Mind Mapping
Written by Brian Johnson
"I wish to work miracles..."nn~ Leonardo da Vinci, The Archetype of Human Potential
Are you right-brained? Left-brained? Or whole-brained?
You can probably guess that our pal Leonardo da Vinci maximized his creativity through “whole-brain” thinking.
Michael Gelb, in his genius book, “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci,” breaks down an awesome process called “mind mapping.”
It’s basically all about mirroring nature.
Most of us were taught to capture our ideas in a very linear fashion using some form of an outline (think: Roman numeral “I” followed by “A” then “1” then “2” then “B”…etc, etc.).
Now, that’s fine once you’ve already generated most of your ideas, but it’s far from ideal when you’re trying to get the ball rolling in the initial problem solving/idea-generating phase!
The ideal?
Imagine a flower. Draw a picture of the sun.
If you’ve studied neuro-science or seen a picture of a brain cell, you know that each cell has a center (neuron) with radiating petals, or rays (dendrites).
This, in its simplest form, is what mind-mapping is all about. According to creativity gurus like Gelb and Tony Buzan, if you’re looking to create ideas or generate creative solutions to problems, you’d be much better served to pay attention to how nature—and your own brain—operates and do your best to mirror that structure in order to maximize your creative potential.
What challenge are you faced with right now? Need to solve a business issue? Plan your vacation (always a good problem to have!)?
Take out a blank piece of paper. Write your question/challenge in the middle. Draw a circle around it. Now, think about ideas related to that challenge. Draw “spokes” out of the center—each with one idea on it and let your ideas flow…
Learn more @ Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map
Plus: Gelb’s How to Think like da Vinci provides a great intro to the subject.
If you’re looking for a more comprehensive source, I’d recommend you go straight to the guy who came up with the concept: Tony Buzan. His book, The Mind Map Book: How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize Your Brain's Untapped Potential is brilliant. (check his site at http://www.mind-map.com!)
Article author
About the Author
Brian Johnson is a (Professional) Student of Life. He used to build businesses. Now he’s building his life while inspiring and empowering others to discover and live at their highest potential.
In his past lives, Brian raised over $7.5 million to finance the two leading online social networks he created: eteamz and Zaadz.
As a 24-year-old law school dropout, Brian created eteamz —which he grew into a company that now (profitably) serves over 3 million teams and their families involved in youth athletics and counts Little League Baseball® as a client.
After selling eteamz in 2000, Brian spent a few years as a philosopher, immersing himself in philosophy, psychology, mysticism and optimal living. He created ThinkArete.com, a site where he began distilling the universal truths of optimal living. Over 10,000 people signed up to receive his daily newsletter, The Philosopher’s Notes, where he broke down the wisdom of his favorite teachers, showing how everyone (from Nietzsche to Buddha to Rumi) is saying the same thing.
In an effort to integrate his philosophical and entrepreneurial selves (yes, he’s a Gemini :) ), in 2004 Brian created Zaadz—a company named after the Dutch word for seed committed to leveraging world-class social networking tools to connect, inspire and empower people committed to transforming their lives and our planet. (Think: MySpace for people who want to change the world.)
Feeling the dharmic pull to immerse himself back into studying and living the universal truths, Brian sold Zaadz to Gaiam, Inc. (Nasdaq: GAIA) in the summer of 2007.
Before all of that, Brian graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from UCLA where he studied Psychology and Business. He’s been on MSNBC’s The Most with Alison Stewart, and has been quoted in The Wall Street journal (a couple times), The San Francisco Chronicle, and various other places on everything from philosophy to business to his vision on how to change the world.
He reads a lot and has fun integrating universal truths into his day-to-day life and also likes to hike, laugh, write, think, draw and teach. He’ll be re-launching ThinkArete.com later this year and publishing his first book: “Areté: The Ten Universal Principles to Living at Your Highest Potential” in early 2009. He’s 33.
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