Among the various tools of brainstorming, mind-mapping has been the most popular and common among life coaches all around the world. Whether it is for setting up your goals or taking action on achieving them, mind-mapping works on both aspects. Whether it is to create something from scratch or to resolve issues in already established ideas, mind mapping is an efficient tool for both. There are various benefits of mind-mapping but before we get into that we need to understand what is mind-mapping and how this tool exactly works.
What is Mind-Mapping?
Mind-mapping is a graphical representation of the brainstorming you do around a central idea. The process to use the mind-mapping tool is simple. Mind-mapping starts with one central idea and whatever related information or ideas you have around that central idea are noted down around that idea displayed as different branches. Similar ideas are grouped under one branch. This helps you get all information and creative ideas on one screen to view in one glance.
The Benefits of Mind-Mapping as a Tool for Coaching
- Makes learning meaningful – Mind- Mapping promotes conceptual learning instead of rote learning. When graphically represented the connections between the ideas come our clearer and stronger. This makes learning more meaningful.
- Increases Creativity- One of the benefits of mind-mapping is that is promotes and increases creative thinking abilities. Mind mapping allows you to expand on ideas using trigger words. It creates association between the ideas which helps you to identify connections that were not visible otherwise.
- Helps with Memorization- When you see connections between your ideas it becomes easier to memorize the concepts. Rote learning is a formula of past and now it is important to understand the concepts and connections to work on ideas.
- Simplifies – The greatest benefit of mind mapping that I have found though is that it simplifies complex ideas, connections, processes and problems. When all the aspects of a particular concepts are laid out in front of you with all possible connections and the representations show you how each idea is derived it simplifies even the most complex problems.
How can you use Mind-Mapping to achieve your goals?
When we talk about coaching , most of us refer to coaching for goal achievement. So, let us now see how mind-mapping can help you have clearer goals and also a well defined path to achieve them.
Steps to follow:
- Right your goal in the centre of the page
- From the left side start building on paths that can lead to it from separate directions
- To the right start building how achieving this goal will affect your life.
- On the bottom set up alternative goals or opportunity cost
- On the top list the obstacles that you may face and skills that you need.
- Feel free to branch out anything you see relevant to the goal.
Example of mind-mapping:
