your brain. We all know that exercise

makes us feel better but most of us have no idea why? Just because it reduces stress or relaxes our

mind? In short the real reason of feeling better is that when our body performs exercise, our blood

pumping rate is increased which leads the brain to function at its best. Exercise causes release of a

newly discovered substance from the grey matter (part of the brain) called ‘miracle gro’.

Spark is very influential book. It tells us how exercise is crucial to our brain. Reducing stress is not

the end of exercise. As it is said that “a healthy body has a healthy mind” history bears witness that

what one can attain from hard work and exertion cannot be attained by any other means.

Ratey begins his book by describing the work of Phil Lawler who is a physical education instructor

at Junior High School, Naperville. Lawler calls his students for the morning exercise before school

which is called Zero period. He tells One of the sixth grade girl “who was thin but not the least bit

athletic” to pick up pace. She had an average heart rate of 187 and by crossing the finish line it was

207,according to Lawler she has to work much harder to make it 209.

Lawler grades his students by “how much time they spend on their target heart rate zones during

any given activity”. Naperville’s ranking is amongst the top ten schools in district solely the credit

goes to hardworking and struggling students who participate in gym before school. On the trends

in international mathematics and science study, Naperville’s students finished first in the world.

On the other hand in Titusville similar results were obtained just because of physical exercising

programs held before school timings. Exercise is like lifting weights for the brain as it is a source

of stress reduction. Exercise also improves responses to stress. Lawler thinks that those students

who have a range of 70-80 % of maximum heart rate they get good grades. Students shall be

judged on the basis of their skills. This book is the best way to achieve mental and physical

fitness.” It will change forever the way you think about your morning run”.

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Dr. Ratey guides the reader to an understanding of neurobiology. We all know that brain is the

main Functioning organ of our body. It is the control center. Our action and reactions are all related

with brain. The sending of a nerve impulse, sensing these signals in brain and sending them to

effectors areas all under the control of brain. Doing heavy drills or small cardio exercise sends

signals to brain and stimulates the release of hormone that is involved in proper functioning of our

body. Ratey has culled the latest science and concluded that a regular workout can help build a

better faster brain.

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

It is evident from the above mentioned quote that exercise is not only beneficial for physical fitness

but also for the proper functioning of mind. Like other things exercise also has its pros and cons.

Only those students are able to achieve their goal of life who keeps a balance in their physical and

academic life. I am of the view that John Ratey has a given us a vivid yet captivating thought that

how exercise can improve your life. It is an easy way to success. It can increase our muscle

strength and boost endurance. It can prevent obesity and weight gain. Increase our body’s

metabolic activity. Prevents mood swings. It also helps to improve mental capacity and capability

of one’s mind. Those people who exert themselves in physical activities are more successful in life

than those who spend a major part of their lives in sitting idle. Spark is one of the best books one

can consider as far as the relation of brain and physical activities are related and of course it is a

splendor.

All what is concluded from the above discussion and the context of the book ‘Spark’ is that a

mutual working of both body and brain is needed for a better fruitful and successful life. How

important physical activity is for brain is now clearly understood. Just a little workout in morning

can help us spend a peaceful healthy and happy day and this is true as I started doing exercise in

morning and this is really helpful to me I feel fresh and this thing motivates me to stay happy all

day.

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Review by

MISHAL AFZAL MALIK I have come up with the very good opportunity of learning a book named “The 7 Habits of Highly

Effective People” by the author “Stephen Richards Covey”. He was an American educator,

author, businessman, and keynote speaker. Covey earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business

administration from the University of Utah, an MBA from Harvard University. It was first

published in 1989 by free press. It has sold more than 15 million copies in 38 languages

worldwide, and the audio version has sold 1.5 million copies, and remains one of the best-selling

nonfiction business books. Revised edition of this book came in November 9, 2004. In August

2011, Time listed Seven Habits as one of "The 25 Most Influential Business Management Books".

U.S President Bill Clinton read the book and invited Covey to Camp David to counsel him on how

to integrate the book into his presidency.

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In this book, the seven habits are discussed by adopting them a person’s life can be changed in a

positive way. Seven habits are discussed to improve family, relationships, communications, and

values. His principals of vision, leadership, and human relations and make it a practical teaching

tool for business leaders today.

In Part one, author has discussed principles and paradigms to improve business, relations, family

etc. Before discussing habits, we have to think first that what habit is actually. Habit is the

intersection of knowledge, skills and desire. Knowledge is; what to do and why. Skill is how to do

and Desire is the motivation, the want to do. These three things form a habit of a person.

The author has discussed relation between Independence and Interdependence. Independent is I, I

can do it, I am responsible. Interdependence is we can do it, we can corporate. Dependant people

need others to what they want. Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of

others to achieve their greatest success. Interdependence is a law of nature and everything is

interdependent on each other.

The seven habits that are discussed here are habits of effectiveness; they are based upon principle

of effectiveness. The first habit that is discussed is “TO BE PROACTIVE”. Human Beings have

domain over all things in world; they have the ability to think about their very own thought process

(self-awareness), which animals do not possess. We are not our feelings, not our moods, not even

our thoughts, but we can think about these thoughts this thing separates us from the animal world.

In addition to self-awareness, we have imagination. We have the ability to create in our own minds

beyond our present reality, a deep awareness of right and wrong. Proactivity means more than

taking initiative. It means that as a human being, we are responsible for our own lives. Our

decisions are responsible for outcomes. It is we who are purely responsible for the behaviors in

life, we cannot blame conditions, circumstances etc. There are two types of people; Proactive and

Reactive. Proactive people take their decisions by themselves and consider themselves responsible

for outcomes. Reactive people are affected by their outside environment, whether social or

physical. Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence; they work on things they

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can do something about. Reactive people, on the other hand focus their efforts in the circle of

concern. They focus on the weakness of other people, the problems in the environment, the

circumstances on which they have no control.

Moving on the Habit 2, this is “Begin with the End in Mind”; is based on principle that all things

are created twice. There is mental (first creation) and second creation deals with the physical

creation. To achieve any goal we have to concentrate first on the fact that how a goal will be

achieved. We visualize in our mind how to finish this work. There must be a plan in our mind to

achieve that physical plan. Best way to apply this habit is to develop a Mission Statement. It focus

on what a person want to be and do, it is the plan for success. You create your own destiny and

secure the future you envision.

The third habit, i.e. “Put First Things first” deals with the physical creation. It discusses life

management as well as purpose, values, roles and priorities. Effective management is putting first

things first. There are four quadrants of management. Quadrant one is for urgent and important

things, Quadrant 2 is for important but for not urgent things, quadrant 3 comprises of urgent and

not important things and quadrant 4 is escape quadrant; things that are not urgent and not

important.

Habit 4 is “Think WIN-WIN, Principles of Interpersonal Leadership”; Win-Win is not a technique,

it is philosophy of human interaction. It is one of the six paradigms of interaction, other five are

Win-lose, lose-win, lose-lose, win, win-win or No deal.

Win-Win means that agreements and solutions are mutually beneficial. Win-Lose means a

situation when one say I win, you lose. In this one win and other lose. Lose-Win is a situation in

which a person says considers that he has lost and he let others to win. Lose-Lose situation means

when both people lose. In Win situation, people think simply to win. No Deal situation says that if

we can’t find a solution that benefits us both, we agree to disagree agreeably.

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Habit 5, “Seek First to Understand, then to be understood” is a habit which discusses that seeks

first to understand is a very deep phenomenon. We seek first to be understood. Most people do not

listen with the intent to understand they listen with the intent to reply. People respond to four ways;

Evaluating: judge and then agree or disagree. Probing: ask questions from your own frame of

reference. Advising: you give council, advice and solution to problem. Interpreting: you analyze

others motives and behaviors based on your own experiences

Habit 6, i.e. “SYNERGIZE”, explains that Synergize is the highest activity in life; all other habits

are put together. It focuses that whole is greater than sum of its parts. Synergy can be in classroom,

business, social life etc. The essence of synergy is to value differences, to respect them, to build

strengths and to compensate the weakness.

Habit no.7 “SHARPEN THE SAW” focuses on four dimensions of human values, physical,

spiritual, mental and social, so that one can work more quickly and effortlessly; the physical

dimension involves eating the right foods, getting enough rest and relaxation, and exercising on a

regular basis. A good program builds your body's endurance, flexibility and strength. The spiritual

dimension is your center, your commitment to your value system. It draws upon the sources that

inspire and uplift you and tie you to timeless truths of humanity. The mental dimension,

important keeps your mind sharp by reading, writing, organizing and planning. Emotional life is

primarily developed out of and manifested in our relationships with others. Renewing our

social/emotional dimension requires focus and exercise in our interaction with others

Renewal is the principle and process that empowers a person to move on an upward spiral of

growth and change, of continuous improvement Self-renewal must include balanced renewal in all

four dimensions in individual or organizational context. The things done to sharpen the saw in

any one dimension have a positive impact in the other dimensions, because they are so highly

interrelated.

After reading this book, I found it very helpful in attaining the goals and objectives. I think the

habits discussed here acts as a bridge in achieving ones goals. I decided to be proactive and remain

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positive from now on. Furthermore, this book guided me to take decisions myself without being

dependent on others. I learned to respect others because this world is filled with different people

and it is not necessary that every person thinks the way I do, so before giving my opinion I should

listen to others and then react. I have learned to create balance in life whether it is physical,

emotional or mental. The most important thing which I learned is that everyone is interdependent

on each other in different ways; to do a work person should combine his powers and resources with

other and work as a team to achieve high.

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Review by

RABBIYA IJAZ This book named “Embracing fear” is written by author “Thom Rutledge”. Thom Rutledge is

serving as a psychotherapist for about 30 years. His everyday experience with different patients

well said by Thom “what a great job I have! People come to visit me. I have conversation for

living- interesting and meaningful conversations and for this I get paid”. His daily meeting with

different patients suffering from depression, anxiety and anger fits him best in the bends of this

book. He is not only a psychotherapist rather his life picture shows his endless efforts of his

journey out of bog of anxiety and depression. His words engrossed the reader from the very start to

the end of the book. He had contributed a lot for the improvement of human life, life without fear,

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life depicting new opportunities and life that shines like a star which illuminates not only one’s life

rather shines others life as well who feel it. His life changing written efforts are listed as:

If I were they, the self forgiveness hand book and earning your own respect.

He does not uses authorless philosophies(philosophies that only those people can understand who

has particular knowledge about that field) rather he uses very simple and beautiful human

language that normal person can relate with his/her life, language that shows life of all human

beings, beautiful language of beautiful earthly people.

Every leaflets of this book “embracing fear” tells us the ways to a happier life. Every word of this

shows a flight towards freedom and effort against anxiety and depression that comes through fear.

Depression is like a termite, it empties man from inside and a man that is vacant from inside is

nothing just a hollow lifeless wooden log that is on the ground but unable to suck food in turn

unable to such happiness and essence of life. This book tells us efforts for life in an efficient way

which is freed from overcoming power of fear. It starts from FEAR acronym that is Focusing,

Embracing, Accepting and finally responding to fear.

“Obstacles are like wild animals. They are coward but they will

Bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them they are

Liable to spring upon you, but if you look upon them squarely

In the eye, they will slink out of sight”

Fear is not something negative or dangerous as everybody sees or thinks about it, it’s really a

wrong perception that makes one to run away from fear (running away from life). Life is full of

danger and risks it is not a bed of roses it teaches one perfect lesson to live who want to live it at

their full bloom. When you step on thorns, it is the fear who keeps us alert of all possible dangers.

It is not a bad mechanism rather it is a natural phenomenon that induces one to be alert of the

coming danger and ways to deal with it. According to author whose natural feelings are depicted in

every word says fear emerges itself in physical form like anxiety and frustration. It is a God gifted

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mechanism that secures us and protect us of worse effects of the problem/danger. According to

Thom “there are plenty of opportunities for the healthy fear to work its magic, guiding us this way

and that, alerting us to danger and aligning us with what is good right in the world”.

Fear is our day to day companion dominating our lives in such a way that it refrains one from

taking risks and moving forward in life. It varies from individual to social fear. Individual fear is

shown in the form of fear of getting hurt, fear of bad impression, and fear of every coming day and

fear of death in final. Social fear indicates the fact that fear is not only associated with individual

rather it is also linked with others as well as like fear of natural disaster (flood, earthquake), fear of

increasing crime and fear to be a victim of that crime. According to author fear varies from person

to person e.g. a toddling child would be afraid of the fact that his mother would leave him to a

normal grownup person like us who are overcome by fear of giving presentation in front of whole

class , which is fear of lower intensity. But it would be different from the fear that a girl who was

rape victim exhibits and will carry throughout her life till death and is of higher intensity.

Human mind is a mesh of complexity in structure and function as well. It is sometimes dominated

by strong will and faith and sometimes by devil or evil commands and thoughts. Fact that is to be

taken into serious account is fear is not in it’s the only one form. As for every bad there is a good,

for every wrong there is right and for every rough side of mirror there is s plain side, likewise

human mind is dominated by 2 advisors as said by author which are Neurotic Fear which is the

rough side of mirror for which Healthy Fear is the side showing real facts and situations. Author

named Neurotic Fear as Bully whose philosophy about life is only danger, every step put forth will

be towards like hell. It speaks endlessly saying if that might happen to you, you will be hurt that

way, you can face that danger. And many more in short it is a portion of devil that always gives out

negative ideas and for him Healthy Fear is like water to fire. It is a fear that alerts us of all possible

danger and is named as Ally by Thom. Neurotic fear is the one giving negative excuses of danger

and about the facts that are not even existed rather Healthy Fear alerts us of possible danger that

can arise. So for a person puzzled between the voices of 2 advisors in which voice of Bully is high

thereby covering the voice of Ally which is lower but true, is to hear both of them closely and then

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selecting the one which is true and guides you for best. But very painful fact is even of knowing

about the fact that Bully is not right we ignore the Ally and go for Bully and make blunders in our

lives. Author is not saying to run away from fear rather he says in a very compassionate manner to

realize your fear what is he saying, embracing it with open heart like your best friend (wolf in

sheep’s clothing), finally climbing up against the blind wall and saying hello! To fear and then

saying let’s have face to face conversation what do you want. It requires courage which is very

important because you are not meeting your worst neighbor rather you are visiting your worst

enemy that is inside you if that would be killed it would hurt you too so you should have to build

courage and strong faith inside you, faith that is you would do what you want no matter what

comes.

As far as I’m concerned my greatest fear is to live in a society that is full of criminals where every

day is a challenge for you. Thom writing techniques have stuck me to each and every word of this

book. Earlier to reading this book I thought fears are always bad but this book changed my

perception a lot about fear. What I’ve learned is fears are sign boards that alert you of danger if

they won’t be there you won’t even know of coming danger rather you’ll be drowned in the whirl

of life. They are helping in one way but obstacles in other way round and in order to deal with these

obstacles is to first move closer to them then knowing way to hold them and then throwing them in

such a way they won’t block your other ways. Fear is like your internal lion that roars and roars

from which you are afraid of but when you courageously looks straight into its eyes (burning with

fuel of hatred) it will back off with trembling voice, voice that is full of weakness and helplessness.

So it is a time to address to my fear what it actually wants and then fully knowing about my road

blockers and finally dealing with them in such a way that I’m powerful and it is me who is keeping

fear inside me and I’m real possessor of my own self rather your (fear) are hostage to whom I can

throw out any time. And this book had helped me a lot and will prove to be a golden life changing

chance to improve your life as well.

“I will not die as unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my

days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my

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significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which

comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit”.

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Review by

ROHAMA ABBAS This book The Four Agreements is written by Don Miguel Ruiz on the subject of self development

and was published in the year 2010. This is a tiny book having almost 160 pages. It has four more

editions which were published in 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2011 respectively. This book advocates

personal freedom from the agreements and beliefs that we have made with ourselves and others

that are creating limitations in our lives. Ruiz’s voice is conversational. Basically the idea around

which the whole subject of the book revolves is that we are all living in our own dreams and that all

of these dreams together create “The Dream of the Planet”.

Don Miguel Ruiz is known as a nagual, or shaman of the Toltec tradition. He was born into a

family of healers, but close to attends medical school and become a surgeon. A near-death

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experience changed his life. Stunned by this experience, he began an intensive practice of

self-inquiry. He is the author of The Four Agreements, The Mastery of Love, and The Four

Agreements Companion Book.

The main subject of the book is focused on ‘Toltec Philosophy’. The simple ideas of this book

provide an inspirational code for life; a personal development, behavior, communications and

relationships that can rapidly transform our lives into a new experience of freedom, true happiness

and love. Ruiz starts with an introduction to Toltec people, tribal men and women of immense

knowledge. He then speaks of his Mexican ancestors passing their beliefs down through the

Naguals from one generation to the next. In this book, Ruiz is our Nagual, who leads us on a

spiritual journey through our Dream of the Planet, which is the Toltec theory that every one of us is

dreaming our own dream of the world in which we exist.

What we see and hear in this world is nothing else but a dream. We dream all the time with the

brain awake. Before we were born, the human before us created a big outside dream that we call

Society’s Dream or The Dream of the Planet’ which includes all the society’s rules; it’s believes,

its laws, its religions, its different cultures, its social events and holidays. The outside dream has so

many rules that when a new human is born, we hook the child’s attention and introduce these rules

into his or her mind. As children, we did not have the opportunity to choose but we agree with the

information which is passed to us from The Dream of the Planet. This process is called as The

Domestication of Humans

Ruiz gave us the four pearls of wisdom which are also called as “The Four Agreements” and that

are to be impeccable with your word, Don’t take anything personally, Don’t make assumptions

and Always do your best.

There are thousands of agreements that we have made with ourselves, with other people, with God,

with the society, with our parents and with our children but the most important agreements are the

ones made with ourselves. In these agreements we tell ourselves who we are, what we believe and

how we behave. If we want to live the life with joy and fulfillment, we have to find the courage to

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break those agreements that are fear-based and claim our personal power. When we are finally

ready to break those agreements then there are four, very powerful agreements that will help us

break stress, violence, envy, blame, self doubt, anger, hate, jealousy, negativity, lies and worries

that come from fear and deplete our energy. We need a very strong will to adapt the four

agreements and if we can begin to live our life with the four agreements, the transformation of our

life would become easy.

That is one of the best books, I have read so far. The pages are very short and writer has used a very

simple English to convey his meaning which is easily understandable by everyone. This is a

wonderful book for stress management and personal growth. It is written in a very simple

language, but deals with complex themes that can help people bring a positive change in their

lives. A drawback of this book is that some of the agreements are so extreme, and if taken literally,

can cause additional problems. The most interesting part which I found in this book was the way in

which the lessons seem to appear in life. But on the other hand living the four agreements is such a

challenge. Over years our minds are filled with beliefs that generate endless thinking which is

composed of many assumptions that we are not aware of. Through domestication we have learned

to take things personally and by just adopting these four agreements do not mean that all these

habits in the mind would stop with that commitment.

We should learn to speak with integrity and say only what we mean. Avoid using the word to speak

against yourself or to gossip about others and use the power of your word in the direction of truth

and love. Do not take things personally. If we did not care about what others think of us, their

words or behaviors could not affect us. We should find the courage to questions and to express

what we really want. We should not gossip and make assumptions about things others tell us. We

should learn to be honest and respect ourselves. Under any circumstance, always do your best.

Only these are the ways by which we can transform our lives completely.

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Review by

MUHAMMAD AHSAN SAEED

It is a revised edition by the author of the renowned book "How to Win Friends and Influence

People," and was edited in this edition by Dorothy Carnegie, copyright 1984. The original book

was actually published in 1944.How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is a self-help book by Dale

Carnegie. It was first printed in 1948 by Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press), Ltd in Great Britain. It

is currently published as a Mass Market Paperback of 183 pages by Pocket (Revised edition:

September 15, 1990)

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Carnegie says in the preface to how to Stop Worrying and Start Living that he wrote it because he

"was one of the unhappiest lads in New York". He said that he made himself sick with worry

because he hated his position in life, which he attributes to wanting to figure out how to stop

worrying.

This book deals with fundamental emotion and ideas it is fascinating to read and easy to reply.

Let’s change it and improve you there is no need to live with worry and anxiety that keep you from

enjoying the full, active and happy life. Making lists of what worries us, facing the worst that can

happen, brainstorming alternatives, accepting things that we cannot change-all of this and more

can be found within the pages complete with real-life experiences from those who have used these

steps to conquer worry in their own lives. Dale Breckenridge Carnegie (November 24, 1888 –

November 1, 1955) was an American writer and lecturer and the developer of famous courses in

self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills.

In the first part of the book Carnegie said most worries come when the things are out of control or

seem to be impossible to solve. You can tackle the first one by just imagining the worst possible

outcome, imagining what would become of it, accept that, then realize that anything better than the

worst is better than what you’ve already accepted. Live in “Day-tight Compartments”. “A Magic

Formula for Solving Worry Situations”, to solve worry situations, there are three steps you should

do. First, ask yourself “what is the worst that could happen?” Second, be willing to accept the

worst if necessary. Third, calmly try to fix the situation you have accepted. It takes practice to

apply this tip, especially the second step, but it helps us regain our calm. We can then think how to

solve the situation.

In this section of the book Carnegie told about the tip to live in the present and do not worry about

the future. I love this tip “Sometimes I still carry the burden of the past and worry about the future,

but this chapter clearly points out that what important is today. If I do my best today, the future will

take care of itself.

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In the second part of the book Carnegie told the basic techniques in analyzing worry. He said

“when you’re worried about something, be heedful. Start gathering solutions and facts about the

problem, remember that Dean Hawkes of Columbia University said that "half the worry in the

world is caused by people trying to make decisions before they have sufficient knowledge on

which to base a decision”, then use those facts to develop a plan of attack. Once the attack plans is

in place, start implementing that plan and just focus on the task at hand. Most worrying is reactive;

take it to the problem by being proactive. It all comes down to four questions, what are the

problems and the causes? And what are the possible solutions and one of the best out of all

possibilities.

In my opinion one person can automatically come calm n relax when he will try to follow these

steps when he have some problem, because by taking anxiety and with lesser information or lack

of knowledge about facts we only panic ourselves and make a small issue the big one. So I learn to

solve my problems by following these steps for taking the best out of my situation.

Third section of the book is about how to break the worry habit before its break you. Plenty of

action is one of the best therapies ever devised for curing tension of useless things. Don’t panic on

little things and never take things as perfect, be relax and let your life to feel little happiness by just

ignoring small issues.

In my opinion I must spend my energy on any problem to a specific limit, if the conditions are not

in my control and I know I cannot do anything then this is just wastage of time to take tension on

such things. There is also a saying of Hazrat Ali (R.A) “If one can solve his problem by taking

tension or by crying on it then he must take the tension and cry until the problem is solved, when

we know it is useless to cry and nothing will be ok by worrying about it, then Just relax and ask

Allah for help and let the results on Him by trusting Him” .This is the same thing which Carnegie

wrote in his book, don’t take extra tension of the thing which is not of so worth.

Forth part of the book talk about how to cultivate a mental attitude that will bring you peace and

happiness. Find a meditative technique that works for you and practice it. Let’s never try to get

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even with our enemies, because if we do we will hurt ourselves far more than we hurt them. Let’s

never waste a minute thinking about people we don't like. Spend some time thinking about people

that you do like. If someone else isn’t grateful for your help, don’t worry about it in the least. It’s a

reflection on them, not you, so don’t concern yourself with it. Think of all the good things you

have in life. Find your own path. Imitation leads directly to jealousy. If something bad happens, try

to find the positives in it. Even if you’re unhappy, positive actions and attitudes towards others

might make others less unhappy.

In my opinion this part is talking about the steps we should take to solve our worry habit, it can be

by meditation and bay talking to the people we like, instead of thinking about our enemies, and

never expect from the people that if u do good with them they will take it as an honor, just do good

and forget, you will be free of any tension, and just try to count the blessings you have instead of

cursing for that things which make your life bad, and in this way a person can look for the positive

aspects even in the negative situations, and always try to be nice to others.

Part five tells us the perfect way to conquer worry. Interestingly, it’s prayer, whether you believe in

a God or not. The point of prayer isn’t that you necessarily expect someone to answer or that

you’re communicating with a higher power (though this is definitely of importance to people of

faith), but that you can express what ails you, voice it in some fashion within, and open yourself up

to receiving an answer, whether from your own subconscious or from a higher power.

I think the prayers can change our fate and destiny. We must keep on praying and asking Allah for

the best things in our life. It is mentioned in Quran Pak, “No doubt, the peace of heart is in Zikar of

Allah”. By prayers and Zikar of Allah we can keep ourselves away from tensions and worries.

Part six tells us criticism comes in three flavors. If it’s unjustified, just view it as a compliment –

it’s coming from a person jealous of your success. If it’s well-stated and mature, be thankful for it,

because it’s coming from someone who sincerely wants to help you and may have wisdom to

share. This eliminates a lot of criticism; you can fend off the rest by just doing your best and then

weathering it when it happens. “Do the very best you can; and then put up your old umbrella and

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keep the rain of criticism from running down the back of your neck”.

In this section I learned how to face the criticism to make your personality more flawless and

polished, I took criticism as complement as it show me how can I avoid future mistakes. As

Winston Churchill said, “You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something,

sometime in your life.”

In the Seven section of the book Carnegie mentioned six ways to prevent fatigue and worry for

keeping energy and spirit high. Rest before you get tired. Learn to relax at your work and at

home. Apply these four good workings habits: Clear your desk of all papers except those relating

to the immediate problem at hand. Do things in the order of their importance. When you face a

problem, solve it then and there if you have the facts to make a decision. Learn to organize, and

supervise. To prevent worry and fatigue, put enthusiasm into your work. Remember, no one was

ever killed by lack of sleep. It is worrying about insomnia that does the damage not the insomnia.

In this section Carnegie talk about how we can stop worrying by organizing our work environment

and by knowing how to handle the situation at work. Over thinking and scattered work and

thoughts can make situation more complex. So discipline in life reduces the feeling of being tired

and stressed.

In the eighth part of the book Carnegie discuss about occupations which can keep a person happy

and satisfied. I learned from this section that I must be very careful in choosing my occupation, so

that I can keep myself happy and motivated.

In part nine Carnegie lays down the very basics of personal finance, from the simple “spend less

than you earn” statements to the basics of budgeting. The advice is simple and very much geared

towards families during the Depression, with such interesting dated tips as “never give life

insurance money to a widow in cash”.

I totally agree with the thinking of Dale Carnegie that how to lessen my financial worries from the

simple “spend less than you earn” statement.

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In The last section of the book Carnegie concludes with a large assortment of stories from various

people, many of whom were well-known contemporaries of Dale Carnegie. The stories reiterate

the advice in several ways and are both culturally interesting and also great for providing examples

of how Carnegie’s advice can be implemented in day-to-day life. Some questions can change our

life: - Do I tend to put of living in present in order to worry about the future or to yearn for some

“magical rose garden over the horizon”? Do I sometimes embitter the present by regretting things

that happened in the past – that are over? Do I get up in the morning determined to” seize the day”-

to get the utmost out of these twenty four hours? Can I get more out of life by” living in day- tight

compartments”? When shall I start to do this, Next week, tomorrow or today?

In my personal opinion I will put all of my efforts to overcome my problems by following the rule

live in today. Many renowned personalities implement this in their lives and they become more

happy and successful. I will not regret on my past and will not take anxiety of the future; the only

thing is to focus on present time and do your best for the day in hand.

After reading this book I learnt a lot for grooming my own personality, I learned to face the worst

case scenario in order to face the worst conditions in my life and also to accept them boldly, and

learned to grateful for the things even in the bad conditions. If we want to find happiness, let’s stop

thinking about gratitude or ingratitude and just focus on helping others, and most importantly if I

can imagine worst I can also imagine the best too. I started living in my present instead of worrying

about future and regretting on my past and become more productive and positive in my life. I

started taking criticism in a positive way for my personal grooming.

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Review by

AHMED HASEEB ALI

The book named “THE SECRET” was published in 2006 by “Atria Books”. The writer of the book

is “Rhonda Byrne”. This book consists of series of interviews. A film was also produced on this

book with the same name by “Prime Time” productions. It is based on the “law of attraction”. The

book was sold in more than 19 million copies in Australia and USA. It is available in 44 languages,

it is a constantly praised book and you will see people reading it at airports and public places.

“Rhonda Byrne” had faced a particularly difficult time in life and came out of it after she came to

know the “law of attraction”. She created a DVD also. It had a remarkable success and 1.5 million

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copies were sold. Writer found a way out to her problems and this is useful for those who find their

lives difficult and face difficulty in achieving goals. My opinion about this book is quite good that

it appreciates a “can do” attitude. I agree with the writer’s view that a person’s life can be

transformed completely and he or she can get a new life by applying “law of attraction”. It’s a

perfect piece of work for the people of this world and deals perfectly with the human psyche.

The writer of “The Secret” is “Rhonda Byrne”. It is about the “law of attraction” which can change

your entire life. It can make you successful and you can have a prosperous life ahead. What matter,

is you. Writer says that “law of attraction” is the most powerful law in the universe. It is basically

thinking positive, putting your mind in such alignment that can change you and your life. She says

thinking positive can lead to prosperity and can help overcoming your problems. Main characters

in the book were: Bob Proctor (Philosopher), Dr. Joe Vitale (Metaphysician), John Assaraf

(Entrepreneur), Dr. Michael Beckwith (Author), Jack Canfield (Author), Bob Doyle (Author),

Mike Dooley (Writer), Bill Harris (Therapist), Dr. Denis Waitley (Psychologist).These are the

main characters which are interviewed in the book as well as in the film “The Secret”. As I told

earlier, writer had a difficult life. She tried to find out the secret.

She says I started searching “the secret” from which one can be successful in life. A number of

interviews are shown in film and written in the book “the secret”. Philosopher “Bob Proctor” says

this secret can give you anything and everything you want that is happiness, health and wealth. It is

upon you that is, your approach to view it. He elaborates what you have to do is to apply “law of

attraction”. The secret is “law of attraction”. You need to think positive, remain positive, you

should be having “can do” attitude and also align your mind in order to think positively only doing

this can take you to your destination. Giving an example he says 1% of population earns around

96% of all money you think is an accident but it’s not, it’s a secret that those people know, they

design something and they understand it. He also says that “law of attraction” always works you

believe it or not. Author’s main focus is on positive thinking and through positive approach

achieving goals. Dr. Denis Waitley says “leaders in the past kept secrets and didn’t tell people to

rule. People used to come, work and go back home, they had something in their minds may be a

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secret and they ruled because secret was kept in a few. Everything is happening around you

including things you are complaining you are attracted towards all of it.

“You create your own universe”, a quote by Winston Churchill.

It is in your hand if you are negative there are chances of negative things to happen with you but

remaining positive can reduce issues in your life and can lead to wealth and prosperity. Author

says “you are the master piece of your own life” means having confidence on your own self makes

you a changed person. Be yourself don’t wait for others to help you out, help yourself and what

you dream you are going.

Think universe is like “Jinni” and whatever you will order, universe will give you that. Like Jinni

says “your wishes my command” similarly universe will behave what you will order. Don’t wait,

don’t doubt just do it “universe likes speed when opportunity is there”. Another character shown in

the film and interviewed in book is “Mr. Bill Harris”, a therapist who says I had a student named

“Robert” who was a gay he used to be abused by people and in his job all the people ganged up on

him. He also went to become a standup comedian but the same was done with him. His whole life

was full of unhappiness and misery. When you focus on something with passion you do it faster,

he did the same. And he was a changed person in 6-8 weeks; no one abused him again in office and

not even on public places. He changed his life because he focused on what he wanted. Believing in

your own self can change you entirely. These were few of the experiences which writers

experienced in their lives. My favorite character is “Bob Proctor” because he is the one who

explained everything simply and shortly. Like he says this secret gives you everything and

anything you want happiness, health and wealth. Another thing which is very important that is the

writer’s style, in my view it is persuasive and logical. Persuasive in a sense book tries you to

believe on it and on its concept of “law of attraction” and logical in a sense that it gives you

examples of different people who applied “law of attraction”.

First, discussing how the book is written. Well, it is written clearly and in understandable manner.

I think author “Rhonda Byrne” has achieved her goal successfully. I think she is successful in

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delivering her point to people by explaining them the main theme through characters which she

chose for this movie and book. The main focus of author is on the “law of attraction” and

“believing in oneself”.

I would recommend this book to my friends as well as my siblings because this helps individual in

changing his thinking and in making him a different person and a transformed person. I would like

to sum up with “A person who wants to be changed and is determined to achieve his goals will like

to read it and this book will help him in finding the path towards his destination and success. It

helps person to think positively and align his/her mind in a positive direction.

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Review by

PIRAH AFTAB The book “Your Sacred Self” is written by “Wayne W. Dyer”. The date of publication of the book

is 5th June, 2001. The publisher of this book is Harper Collins. There are 379 pages in this book. In

this book, the author has described that there is a divine energy within all human beings and there

are two aspects of this divine energy. The outer aspect causes the senses to function and there is an

inner aspect. When we will discover our sacred self, we can awaken this inner energy and let it

guide our life and he called this inner force as “spiritual” and he says that to discover our sacred

self is our “sacred quest”. We have to discover the higher self which is called self-awareness and it

is located in the ground of ourselves.

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The author has further described that we should forget our past and we should live in our present

which is our reality and we have to remove all those beliefs from our memory which do not fit in

our reality. For example, if we had a belief that external sources are to be blamed for everything

which happens in our life, then we will never be able to accept our mistakes. The alternative to

blame is self-responsibility. We have to take responsibility of every event that takes place in our

lives. The author is 100% right. If we will live in the past, then we will not be able to face the

reality and we should accept the fact that only we are responsible for everything that happens in

our lives and we should have the courage to accept our mistakes.

In this book, the author suggests us to free our higher selves from ego. A person with an ego

problem is considered to be self-centered. According to author, ego is just an illusion and

entertaining that illusion can prevent us from knowing our true selves. The author has described

that ego works hard to convince us that we are separate and better than everyone else and he calls

this as our false self. He says that deception will play a big role in our life if we will embrace ego as

our guide. Therefore, in order to abandon our reliance on this false self, we will have to make a

new agreement with truth. We should include truth as our companion in our thoughts, in our

conversations and in our life. We should look at ourselves honestly and fearlessly that who we are

and truth can lead us to the path of our sacred self. I think we should include truth as an essential

part of our lives. Ego will lead us to the wrong path and we will consider ourselves superior to

everyone else.

The author further says that we should not consider worldly appearances. According to ego, major

focus of our life here has to do with physical appearances. In order to have a deeper and richer

experience of life, we need to know how to make a shift away from ego to the inner self. When we

will consult our higher selves, we will learn that we are a part of same divine essence that connects

us to the source of spirit. Our inner selves confirm that we are no better than one another and there

is only one God. I think that the author is right. These worldly appearances are of no use. Everyone

is equal and we all are same. No one is superior to other.

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In my view, this book is very well written by Wayne W. Dyer. He has beautifully described

everything in this book. It is an inspiring book that can teach us so many things. I learned that

rather than focusing on our outer selves, we should discover our inner selves which is the sacred

self because our sacred selves represent our true nature. We have to discover our inner selves that

what are our capabilities and what are we doing here. We are responsible for everything that

happens in our life and we should have courage to accept our mistakes and rather than focusing on

our past, we should focus on our present reality. We should avoid ego because it only leads to

frustration and pain because we think that we are better than everyone else around us and that is

why we strive for more and more and we think that gaining more will make us superior but in

reality everyone is equal. With the attitude of ego, we will only hurt ourselves and we will never

find peace and satisfaction in our lives. Ego is the biggest hurdle in discovering our sacred selves.

This book tells us that how we can improve our lives and just focusing on worldly things is of no

use. We should rather focus on our inner selves that who we are and what are we doing and we can

never achieve success by sticking onto the old beliefs.

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Review by

SYED FAHAD HASSAN Richard Layard is the leading British economist. The Centre of attention during his early career

was how to reduce unemployment and inequality. His intellectual interest was to promote

happiness. He co-edited the 2012 happiness report. At present, he is working as program director

of the Centre for economic performance at London School of Economics and Political Science.

His current interest is over how better mental health could improve our social and economic life.

The writer has worked on unemployment and inequality at present he is working on how to

promote better mental health; all these three factors contribute towards the main subject of

happiness as the control of these key aspects lead to happiness for those affected.

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The greatest happiness for all is the greatest happiness principle that was first introduced by

Jeremy Bentham and the writer has shown complete agreement with this principle and has written

a book in which he has made this statement main idea of his book. The greatest happiness for all is

something which is lacking at present in our society, people of today have adopted the concept of

self-realization and have literally given themselves away from common good that is they have

forgotten their religion. Adoption of self-centered attitudes has led towards self-obsession, due to

which our lives are filled with anxiety and depression we have engaged ourselves in a rat race to

achieve the ultimate status; which is conceived to be possible only when you are wealthy and

occupy a ranking at a higher hierarchy of power. Unemployment, marriage breakup, and street

crime have become more common in a way that there will come a time that such activities shall

take the form of a ‘traditional rituals’. And in the book the writer has emphasized a lot on

unemployment, divorce, geographical mobility, concept of self-realization family, work,

community and financial relationship and also on factors relating to personal values and personal

freedom.

In this book the author promotes the idea of greatest happiness for all for which the book includes

the cause of happiness, factors that affect happiness and possible remedies to relieve one from

misery. Happiness is caused by adopting a compassionate feeling, a positive attitude ,concept of

common good while contrary to these development in information technology (TV) concept of

self-realization, social comparison, Status consciousness, geographical mobility, divorce and

unemployment affect happiness adversely thus reduce happiness contributing towards a society

filled with misery and suffering. The above mentioned both positive and negative factors have a

direct impact on seven major factors of a particular society upon which happiness of a society

resides.

First is family relationship which is adversely affected by advancement in information technology

like Television etc. Its implications are wide-ranging one of the most general one is divorce. The

consequence of which is family breakup, as a result the children become distressed and turn

towards street crime and drug addiction. Therefore such misery and depravity leads to disruptive

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activities that destroys the balance of peace within a society.

Secondly, financial situations is affected by social comparison and feeling of status consciousness

a person who earns more money relative to a particular reference group is happy as long as he

keeps on earning more, but if his relative income somehow lowers he will be unhappy.

Thirdly, unemployment also becomes a major reason but I would like to quote

Hazrat Ali’s (A.S) said: “Do not worry about your food and shelter unless you are sure that Allah’s

treasure is over”

Fourth cause is Friendship and Social relationship. These relationships are one of the best things in

life; however, existence of such relationships act as determinants for Quality of a community, for

instance lack of trust among societies and individuals promotes crime and social insecurities. The

vital force behind such deficiency is Geographical mobility which is movement of community

from one to the other. It has applications in economics, but gives rise to uncertainties in society.

Therefore its use is to be limited to field of Economics, for the greater good of society and overall

harmony.

Then comes Health which is a great blessing from Allah Almighty when lost, unhappiness is

inevitable but in such situations there should be patience.

Sixth factor is personal freedom which is affected by the type of government. As the communism

created a lot of misery for the people of Russia back then in the past; on the other hand a

government that treats everyone with equality provokes a greater feeling of happiness which

matters a lot towards the well being of the society.

Finally there is the seventh factor which is personal values that is our happiness depends on our

inner self and our philosophy of life. People are happier if they are able to appreciate what they

have, but there can be no peace and happiness without the belief in one God and remembrance of

Allah and further is described by following quote:

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Hazrat Ali (A.S) said: “There are only 2 ways to live a life, one is to acquire whatever you desire

or secondly be contented with what you have.”

In today’s world the ideal of being happy has deteriorated because people have lower level of

moral values and had been moved away from religion. Self-realization ideal is something more

common in today’s world. Greed for power, dominance, and wealth is everywhere, thus creating a

lot of misery. In the wake of such misery, this book has accomplished success as it has put forth

awareness concepts that have been long forgotten by bringing forth the ways in which a happier

society could be shaped.

The author covers the subject of happiness adequately as he discusses the causes of happiness and

the factors that affect such causes. The approach adopted by the writer is both analytical and

descriptive as he has used several processes of Psychology, Neuroscience, Economics, Philosophy

and Sociology. Furthermore the writer has also related present situation with that of past in 1950

thus supported his argument accordingly.

The author says in his book that society (western) lacks philosophical basis for public policy or for

private morality. But, I think that applies to their society only, for as far as our society is concerned

our Religion ISLAM has provided complete guidance. The only thing lacking is complete

implementation on our part which has led to misery in our society.

The writer of the book believes that Bentham’s ideas were right and that we should fearlessly adapt

to it apply to it our lives. Bentham gave the greatest happiness principle which states: “when it

comes to private behavior the right moral action is that which produces the most happiness for the

people it affects”. I’m in total agreement with the idea, but the same concept of happiness had been

introduced by Islam 1400 year ago.

Concepts of Happiness defined by this book and in detail by Islam can be effectively used by

Human Resource department in Companies. Level of happiness of a person is a great index of an

individual personality. It is an accepted and proved fact that a happier person does work earnestly

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and profoundly. These days organization tends to hire people having a personality inclined

towards happy attitude, therefore concept of Happiness is used for Recruitment purpose in

organizations.

In the end the remedies to unhappiness & depression proposed by the writer in the form of

cognitive therapy (deals with perception of reality), meditation, positive psychology and even

psychiatric drugs (drug called Prozac free from side effect used to reduce misery and promote

happiness); I don’t agree with this, I believe you don’t have to take drugs or therapies or go to a

psychologist to resolve your problems or relieve your misery instead remember your Lord Allah

Almighty and believe in Oneness of Allah, because there is no peace without His remembrance,

because all of these problems people have in the first place is because they have forsaken their

Creator. And remember this world is designed to break your heart. If you have problem in your

LIFE which makes you unhappy, then have a sense of ALTRUISM, if this does not resolves it then

change the way you SEE the WORLD.

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Review by

AQSA KHAN

This book named the self help book was written by Samuel Smiles. It was published by himself in

the year 1859.It sold 20,000 copies within one year of its publication. By the time of Samuels’

death in 1904 it had sold over a quarter of a million. It consists of 492 pages. It is basically based

upon the development of oneself which leads to the success of oneself and the success of the

country.

In this book, Samuel Smiles says that Individuals can play a vital role in the development of

oneself and in the strengthening of their State. One should think about his role and realize what

role he can play for the prosperity of their country. Realize what is expected of us and you can do

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your best in order to make your country prosperous. Experience shows that Individualism

produces most powerful effects on life and action of others. The self-effacing person can set before

his fellows an example of being honesty of purpose in life and that has a present as well as future

which has great influence on the wellbeing of your country, one own self and certainly pass

character into the lives of others and be a good example for the generations to come.

Real greatness and success was the result of a slow development of character over time. Character

involves our daily habits of thinking and acting that are the ground on which that greatness is built.

It is a life revolution and result in thousands of small, evolutionary changes. A quote by English

novelist “Sow a thought, and you reap an action; Sow and action, and you reap a habit; Sow a

habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny”. Action, conduct,

self-control and self-culture leads to a discipline and the character building of one. The things that

holds true of actual life are work rather than study, and character rather than biography and while

having all these things a man can perfect himself.

“The Worth of a State, in the long run is the worth of the Individuals composing it” by J. S. Mill.

Believe in your abilities and capabilities and do not be dependent on others. Therefore, it is said

that “Heaven helps those who help themselves”. Helping from your inside gives strength to

yourself. Giving free energy to individuals will lead to the vigorous growth of the Nation.

There are obstacles in your way but consider it as your helpers. It can evoke one’s willpower. With

will one can achieve anything. No work is little or unrespectable. By doing little things, one will

attain high rank one day. Your attitude should be positive. It is said that “No bread is eaten by man

is so sweet as that earned by his own labor, whether bodily or mentally”. The higher working

qualities of mind mainly depend on the active attention. The person should be closely identified

with the foundation where he is working. Patience is the most finest and the worthies part of

success. It is the root of all pleasures.

The greatest success can be achieved by practicing your ordinary qualities and skills. Those who

are more determined for achieving something, they can pass through the difficulties of life because

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they do their work in the truest spirit and they will be most successful. Those who look into the

practical life seriously, luck and success will find their way. Preferences in the qualities and what

he attains, have led many distinguished men to be the gift of being genius. Not even a single thing

is learned without repeating. Cheerfulness is an excellent working quality, importing great

elasticity to the character.

Whenever opportunity comes, jump over that. Do not waste time or escape from it. The greatest

and the successful men are those who carefully improve themselves. Try to learn from your

mistakes. Always try to learn with full devotion. Observation of mind should be strong. It is the

close observation which results in success in every walk of life. “No class is ever long stationary”.

It can be done with the hard work and devotion to change one’s life. Put your sole faith in your

abilities, your own strength of body, mind and soul.

Wishes and desires are useless unless and until every individual is not embodied in act and deed.

Do not allow anyone or anything to shaken your courage and life is to do with hard work. Stay on

the track and try to accomplish your goals and fight with the circumstances. One should be capable

enough to act upon anything in any circumstances. The qualities that are necessary for success are

that it requires special aptitude, action in emergencies, capable to organize well, tactics, constant

self-culture and growing experiences in practical affairs of life. Man’s quality is to make right use

of money as generosity, honesty, justice and self-practice. The most value able thing is what is

trained in minds and habits to continuously study. The experience gained from actual life is one of

the Nature of Wisdom.

I think it is a very useful book. It helps in the character building of an Individual. I find out many

useful points for developing oneself and to be successful in every walk of life. When every

Individual realizes what to do and every Individual plays its part, it will help in the vigorous

growth of their State. One should do every of their work by their own. Do not think any of your

work as little or not so important because it will lead them to be successful in life. The most

important is your character which involves your thinking and actions. One should think more and

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look deeply into their work and should act upon it. Only one can himself not any institution etc.

One should always have a positive attitude and should believe in their abilities and capabilities. Do

your work carefully and should pay attention to everything. With hard work and devotion in their

work one can achieve anything. Think of obstacles in your way as your helpers then you can pass

through every difficulty in life.

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Review by

ZAIN HASAN

Dr. Spencer Johnson is greatly known for the Value Tales series of children’s books, and his

all-time best seller, ‘Who stole my cheese? It is a book which was published in the year 1998. This

book was appreciated on the Publishers Weekly Hardcover nonfiction list and on the New York

Times Bestseller list.

Dr. Spencer Johnson was born in Mitchell, South Dakota. He graduated from Notre Dame High

School of Sherman Oaks, California in the year 1957. He later on earned his Bachelor’s degree in

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Psychology from the University of Southern California in 1963, after which he carried on to peruse

his M.D from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. His work is much renowned in the fields

of management consultant, writing and as a motivational speaker. Spencer Johnson’s books have

been translated into twenty-six languages.

Who moved my cheese? By Dr. Spencer Johnson is of 96 pages in total which was published in the

year 1998, it was written in the style of parable or business fable. The book was a New York Times

Business bestseller since its release and it remained on the list for almost five years and spent over

200 weeks on Publishers Weekly’s hardcover nonfiction list. The book ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’

has sold over 26 million copies worldwide and in 37 different languages, yet still it remains to be

one of the best-selling business books worldwide.

The book describes change in one’s work and life, and four typical reactions to said change by two

mice and two little people, during their hunt for cheese. The four main fictional characters in which

two of them are Mice named Sniff and Scurry. And two little people named Hem and Haw. It is

told in the book that all these four characters are in a maze searching for cheese. The author

elegantly uses the word ‘cheese’ as a metaphor which can almost fit in everything in which a

human may want or need.

This story is of two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and two little people named, Hem and Haw. All four of

them lived in a maze and spent their days in search of cheese. On cheese station C they came to

find a great stock of cheese, one day. They decide to settle in hence grown fat and lazy. Both Hem

and Haw started to envision their selves as the owners of the cheese. But one day they come across

a huge mishap, all the cheese had vanished. When Sniff and Scurry realized that all the cheese was

gone, they simply put their running shoes on and went off into the maze in search of new cheese;

whereas Hem and Haw were surprised, confused, angry and bitter about it. They visited the Cheese

Station C every day hoping that the cheese would simply reappear, but it was evident that it won’t

simply reappear.

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Hem was the bitter person, yet Haw finally decides to go and search for new cheese. Haw asked

Hem to join him on his quest but Hem, being the bitter one, refused to do so. Instead of searching

for new cheese, Hem demanded the old cheese being brought back to him because according to

him, he ‘deserved’ it. When Haw realized that Hem’s thinking isn’t going to do any good, he found

his running shoes, laced them up and went out in search of cheese. While he searched with great

efforts and motivation, he happened to learn a lot and realized his mistakes. While he carried out

the search, he wrote wisdom quotes inside the pictures of a slice of cheese which he drew on

different moments on the walls. While he kept on writing and drawing the pictures on the walls, he

thought that it would be helpful for Hem to find his way, once realization hits him.

While Haw was in search of the new cheese, Sniff and Scurry had already found the new great

cheese as they had started their search as quick as possible. During Haw’s journey, he enjoyed a

lot. He discovered that ‘one can believe that change will harm him and resist it. Or one can believe

that finding new cheese will help him, and embrace the change’. He used his mind to envision

himself finding something way far greater than ever. He corrected his mistakes from the past and

learned from them, so that he can make his future more stable and predictable. After a journey

filled with wisdom and knowledge of being brave, practical and open minded; Haw finally found

the huge deposit of cheese stored at another Cheese Station. This was the same cheese station

which was found by Sniff and Scurry, when they saw Haw at the cheese station, they warmly

welcomed him enter and experience the most wonderful and new cheese which he hadn’t ever

come across.

The phrases of wisdom written by Haw at different situations on the wall had meaning to his cause

but however those same phrases have much more meaning to our practical life, as depicted by the

writer himself. As the word, ‘Cheese’ has been used as a metaphor in this story; following are

some concepts behind the metaphor, which has been used in the book.

“Having Cheese makes you happy”, it implies that being knowledgeable and having the thing you

greatly want or need actually does make us happy in life, thus making you feel good about

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yourself. “The more important your cheese is to you, the more you want to hold on to it”, The

writer tried to convey that when the most important thing in your life becomes more important to

someone, the more he wants to hold of it and never to even think of letting go. “If you don’t

change, you can become extinct” Change is the necessity of life. If we don’t change and upgrade

ourselves with time, we would surely become extinct, having the old knowledge and concept.

“Smell the Cheese often, so you know when it is getting old”, It is most certainly important for us

to keep checking up on our mind set and knowledge, to see whether we have upgraded it with time

or not. Because once the cheese gets old, it starts to rot. “Movement in a new direction helps you

find new Cheese”, When we learn and explore new things in life, we would most certainly

experience the most worthwhile things which we weren’t aware of in the first place. “When you

move beyond your fear, you feel free”, Fear is the only thing which keeps us from success and

happiness. Once we go beyond our fear, we begin to feel happy and most of all free. “Imagining

myself enjoying new cheese even before I find it, leads me to it”, The thought of imagining

something new and enjoying it, which you don’t yet have, motivates you towards achieving your

certain goal. “The quicker you let go of old Cheese, the sooner you find new Cheese”, it would be

better for us to update our mindset or knowledge as soon as the sense of realization hits us. “It is

safer to search in the maze than remain in a cheese less situation”, When we face a problem or

when something’s taken away from us, it’s safer and probable for us to start searching for solutions

in various directions rather than just waiting and doing nothing. “Old beliefs do not lead you to

new cheese”, Doing something again and again gives the same results but when you want to

achieve greater results, you need to adapt different ways of doing things. “Noticing small changes

early helps you adapt to bigger changes that to come”, It is better for us to pay attention and notice

the small changes taking place in our daily lives, in order to stay ready to deal with any big change

that takes place evidently in our lives. “Move with the Cheese and enjoy it”, If that certain

important thing in life takes you places, makes you struggle hard to achieve it, you should certainly

move forward on the path which takes you closer to that ‘Cheese’ of yours!

I would like to conclude that there are few more things that are inevitable and we must accept it as

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it is to grow, to learn and to be happy. Change is inevitable; it constantly keeps taking place at its

own pace. We should be more attentive to the small, gradual change taking place in our daily lives

so that we can actually be prepared for the big change, in order to deal with it promptly.

Anticipating the change is the most necessary part of life. You certainly can’t just decide to live the

way you are living and dealing the things now, without thinking of changing. We should solely

appreciate the change taking place in our lives because some times change is exactly the solution

to your problems in life. Like they say, everything happens for a reason!

If you just simply start to monitor the changes taking place in your life, you’d be able realize that

you actually have to do something about the situation. Hence you wouldn’t be a victim of surprise.

As soon as you get to monitor the changes, you can gradually adapt to the change quickly and

easily because at times rational decisions have to be made whether hard or soft. People are often

left with regrets while making a decision, the thing to it is that no matter what you choose to do,

you are always left with regrets. We simply have to learn to live with our regrets only for the sake

of excelling in our lives.

Change might be hard to get, no matter in which context. But you shouldn’t give up on catching it,

because it’s simply necessary to get a hold of the change in order to find the “cheese” you want in

your life. Once you’ve had your new adventure or ‘cheese’ enjoy and cherish it, because you have

certainly earned it well enough for yourself to savor the joy. We aren’t going to remain with the

change we have achieved for long, so it’s better for us to be ready for another change which is

evidently to take place in time.

I’ve personally learned from the book that people who just wait for the change to happen or

success to come their way certainly end up being disappointed. If we want the change or success

for ourselves then we should certainly make some sound efforts to earn it well. We should pursue

our dreams and work hard for them, because if we’re determined to do something, we surely will

end up with surprisingly great results and then the success or the change would really be

worthwhile. I would surely like to sum this book as a mind changer for myself.

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Review by

NAUMAN ALI CHEEMA AS YOU THINK is a great book to change your life by the change in your thoughts. If you think

better you get better results in your life and it is written by James Allen.

James Allen born in England in 28 November 1864 and died in 24 January 1912.James Allen was

a great writer who had written many inspirational books. He was highly influenced by Buddhist

thoughts. His work is based on practical thinking.

This book is about self empowerment. James Allen write it in seven stages of thoughts .keys of

success are in our minds and how we can get better use of these keys to unlock our ideas or goals

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that we can imagine. It shows how you become the master of your life through your own thought

process body is the servant of your mind you thoughts directly affect your body either in good or

bad depend upon your thoughts. its tells about importance of purpose in the life and how you

accomplish it you have to fight for it your sacrifices coots how big your purpose island how you

remain calm in the end . Calmness of mind is the beautiful jewel of wisdom.

This book actually gives a concept of who you are and your character being the complete sum of

all your thoughts. Man is made and unmade by himself. Man is the master of thought if a man dig

deep in his soul he comes to know that he is a maker of his character his thoughts his every

experience. Focusing on the positive, you attract more positive in your life. By focusing on the

negative, you attract the negative. How effect of thought on circumstances .Allen linked mans

mind to a garden. Like Gardner who cultivate which he requires to make garden beautiful. man

made his mind like garden weeding out all the useless wrong thoughts and cultivate toward

perfection, flowers and fruits and pure or useful thoughts man is the doctor of his thoughts mean

good thoughts bear good fruits and bad thoughts bear bad fruits then Allen write how your

thoughts effect on your health on the body. Body is the servant of the mind and your thoughts can

directly affect your body either in good or bad depends on you what you think. Allen said in the

book “change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. when a man makes his

thought pure , he no longer desire impure food” if a man live in a thought of fear it will kill a man

as speedy as bullet .Allen then step forward to your thought and purpose. Those person who have

no purpose in their life they face failure, unhappiness and loss in their life everyone have a purpose

and goal in their life. He must devote himself to attain it make this purpose his supreme duty even

if he fails in attaining it he try again and again to accomplish it. The weakest soul, knowing it own

weakness and believing this truth that strength can only be developed by effort and practice. Allen

talks about thought factor in achievement. He said all that a man fails to achieve or achieve his goal

is direct result of his own thoughts. If someone achieves a little he sacrifice little if someone

achieve much he must sacrifice big. Hard work is compulsory hard work is the element of success.

You have to fight for what you believe in and willing to sacrifice for achieving it. Allen write about

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vision and ideals he sad your vision is the promise of what you shall want to be one day h gave the

example of Columbus he cherished a vision of another world and he discover it he gave the

example of Buddha . Buddha be held in the vision of a spiritual world of stainless beauty and

perfect peace and he entered it. The last thing Allen highlighted is calmness of mind. Calmness of

mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It helps you in self control remain patient. Calm

man knows how to govern himself calm man is like a shade giving tree in thirsty land or sheltering

rock in a storm. It does not matter whether it shines or rain they are always sweet and calm so be

calm Stay positive, Keep thinking , keep dream and open yourself to a bright future ahead.

It’s hard to do a short analysis on such a book it was short in length, it was a self-help type of

book. Although short in length, As You Think is very powerful in meaning. This book gives you

the tools to look inside yourself and find your own answers to interpersonal and often conflicting

questions’ agree with the author and his thoughts about a person thinking. Man is the master of his

thought. Your thought depends upon you positive thoughts leads you to success and negative

thoughts stops you in achieving your goals it affect your body health too impure thoughts shatter

your nervous system. We are the masters of our destiny we can accomplish everything by simply

control our thoughts. I’m bit confuse in 2nd and 3rd chapter that what type of negative thoughts lead

us to wrong path may be it is.

Possible to identify negative thought patterns and choose not to think them. But it is incredible

challenge for me. Overall, there are a lot of interesting thoughts in this book it is not just a self-help

book, a self-empowerment, but a truth that will grip my heart. We create our reality by our

thoughts and feelings by the right choice and application of thought he ascends to the divine

perfection by the abuse and wrong application of thought he descends below the level of the beast

between these two grades of character man is their maker and master.

No matter whom you are. No matter your social status. No matter your way of life. Everyone has

problems. Everyone falls down. It’s how you get up and respond to problems in life that better

defines who you are as a person. Think better, act better, get better results. Change your inner

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experience, change your life. After reading this book you come to know that how you are the

master of your life thorough your own thought process. It is a short self empowerment book having

a very powerful meaning in it.

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Review by

ABDULLAH NASIR The success principles book is written by a best author named as Jack Canfield. It is a book about

timeless success principles used by successful men and women throughout history. The author has

studied these principles for over 30 years. I have summarized the book briefly. This book includes

64 principles which are ordered in 6 categories on the base of chapters. Every principle which is

written in the book tells us about the life stories, inspiring quotes and examples which the writer

learned. The topics in book cover different areas which include handling rejection to goal setting

and to stay focused on dreams. Each topic of the book has described briefly and specific to reach

the point.

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The author assumes that the success in life is an “inside job”. He encourages the readers to come

out of limited beliefs and build up their confidence. He appeals his readers to stop blaming the

external factors for any mishap. He tried to appeal to take 100% right over one’s life. In this book

the author put his personal mark on it.

This book provides us 64 life changing principles; which are as follows: Take 100%

Responsibility for Your Life, Be Clear Why You’re Here, Decide What You Want, Believe It’s

Possible, Believe in Yourself, Become an Inverse Paranoid, Unleash the Power of Goal Setting,

Chunk It Down, Success Leaves Clues, Release the Brakes, See What You Want, Get What You

See, Act As If, Take Action, Just Lean Into It, Act in Spite of Fear, Be Willing to Pay the Price,

Ask! Ask! Ask!, Reject Rejection, Use Feedback to Your Advantage, Commit to Constant and

Never-Ending Improvement, Keep Score for Success, Practice Persistence…Never Give Up!,

Practice the Rule of 5, Exceed Expectations, Drop Out of the “Aren't It Awful” Club,

Acknowledge Your Positive Past, Keep Your Eye on the Prize, Clean Up Your Messes and Your

Incompletes, Complete the Past to Embrace the Future, Face What Isn’t Working, Embrace

Change, Transform Your Inner Critic into an Inner Coach, Transcend Your Limiting Beliefs,

Develop Four New Success Habits a Year, 99% Is a Bitch—100% Is a Breeze, Learn More to Earn

More, Stay Motivated with the Masters, Fuel Your Success with Passion and Enthusiasm, Stay

Focused on Your Core Genius, Redefine Time, Build a Powerful Support Team, Just Say No!, Say

No to the Good, So You Can Say Yes to the Great, Find a Wong to Climb Under, Hire a Personal

Coach, Mastermind Your Way to Success, Inquire Within, Be Hear Now, Have a Heart Talk, Tell

the Truth Faster, Speak With Impeccability, When In Doubt, Check It Out, Practice Uncommon

Appreciation, Keep Your Agreements, Be a Class Act, Develop a Positive Money Consciousness,

You Get What You Focus On, Pay Yourself First, Master the Spending Game, To Spend More,

First Make More, Give More to Get More, Find a Way to Serve, Start Now…Just Do It!, Empower

Others to Empower Yourself

In the above paragraph all are the success principles as author explain in his book but some of them

which I applied on my life are as follows: Take 100% responsibility of your life: it means if you

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continue same thing over and over again then you will get same result but if you want to change

you need to take different steps. Be clear why you are here: it means that each of us born with a life

purpose. To be on purpose means you are doing what you love to do, what you are good at and

what is important for you. You need to find life purpose by discovering your talents and strengths.

Ask! Ask! Ask! : It means if someone has achieved the same goal that you want to achieve in your

life, ask him to give you advice about how he has achieved that goal. Use feedback to your

advantage: it means some of the best players in the world have coaches, who teach them how to

play better. The players can’t see their own faults. They have coaches because coaches can give

them feedback. Start now...Just do it: It means that don’t wait that something special will happen in

your life and you will achieve what you desire without setting goal and taking actions.

The best advice of this book is that you should take 100% responsibility of your life. If you are not

getting desired results, you need to change your actions. It is up to you to create your life as you

want by implementing the simple success principles written in this great book. If you want to read

just one book this year on self-improvement and motivation, I recommend to buy this book and

read it completely for more than one time, it will give the meaning and clarity to your life.

However the subjects which writer discuss in this book are in a wide range and had great effect. A

person can apply these principles in any stage of life. There are many types of goals which can be

personal, professional and academic. We can use these principles to get advantage in achieving our

goal.

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Review by

SABA GULL The writer of this book (the road to success) is Faiez Hassan Seyal. This is a good book for

self-development. A book meant to challenge your basic assumptions about who you are, what you

have and what you can do to become the master of your own Destiny. It has 256 pages. It has been

translated in 5 languages. Until now 4 editions have been published. That is so because Allah will

never change a grace which He has bestowed on a people until they change what is in their own

selves. And verily, Allah is All-Hearer, All-Knower.

One should own his actions either good or bad, as area of improvement is always there and nobody

will put on the burden of other neither in this world nor hereafter.

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Who I am? What I am supposed to do in this world? What are my responsibilities being a child,

citizen, friend and family person? What is the purpose of my life? In my view this is a very

important principle. As an adult, you are solely responsible for all the choices in your life. So many

people look to blame others or circumstances for the things that are not right in their lives. This

attitude is self-delusional; pretty much every long term situation that happens to us in adult life can

be traced back to some decision or lack of decision made by us either at a conscious or

subconscious level sometime in the past. Once we stop denying, blaming and whining and accept

that we had our part to play in the circumstance, and then we are in a better position to move

forward and to learn from our mistakes.

It is the motivation that drives one’s life. So one should list down the preferences of his/her life in

the light of specified priorities, and compose a purpose, vision and mission. Explore the positive

aspect of every happening. Also use positive words in daily communication.

The art of situation handling helps a person to be dynamic and productive towards the decisions he

made. Learn how to face too much criticism. Learn from the stage of grief. Always be happy

whatever you have. Never feel fear about tough things. Positive thinking often starts with self-talk.

Self-talk is the endless stream of unspoken thoughts that run through your head every day. These

automatic thoughts can be positive or negative. Some of your self-talk comes from logic and

reason. Other self-talk may arise from misconceptions that you create because of lack of

information.

Failures are always there in the way to success. These failures are there to make or break someone.

That’s why one should always take temporary failures as a sign of success. It is unfortunate that in

societies obsessed with success and achievement, failure can be made to feel like the worst thing

that could ever happen to a person. The reality is that failure is commonplace but so is overcoming

it and pushing through to more successful endeavors in the future. Even where a failure cannot be

salvaged, there is always something to be learned from it. You’ll learn a little about how to

overcome failure through having the right attitude.

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Consistency is the key of successful people. One should remain determined in life for achieving

high targets. You don’t have to be an expert to figure out that consistency is pretty essential to

successfully change your life, your health, and your weight. But it’s also pretty clear that building

a consistent routine of regular exercise and healthy eating is not an easy thing to do.

There is a difference between the “good” and “right” and also between “what we like” and “what is

right”. Life with moral values is the life with character. Make sure that your character is great.

Having good character means that you have such admirable traits as honesty, responsibility and

courage. It is beneficial for you to have good character. Being honorable and honest in the work

you do and in your relations with others are essential in your life. Having an honorable character

also provides you with personal benefits and can enhance your grades.

Practice “Law of giving” and should spend at least 10% of income in the welfare of religion and

society. Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and

running over, will be poured into your lap" Always help to others that are make you open

hearted. It can also be called the law of reciprocity, which is quite evident in the physical world:

for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Smile at another person, and he'll

probably smile back at you. Be critical of others, and they'll respond in kind. As you give, you will

receive. Give generously, and you'll receive in like measure. Do good and forget. Never dishearten

on failures. Be polite always.

While making decisions, celebrating, giving and taking one should remember Allah. To be under

the shelter of Allah and to be blessed with His friendship makes the journey of life safe and sound

.Islam is not a new religion because "submission to the will of God", i.e. Islam, has always been the

only acceptable religion in the sight of God. For this reason, Islam is the true "natural religion",

and it is the same eternal message revealed through the ages to all of God's prophets and

messengers.

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To deliver something with examples in the light of Islam is no doubt an art. It is a life time gift for

all those who feel power-less and would like to become successful by discovering and using their

God-Gifted Talents.

Focus on these things right now you are doing. Learn from the life of Rasool Pak. Learns from the

life of Sahaba Karam. Never get afraid of future. Leave curiosity. Win the heart of people from

goodness and kindness. Have faith on luck also. Always think positive. Always make a good

company of people. Don’t sit idle. Never copy others. Explore nature. Learn the art to be happy.

Always control your emotions. Controlling your emotions doesn't mean ignoring them. It means

you recognize them and act on them when appropriate, not randomly and uncontrollably whenever

you feel like it. Take control of your life by taking control of your emotions. Don’t bother minor

details. Bad times are always followed by good time and vice versa. Remain contented. Hope for

the best. No one come and solves your problem; you have to solve it yourself. Never get bored. Try

to be yourself. Be the type of person you want to meet. Express yourself, and have faith in yourself.

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Review by

JAHANZAIB SHABBIR The Book “successful Time Management” is written by Patrick Forsyth. Its first Indian Edition

was published in 2007 by Kogan Page India. Patrick Forsyth runs Touchstone Training and

Consultancy which advises on marketing, sales and communication skills.

Author told the importance of time management and techniques of good time management to the

people. Time management is to manage your time to get targeted goals of your life as David Pierce

said that, time management is about getting results in a better way.

Author used very formal method and simple words which his audience can understand easily. The

purpose of this book seems to solve the problems of time management because different methods

of good time management have been described in this book. This book may be good for those

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people who have a lot of work and shortage of time and for those people who have balance in their

time and work but do not know that how to manage their work according to their time in their

institutes or organizations. This book may not be helpful for those people who don’t work in

institutes because the methods of time management told in this book may be very helpful for those

who work in institutes.

Time is basic key of our success is time and this idea may be true because our greatest resource is

our time (Brian Tracy, 2007).There are some things which make proper time management difficult

but we should try to make it because it is not rocket science (Patrick Forsyth, 2007: p 2, 3) as G K

Chesterton wrote ‘The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found

difficult; and left untried’. Time management affects our work all the time because it involves

everything which we do (David Pierce). Better time management can affect our productivity

because without time management, we get only 20% of our efforts (Pareto Principle). A man

should not skip today’s work by thinking that he is able to do it later because it is man who will

delay his work for time but time will not stay for him (Benjamin Franklin).

Time management is about to finish work in proper time not to work all the time (Patrick Forsyth,

2007: p 12). For example, we should think that in which thing we are busy (Thoreau). We should

make a plan for our work of daily life according to people who work with us, system in which we

work and then change it with respect to our routine (Patrick Forsyth, 2007: p 17, 19).

Patrick Forsyth (2007, p: 26) suggests that we should spend much time on thinking that will help

us a lot in work but opposing this idea Eva Young suggests that ‘To think too long about doing a

thing often becomes its undoing’. Form above idea it seems that we should take a small time for

thinking about anything. We should be ready to say ‘no’ to any person if his work can create a

problem in our time management (Patrick Forsyth; 2007, p: 27) and it feels a better idea because to

say ‘no’ anybody may realize strange but is basic rule of time management (Postawski;2004,p:31).

If we manage our time then we reward ourselves (Patrick Forsyth; 2007, p: 31) and this idea may

be true because it is a reality as by getting time in our life, we can get everything in our life (John

Shebbeare; 2007).

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Without getting and staying organized, we cannot get full effective result of our time management

and he told a solution that we should plan our daily work (Patrick Forsyth; 2007, p: 35) and it

seems a good solution because it is supported as first we should think upon our goals and then

make a plan for achieving them (Sally Allen; 2009). Also, internet could be used for getting

information in a very short time (Patrick Forsyth; 2007, p: 44). Diary can help us in our time

management in a way if we write our tasks in it as suggested by Steven covey that diary is good

personal tool and our first attempt should be that we get all of our tasks onto the paper which will

remember us our remaining tasks of day.

In this era time management is everything for a successful organization. Successful time

management will help you to become more effective in completing the task that you have to

complete so there is more time available for you to spend on the things which are important to you.

So all the successful organizations focus on this because if they are working according to their

working and time schedule they will be successful otherwise little clasp of time can create many

problem. According to the Pareto principle if we worked 20% with excellent time management

output will be 80%. Time management helps you to greater sense of control over your life both at

work and at home. Because of this we can well manage our all work according to a proper time

schedule and all the activities will be performed according to that schedule.

There is difference between being effective at managing your time and simply being busy. Many

of us are think that we are working but if you don’t know your goal and don’t have proper time

management to achieve that goal then you are simply wasting your time. According to new

management goal, one should “concentrate on work, not on being busy”. If you adopt this goal

then definitely you will be able to perform your work more quickly and more effectively without

wasting your time

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Review by

TEHREEM FATIMA The line for everyone “I’m not good enough” is only a thought, and a thought can be

changed as every thought we think is creating our future.

The child like motif of a rainbow colored heart on the cover of the book depicts a message of non-

Judgmental love and support that has helped people change without laying guilt on them, who

poison themselves with toxic thoughts.

So many of us are just suffering quietly inside and pretending that the world is fine and peachy,

and so many of us would not utter a word about our inner tumult to anyone. Hay wrote her book for

such silently misguided souls than the ones who are openly unhappy and miserable. “You can heal

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your life” is an excellent guide to begin work on oneself and has some good suggestions about how

to overcome trauma.

The book is actually a survivor narrative and tells us the calmness of a person who has gone

through the worst and survived, who was Hay herself I belief. She writes a plain-speaking record

of her difficult personal history in a very down to earth way and a clear easy to understand

language.

Linking it with her personal life, Louise Hay was born in Los Angeles. She was even born unlucky

who struggled throughout her life to crawl out of victim hood. Louise’s mother had early on tried

to foster her out. At the age of fifteen she was raped by her neighbor which was a turning point in

her life. Spending a few years in menial work in Chicago, she became a high fashion model before

basing herself in New York. There she met an educated English gentleman and married him,

leading an elegant and stable lifestyle until fourteen years on, he met someone else and divorced

her. She then became a certified church Counselor after attending a religious science meeting at a

church. Becoming a minister and developing her own counseling service she first wrote a book

“Heal your body”, which detailed metaphysical causes of bodily illness. At this point, she was told

she had cancer and through a combination of radically changed diet and mental techniques, was

healed. After spending most of her life on the East coast, she moved back to Los Angeles and was

reunited with her mother before her death. Now, In her 70’s, Hay is one of the world’s best known

motivational speakers and writers.

She divides the book into every area of her life including beliefs, health, fearful emotions, critical

thinking, love and intimacy, and then she gives reasons for these types of thoughts.

The book is all about using your thoughts to fix the problems in your life and it looks into healing

life areas such as relationships, work, success, prosperity and even your body. After reading this

book, I think, it is possible to heal your body using your thoughts because in many cases

conventional medicine blatantly falls short such as the nagging disorders where stress or mental

processes do play a role. I found that the main value regarding this in the book was getting me to

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look at how our thinking does influence the functioning of our bodies, as well as our life in general.

Moreover, in my opinion, the book is a sense of peace and hope. It is one of the most important

books you will ever read if you are experiencing pain or heartache of any kind in your life. But one

can’t just take it as a book; instead the message must be taken to heart.

Louise Hay believes and explains in the book that our outlook on life and behaviors is a result of

our childhood experiences. She goes in depth about the power of positive thinking and the dangers

of negative thinking.

Applying to my own life, this book helped me lot after a personal tragedy. After my mother passed

away, I went though extreme depression, having trouble eating, sleeping, smiling, being awake,

and being alive. The book was assigned by my teacher and when I read it, I found incredible tools

there for taking responsibility for myself, letting off my depression and grief. It provided me ways

to get things done, to control my own thoughts and to make my own passion work for me, instead

of letting my thoughts and fear get in the way of achieving my goals.

Summarizing the whole book, it had an enormous appeal particularly to women with similar

histories. The essence of Hay’s teaching is love of self and evaporation of guilt, giving a message

that affirmations do vital in becoming the person we wish to be and the book contains many of

them to choose from such as breaking free of limiting thoughts, replacing fear with faith,

forgiveness and understanding that thoughts really do create experiences

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.

Review by

ALI HASSAN

In a book that has sold several million copies, David Schwartz suggests that the main thing

separating them from us is that they think five times bigger. We are all, more than we realize, the

product of the thinking which surrounds us, and most of this thinking is little, not big.

The Magic of Thinking Big tries to show us that in fact the work of art we work on is huge.

Schwartz delivers to us the right quote by Benjamin Disraeli 'Life is too short to be little.' We must

enlarge our imagination of ourselves and act upon it. 'Thinking big' does work in relation to career

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goals, financial security and great relationships but it is more significant than that. We are

challenged to see ourselves in a brighter light, to have a larger conception of life. This is a choice

that is no more difficult than the choice to keep doing what we're doing, laboring in darkness.

The Magic of Thinking Big is basically about getting ahead with a fair amount of attention to

exponentially increasing your income, making that dream home a reality and getting your kids a

first-rate education. It tells us how to think, look and feel important

Is the book simply a weak 1950s product of an achievement-oriented consumer society? Well it

does have some amusing passages about moving out of one's dull apartment and moving to a fine

new built-up home. Readers continue to be attracted, presumably because of its materialist

promise, but the impossibility of Schwartz's message is that to get the material results, we must

know the immaterial, that is, we must spend time alone with our thoughts. Decisions arrived at in

managed isolation, he says, have a habit of being 100 per cent right. Action drives out thought,

whereas leaders set to the side time for isolation to tap their supreme thinking power.

There is nothing magical about the power of belief, but we must draw a difference between merely

wishing and actually believing. Doubt attracts 'reasons' for not succeeding, whereas belief finds

the means to do the job. Schwartz was in discussion with a hopeful narrative writer. When the

name of a successful author came up the hopeful writer quickly said, 'But I could never equal him;

I'm not in his league. Knowing the writer in question, Schwartz pointed out that he was neither

super-intelligent nor super perceptive merely super confident. The writer had at some point

decided to believe that he was among the best, and so he acted and performed accordingly.

It is said that a large vocabulary is a big determinant of success. But what counts is the effect that

our words have on how we think about ourselves. Instead of trying to use long words, Schwartz

says, use positive language, and see how it transforms your mood and the perceptions of others.

Don't see yourself just in terms of how you appear now. You may have an old car, dingy

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apartment, debts, job stress and a crying baby, but they are not really a reflection of you as long as

you are working on the vision of what you will be two years from now. Concentrate on your assets

and how you are deploying them to change the situation, and avoid getting mired in petty

allegation. Absorbing the blows is a quality of greatness.

This book is a classic motivational and self-help book, which is similar to another motivational

book. This book builds an individual's confidence, mentality, vision of life and ultimately the

ability to think big introspectively and extrospectively. In short, making better decisions and

avoiding negative thoughts are benefits of reading this book. This book also tells us that how we

make our Attitudes our Allies. According to me the main point of this book is that how we make

our thinking big and positive.

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Review by

HASNAIN HAIDER The Goal is a management-oriented novel by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, a business consultant whose

Theory of Constraints has become a model for systems management. It was originally published in

1984 and has since been revised and republished in 1992 and 2004. This book is usually used in

college courses and in the business world for case studies in operations management, with a focus

geared towards the Theory of Constraints, bottlenecks and how to alleviate them, and applications

of these concepts in real life.

Eliyahu Goldratt's "The Goal" is an entertaining novel and at the same times a thought provoking

business book. The story is about a plant manager, Alex Rogo, whose plant and marriage are going

downhill. He finds himself in the unenviable position of having ninety days in which to save his

plant. A fortuitous meeting with an old acquaintance, Jonah, introduces him to the Theory of

Constrains (TOC).

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This theory is the theory of constraints, it is an important tool for operations managers to manage

bottlenecks and improve process flows. Theory states, “the throughput of any system is

determined by one constraint (bottleneck).”Thus to increase the throughput, one must focus on

identifying and improving the bottleneck or constraint.

TOC postulates that for an organization to have an ongoing process of improvement, it needs to

answer three fundamental questions:

1. What to change?

2. To what to change?

3. How to cause the change?

The goal is to make (more) money, which is done by the following:

1. Increase Throughput

2. Reduce Inventory

3. Reduce Operating Expense

Goldratt defines throughput (T) as the rate at which the system generates money through sales. He

also defines inventory (I) as everything the system invests in that it intends to sell. Operating

expense (OE) is defined as all the money the system spends in order to convert inventory into

throughput.

The author does an excellent job explaining his concepts, especially how to work with constraints

and bottlenecks (processes in a chain of processes, such that their limited capacity reduces the

capacity of the whole chain). He makes the reader empathize with Alex Rogo and his family and

team. Don't be surprised if you find yourself cheering for Alex to succeed.

The importance and benefits of focusing on the activities that are constraints are clearly described

with several examples in "The Goal". One example from the book is the one in which Alex takes

his son and a group of Boy Scouts out on a hiking expedition. Here Alex faces a constraint in the

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form of the slowest boy, Herbie. Alex gets to apply two of the principles Jonah talked to him about

- "dependent events" (events in which the output of one event influences the input to another

event) and "statistical fluctuations" (common cause variations in output quantity or quality). He

realizes that in a chain of dependent processes, statistical fluctuations can occur at any step. These

result in time lags between the processes that accumulate and grow in size further down the chain.

This leads to the performance of the system becoming worse than the average capacity of the

constraint.

It is interesting to note that TOC practitioners often refer to TOC concepts in terms of references

from this book. For example, a constraint is often called a Herbie.

The Goldratt Institute (goldratt dot com) has illustrated TOC Analysis in the form of five steps

used as a foundation upon which solutions are built:

1. Identify the constraint

2. Decide how to exploit the constraint

3. Subordinate and synchronize everything else to the above decisions

4. Elevate the performance of the constraint

5. If, in any of the above steps the constraint has shifted, go back to Step 1

After reading this book, I came to know that this book is excellent in the context of Operations, the

"Goal" to "make (more) money by..." is limited in its focus. It is concerned with the cost centers

internal to a business. Business performance in today's increasingly competitive market depends

on a variety of factors that exist outside the business. These include competitors, external

opportunities, customers and the non-customers. Executives need to focus on these in order to see

the bigger picture.