Mind Mapping: 6 Easy Steps to Get Unstuck
July 20, 2011
— As told to Jancee Dunn on Oprah.com
Lists often come from the organized, analytical left side of your brain, and to solve an intractable problem, you want to engage the right, the creative side. Make a mind map instead. Get a big piece of paper and start in the center with a circle that contains the original problem. Write different solutions, and follow paths outward on the page, limb by limb, pushing beyond the obvious. To plan a party, for example, I put “A great dinner party for friends” in the middle, and among the many branches, one went: “Make your own sundaes → mashed potatoes → have dessert first → sit on floor → indoor picnic.” Another branch went: “Progressive dinner → go to different restaurant for dessert(s) → show up at friends’ houses uninvited → scavenger hunt to find food.” A third: “Teach something → learn something → juggling → magic trick → expert invitee on food/wine.” Your to-do list will just get you from point A to B.
2. Hire a Coach
A lot of people tell me, “I’m a smart person; I don’t really need help.” When I hear that, I point out that Tiger Woods, perhaps the best player in the history of golf, has a coach. My first book came out in 2001, and I was approached by a speakers’ bureau that wanted to send me on tour, but I had done zero talks. So I got a coach. I spoke in 16 countries last year. Suddenly, I’m standing onstage with Deepak Chopra! I’ve got to tell you, for me to discover at age 45 that I could do this? That was a gift. A coach can bring out talents that you haven’t fully developed or ones that you might not even admit to yourself that you have.
3. Keep a Journal, But Not Just Any Journal
Good to Great author Jim Collins asked people who felt stuck, “What are you born to do? What are you passionate about?” A lot of them would look at him blankly. So he’d explain: As a kid, he was really into science and jotted down observations in lab notebooks. When he grew up, he worked at Hewlett-Packard—a great company—but he just wasn’t happy. While he was trying to figure a way out of his situation, he bought a new lab notebook, wrote his name on the front, and studied himself as if he were a bug, trying to understand what kind of bug was this thing called Jim. Each night he’d write the answer to this question: When during the day did I feel bored; when did I feel engaged? After a while, he noticed that his favorite moments involved teaching people. So he went off to do that and lived happily ever after. When you start paying attention to when you’re at your best (it can take a while to find a pattern), the results can open up unexpected new territory.
4. Blow Open Your Curiosity
Focus on what you love, but don’t limit yourself to only things that you love. Subscribe to new magazines, download podcasts on a topic that has nothing to do with your current life, go to lectures by people at the top of their field—even if you’ve never heard of their field, get books on tape, and follow websites that gather interesting information. (I get Cool News of the Day from Reveries.com and Trend Candy from TrendHunter.com.) If you’ve been banging your head against an obstacle, this kind of cross-pollination can get you over it.
5. Let No Idea Escape
Ideas are precious and fragile and tend to show up when we’re in the shower, in bed, or stuck in traffic. So we forget them. Try to capture 100 percent of your ideas—on your BlackBerry, in a notebook, on the back of receipts or boarding passes. Go for quantity. Defer judgment until later, when you start to sift through them. You’ll probably find that you have a thousand concepts—and most of them are bad. At IDEO, we start a brainstorming session on an empty whiteboard, and in the next 60 minutes we try to fill it with at least a hundred fresh ideas. (By the way, if you number the ideas as you go, no self-respecting brainstorm group would ever want to stop at number 97.) We’re happy if we come out with a few leads.
6. Find a Reverse Mentor
The world is changing at such a rapid rate that most people over 40 and certainly 50 (which is me) find it impossible to stay on top of developments that might contain the perfect solution to your family’s digital photos snafu or open you up to a job that would not only put your talents and skills to good use but thrill you. A reverse mentor—someone younger and more plugged in—can get you up to speed on new trends, pop culture, starting a social network account, or more substantial things. I have two reverse mentors. One, Diego, took me under his wing and helps me with blogging. What’s in it for the mentors? They’re building relationships, for starters. And, as we all know, you learn a subject more completely when you teach it to someone else.
Learn more about Vision Coaching and Mind Mapping
Dreams Come True with Oprah’s FREE “O Dream Board” Vision Board Software
May 16, 2011
Vision Boards take dreams and goals from imagination to reality.
“If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are right.”
Henry Ford
Research in something called mirror-neurons showed that neurologically, our minds cannot tell the difference between things we see that are real or those that are imagined. In one study, people who imagined practicing a sport improved as much as people who actually practiced.
The mind processes information better in images and when we can create in our imagination what we want, the mind works subconciosly to create it. This is how the Law of Attraction shown in the movie The Secret works to help you manifest what you desire.
For years I have been helping my clients create the life they want combining Visioning, Visualization and Business Planning combined. Now you can use the practical but effective method of creating a Vision Board quickly and easily online.
Get Started Now with FREE Vision Board software!
“Oprah’s O Dream Board”
NOTE: The software works well on PC but only in Firefox on a Mac.
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Turn Your Vision Board Into a Concrete Action Plan
Use FreeMind, the simple yet powerful FREE Mind-Mapping Software for goal setting to create a concrete plan to make your dreams come true.
Metaphysical Law of Attraction
May 15, 2011
A Story of Magical Manifesting
I’d like to share a personal story of one of the primary Metaphysical Laws I work with: Stepping out in Faith.
Recently I ran out of savings due to a construction problem in a cabin I have upstate on 9 acres. I wanted to start a new type of Mindfulness Skills Training to help regulate emotions which effect my health and did not have the money. It cost $275 for intake and $700/month which I did not have in my spending plan. I figured I needed about $2500-3000 for the whole program.
I DID NOT HAVE THE MONEY. But I stepped out in faith and called several times to discuss the treatment, when groups start and if they would work on a sliding scale (answer to that, no.) I kept letting them know I was going to take the training which starts June 1.
Last week an old client called to say I never cashed his last check from 4 months ago and he was sending $400. At the same time upstate, a lumberjack came by and offered me $2500-3000 for 30 trees on the far end of my land I never use.
I did NOTHING but DECIDE I was doing the treatment and stepped out in faith AS IF I had the money already and it appeared just in time.
Whether I want to take a course, get a new lover or start a new business, the Law of Attraction works the same.
1) DECIDE what I want
2) IMAGINE it as already happening in my mind
3) ACT AS IF it will happen by stepping out in faith and taking concrete actions toward my goal
Mass General Proves It! there is a Mind-Body Connection
May 4, 2011
Many people don’t realize that their health and effectiveness in the world is directly related to their mind. Typically it’s called the mind-body connection and we treat illness with mind-body health solutions like Mindfulness stress reduction and cognitive awareness to manage emotions.
I’ve been a healer for years and today I had a conversation with my sister who is very sick about stress causing her illness. She argued her emphysema was from smoking, liver disease was hereditary and her other problems were from an auto-immune problem.
In one sense this is true but on a deeper level, all illness comes from the body’s inability to fight off toxins and infections. Once the cells get tired, they can’t tell the difference from nutrients and free-radical toxins. The immune system breaks down and cancer cells found in every single body grow. My chilled out grandfather smoked a pack of Pall-Mall filterless and never lung disease.
The Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine’s at Mass General bases its work on the inseparable connection between the mind and the body – the complicated interactions that take place among thoughts, the body, and the outside world. More than 35 years of scientific research and favorable patient results have proven the positive impact on health and well-being of the relaxation response and mind/body medicine.
The Relaxation Response
Stressful thoughts stimulate the hypothalamus and a whole cascade of stress hormones cause the stress response of fight, flight or freeze. Activating other areas of the brain result in stress reduction. The opposite state of stress is the “relaxation response.”
We can activate the prefrontal cortex through Mindfulness Meditation similar to and Mindful Awareness Practices.
Mind-body treatments include:
• Activating the relaxation response through stress reduction using Mindfulness – paying attention with intention
• Positive coping strategies using cognitive awareness, awareness of our thoughts and changing our thoughts.
• Physical activity can help clear negative emotions, brain for and improve attention. ADHD expert John Ratey uses exercise to help treat kids successfully. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) can clear the meridians of congested emotions.
• Nutrition – Food controls mood. There are many foods that inhibit or contribute to intelligence, functionality and memory.
• Social support – Research shows that social support can be the most effective method to reduce stress and actually increase longevity.
At the Institute, they offer a variety of mind body medical programs for infertility, cardiac wellness, cancer, and a range of illnesses that have a stress component, such as pain, IBS, depression and anxiety, asthma, and weight loss. People who are healthy but stressed can take advantage of programs for weight loss and calmer parenting as well as personal training and yoga classes.
For information on Health Counseling and how to use Mindfulness to improve your life call me at (718) 513-9845.
FREE Mindfulness Meditations
March 15, 2011
Mindfulness meditation is not just an excellent way to reduce stress, it can actually change your brain. It is not about religion or sitting in a contorted position. It is the simple act of practicing paying attention with intention but it has amazing benefits that have been scientifically proven. Extensive scientific research at UCLA with Tibetan monks show that practicing mindful awareness regularly will help you:
- Reduce Fear
- Get You Off Auto-Pilot and More in Control
- Help You Deal with Intense Emotions
- Improve Intuition
- Unleash Creativity
- Improve Immune Function
- Develop Empathy for Yourself and Others
Complete Mindfulness Instructions – 19 min
Breath, Sound, Body Minfulness – 12 min
For Mindfulness Coaching see Urban Mindfulness. I also offer private coaching.
Straight from Google – What You Need to Know About SEO
March 4, 2011
At San Francisco’s Wordcamp for WordPress users, Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s spam team talked about the basics of how Google search works and how you can boost your site’s results in Google searches. He also talks about how WordPress takes care of 80-90% of Google’s crawling issues simply through it’s design. Because WordPress itself has high ranking, it makes an excellent platform for not only blogging but for any web site.
Matt goes into great detail about what Google looks for. Google looks for page rank, or the number of quality sites who link to you but it also looks to see how often pages are refreshed, if new pages are added, how good your SEO is. If your keywords and content are relevant to what people are looking for and they are organized properly, you will get listings.
the video and SEO guide explain ranking, SEO tips, proper use of keywords, how to blog and more
Watch the full 45 minute presentation or Download a FREE copy of Google’s SEO Guide
Visioning Made His Heart Sing Again
October 20, 2009
When I met Wallace for dinner he looked very depressed and had for months. He is a singer/songwriter and had not performed in 4 years and had stopped even listening to music. He was also a massage therapist but developed carpel tunnel syndrome and went into real estate thinking it would stabilize his income.
He is a loving gentle man and the energy in his office, the aggression, the fear and competitiveness was toxic for him. He felt trapped and hopeless and he was not even making much money because he was not aggressive or competitive though he certainly was afraid.
We did some visioning work about what his ideal life would look like. He wanted to enjoy music again and go back to massage. He had learned a new technique that was easier on his hands but was afraid to leave real estate.
According to Robert Cialdini, author of The Power of Persuasion, by putting your commitments onto paper and signing your name on it, the chance of fulfilling the commitment increases 37%. I had Wallace commit to listen to music every day for a month. That was it.
Only a few months later Wallace had quit real estate and was back in his old job in a prestigious hotel doing massage full time making a lucrative salary and using the new technique which caused him no pain and his clients seemed to prefer. Not only that, he performed live before an audience, to rave reviews!
Your Email Marketing Sucks!* Study Says So…
September 27, 2009
From Future Now’s grokdotcom.com
By Bryan Eisenberg
Sliverpop released a study called 8 Seconds to Capture Attention. Some of the things the study points out include:
35% of landing pages studied didn’t have the same look or tone of the email that generated the click. For consumer campaigns, this figure was 29%, but increased to 41% for B2B companies.
Unfortunately, this happens when email marketing is silo’d within the organization and the folks sending out emails don’t have the ability to control landing pages, etc.
45% of landing pages didn’t repeat the promotional copy found in the email. Landing pages with images and messaging matching the emails that generated initial interest are better able to reinforce the brand and move email recipients from clicking to converting.
In other words they did not plan for their customer to follow the scent.
17% of the email marketing campaigns studied actually sent recipients to the marketer’s home page rather than a unique landing page. “Home pages are most often created to appeal to the broadest spectrum of prospects possible, while truly successful email marketing campaigns are focused on segmented groups based on their relationship to the company or product,” said Elaine O’Gorman, vice president of strategy, Silverpop.
Email marketing is still one of the most powerful online marketing tactics. Hopefully, if you have been a GrokDotCom reader for a while, you aren’t making any of these mistakes. However, thinking about email marketing in isolation without paying attention to the details of the online sales and marketing blueprint is just a noise making, customer irritating tactic that sucks the success away from you.
*P.S. “Sucks” is a Brooklyn technical term.
Newsletter Assessments are only $75 and well worth it. See how they can impact the results.
Avoid Craiglist Scams
September 3, 2009
I was so excited to be invited to be a Secret Shopper. What a great job for someone who is a usability expert and incredibly critical! I signed up right away then today my son-in-law said he signed up last week and they sent him a counterfeit check for $800 which he should cash at Western Union then send back only $300.
He had just told me this and I went in and posted some of my paintings of female serial killers for sale on Craigslist. Imaging my excitement to get a buyer in 5 minutes? I checked the email online only to find it listed on a scam site.
Watch this video to learn how to avoid Craigslist Scams
Using Personas to Improve Sales
May 8, 2009
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