I can’t believe that it was a decade ago that we were talking about the next millennium. It was November 1999, with just over a month to go before every computer system in the world could be a potential time bomb. Just a month before that, I was on board a flight to The Netherlands with my wife Jasmine, my six year old son and my four month old daughter to embark on what was to be the biggest adventure of my life.

Having grown up on the ‘wrong side of the line’ in Apartheid South Africa, many opportunities were not freely available to me. I was 25 when Nelson Mandela was released in February 1990, after spending 27 years in prison. He was in jail my entire life. During this time we worked under many restrictions. There was job reservation, the Group Areas Act to keep people of ‘the same kind’ together and of course separate education.

Having passed high school with an average pass in a poor educational system, how was it possible to be able to secure a job as part of a ‘highly skilled’ migration initiative of a first world country? (I went to the Netherlands based on their shortage of ‘highly skilled’ information technology workers for the ‘millennium bug’.)

Before I continue, I want to make sure that you understand that this is not a romantic novel. When I speak of these achievements, it seems to take on a romantic flavour, which is purely unintentional. It was a lot of hard work to get to that point, but the process is simple – find something you love and become the best you can at it.

This simple philosophy enabled me, a previously disadvantaged individual with a poor education, to compete with the best on the international stage.

After Nelson Mandela was released from jail, my whole mindset had to change. While I was not an anti-apartheid activist of note, I was obviously affected by the politics of the country and made certain choices based on this. With Mandela’s release and impending changes in our country, I had to decide what the future would hold. I realised that I could no longer use the laws of the country as an excuse and should stop fighting the institution. I had to find a way to go forward.

Many of the anti-apartheid activists are very wealthy today because of the employment equity and black empowerment initiatives and not because of the contribution they made to society. This was not the route I wanted to follow.

Coincidentally a recent public spat between two ANC officials led one of them to say the following to the media:

‘Since 1994, I’ve seen many good comrades corrupted by power in government, business or both…’

This has validated my decision to earn by ‘giving’ first.

Luckily, I married my wife who was an educator at heart, (co-incidentally in the same year that Nelson Mandela was released). She has dedicated almost her whole adult life to learning and teaching. In fact, it is now 5.30 a.m. on a Saturday morning and she is busy studying while I am writing this.

She has not stopped learning. But more importantly, she has not stopped teaching. Even though she is no longer a school teacher, she is still involved in education, as she now works as an Education Specialist in the Parliament of South Africa.

She taught me the value of lifelong learning and introduced me to Mind Maps. I then became the ‘evangelist’ of Mind Mapping and started using it everywhere, from motivation to goal setting, from time management to memory, from note taking to note making. There was almost nothing I did that wasn’t affected by Mind Mapping.

Mind Mapping enabled me to also get onto the bandwagon of lifelong learning.

It enabled me to go from 1994, when the first democratically elected government was put in place, to The Netherlands in 1998 as a Senior Oracle Database Administrator, passing all the technical tests and requirements to work with a team of Database Administrators from all over the world. It also enabled me to get a Dutch second language diploma within a year.

While my stance did not bring me tons of wealth, it enabled me to experience things that money could not buy.

It was not my intention to give an autobiographical account when I started writing this article, but I hope that it could add some value to your life. I’ve therefore decided not to edit it out.

Let’s get back to the topic at hand, preparing for 2010. I am really going to try and convince you that you need to embark on a programme of lifelong learning. We are so serious about this that we’ve actually developed a Learning Management Programme, that covers a broad spectrum of learning and learning how to learn.

The programme was tested on individuals as well as in the classroom and has now been put online. This has been proven to be more difficult than I imagined, but it is beginning to shape up nicely. We will probably be honing it and improving it for years to come. While it may not make us rich, it does fit into our ’stubborn philosophy’ of first giving before getting.

This was also not meant to be a sales letter. Those of you that have been following my weekly articles for the last year,  will know that this is not a weekly sales letter. It is simply my attempt to use my knowledge and experience to add value to as many people’s lives as possible.

The following topics are covered in our Learning Management Programme. I am going through them here so that you can use this knowledge to develop your own Learning Management Programme if you want to. You can do this by research, as most of the information can be found on the Internet or in various books. Of course, you could also join our Programme and get access to all of this in one place!

It is important to note that spending some time on how you are going to manage your learning will be time well spent.

Motivation to Learn

Motivation is obviously one of the most important, if not the most important, aspects of learning. You need to find out how you can become motivated and stay motivated to achieve what you want to in life. Beware of the motivational tricks offered by many of the motivational gurus, which leaves you ‘pumped up’ while watching them or reading their books, but actually gets you to take no action.

if you’ve ever encountered some of them and felt that you are going to change the world after that, yet remained exactly where you were a few months later, then you know exactly what I mean.

Time Management

There are many time management theories out there. All of them work. Pick One! Picking a method and using it is the best advice I can give you. No, it is the second best advice. The best advice is ‘Things which are more important should never be at the mercy of things which are less important!’

Reading

While you have been reading all your life, how much time have you spent improving your reading skills? Are you still using the same reading methods you used when you where seven years old?

Improving your reading skills is one of the biggest investments in yourself that you can make. With the information overload today, it’s not a case of having access to too little information, it’s a case of having access to too much information! By improving your reading speed and comprehension, you will be able to get through more, understand more and remember more.

Note Taking

By now you should obviously know that I promote Mind Mapping as a note taking method. If you are still using boring linear notes, then Mind Mapping or any other method that introduces colour, imagination and spatial awareness will drastically improve your results.

Mind Maps engage both the left brain and right brain, both the logical and creative side of your brain. I have written a lot about this on MindMapTutor.com.

Perfect Memory

Many scientists believe that our memory is actually perfect. By learning how to improve your memory, you will be able to remember more with less effort. While you may not get to reach the perfect memory state, any improvement will give you an advantage in life.

Learning Methods

There are tons of Learning and Study Methods around. Once again, I recommend that you choose one and work through it. They are like diets. All of them work, but you have to stick to it to make it work.

Exam Technique

If you plan to embark on any formal learning, then learning some exam techniques can really ensure that you get the best results possible. Many learners focus on ‘putting the information in’ and very little time on how to get it out.

Learning these techniques can be beneficial to you whether you are studying formally or informally, as you still have to recall what you put in.

Sound Mind, Sound Body

Looking after your physical and mental state is of the utmost importance. You can do everything else right, but if you ignore this, you are bound to achieve below your true potential.

I really hope that this inspires you to put together a plan for 2010 as soon as possible. Explore some of the concepts in this article and then choose a subject that you love, put a plan together and learn as much as you are capable of throughout the year.

The rewards will come…

Finally, I leave you with a quote that I’ve used frequently and sums up a lot of what I am trying to teach:

Your ability to learn faster than your competitors may be your only sustainable competitive advantage – Arie de Geus.

He describes the brain as a Radiant Thinking Association Machine with five major functions:

• Receiving
• Holding
• Analysing
• Outputting
• Controlling

These five functions support and reinforce each other. The first three are expressed by the fourth, while the fifth function keeps everything together.

How well does your thinking methods support the above functions?

Tony Buzan goes on to say that the inherent weaknesses of traditional note making and note taking systems leave our brains in quandary. He also differentiates between note making and note taking. Note making is making notes of your own ideas and note taking is making notes of other people’s ideas. I will use the terms interchangeably, as the principles I would like you to apply are the same for both note making and note taking. Also, the best notes should be a combination of your thoughts and other people’s thoughts.

By analysing the ineffectiveness of traditional linear notes, we can appreciate the need to use a system that works with our brains rather than against them.

Let’s do a short exercise. Review your own notes that you’ve made for any of the following purposes:

• Memory
• Communication
• Innovation and Creativity
• Planning
• Analysis
• Decision Making
• Time Management
• Problem Solving
• Any other reasons.

Are they on lined paper, in a single coloured pen?

If your answer is ‘Yes’, then your notes probably have the following symptoms:

• No Visual Rhythm
• No Patterns
• Lack of Colour
• Little Imagination
• Minimal Visualisation
• One dimensional
• Absence of spatial awareness
• No Gestalt or big picture
• Little association between ideas

It is therefore not surprising that the following comes to mind when looking at linear notes:

• Boring
• Punishment
• Headaches
• Finger Cramps
• Homework
• Exams
• Time Wasting
• Failure
• Rigidity
• Depression
• Fear
• Study
• Etc.

It should not be surprising that normal, linear monotone notes are simply monotonous. After all ‘monotone‘ is the root of monotonous!

What does the brain do when things become monotonous and boring? It tunes out, turns of and goes to sleep.

We therefore end up with a global ’sleeping sickness’ in response to learning.

Tony Buzan is very critical of this. In fact, this is what he writes in ‘The Mind Map Book’:

‘…We need only look at libraries in schools, universities, towns and cities around the world. What are half the people doing in those libraries? Sleeping! Our places of learning are becoming giant public bedrooms!…’

Our brains are in quandary. We have a dilemma on our hands.

Linear notes are largely responsible for this dilemma

Linear notes have four major disadvantages:

• They obscure the Key Words
• They make it difficult to remember
• They waste time
• They fail to stimulate the brain creatively

The main reason that linear notes have this disadvantage is that it does not allow our ‘left brain’ and our ‘right brain’ to interact with each other in a way that stimulates learning and engages our whole brain. Our note taking system actually encourages us to reject and forget.

Radiant Thinking

As I stated above, Tony Buzan calls this ‘The Major Evolution in Human Thought’.

Think about what happens in the brain when you experience any of the following:

• The smell of a ripe fruit
• The smell of fresh flowers
• Listening to music
• Watching a stream, river, or the ocean’s waves
• Touching a loved one
• Daydream

Is your answer both simple and yet extremely complex?

Each piece of information in your brain can be seen as the centre around which an unlimited number of other thoughts and ideas can radiate.

I covered the brain’s amazing powers in my article, ‘The Mind’s Unknown Potential’ on MindMapTutor.com.

Each thought, or idea, can be seen as a hook to which more things can be attached. This array of hooks acts as your memory bank, your database, your library.

The stronger the associations between these hooks are enforced, the easier it will be to tap into any of them at any time.

This Map of thoughts can be seen as a gigantic, Branching Association Machine, which strangely enough looks remarkably similar to the neurons, which make up the brain.

The more you learn to gather information in the way that the brain works. i.e. in an integrated, radiating, organised manner, the easier it is to learn more.

Radiant thinking therefore refers to associative thought processes that proceed from, or connect to a central point.

Mind Maps are an expression of Radiant Thinking

The third function of the brain stated above, is ‘outputting‘. If you think of a Mind Map, you will see the following:

• A Central Image or Theme
• Main Themes radiating out from the central theme
• Sub Themes radiating out from the main themes
• Branches as a subcentres of association
• Branches forming a connected nodal structure

The Mind Map is therefore an external representation of Radiant Thinking.

Even though it is drawn on a two dimensional surface, a Mind Map is a multidimensional representation of your thoughts, encompassing space, time and colour.

By using Mind Maps, you will naturally begin to not only use the amazing storage capacity of the brain, but also increase its storage efficiency. By increasing its storing efficiency, you will increase its storage capacity, as storing information efficiently multiplies your storage capacity.

The Way Forward

If you haven’t used Mind Maps before, you can do our Free Introductory course, which uses tangible objects to illustrate the principles. We feel this is necessary before you go on to more abstract thinking.

MindMapTutor.com also has many examples of Mind Maps which conform largely to the Principles of Tony Buzan. Look at these examples and start applying them in your daily life.

The Mind Maps on this site were created with iMindMap, but there are many other software packages, including free ones, that can take your Mind Mapping to another level.

Perhaps, my experiences with Mind Map software can be the topic of another article…

I would like to start by stating upfront that this is not a defence of Mind Maps. Mind Maps and Mind Mapping, like any other technique, has its champions and its detractors.

Tony Buzan, the inventor of the Mind Map, goes to great lengths to prove that linear is bad and Mind Maps are good. Yet many successful people all over the world still use linear methods to great effect.

My take on the matter is this: Take out of it whatever works for you, and discard what doesn’t. Tony Buzan, uses the analogy of the ancient Martial Arts’ story of students first having to accept what the master says without questioning anything, apply the principles themselves and then only adapt it to suit themselves.

In this way, students not only become the new masters, but become better than the masters. You cannot know if Mind Mapping works without trying it. Debating and questioning whether it works will never give you the correct answer. It will just enforce what you already believe.

Coming back to the concerns in the email, I would just like to summarise the concerns that the writer had.

He was concerned that:

• There was no advantage of the Mind Map over just clustering what seems to be the Key subject
• A Mind Map takes so much energy to fill in the space that others cannot understand your Mind Maps
• Mind Maps of 10 years ago cannot be understood, even by the creator as only a skeleton is there

These are all valid concerns. Let’s look at them one by one.

Clustering

I wrote an article a while ago called when is a Mind Map not a Mind Map? This also sparked a lot of debate. While I believe that Tony Buzan’s approach of a central image and branches radiating out from the central image creates structure and order, yet maintaining creativity, many people use clustering to great effect.

If clustering works for you use it. If you feel that it’s becoming chaotic, get closer to the Mind Map Principles.

Others cannot understand your Mind Map

I admit that a Mind Map containing only Key Words is very difficult to read by another person. It takes a lot of energy to ‘rebuild’ what the creator of the Mind Map intended.

I solve this in two ways:

1. I add more than key words to my branches. In my article on Mind Map Principles, I state that this is the Mind Mapping principle that I break the most frequently. I do this to make it easier for others to read my Mind Map. Most of my personal Mind Maps still use Keys Words as Key Words have the ability to radiate out in many different ways, stimulating creativity.
2. I give a linear text summary with my Mind Maps. I think this is quite a unique approach, but many people have commended me on my Mind Map summaries. Tim Goodenough, one of the authors of ‘In the Zone with South Afria’s sports heroes’ had the following to say about my article How to improve performance with Mind Maps – In the Zone:
   

   “Can I just say that very few people have been able to capture the essence of “In the Zone” as succinctly and as effectively as you have here.

   The combination of Mindmap and explanations that go beyond what was described in the book show a deep and rich understanding of what we were trying to get across, and as one of the authors can I say thank you for this great introduction to our work.

   Thank you for your great feedback, our hope was to be able to get this information ‘out there’ so that people reading the book can take as much or as little as they wanted, but still walk away with something meaningful that they can apply in their life.

   Warm regards
   Tim Goodenough”

Another way to solve this problem, would be the approach that Adam Sicinski of IQ Matrix uses. He provides detailed Mind Maps on many topics using a unique Mind Mapping approach. His Mind Maps can be used by anybody, as it ‘reads like a book’. There are many free Mind Maps on his sight for you to download and try.

I’ve decided to go the Mind Map summary route by providing the Key Concepts in a Mind Map, as well as a linear summary. I feel that it’s easier for most people to follow and remember, as the linear method is so entrenched in them. This method provides the best of both worlds.

This article mainly covers Mind Maps and memory as that was the gist of the email. There are many other applications of Mind Maps, of which many can be found on MindMapTutor.com. Here are a few applications of Mind Maps:

• Motivation
• Goal Setting
• Time Management
• Study Methods
• Memory
• Recall
• Writing
• Presentations
• Brain Storming
• Problem Solving
• And Much more…

Old Mind Maps cannot be understood, even by the creator

This may be true for Mind Maps that only use Key Words. If one of the two methods above were used, the Mind Maps would be understood without any problems.

Choosing the correct Key Words is essential. If the Mind Map was done for recall purposes, it is important that the Key Words chosen are the ones that trigger the correct recall. If you choose the incorrect Key Words, you could trigger an entirely different train of thought. While this may be good for creative pieces, it is terrible for learning and studying.

Key Words are important enough to be studied as a subject on its own. I will post a future article on Key Words to guide you in choosing and using Key Words.

In the meantime, I recommend that you use the principles Accept, Apply, Adapt. And don’t forget that I offer a free course on the basic principles of Mind Mapping. The course also gives you templates and uses free Mind Mapping software, which you can download and start using immediately.

Enrol now, it won’t cost you anything and there are no strings attached. It’s not often that an opportunity like this comes along!

Until next time…