What does Google have to do with Key Words?

It is interesting to see how a company like Google latched onto the idea and now use it in their marketing, tools and business model.

In case you wondered how Google makes money when they give away the best search engine for free, they do this by selling advertising space.

If you want to place an advert on Google’s Adwords, you first need to decide what market you want to target. Google uses Key Words to help you decide what words to use in your adverts. By understanding the Key Words that people search on, you will be able to place a better advert and reduce your advertising budget. Your advert will target the correct people, as they are searching for the Key Words that you are paying Google for. This is what niche advertising is all about.

It is amazing how thousands of searches on Google for a particular topic all contain the same Key Words. This shows how the brain actually works when categorising information. It reduces whole thought patterns into a number of simple Key Words. The top Key Words therefore cost the most money.

As a user of Google, the better you understand Key Words, the better results your searches will yield. If advertisers, Web designers and Bloggers are all targeting Key Words, wouldn’t it therefore be wise for you to also search by Key Words? Having the correct Key Words can save you hours of search time to get to the right information.

Key Words and Mind Maps

While Google uses Key Words to help people build a marketing campaign, Tony Buzan, the inventor of the Mind Map, tells us to use Key Words when creating our Mind Maps.

Most sentences contain many words not required for understanding or recall. The words are there for proper sentence construction and to make the written word ‘flow’ so that it can be read more easily. But once you have read the information and you want to record the information for later recall, normal sentence construction is actually a hindrance rather than a benefit.

Paragraph Structure

When constructing notes or Mind Maps for later recall, understanding paragraph structure is a good idea.

Most paragraphs can be broken down into a main, and often, a secondary idea. Once you have the main and secondary idea for the paragraph, you can reduce it into Main Key Words and Secondary Key Words. In the beginning, this will often be a Main Key Word Phrase and Secondary Key Word Phrase.

I’ve found this to be more difficult than it looks. We have been using full sentences in our notes for so long, that it is quite difficult for us to change. In my article on Mind Map Principles, I state that Tony Buzan’s ‘one word per line’, is the rule I break most often when Mind Mapping.

How to choose Key Words

In ‘Use your Head’, Tony Buzan advises you to choose good Recall Key Words. He differentiates between Key Creative Words and Key Recall Words.

Key Creative Words are what he calls ‘evocative‘. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary describes evocative as ‘evoking or tending to evoke an especially emotional response’. While the Key Creative Words trigger imaginative responses, it does not help with recall.

If you were to pick up a Mind Map with only Key Creative Words a few months later, you will find that you can build a completely different story to the original one. In fact, you won’t be able to recall the original from the Mind Map even if you wanted to.

To solve this problem, you need to use Key Recall Words. Key Recall Words are words that trigger recall of the original concept or idea. It funnels back the original images and thoughts once triggered. These words tend to be a Strong Noun or Strong Verb. They are sometimes supported by additional Key Adjectives or Adverbs.

According to Tony Buzan in ‘Use your Head’, Standard Notes have the following problems when compared to a Mind Map with Key Words:

• Time is wasted recording words that have no bearing on memory. (estimated time wasted – 90%)
• Time is wasted re-reading the same unnecessary words. (estimated time wasted – 90%)
• Time is wasted searching for Key Recall Words.
• The connection between Key Recall Words are interrupted by words that separate them.
• Key Recall Words are separated by time. It often takes a few seconds to get from one to the next.
• Key Recall Words are separated by space by their distance from each other on the page.

My experience with Key Words

I’ll end this week’s article with my experience of Key Words, as I feel it has some bearing on your ability to apply the above.

My experience is based on teaching people how to take proper Mind Map notes and also by producing Mind Maps for others to use without my help.

I found that my normal, Key Word, one-word-per-branch Mind Maps were often unreadable by another person without my help. If I took the person through the Mind Map and explained each branch to them, they would understand it at the time, but a few months later, they could not understand the Mind Map.

The problem obviously lies with me. Even though I’ve been using Mind Maps for about twenty years, I still do not always choose good strong Key Recall Words when Mind Mapping.

I do a lot of writing, as you can see, and also create a lot of Mind Maps. Often, not enough thought is given to the Key Words to ensure that they will trigger the correct recall. To overcome this, I tend to use more supporting words in addition to the strong nouns and verbs that serve as my main Key Recall Words.

I’ve found these Mind Maps to be more ‘reader friendly’, as they have more of a supporting structure for reading. I often tell students, like I am telling you now, to redo the Mind Map in their own words and summarise my Mind Map into Key Recall Words of their own choosing.

Doing this will ensure that you will be able to recall the material much better and also allow you to personalise it with your own thoughts and ideas. That is when real learning takes place.

So, to sum up, learning how to summarise using Key Recall Words will not only save you time, it will also enable you to create Mind Map Memory Maps that trigger recall perfectly.

“If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it”

He used the concept of getting fit, in the work context. We work in a tough, fast paced environment with tight budgets and limited resources. He said: “… to work here, you have to become work fit…“, or something to that effect. (Really sorry if I’ve misquoted you, Alain.)

The idle person is the one that is more likely to complain when given more work, simply because the person is not ‘work fit’.

Since that quote, we’ve been using the concept of getting fit in many different situations. I would like to explore some of these situations today and then I would like to promote using Mind Maps as the tool to get you mentally fit.

I’ve been using and promoting Mind Maps for about twenty years now. During this period, I’ve always promoted the benefits that Mind Maps have for Memory, Recall, Reading, Writing, Presentations, Projects, Meetings, Personal Growth,  etc., etc.

I could talk for hours on the benefits of Mind Mapping and how it can give you the competitive edge.

Yet, I know so many people that have used it – and failed!

Despite trying Mind Maps, their memories are as poor as ever. They are not more creative. They are still disorganised.

And what is more troublesome for me, is that they are so caught up in the details. They simply do not see the big picture.

Mind Maps offer a solution to all of these problems and many others not mentioned here.

But, to get the benefits of Mind Maps and Mind Mapping, you have to use Mind Maps. You have to be Mind Map Fit.

And once you are Mind Map fit, you can become Mentally Fit.

Once again, let’s use running as an analogy. Let’s assume that I am thinking of getting back into running after many years.

I have a major problem in that I am not running fit. I’ve been doing Judo for over four years and over the period I was often ‘Judo Fit’, but in the last four years, I’ve never been running fit.

And to get running fit, what do I need to do? The answer is not rocket science. I have to run!

Sounds too simple? Many truths are so simple that we often deem it too simple and don’t apply it.

To get running fit, you have to run. The gym, weight training, cycling, swimming, or any other exercise won’t get you running fit. You will get fit and have the benefits of being fit. Your heart rate will come down, you will have more energy, you will feel better – But you won’t be running fit.

The same can be said for Mental Fitness. To get mentally fit, you have to exercise your Mind. The best tool to exercise your whole brain is the Mind Map.

To get good at Mind Mapping, start Mind Mapping. Don’t worry about theory, jargon, tools, or any other distractors. Start Mind Mapping today.

As you get fit, you will be able to explore rougher terrain. You can start doing hill work. You can do some Fartlek. You can train for speed. You can do marathon sessions.

This brings me to the next running analogy. Assume that I am now running fit, after a lay off of many years. I am running fit because I’ve been back into running for a few months. I ‘hit the road’ regularly and I’m beginning to enjoy running again. (After days and weeks of agonising pain.)

I am now thinking of doing a race.

Am I race fit? Probably not. If I have not been training for races, I will probably not be race fit. Even if I wanted to train to become race fit, what race do I train for? A 10km race is very different from a half-, full-, or ultra-marathon. Each race requires different race fitness levels.

To become mentally fit, you have to start Mind Mapping. Start using it for some basic functions. If you are not sure where to start, have a look at the website we’ve recently started about using Mind Maps. Perhaps you could get some ideas on where to use Mind Maps.

Once you have decided where you want to use Mind Maps, simply start using them. Create lots and lots of Mind Maps. Over time you will become Mind Map fit and mentally fit.

Let’s sum up:

• To become race fit, you first have to first become running fit. You become running fit by by running.
• To become mentally fit, you first have need to become Mind Map fit. You become Mind Map fit by Mind Mapping.

So, my advice this week, is simply short and sweet:

Keep it simple. Become Mentally Fit by exercising your Mind. And the best tool for that is the Mind Map!

I’ve recently been criticized by a number of ‘certified’ Mind Mapping instructors. Who, correctly, claim that I am breaking certain laws of Tony Buzan, the inventor of the Mind Map.

Those criticisms made me relook at my Mind Maps and my personal style of Mind Mapping. I came to some interesting conclusions, which I’d like to share with you today. These are my experiences and my opinions and not necessarily a scientific fact.

To illustrate some of my points, I will equate Mind Mapping to running. Before you run off, thinking that I have finally ‘lost it’, please humour me by reading further.

Running is one of humankind’s most natural activities. The statement, ‘You must walk before you can run’, is understood by most people.

While running is one of the most basic human functions, have you seen the industry it has created?

Here are some examples:

• Running Books
• Running Coaches
• Running Shoes
• Heart rate monitors
• Energy Drinks
• Cabo-loading products
• …and much more…

These examples prove that even though we have been running since childhood, there is always room for improvement, and there is a huge, lucrative market.

I’ve chosen running as an example, as I view myself as a runner, even though I haven’t really run seriously for years.

At the height of my ‘running career’, I spent lots of money on ‘running stuff’.

I subscribed to monthly magazines, bought books and went to lectures on running. I bought special running tops, shorts and even a heart rate monitor.

I have a book called ‘Lore of Running’, by professor Tim Noakes, on my bookshelf. It is dubbed  ‘The Runner’s Bible’ by the British Journal of Sports Medicine and contains 1,277 pages. That is not for casual bedtime reading! It is an encyclopaedia of running. It contains scientific studies, shoe buying tips and of course training programmes. All of this is backed up by scientific evidence.

I can see that you may be beginning to ask, ‘What’s your point?’

Let’s cut to the chase. If you did not read any of the thousands of books on running; Never read articles on how to buy shoes, socks, pants, vests, etc.; Never had a personal coach; Don’t know Arthur Newton’s ten laws of running. Would you and, more importantly, could you, enjoy and benefit from the act of running?

I hope your answer was a resounding, ‘OF COURSE!!!’

The same applies to Mind Mapping.

While you would enjoy the benefits of running, you could also be doing everything wrong. You could injure yourself. You may never win a race. Running a marathon will most likely be impossible.

The conclusion?

It all depends on the runner you want to be and the school of thought you want to follow. I’ve quoted Newton (not Isaac) above. Tim Noakes, the author of ‘The Lore of Running’, uses and adapts his laws in the book. Are his laws valid?

Even with all the scientific evidence and academic backing, Lore of Running still has its detractors.

I’ll use one of the laws from the book, ‘Train first for distance and only later for speed’ as an example.

This law can be debated forever without coming to a conclusion. Scientists and various other ‘experts’ can come together, each bringing their own evidence, and still we won’t get to a unified outcome.

Do we…

• stop running?
• learn the rules?
• subscribe to Runner’s World?
• employ a personal coach?
• read all 1,277 pages of ‘Lore of Running’?

…Before we start running?

The answer, I hope, is an obvious ‘No!’ To run, you need to start running.

The same applies to Mind Mapping. To Mind Map, you need to start Mind Mapping.

I deeply respect Tony Buzan, the inventor of the Mind Map, and the efforts he has put into taking Mind Mapping to the masses. His views on mental literacy in his early works inspired me to be an ‘evangelist’ on Mind Mapping.

Yet Tony Buzan is also a great marketer and a great entrepreneur. He has made lots of money from Mind Mapping. He has books, videos and now endorses the only official Mind Map Software, iMindMap.

Global Mental Literacy will come at a cost, a huge cost.

Living in Africa, I don’t see this mental literacy translating to the masses easily. The costs are simply too huge. Like basic literacy, some will develop high skills of literacy, but others will simply have basic literacy skills.

If we can’t get basic literacy right, how can we tackle mental literacy?

My response is, one person at a time. With the understanding that I am teaching basic mental literacy in most cases and advanced mental literacy only in some cases, I’ve put together some Web resources to get you started. The websites that I have created on Mind Maps and Mind Mapping (MindMapTutor.com and recently UsingMindMaps.com) are free resources. I hope that it will add value to people’s lives and get more people to use Mind Mapping than before.

It’s as simple as that. Hopefully many of you will explore Mind Mapping further and advance you mental literacy just like a novice runner preparing for a marathon.

Who knows, I may even make a buck or two!

Mind Map Software

I promote free Mind Map Software such as Xmind and FreeMind, even though they don’t meet the requirements of Tony Buzan’s strict laws. I believe that it will increase the mental literacy of the people that use them and if you really want to go further with Mind Mapping Software, try the commercial versions.

This is not unlike buying and reading ‘Lore of Running’. I know many people who have acquired the book only after they started running seriously as adults. Like me, they first read articles, journals and other material. Later, they borrowed the book from the local public library and read a lot of it. Only after that did they finally buy the book.

My advice on Mind Mapping is the following:

• First walk before you can run
• Start Mind Mapping
• Explore the laws if you need to grow further

A good way to learn Mind Mapping is by example. Look at the examples on MindMapTutor.com, UsingMindMaps.com and other websites and simply start Mind Mapping.

To run, you have to put on your running shoes and step out the door…

Forward this on to others. Remember that comments are most welcome. I’d love to hear about your experiences with Mind Maps.

Background

This article was prompted by a conversation I had with a colleague. She said she was going back to linear notes for the minutes of her meetings, as she found the Mind Map minutes to be too unstructured. She felt that the Mind Map rendition of the minutes were ‘all over the place’. When the minutes were reviewed at the next meeting, nobody new what was said or what needed to be done. It was chaos!

I immediately jumped in by responding that it is often a lack of Mind Map theory that causes this to happen, as a good Mind Map has lots of structure.

Before I go into telling you how to get structure into your Mind Maps, let me give you some background information on my work environment. We use Mind Maps extensively at work. There is almost no group session that happens without Mind Maps being used somewhere in the session. We use a commercial software package across the organisation and use a PC with a projector in most meetings. A Mind Map is displayed on the screen and the meeting is often run with the Mind Map as a guide. The chairperson is therefore often the person creating the Mind Map notes as the meeting progresses.

Even our brainstorming sessions often use Mind Maps as the facilitating tool, but this depends on the preference of the person running the session.

Mind Map Theory

During the last few articles, I’ve been criticised for not using a single word per branch, as recommended by Tony Buzan, the inventor of the Mind Map. Well, if these critics were to come to my workplace, they will cringe at the verbose Mind Maps being produced.

Most of the people that use the software don’t have any Mind Map theory. They simply use the tool and get on with the job.

The Mind Map as a tool is amazingly simple to use and results can be outstanding with little or no training. Mind Map Software has made the adoption of Mind Maps by a broader audience much easier. With a little training and understanding of some of the main concepts though, your Mind Maps can be even more effective.

Let’s review the ‘unstructured’ problem

If you are taking notes in a meeting, or during a brainstorming session, the notes are written down in the order that they occur. i.e. chronologically, as a meeting is naturally a chronological event. Often a chronological rendition of the meeting is not the best way to record the essence of the meeting, as people tend to jump from one topic to the next.

While the notes are obviously being recorded chronologically, they don’t have to be structured chronologically.

A lot depends on the skill of the chairperson. The better the chairperson is at structuring and controlling the meeting, the better the notes will be. Often, you may not be the chairperson, but you may be the one taking the notes. What do you do in this situation?

Handling unstructured Mind Maps

Tony Buzan, in the Mind Map Book, mentions the value that his brother Barry added to the development of Mind Maps. One of the principles that Barry added, and I think one of the most important Mind Map Principles, is the concept of Basic Ordering Ideas (BOI’s). A Basic Ordering Idea can be seen simply as a category for your notes. If you categorise your notes according to relevancy, you will immediately have more structure.

Two of the key elements of good memory systems are association and hierarchy. While this aids with memory, it also has an important, sometimes unnoticed, benefit: Clarity!

If you categorise your thoughts and structure them according to levels of importance, you will naturally create a hierarchy associated to the correct Key Ideas. When you then return to a Mind Map that is categorised according to the Basic Ordering Ideas, with important points as the main branches and lesser important, or details, on the sub-branches, you will naturally be able to recall the event.

The recall is often with such clarity that it is scary.

So, how do you bring structure to an unstructured situation?

There are three ways to take down notes.

1. Take them down simply as they occur
2. Take them down and structure them as they occur
3. Take them down with the intention of restructuring later

All of these approaches are much easier if you are using Mind Map Software to take down your notes.

If you are not able to structure your notes during the meeting, you have to visit the notes afterwards and restructure it according to Basic Ordering Ideas. Revisiting the minutes soon after the meeting also serves to refresh your memory and increase your ability to remember and recall it later.

The Next Meeting

By restructuring the Mind Map, you will also provide a good structure for the next meeting. So, when reviewing the minutes at your next meeting, the attendees will be faced with a well structured Mind Map that reflects the outcomes of the previous meeting.

By going over this with them, you will get the whole group on ‘the same page’. You will also have a structure for the current meeting. By simply using this Mind Map to run the current meeting, you will naturally have structure and find that when you visit the minutes after the meeting to restructure it, you will probably have very little to do.

You will also find that your meeting will also be more effective, as you will have clarity.

You would have created structure out of an unstructured situation. If you have never structured your Mind Maps according to Basic Ordering Ideas before, you may be pleasantly surprised by the results. Your Mind Maps should have more clarity and more purpose. They should also be easier to recall and easier to understand.

I’ve used meeting notes, or minutes, to illustrate the value of structuring your notes. The concept of Basic Ordering Ideas, is very important if you are studying, presenting, or writing. By organising your Mind Maps into a structure, you will not only be able to remember the material better, but also convey it better to your audience, whether they be your readers, your examiner, or simply the attendees of your meeting.

Comments on are most welcome on my blog, MindMapTutor.com. I’d like to hear your experiences with Mind Maps. It also allows me to address any issues, or problems you may have with Mind Maps. The chances are good that others will be having the same problems. Your problem could then become the feature of a future article.

While MindMapTutor.com is devoted to tutoring you in the use of Mind Maps and also tutoring you with the use of Mind Maps, I’ve started a more general website on Using Mind Maps. Have a look.

Arie de Geus

‘Your ability to learn faster than your competitor may be your only sustainable competitive advantage’, is a quote by Arie de Geus that I often use because of the great message it carries.

Arie de Geus gets my admiration because he is not a pure academic only. He started out in ‘the real world’ and progressed to management in Royal Dutch Shell, retiring after working there for 38 years.

He was largely responsible for developing the concept of the learning organisation. His reputation as an academic came after his publication ‘Planning as learning’ in the Harvard Business Review in 1988.

This is rather different to the many management consultants and academics and is best explained by an extract from Arie de Geus’ Website:

“…Business books fall into two main categories. By far the largest is written by academics and consultants, people who tend to be long on theory but short on real-world management experience. Less frequent are memoirs and “how to” guides written by career managers, in which anecdote too often substitutes for insight. There are, however, notable exceptions to the memoir rule. Books such as Alfred Sloan’s My Years at General Motors (1963) and The Living Company (1997) by Arie de Geus, former Shell manager, demonstrate that some multi-talented managers can cross the divide…”

My advice

While I don’t profess to be an Arie de Geus, my articles and advice are largely based on my own experience with Mind Maps and Mind Mapping in the business world, as well as in my studies. The MindMapTutor concept came into being with a collaboration with my wife. She was (and according to her, still is) a teacher. This collaboration enables both a practical, pragmatic approach as well as a strong academic base.

I work in the Information Technology sector and worked for many years as a contractor/consultant, being paid purely for my knowledge and skills in a fast changing career. A career, which needs constant, hard work to keep up to date and even harder work to stay ahead of the pack.

Even though I am a Senior Manager today, I still need to stay up to date with the latest thinking and happenings to ensure that I am constantly implementing world class solutions that deliver a competitive advantage.

Subscribing to the principles of Lifelong Learning is therefore of the utmost importance. If you want to be more successful in your field, starting with a lifelong learning mindset will already give you an advantage, as most people are complacent and coast along.

Leonardo da Vinci

Mind Maps are the ideal vehicle to manage your lifelong learning. It will not only enable you to learn faster, but also provide a link network in your brain that ensures that you start seeing the relationship between various disciplines. This is exactly how the great geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci thought. Da Vinci was a multi-disciplined individual and probably one of the greatest minds that ever lived.

If you have a look at some of his notes, you will see that he used a non-linear form of note taking that included words, images and symbols.

While his notes involved both the logical left brain and the creative right brain, they were not Mind Maps.

The Mind Map

The Mind Map is simply a more organised form of non linear note taking that involves the whole brain.

It is for this reason that I use Mind Maps in my everyday life. I use it for everything from brainstorming to running meetings, from project management to speeches.

I use Mind Maps in both my personal, academic and work life and have been doing this for nearly two decades.

Learning with Mind Maps

In the next few articles, I will be covering the use of Mind Maps in the learning process. This will give you an insight into learning faster than your competitors. Armed with this skill, you will be able to sustain a competitive advantage.

My use of Mind Maps may not always meet the Mind Map Principles of Tony Buzan, but neither did Leonardo da Vinci’s notes.

I look forward to sharing my knowledge of how I use Mind Maps to learn faster and maintain my competitive advantage in the next few articles.

Please feel free to add your comments, if you have similar experiences learning with Mind Maps. And please pass this on, if you feel somebody can benefit by being able to learn faster and easier.

Philosophical

Since November last year, my articles focused quite a bit on my philosophy of success. Philosophical discussions are often controversial and spark lots of debate, but it’s something I quite like.

You should perhaps also develop your ‘own philosophy of life’. This will ensure that there is always a higher purpose for everything that you do.

Getting Practical

During the first few articles of this year, it started to get more practical, where you actually had to define what it is you wanted to achieve and by when.

Last week’s article on Goal Setting gave a practical method for setting the goals based on the roles and goals article of the previous week.

This week I would like to focus on using Mind Maps to monitor and reach your milestones.

What is a Milestone?

Before, we go any further, let’s look at what a milestone means and how it is used in this context.

The free online dictionary defines a milestone as follows:

1. A stone marker set up on a roadside to indicate the distance in miles from a given point.
2. An important event, as in a person’s career, the history of a nation, or the advancement of knowledge in a field; a turning point.

We use the concept loosely to indicate a marker or a goal you want to achieve sometime in the future.

By having small wins along the way, you are able to achieve the big wins. The article on SMART goals goes into more detail about this.

On your Goals Mind Map, you will probably have the final outcome of what you would like to achieve. You now need to Mind Map smaller victories on the way to achieving the big goal.

By having smaller successes, you will remain positive and believe that you are on track in achieving the big goal.

How to map your milestones

Many people use a giant year planner to do this. Others use a diary. I suggest you use a Mind Map. A single page Mind Map can give you a high level view of your goals in one glance. You can review whether you are on track or not within a few minutes.

I suggest you structure the Mind Map in the following way:

• Have a nice image in the centre of the Mind Map. Use something that represents success, or winning.
• Draw four branches coming out of this central image, one for each quarter.
• Divide each quarter into months.
• Put the details of your goals into the relevant month.

You now have a framework to map out the whole year’s goals.

Each month should have what you want to achieve and by when. Looking at your Mind Map at any point in time will give you a quick overview of whether you are on track or not.

By setting the milestones of what you want to achieve in the future, you create a yardstick by which to measure yourself. As the old management cliché goes: What you can’t measure, you can’t manage.

What happens when you miss a milestone?

Firstly, don’t worry about it. If you used the Mind Map properly, you would have seen it coming. Even if you didn’t use the Mind Map properly, you can simply cross off the milestone and set it for some time in the future. You will also quickly be able to see the impact on future milestones that may be dependent on the milestone that you’ve missed. Simply move them to the appropriate month.

You can also write down the reason for missing the milestone. Be honest, even if it was due to negligence or ‘laziness’. This will give you a good picture of your behaviour. Only you can decide whether you want to change your behaviour or not.

Messy Mind Maps

Some people feel that this gets quite messy. If you used a big enough page, it is normally okay to look messy, as the benefits of having a full history, with reasons, on one page outweigh the negatives of being too messy.

If you think it is too messy, you can simply redraw your Mind Map monthly, or even quarterly. The old Mind Maps can then be filed and serve as your history.

Another good way to overcome this, is to use Mind Map Software. Mind Map software gives you all sorts of freedom to manage your Mind Maps in the way you want to, as they are so easy to edit.

I’ve attached a PDF Mind Map Template, with the quarters and months already filled in, for you to download and print. If it gets too messy, you can simply print a new one.

Go ahead, set those milestones now and get on the road to success.

Remember, you can comment on any of the articles on MindMapTutor.com to communicate your opinions to the world.

Click here to download Mind Map PDF Template.

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?

Why Mind Map Tutor?

Before I answer the question, ‘Why Mind Map Tutor’, I give you the Collins Dictionary definition of a tutor: ‘A Teacher; usually instructing individuals and often engaged privately.’

You should feel that you are being personally tutored by the information on this website.

My love for Mind Mapping and what it did for me, gave me the idea to share this information with as many people as possible. What better way than via the Internet?

Your ability to learn faster than your competition is your only sustainable competitive advantage – Arie De Geus

I believe that Mind Maps are the most effective tool to accomplish this with the least amount of effort.

By using Mind Maps you will be able to increase your net worth, by being able to learn faster than your competition. In this world of information explosion, Mind Maps can help you organise and categorise complex information in a simple, associative and memorable way.

You will also be able to reduce the large volumes of information out there into meaningful and manageable chunks. Mind Maps are also colourful, stimulating and fun!

With Mind Maps you will also be able to learn:

• How to improve memory
• How to improve writing
• How to improve reading
• How to improve communication
• How to improve learning
• How to improve study skills
• And much more…

We will provide lots of Free Mind Map articles, share our thoughts and experiences in the use of Mind Maps and also provide Mind Map Tools and Guides to help you in your Career, Business, Education and Personal Life.

We trust that you will enjoy and learn from the information on MindMapTutor.com. So bookmark us, or sign up for our Weekly Newsletter at YourWeeklyTutor.com to stay updated and informed.

Faizel Mohidin
January 2010

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.

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