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How mind mapping can help you achieve your goals

by Sylvia on 26/02/09 at 7:03 am

Why a mind map?

If you are like me then every now and then you need to get your thoughs together. You may have lots of idea which go back and forth in your head which means you cannot focus on actually making these ideas a reality. That’s where mind mapping can be helpful. It helps you to organise your ideas and see how they all link together. It can help you to set priorities and can give you a clear picture in front of you of what you still need to do to reach your objectives.

Mindmapping can help with this, as the brain responds to visual images and experiencing things. According to Tony Buzan, the inventor of mind mapping, “the brain’s language is not english or german but images and association”.

What exactly is mind mapping?

The Wikipedia definition of a mind map is: “A diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea.”

You take one idea, problem, skill that you want to learn, or whatever it is and make that the centre of a piece of paper. After that you will write everything down that is associated with that idea using branches and sub-branches.
 
Below is a video from the inventor of mind maps Tony Buzan. This is good informative video mind mapping and how you can use it. More information on Tony Buzan can be found on his website.

 

How to make a mind map

Say for example that you are not sure where you are going in your career or with your business. Now what you can do here is write it all down on a piece of paper or use a program like  Mindomo.  There are many more applications and you can find a list here.

Lay down your paper horizontally and start in the centre of the page. Your mind map will be more powerful if you use color and images so if possible draw an image of your central idea. And use colours for all your ‘branches’.

Write the words “career” or “what I would like to do” in the middle and write everything down that has something to do with your career. What you would like to do, what you don’t like to do, ideas of achieving it, what you will need to learn to get there, your strengths and weaknesses etc.  Make main branches from your main central idea and then sub-branches from there and let them all flow (better not to have straight lines) and where possible make the mind map come alive with images.

After you have done this have a look at your mind map. What stands out? What are the recurring themes? What are your best ideas?  You can then take it a step further and make your best idea the centre of your next mind map and create a separate mind map of that idea.

How can it help?

Mind mapping is meant to nurture and teach the brain. It  can helps you to focus on your goal or achieve your vision. A mind map can help teach your brain how to learn, focus your attention and increase mental capability.

In a small experiment televised by the BBC, Tony Bizan proved the effectiveness of mind mapping when he assisted in the teaching of children with learning difficulties. By asking them to create mind maps of their problem and then of all the things that they liked and discussing the results, he was able to get the children more focussed and interested in their own learning. After his involvement in their teaching, some of these children showed remarkable improvement in amongst other things their vocabulary skills. It also helped their self motivation and focus.

Now I believe that any child’s potential can be increased with the right amount of positive attention and creating a mind map either for yourself or with your child is a very interesting, stimulating and positive activity.  The right kind of attention unleashes a child’s (and yours!) intelligence. Of course this subject of teaching children is closely related to another topic on how to teach children and nourishing their multiple intelligences can help, so stay tuned as this will be the subject of a future post.

So in summary, creating a mind map can:

• give you a clearer idea of your thoughts
• help you to set priorites 
• help you to stay focussed on your goal
• incerease your learning capacity

So what do you need to get clearer in your head right now? I encourage you to start creating your own mind maps. I would be interested to hear your experiences with it. If you like to stay updated on all the latest news on this website then subscribe to our news feed.

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