Whatever the reason, there’s a way of unearthing the hidden dream within that sets your spirit on fire. The process is called “mind-mapping.”
A mind map is a diagram of words, ideas, tasks, etc. connected to the central idea in your mind. Simply focus on an idea, regardless of how clear or vague it might be, and start drawing the diagram of whatever related idea comes to your mind.
This method of thinking and planning was popularized by British psychology author Tony Buzan, and is used in schools, business companies, non-profit organizations, therapy sessions, and in just about any situation. It’s a method you can use to help you figure out what to do with your life.
To give you a better idea of what a mind map looks like, below is a mind map of how to make a mind map!
Source: Illumine Training, http://www.mind-mapping.co.uk/make-mind-map.htm
Some people have called the process of mind-mapping as “mind dumping”. It isn’t far from the truth, for the exercise will make you spew out every random thought you have in your mind at the moment. Hidden among those random pieces is your powerful dream for your life, which will reflect who you’re
truly meant to be. You just need to “decode” what your random thoughts mean.
Mind-mapping is an amazingly versatile thinking tool for helping you discern profoundly important things in life, like what your life’s vocation should be, or how you’ll live according to your values. It’s useful for those times when you’re too emotionally or mentally distracted to think.
You can also use the same exercise to think through a variety of situations, whether it’s for your own business, personal finances, career, spiritual growth, health, or something as mundane as tomorrow’s to-do list.
Source: Government of South Australia – There’s More to It than You Think
website, http://www.theresmoretoit.com.au/MyFuture/MyValues.aspx
Here are a few simple steps you can follow to create the mind map of your values and life’s direction:
Step 1. Get a large, clean sheet of paper, and colored pens or crayons (at least 3 different colors).
Step 2. At the center of the paper, write down a key word or phrase that would represent your ideal self, or a happy future. Aim to use words that would best illustrate how you would feel about attaining your ideal self or future, whether or not you’re clear on what it is. Be funny and forthright. Examples: “Gorgeous Me”, “Millionaire Me”, “Superstar Athlete”, “Top
Student” and so on. To further illustrate the importance of this key idea, go ahead and enclose the words in a colorful line drawing, like a sunburst outline, flower, exclamation point, etc. Step 3. Time to dump out random thoughts and associations! Look at your key phrase for a while. What comes to mind when you think of this concept? Is there a specific aspect of your life, or a particular task, that you suddenly feel needs to be addressed in connection with you or your future? Think, for there’s likely more than one answer to the question. And have fun! Be honest and humorous in your answers.
Every time an answer comes to mind, write it down on the paper, somewhere beside your central drawing or keyword. (Try keeping your description of the answer short.) Draw a colorful line to connect this answer to the central drawing.
Step 4. Try to write your answers around the central drawing, in a radial fashion. Eventually your central idea will have idea branch-lines radiating out of it.
Step 5. If you suddenly think of ideas that seem to be
subtopics of ideas previously written, write that down beside the first idea, and draw a sub-branching line to connect the ideas together.
Step 6. As you go along, the structure that should develop would be a radiant hierarchy. Your main answers would be connected directly to your central drawing, with their connected minor ideas radiating out like smaller branches from each of them.