Mind Map your SMART Goals

Posted by Faizel Mohidin on Jan 24, 2010 in Mind Mapping, Mind Maps at Work, Mind Maps in Education, Personal Mind Maps | 8 comments

Before I start with this week’s article, I would like to address a comment by Tim Fulford on last week’s post. He criticised my Mind Map for not using one word per line and the lack of images. You can see his comments on the post at MindMapTutor.com.

Even though I gave him my reasons for not following the Mind Map rules strictly, I welcome his passion and input around puristic Mind Maps as advocated by Tony Buzan, the inventor of Mind Maps. Tim is a certified Buzan instructor and obviously knows his subject very well. I agree with him that a Mind Map with one Key Word per line is more ‘open’, thus creating more connections for the user of the Mind Map. I use single words per line in my personal Mind Maps as much as possible.

I still feel that if I use a Mind Map for accurately recording things such as minutes, indexes, content pages, etc. without any interpretation, I often need to add a few more words per line, especially if I have limited space, as in my blog.

This is not an encouragement for you to do the same. Stick to the laws and only break them if you have a valid reason. It is still your choice. I’ve written an article previously on the Mind Map Principles. Have a look at the principles, if you don’t know them, or have forgotten them. Knowing the Mind Mapping Principles can make all the difference between a good Mind Map and a Mind Map that is not really a Mind Map. The latter leads to chaos and confusion, instead of clarity.

It is also important to note that MindMapTutor is here to tutor you along a path of lifelong learning and growth. Some of the tools we promote, especially the free ones, don’t meet the standards set by Tony Buzan, but it is sometimes the best tool you’ve got.

Even if my writing helps one person, it is one more person that will have a more fulfilling life. It is that thought that keeps me going.

This reminds me of a story that goes something like this:

Two people were walking on a beach. They came across a pile of starfish washed up on the shore. One of them started to throw them back into the sea. The other one commented that there’s no use throwing them back, because he will never be able to make a difference as there are so many of them.

The reply came back, as he threw another one into the sea: ‘I’ve made a difference to that one…’

Now let’s get stuck into setting those goals.

SMART

Even though the SMART acronym for goal setting originated in the Project Management discipline, it has become more widely used and can be applied to any goal setting scenario.

Last week, I discussed your Roles and Goals, which were based on your purpose defined previously.

Having the Mind Maps you created for your Purpose, Roles and Goals handy would be great. Many of you may have battled to set your Goals for the various roles in your life. This article will therefore focus on how to go about Goal Setting.

What makes my advice different from many other Goal setting advice is the fact that your Roles are included in the big picture.

We are often at different levels of maturity in our various roles. For example, we may be working in a field for many years, yet be a few days or weeks in a new relationship. The way we see our goals in two different roles, is largely dependent our maturity level in the role.

You will therefore have to apply setting SMART Goals to each of the roles that you choose. Each individual will set goals for the roles that they feel need goal setting. At least the Roles and Goals paradigm gives YOU the choice. You decide the roles that need goal setting and the roles that do not.

The Acronym

Before going further, it will be wise for you to grasp the acronym fully. It is simple, so take a few minutes to learn and memorise it.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Tangible

The letter ‘T’, often represents ‘Time’ in many uses of this acronym. The reason for using tangible will be explained later.

Specific

Specific Goals are simply goals that are not vague. The better you describe the goals and the more specific you make it, the better. The following key questions often naturally make the goals specific:

• WHICH: Identify requirements and constraints
• WHEN: Establish a time frame
• WHY: Specific reasons, purpose, or benefits in accomplishing the goal
• WHAT: What do I want to accomplish?
• WHERE: Identify a location
• WHO: Who is involved?

The first thing you have to do is define your goals and choose one to work through. (Which?)

Once you have gone through these questions around your goal, you will know what you want to achieve, why you want to achieve it, by when you want to achieve it who will be involved in helping you achieve your goal.

One of the methods that I normally recommend to record your goals is quite a simple one and especially useful if you don’t use Mind Maps to organise your life.

• Get a diary
• Go to the front of the Diary and write in the Goals and the dates by which you want to achieve them
• Turn to the appropriate page in you diary and write down the goal there as well
• Look at your goals daily, or at least weekly if you can’t manage daily

Measurable

This is based on the management cliche, what you can’t measure, you can’t manage. Define ways YOU think you can measure your progress. It is important that YOU set the measurement criteria. Other people can give input, but you have to define your own standards by which you are going to measure whether you are successful or not. The responsibility is yours.

Some questions you can ask:

• How much?
• How many?
• How will I know when it is accomplished?
• What are the Benchmarks against which I can measure it?
• Are there Milestones that I can set to ensure I am on track?

Attainable

The attainable key word pertains largely to your own growth and development. If your goals are defined well, which the SMART acronym enables you to do, you will find that you will grow as an individual on your path to achieving your goals.

Some important characteristics that determine whether you see the goals as attainable:

• Self-image and belief
• Financial capability
• Abilities
• Skills
• Attitudes

By pushing yourself and growing this type of characteristics, your goals will become more and more attainable. It will also enable you to set bigger and bigger goals.

The statement by Robert Browning: ‘Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp’, comes to mind, which has commonly been associated with setting goals a bit higher than you can attain comfortably.

The following can help you to understand the reach/grasp meaning and help to visualise it quite nicely:

Do the following exercise (or picture it):

• Stand an arm’s length away from an object, keeping your arm straight out in front of you.
• Ensure that the tips of your fingers are touching the object. That is your reach.
• Now close you hands into a fist, without moving your arm. That is your grasp.
• Does your hand still reach the object?

Physically, our reach is greater than our grasp. Ensure your goals are too.

Realistic

When thinking realistic, two words come to mind: willing and able.

Both are needed to ensure that realistic goals that are attainable are defined. Only you will know whether you are willing to put in the work to achieve the goal or not. Your willingness to work, will determine your ability to achieve the goal. Have another look at my post successful people work harder.

Tangible

I prefer tangible to time bound for this letter of the acronym, as time can be covered in the specific and measurable parts. It can even be covered in the attainable and realistic components, as setting an realistic/unrealistic timeframe has a huge influence on whether the goal is attainable or realistic.

Tangible involves the senses, especially the visualisation component. Many people involve all five senses in the visualisation process. If you can see, feel, touch, taste and hear it, you can achieve it. By making it tangible, you automatically cover the specific, measurable, attainable and realistic components of your goals.

You are now better equipped to define your goals. Look at the goals on the Mind Map you created last week.

Are they SMART enough?

Mind Map your Roles and Goals

Posted by Faizel Mohidin on Jan 17, 2010 in Mind Mapping, Mind Maps at Work, Mind Maps in Education, Personal Mind Maps | 3 comments

Living on Purpose

Last week’s article, living on purpose, introduced you to big picture thinking of your life. If you always have the big picture in mind, passion, which is a primary ingredient of success, is usually sustainable.

Single-minded focus is undoubtedly the biggest guarantee of success and a Mind Map is the ideal tool to document this focus, as a Mind Map always has a central theme – a single focus.

While having a single purpose and focusing on it, will dramatically increase the chances of you achieving success, does it bring balance into your life?

The need for balance

I believe that having a balance in your life is crucial to sustained happiness, but a balanced life is an apparent contradiction to having a single purpose.

A common complaint quoted in ‘First things First’ by Stephen R. Covey and A. Roger Merrill is:

‘I want to provide for my family and be successful in my career. But my company doesn’t think I’m serious about advancement unless I get to the office early and work late and on weekends.

By the time I get home, I feel exhausted. I have more work to do, and no energy to give to my family. But they need me. There are bikes to fix, stories to read, homework assignments to help with, things to talk over. And I need them. What is quality of life if it isn’t spending time with the people you love most?…’

Does this sound familiar?

Let’s examine how we can remain focused on our main purpose in life and still live a healthy, balanced life.

The Mind Map as a thinking tool

Before we dive right in, I would like to remind you of the Mind Map’s benefits as a thinking tool. It is not for nothing that Tony Buzan, the inventor of the Mind Map, calls it the swiss army knife of the brain.

The Mind Map can be used in many ways as a thinking tool, but one of the ways I often use it, is to Mind Map the big picture and then drill into the details. I use this method to learn something new as well.

Using Mind Maps can be compared to assembling a jigsaw puzzle. You start with the big picture, which you keep visible at all times. From this big picture, you start putting down the pieces you know, one piece at the time, often starting in the centre or one of the corners and building on them.

As you are building your puzzle, it may not look like a cohesive whole, but it is still being built with the big picture in mind. You will see the centre core growing and the corners growing until they start to meet and become one.

Life is often like that. If you only focus on the detail pieces, you lose track of the big picture. If you only focus on the big picture, you don’t do anything. It just exists in your mind, in your imagination.

Putting together Goals for yourself is very similar to building a jigsaw puzzle.

You have to start with the big picture if you want a more fulfilling life. Having the big picture – the purpose - gives you hope and keeps the passion burning. Passion is the one ingredient that is uniquely yours. The amount of passion you put in is often the most determining factor of all.

But passion without direction, often leads to nowhere. It can also consume you and even lead you down the wrong path. You need something else to restore the balance.

What is balance?

One way of looking at our lives is via four dimensions: physical, spiritual, social and mental. I like the concept of using these four dimensions to ensure balance in my life.

The physical dimension requires or creates resources, the spiritual dimension connects to mission, purpose and principles, the social dimension involves relationships with other people, and the mental dimension requires thinking and learning.

By having a long term view of these dimensions, you start building a picture of a well balanced life. Often, to succeed at something, one of these dimensions become the focus for a short period and it appears that your life is not balanced. It is important at this point to look at the big picture again to give perspective. Balance is determined over months and years, not days and weeks.

A very good example of this is having a new baby. I remember when my daughter was born. She was only four months old when my wife and I decided to leave South Africa to go to The Netherlands.

My wife left her job and spent the next three years in a foreign country where her main focus was looking after our daughter. Her life seemed out of balance at the time. She had no friends, no extended family and no job.

If I look back at the last decade of her life though, I get a very different picture.

Her choice at the times was also very difficult because of the way modern society sees motherhood. I share the sentiments of Rebecca A. Merrill, one of the co-authors of the book ‘First things first’:

‘I’m often troubled by the stigma attached to women who choose to focus their time and effort primarily on motherhood. It is as if society somehow deems it less valuable to raise competent children than to raise the profit on a company’s product line.

A woman who chooses to focus on motherhood, and does so out of a clear sense of her own personal vision, becomes truly energized in her role. She recognizes the value of shaping the characters of future leaders in society. And in the process, she develops competence and character to fulfill other roles. Perhaps a second career or another degree are in the plans, but that doesn’t distract from the task at hand. It is not a matter of capacity, but of chosen contribution…’

It is as if this piece was written for Jasmine, my wife. Today she is in a second career and has another degree. She studied a new degree while being a ‘stay home mom’ and when she decided to go back to work, she landed not only a new job, but a new career!

Did her period of focused motherhood detract from her success in any way? I think not! If anything, it gave her the character and strength to accomplish greater things. It also gave her a balance of the physical, spiritual, social and mental dimensions.

When looking at balance therefore, one should not have a short term view. If you are starting a new project, a new business or venture, or having a new born baby, your life may seem out of balance as you are focusing so much time on one thing. This focus is of the utmost importance to succeed. It is the people who don’t have the discipline to focus on what they need to do to succeed, that fail.

This imbalance is often short lived though, if you have your Roles and Goals well defined.

Restoring balance – the power of Roles and Goals

We all have to fulfill different roles in life. Knowing the roles that you have to play, and the goals you have for them, will help ensure that you start, and continue, to live a balanced life.

Take some time out and draw a Mind Map with yourself as the central theme. Draw six branches coming out of central theme and list the roles you have to fulfill in your life. An example of roles could be:

• Father/Mother
• Son/Daughter
• Brother/Sister
• Employee (List job function if you want to)
• Business Owner
• Community Service
• Manager
• Etc.

Once you have these roles on your Mind Map, put down three goals for each of them on your Mind Map for the coming year.

Does this bring a new perspective into your life?

Each role must be seen as a stewardship. You have been entrusted in life to fulfill each of these roles. They are your roles. You’ve chosen them. You also choose the goals for each role. Remember, it is YOUR choice.

Each of the roles contain all four dimensions: physical, spiritual, social and mental so ensure that you set goals using these four dimensions as a guide.

As mentioned, sometimes one of the roles needs more focus than the others. This is quite normal. By having a Mind Map picture of your roles and goals, you are able to bring it back on track to ensure that you have a balance.

I’ve added two Mind Map PDF downloads at the end of this for you to print out and use to define your Roles and Goals.

This one year picture of Roles and Goals is a bit more detailed than the Purpose vision of last week, which is a lifetime vision.

Remember the jigsaw puzzle analogy? The purpose is the centre of your jigsaw puzzle and the roles and goals the corners.

Planning – The next step

Your Roles and Goals Mind Map will give you a roadmap, but the journey still needs more detailed planning though and will be covered in a future article. Be sure to look out for it.

Before we get to the detailed planning though, Goal Setting needs to be covered in a bit more detail. That will be the subject for next weeks article.

Click here for a download of the Mind Map PDF guide.

Click here for a blank PDF template.

If you think this will add value to somebody else’s life, pass it on. Paying it forward sometimes takes very little effort, but has huge rewards.

Living on Purpose

Posted by Faizel Mohidin on Jan 10, 2010 in Mind Mapping, Mind Maps at Work, Mind Maps in Education, Personal Mind Maps | 0 comments

Strangely, this was one of the more difficult articles to write. It surprised me, as I was thinking for some time about the first article for 2010. It had to be inspirational but not one of those New Year’s resolution ones that have already been forgotten.

The scene had already been set in previous articles, Your results are a reflection of a year’s work, Passion makes perfect and MindMapTutor guidelines.

I had the idea fixed quite clearly in my mind, as well as the points I wanted to get across to you, the reader. Yet the writing was still difficult, as it became a boring set of instructions, which nobody would read or apply.

I then realised that I was not using my own advice! It was the case of ‘physician, first heal thyself…’

Once I put together a quick Mind Map burst of ideas around the topic, the structure of the article revealed itself and it became apparent that I did not have to write much, as the Mind Map I had created is self explanatory. The PDF download, is in fact a complete worksheet, which you can download and print. You can simply answer the questions on the Mind Map and you will soon realise the extent to which you are ‘living on purpose’.

I then decided that I would rather give you two case studies, which highlight the principles and not write the article at all, as the Mind Map is self explanatory. The one case study relates to business and the other to a much higher cause.

Success in our modern world is often so one dimensional and based solely on money. You may not have the desire to be insanely wealthy, but simply want to make a difference in the world. Whatever you choose is okay. It’s your life and your purpose to live.

A business case

In ‘Think and Grow Rich’, arguably the book that made more millionaires than any other book, Napoleon Hill relates the story of Edward C. Barnes.

Barnes had the unusual desire to become a partner, a business associate, of the greatest inventor of all time, Thomas A. Edison, despite that the fact that he was penniless and looked like a tramp.

He had two major obstacles when he first had the impulse. He did not know Edison and he didn’t have the money to get to Edison’s offices. This would have put off anybody with less desire. Not Barnes!

When he finally arrived at Edison’s offices, he announced that he wanted to go into business with the great inventor.  While he did not get to go into business with Edisons immediately, he did land a menial job at a very nominal wage.

He had to wait five years for his opportunity to come. While everyone else just saw him as another cog in the Edison business wheel, he thought otherwise.

Eventually, opportunity came through the back door, as it so often happens. When Edison invented the Edison dictating machine, his salesmen were not too enthusiastic about the machine, as they believed it could not be sold easily. This was Barnes’s chance. The rest is history. Barnes eventually got the contract to distribute it across the whole country. He was finally a business associate of Edison!

A completely different case

The best selling authors of the ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ series wrote a book called the Power of Focus. In it, they relay the remarkable story of Terry Fox. When Terry was only 18 years old, he was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer he had (osteosarcoma) often strikes the legs and arms and sometimes spreads to the lungs, brain or liver.

Terry had two choices: give up hope and wait for death, or discover something meaningful to live for. He chose to live with purpose.

He dreamed of running across Canada and even though one of his legs were amputated, he embarked on his journey. He wanted to raise one million dollars for cancer research. Even though he died at the tender age of 22, he raised $24.6 million during his marathon of hope runs.

With his prosthesis (his leg was amputated above the knee), he ran an equivalent of 3,339 miles in only 143 days (the equivalent of a marathon almost every day) and gave hope to thousands of people all over the world.

The Terry Fox foundation continues to this day (www.terryfox.org) and to date over $400 million has been raised for cancer worldwide in Terry’s name!

Mind Mapping your Purpose

Now, your ideals do not have to be as big and grand as Barnes’s or Terry’s, but you do need to start ‘living on purpose’ and not just coast along.

The Mind Map above illustrates a ten step process to get you to live on purpose.

• It starts with you recognising and utilizing the skills that you are good at.
• It then gets you to align this with your passions and consolidates the principles on which this is based.
• It ends with some practical steps to implement the principles.

PDF download of Mind Map

The PDF download is an expanded version of the Mind Map in the article and contains numerous questions for you to answer. I suggest you print the Mind Map and answer the questions directly on the Mind Map. You will then have a one page overview of your ‘living on purpose’ maturity.

Statement of Purpose

Once you have done the Mind Map worksheet and know where you stand, you can start working on your statement of purpose.

Many companies spend large sums of money on Mission Statements, which hardly anybody remembers and even less apply them. A simple statement of purpose can be easily remembered and easily applied. Create a simple statement of purpose for yourself (keeping it to one simple sentence) and start living it.

I end off with my own one:

To inspire lifelong learning in as many people as I can with methods that are easy to learn, simple to use and produce fast results.

I hope that 2010 becomes the year that you find your purpose in life and the year that you start ‘living on purpose.’

Click here to download PDF Mind Map Worksheet

MindMapTutor guidelines

Posted by Faizel Mohidin on Jan 3, 2010 in Mind Mapping, Mind Maps at Work, Mind Maps in Education, Personal Mind Maps | 0 comments

Last week’s article ‘passion makes perfect’, set the scene for the year.

This week’s article gives you an overview of how information will be delivered on MindMapTutor.com in 2010.

The MindMapTutor

The first major change is the use of what I now call a MindMapTutor.  A MindMapTutor opens with a Mind Map Summary and follows with information based on the Mind Map.

This allows you to Preview the article and get an Overview before you commence with reading. It also serves as a Review after you have read the article.

I suggest that you have a quick look at the Mind Map and then start reading. Once you have read the article, have another look at the Mind Map and try to associate what you have read with the branches on the Mind Map.

The Mind Map provides ‘mental hooks’ for the brain. As you read the article, your brain will naturally associate what you are reading to these hooks. The more you do this, the more your brain will develop whole brain thinking and learning skills.

The Mind Map is not a detailed copy of the article, but serves merely as a ‘mental hook’, which will later serve as a ‘trigger’ for later recall.

PDF Download of Mind Map

A PDF version of the Mind Map will also be attached for you to download so that you can easily save or print the Mind Map. If you want to review the article later, you should simply be able to browse through the Mind Map, making reviews much easier and quicker.

If you do need to revisit the article, you don’t have to read the whole article again. Simply review the items that you have missed using the Mind Map as a guide.

MindMapTutor.com is also fully searchable, so simply search for the article once it has been archived. It is the quickest way to find what you are looking for.

Mind Map Templates

I’ve had numerous requests to provide Mind Map Templates that can be downloaded and modified for personal use.

This will obviously require a lot more work and I am looking at providing a premium membership site for this. I will keep you informed.

Mind Map Software

One of the challenges in providing Mind Map templates, is the availability of Mind Map Software.

It is very difficult to promote Mind Mapping as a Universal Tool, as commercial Mind Mapping Software has not yet reached ‘mainstream’ status. Due to cost and various other reasons, Mind Mapping software has been adopted largely by businesses. As Mind Mapping becomes more popular, I hope the use of Mind Mapping software grows and becomes more affordable and readily available.

Another problem with Mind Mapping software is the tendency for them to ‘lock you in’. The Mind Maps you produce can only be used properly with the software that created it.

The early days of Microsoft Office were like that. Today there are many commercial and Open Source Office packages that can read, edit and save documents in Microsoft Office format. I look forward to the day that Mind Map Software becomes ‘mainstream’, allowing you to read, edit and create Mind Maps that can be used with any Mind Map Software package. It will then be your preference for a particular software package or brand that will determine the tool you use and not driven by the need to read various file formats.

At the moment it looks as if XML can provide that standard, but only time will tell.

Using Xmind

It is for this reason that I’ve chosen to use XMind for all the Mind Map templates I will be creating. I feel that Xmind is better than the FreeMind, the other popular OpenSource Mind Map package.

Xmind has followed a unique model. It provides you with a basic (but comprehensive) version at no cost and charges for an upgraded full featured version. This allows you to get used to Mind Maps and Mind Mapping software before making a decision to buy.

The time provided by the normal ’30 day trial’ versions is simply too short when starting out with Mind Mapping. Once you are used to working with Mind Mapping software, you will be able to make a decision much easier within the trial period.

With Xmind, you can also export a FreeMind file, which can be imported into most commercial software packages.

Conclusion

You will get a lot more value out of MindMapTutor.com in 2010, based on your feedback and input in 2009. This will continue to be at no cost to you!

A new premium site will be launched, which will provide you with interactive tools, templates, videos and other downloads to enable you to learn faster and easier.

As I’ve quoted Arie de Geus so many times before:

Your ability to learn faster than your competitors may be your only sustainable competitive advantage.

MindMapTutor.com remains dedicated to enable you to do exactly this!

Passion makes perfect

Posted by Faizel Mohidin on Dec 27, 2009 in Mind Maps at Work, Mind Maps in Education, Personal Mind Maps | 0 comments

While browsing through my bookshelves yesterday, I came across the book, ‘Passion makes perfect’, by Peter Cheales. The copy I have, was published in 1995, but I think the material is as pertinent today as it was back then.

I thought this would be the perfect title for my last article of 2009, as it succinctly summarises my philosophy of success.

On 1 January 2009, I published tips for 2009. My success philosophy stated in that article was simply:

• Find your passion
• Become the best you can be at it

While that still holds true, writing on Mind Maps and Mind Mapping in 2009 helped me refine the principles:

• Seek out your passion
• Put together a lifelong learning programme around your passion
• Work hard at it

During 2010, I will be focusing on using Mind Maps and Mind Mapping to do this. Everything will be simplified and posted into one of three categories:

• Personal Mind Maps – Finding your passion and attaining your vision
• Educational Mind Maps – Putting together a Learning Management Programme based on the principles of lifelong learning
• Mind Maps at Work – Using Mind Maps to build your career or business

The scene is now set for 2010. I hope I can be a part of your life and make it the best year ever. Let it be the year that you follow your passions and become the person you want to be. Mind Maps and Mind Mapping are the tools and skills that you need to make the journey exciting, creative and fun.

MindMapTutor.com will provide you with the tools and skills. The rest is up to you.

Best wishes for a prosperous and successful 2010.

Faizel Mohidin
Cape Town, South Africa
27 December 2009

P.S. Remember that you can get the weekly article posted into your email Inbox by subscribing on MindMapTutor.com. Pass this information onto friends and family and help them grow their passions into successful careers and businesses.

Successful people work harder

Posted by Faizel Mohidin on Dec 19, 2009 in Mind Mapping, Mind Maps at Work, Mind Maps in Education, Personal Mind Maps | 2 comments

Sometimes we come across simple truths and simply ignore them because they are too simple. Many people dismiss an idea because it is simply too obvious.

Today I would like to evaluate the simple truth: Successful people work harder.

I use a simple philosophy for success, which always worked for me: Find a passion, work at it, become good at it.

If wealth alone is a measure of success, then you can perhaps debate whether I am successful or not. But if I told you that about 15 years ago I fell in love with the abilities of data and information to give companies a competitive advantage and dedicated my career to doing exactly that. This has allowed me to work internationally, get cross industry experience and finally head up the Business Intelligence division of the leading fashion retailer in South Africa. Would you view success differently?

Along the way, I also discovered the power of Mind Maps and Mind Mapping and its contribution to my success. In January 2009, I decided to start MindMapTutor.com, which in itself is a success. I wanted to ‘give something back’ and committed to posting one article a week to help others. I wanted this site to be free, but I also did not want to hold back. I wanted to ensure that I gave the best that I could, as it fits in with another of my beliefs: You must first give before you get and the more you give, the more you shall receive.

Writing an article a week is not as easy as it sounds. Won’t I run out of ideas? Where will I find the time, having a demanding full time job? Will people read my articles?

This and a lot more questions were asked.

I responded by finding a timeslot that sounds crazy to most people: 6.00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. If I miss this appointment (which I sometimes do), then it will be 6.00 a.m. on Sunday morning. In this timeslot, I will focus on nothing else but writing my article, but preparation actually starts days before I sit down to write.

MindMapTutor.com was launched officially in March 2009. Since then, I’ve posted my promised ‘one article a week’. You can get this directly into your email Inbox by subscribing on MindMapTutor.com.

The site has steadily grown and now has a few thousand unique visitors every month. Some of the articles have even prompted some serious debate in many forums. I’ve also had numerous emails of people thanking me.

Here is one comment on my last post, ‘A reflection of a year’s work’, which I share with you (after much deliberation with myself):

Hi Faizel…Thought I would just send a ‘thank you’ note, for mind-mapping. This has helped me tremendously. I have 2 kids and studying Logistics at the University of Johannesburg. I got 2 distinctions and a ‘B’ symbol for my final exams. Your e-mails and study methods have inspired and guided me through this year. Thank you for the great work you are doing. The article below is so, so true, as this was my motto this year as well. I was determined to get excellent results and to get a better job at a ‘bigger’ company with benefits. And I’ve got them all. I start my new job in sourcing for a major retail group in Johannesburg… (Linda Naidoo)

Now back to the topic of this week’s article.

Outliers

I am currently reading a book called ‘Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell. It is dubbed ‘The STORY of SUCCESS’. An outlier is someone that stands apart from the rest. Today, I would like to relay one of the principles, in the book – hard work.

He relays the story of a study done on a group violinists at the Berlin Academy of Music, led by the psychologist K. Anders Ericsson.

1. Group one was destined for greatness and an outstanding professional career.
2. Group two was very good and may even play professionally.
3. Group three would never play professionally and would probably end up as school teachers in the public school system.

All of the violinists were asked the same question: Over the course of your career, how many hours have you practised?

Now before we look at the answers, I would like you to take note of the following. Each of the violinists started playing when they were about five years old. Each one of them was identified as having above ordinary talent and singled out from hundreds of other players.

Here are the results:

• In the first few years, everyone practised roughly the same amount, about two to three hours a week.
• By the time they were eight years old, differences started to emerge.
• The best students started practising more than everyone else: six hours by age nine, eight hours by age twelve, sixteen hours by age fourteen…
• By the time they were twenty, the top group put in more that 10,000 hours, the middle group about 8,000 hours and the bottom group about 4,000 hours.

Ericsson and his colleagues then went on to pianists. They compared amateur pianists with professional ones and found exactly the same pattern. The amateur pianists never practised more than about three hours during the course of their childhood.

The professional pianists also steadily increased their practise time over the years and by the time they reached the age of twenty, they had notched up over 10,000 hours. The amateurs? Well, they only managed about 2,000 hours.

The striking thing about Ericsson’s studies are the following:

• There were no ‘naturals’ – musicians that floated effortlessly to the top.
• There were no ‘grinds’ - musicians that worked harder than anyone else and were not successful.
• Once you have enough ability, the thing that differentiates the top from the bottom is how hard you work.

That’s it! The people at the top don’t only work harder, they work much, much harder!

Does this come as a surprise to you? In some cases these simple truths go unnoticed.

How does this help you?

Start by evaluating yourself and your talents.

• What are you good at?
• What do you think your talents are?
• What do other people think your talents are?

Look deep into yourself. There are some things that you can do better than others. Create a Mind Map of your talents. Look at your talents holistically. Out of this, you will find the one thing that you can start working on daily.

You may not become the next concert pianist, but you will, little by little, improve yourself until you are operating at a level much higher than you are now. Success will follow.

I’m not only paying lip service to this. I hope that I practise what I preach. Mind Maps are my other passion. I believe that I can apply Mind Maps in almost any situation. I’ve used it to study, to brainstorm, to project manage, to manage people, to write, to memorise, to stimulate creativity and much, much more…

Over the last 15 years, I’ve spent hundreds of hours Mind Mapping, reading about Mind , thinking about Mind Mapping and now, writing about Mind Mapping.

I’ve also created Mind Maps for other people to use, which goes beyond personal use. Who knows where this is going. All I know is: I love it and I will continue doing it for as long as I can and as often as I can.

Success will surely follow???

A lot of this has been put into our Learning Management Programme, which gives you a holistic programme on learning how to learn and managing your learning process.

While working harder is definitely the major factor in success, working smarter cannot be discounted. Our Learning Management Programme will allow you to work smarter so that you can get a competitive advantage by being able to learn quicker and easier.

Please spread the word. If you think my articles can add value to other people’s lives, pass it on and encourage them to subscribe to their free weekly dose of getting Mind Maps and Mind Mapping to drive their success.