February 2, 2020 | by David March.
A mind map are very useful tool when strategically planning out your career goals. It can also be used as a long-range view of what needs to get done. The best part is that you can always add to your mind-map as more connections or associations toward your goal come up.
Mind mapping could also be used as a brainstorming tool. Let’s say you’re looking to discover your next career move. You can write down all the possible ways you can grow in your career. Various possible directions will emerge. You can grow within your company, go to a different department, go to a different company doing the same thing, or transition to a career that you have a skillset in but are unfamiliar with the industry. You might even want to start your own business. The more you write down, the greater the possibility of getting something that really works for you.
Mind Maps Help You See the Big Picture
Mind maps integrate all your major action ideas and thoughts into one picture. They are a visual illustration of concepts and ideas as a complex structure comprised of boxes or circles that are connected with linking words or phrases arranged around a central concept.
This exercise essentially encourages “day-dreaming.” This is what Albert Einstein used to call “thought experiments.” Doing this helps create your big picture or central idea when making your mind map. After you have defined it, write down all the ideas for action you have about this central idea.
There are a couple rules when doing this type of brain-storming:
- Do not criticize ideas
- Encourage producing a wide array of ideas
- Build upon other existing ideas
- Motivate sharing wild and unconventional ideas
The more possibilities you can develop, the greater the probability you will find one that resonates with you.
Mind Maps Promote Organic Development
Joseph Campbell likened the process of mind mapping to a tree growing.
The tree doesn’t know where it’s growing next. A branch may grow out this way, then that way, and then another way. If you just let it be and don’t have pressures from outside, when you look back, you’ll see that this has all been an organic development. (Reflections on the Art of Living, Joseph Campbell, p. 70)
As Campbell suggests, write down all the different ways you can accomplish your central goal. Creating this tree of possibilities will bring forth the one right path for you to achieve success.
Keep in mind the idea of organic development. No choice is a wrong choice as long as it’s your choice, you have thought it out carefully, and it’s meaningful to you.
So where did concept mapping and mind mapping come from? It was developed by the American professor and science researcher Joseph D. Novak and his team from Cornell University in the 1970s. The technique is based on the meaningful learning theory by American psychologist David Paul Ausubel. In the beginning, the maps were developed to improve and facilitate the process of learning science. In his theory Ausubel declared that
“The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows”.
That being said, when creating mind-maps it’s always best to start with what you know and branch out from there.
The General Benefits of Mind Mapping
- If you ever find yourself becoming overwhelmed trying to remember and manage large amounts of information, the mind map holds it all together on one page (similar to a flow chart.)
- If you have trouble organizing, mind maps can help you with that. Mind maps hold all the important pieces of information you are looking for in one big picture.
- If you struggle to remember key concepts and critical pieces to your academic, business, or career success, the mind map connects them into one comprehensive image.
- If you want to align with your brain’s natural working pattern and maximize the way you learn, think, and create. Mind maps connect ideas of action to your big agenda items.
- If you are creating your own big picture or long-range plan, and you are establishling your central ideas, then creating the small steps to success.
- If the breakdown of exactly how to get the destination motivates you and you would like to graphically express the pains and gains of a situation.
There are many software systems that will help you create these on your own however a coach would be able to manage the process with you and skillfully use it as a map for your career success. It’s your decision. The opportunity awaits.
If this sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to set-up a coaching session with me to get to the next level.
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