Mind Mapping for planning, goal setting and creativity!
/
Featured TBLI – Michael James aka Aussie Mike
A nice piece on my association with the late great Tony Buzan , creator of the mind mapping process and my role as an accredited Buzan mind mapping instructor. Send me a message if you would like to learn more about how to use Mind Mapping techniques for business planning, goal setting and as a creativity tool.
Facebook – Mike James
Twitter – @aussiemikejames
Instagram – Aussie Mike
Website – www.aussiemikejames.com
About Me
My first experience with mind mapping was at a workshop I attended at the Disney Institute in Orlando Florida in 2008. Mind Mapping was mentioned as one of the best methods to invoke creative thinking. I was immediately attracted to a number of the key elements of mind mapping including the use of different colours, images, flowing curvilinear connections emanating from a central idea and branches for related ideas.
All of this seemed to me to be a far more effective use of creativity compared to other methods like brainstorming. So after further investigation and reading some of Tony Buzan’s books I immediately started using mind mapping for both my work and professional life. Indeed mind mapping became an integral part of my daily life not only for creative tasks but also for meetings, personal goal setting and even the routine tasks of management like yearly staff evaluations, marketing plans etc.
Suffice to say mind mapping was definitely the best tool I had at my disposal and contributed significantly to my successful career as General Manager of the World Bank Fitness Centres and as a freelance speaker and writer.
For me the effectiveness of mind mapping was clearly demonstrated in 2 ways.
1) Audience Feedback from my presentations at National Fitness Industry conferences always mentioned mind mapping as the key learning takeaway for future use.
2) I was recently informed that nearly 18 months after my retirement at the World Bank my use of mind mapping was mentioned multiple times as the most effective marketing and meeting tool by staff I had previously managed.
There is no doubt that mind mapping will continue to be a major part of my daily activities during my semi-retirement and future consulting , speaking and writing goals.
My connection to Tony
I first met Tony Buzan albeit very briefly after he spoke at a one day workshop in New York City in 2009.
Our next meeting was of a more personal nature in September 2014 when I attended the TLI accreditation in New York. After introducing myself to the group and mentioning that I was very big boxing fan and had taught the skills for fitness programs for many years Tony made a point of seeking me out. To my surprise he too was a big Boxing fan.
In our discussion we discussed how Muhammad Ali was ahead of his time in using visualisation as a key part of his success. Tony also mentioned in passing that Great Britain had a very promising young Heavyweight named Anthony Joshua who he predicted would soon become heavyweight Champion of the World.
Sure enough a little over 2 years later Tony’s wisdom shone through as Anthony Joshua duly became World heavyweight Champion of the World.
As analogous as it may seem, boxing perhaps the most deleterious of sports for brain health was a bonding agent in my relationship with the great Tony Buzan.
My plans for the next 12 months
Since my retirement from Full time employment in December of 2017 I have been working extensively with Parkinson’s patients at Virginian Outpatient therapy teaching boxing classes. My goal is to introduce mind mapping as a creative tool to aid in their rehabilitation and mind therapy program.
I also plan to commence writing a book I have planned on my experiences Managing Corporate Fitness Centres in Australia and the USA.
Send me a message if you would like to learn more about how to use Mind Mapping techniques for business planning, goal setting and as a creativity tool.