Does mind mapping help you cultivate a mindset of abundance?
Apr 9th, 2010 | By Chuck Frey | Category: Discussion
Lately, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the larger context within which we use mind mapping and other productivity tools. Namely, how do these tools empower us to make a difference in our work and their lives, to give us more meaning and purpose?
That got me to thinking: Isn’t mind mapping the perfect tool to encourage a mindset of abundance? After all, it enables you to do a better job of brainstorming new possibilities and opportunities, and to thoroughly think through and analyze an abundance of choices that lie before you.
To better understand what I mean, we first need to define two mindsets:
Scarcity: Many people are stuck in a mindset that views all resources as limited and scarce. They tend to view life as a zero-sum game, where there’s only so much (money, opportunities, happiness, and anything else that has value to you) to go around. If everything is finite, the more you take, the less I can have.
Abundance: The abundance mindset says there’s more than enough to go around. Not only that, people who have an abundance mentality view their minds as generative, able to create more of what matters and to creatively leap over the problems they face. That, in turn, means that you can be more generous to others. You don’t have to hoard, because your thinking is no longer walled in by a fear of scarcity. You can give freely, expecting nothing in return, confident in the knowledge that you can always create more.
It seems to me, then, that mind mapping helps to promote a mindset of abundance. By its very nature, it encourages multi-dimensional, expansive thinking. It encourages you to generate more ideas and consider more options. There’s almost no limit to how much detail and how many levels of thoughts you can place within a mind map. Users of mind mapping are, more often than not, creative problem solvers who view themselves as limitless fonts of ideas, and who share them freely with others.
In addition, I believe the thought-expanding capabilities of mind mapping and other creative tools stay with you, even when you’re not using them. I believe what Oliver Wendell Holmes had to say on this subject: “The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size.”
So that’s my theory, in a nutshell.
What do you think? What’s been your experience? Does mind mapping promote a mindset of abundance or not?
Please share tour thoughts in the comments area below. I look forward to reading your insights!
Hi Chuck,
I think using mind mapping as a method means that you cannot be a believer in scarcity and the existence of only a limited number ideas, just doesn’t fit. In fact using this method brings out more ideas through easy linking and cross-pollination.
I used to believe in scarcity of my ideas for years and was very sad and angry when I saw my ideas “happening” (and I wasn’t the one who made them happen). I had very limited amount of experience with different creative thinking techniques or methods at that time.
With every new experience, every new tip that I began to use, my beliefs were changing. To the point that now I believe that we are born with limitless idea generation capabilities. If only we wouldn’t forget about this growing up.
So, I think that any method we use or experience (mind mapping included) will move us toward the abundance mindset.
Judit
Chuck –
I think that the reason that mindmapping helps enable an abundance mentality is that it gives you a visual representation of the systems and processes that connect to make up something. Using a systems thinking perspective, you automatically leave “zero-sum” world and enter “interdependent world.”
Linda Fisher Thornton
Hi Chuck,
I think you created a great summary of the advantages, features and benefits of using mindmaps.
I think for mindmappers such as myself where i already think in processes, dimensions, creating connections with my thoughts, mindmaps is a confidence builder in capturing this information, ideas, insights, imaginations, inspirational thoughts into patterns of recognition.
Mapping out not only builds confidence but with that confidence comes many attributes such as big picture thinking, when you can view everything the way a mindmap lays it out, you feel a presence of big picture thinking, that creates and cultivates continued abundance thinking,
I also believe mindmappers possess a quality skill in “sensemaking” it’s one thing to capture the information but another to take it and do soomething with it, play with it, that expansive thinking also creates abundance in your everyday thinking.
Thanks for sharing this topic i think it’s something we all should use in referencing material.
In my experience, the limits and focus of mindmapping tools on a computer help create a feeling of abundance in specific settings, for example in a workshop. Without formal training, just being familiar with the tool through maybe three maps I did alone, I was able to capture – on the big screen – a fair representation of what was said in a group of eight participants. We refined it with a few key players afterwards and I presented results directly off the map to the bigger conference the next day.
The simplicity of spreading an outline in two dimensions and rearranging the parts to build MECE branches goes a long way. The limitations of mind-mapping become apparent when the folder metaphor fails and you need tagging or other multi-dimensional approaches to re-use pieces of the information in more than one place.
Chuck –
I think that the reason that mindmapping helps enable an abundance mentality is that it gives you a visual representation of the systems and processes that connect to make up something. Using a systems thinking perspective, you automatically leave “zero-sum” world and enter “interdependent world.”
Linda Fisher Thornton
Hi Chuck,
I think you created a great summary of the advantages, features and benefits of using mindmaps.
I think for mindmappers such as myself where i already think in processes, dimensions, creating connections with my thoughts, mindmaps is a confidence builder in capturing this information, ideas, insights, imaginations, inspirational thoughts into patterns of recognition.
Mapping out not only builds confidence but with that confidence comes many attributes such as big picture thinking, when you can view everything the way a mindmap lays it out, you feel a presence of big picture thinking, that creates and cultivates continued abundance thinking,
I also believe mindmappers possess a quality skill in “sensemaking” it’s one thing to capture the information but another to take it and do soomething with it, play with it, that expansive thinking also creates abundance in your everyday thinking.
Thanks for sharing this topic i think it’s something we all should use in referencing material.