Mind mapping is a great way to sort out your thoughts, cough up the contents of your brain, and gain perspective on whatever feels like it’s got you stuck. Give it a try and let me know the results by leaving a comment!
1. Get a blank sheet of paper at least 8.5 x 11.
2. Put the topic you’re feeling stuck about in the center of the page.
3. Let yourself go stream of consciousness and start writing all that comes to mind about your topic.
4. Put one stream of thought per branch and follow each branch until you’ve gotten everything about that thought stream out of your head and onto the paper.
5. Each time you finish a stream of thought go back to the main topic and ask yourself what else is rattling around in your head, thoughts and feelings that you can capture on the map.
6. When it seems you’ve come to a stop, take a few deep breaths and ask youself, ” What else?” to make sure you’ve gotten all you can out onto the paper.
7. Repeat this until your entire page is full or your head is empty, whichever comes first.
8. Below a quick example I whipped up in about 2 minutes regarding ideal clients, a topic many of my clients are curious about. Notice how stripped down it is – nothing fancy. Note that these are my personal misc. ramblings re: my ideal clients; all the places where it says “etc.” are places I would keep going if I was doing this map for reals instead of as an example.
9. Once you’ve completed the mind map, look at all the information in front you; you can see it’s like a big brain dump. You can now sort through it with colored pens or pencils and note which thoughts group themselves together, what patterns emerge, what themes are present. These patterns, themes, etc. can be used to let go of limiting beliefs, develop a plan for action, and take whatever step is next for you.
10. I’d love to see what you come up with – hit comments and/or email me a picture of what your map looks like, what you discovered, and what your next action is!
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