Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, realized as a young man that imagination and visualization were the most vital part of the creative-thinking process. As such he played imagination games, and taught himself to draw.
Like Galileo, Feynman broke away from his more traditional note-taking contemporaries, and decided to put the entire theory of quantum electrodynamics into freshly visual and diagrammatic form. This led to his developing the now famous Feynman diagrams – pictorial representation of particle interaction, which are now used throughout the world by students to help them understand, remember, and create ideas in the realms of physics and general science.
Feynman was so proud of his diagrams that he painted them on his car!
ALBERT EINSTEIN
Albert Einstein, the brain of the 20th century, also rejected the traditional standard linear, numerical, and verbal forms of creative thinking. Like Leonardo and Galileo before him, Einstein believed that these tools were useful but not necessary, and that imagination was far more important.
Einstein stated that: ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge, for imagination is limitless.’ Indeed, in a letter to his friend Maurice Solovine, he explained his difficulty in using words to express his philosophy of science, because he did not think in such ways; he thought more diagrammatically and schematically.
To start your exploration, imagine that your brain is a newly built and empty library waiting to be filled with data and information in the form of books, videos, films, CDs, and DVDs.
You are the chief librarian and have to choose first whether you wish to have a small or a large selection. You naturally choose a large selection.
Your second choice is whether to have the information organized or not. Imagine that you take the second option, not to have it organized: you simply order a cartload of books and electronic media, and have it all piled in a giant heap of information in the middle of your library floor!
When somebody comes into your library and asks for a specific book or place where they can find information on a specific topic, you shrug your shoulders and say: ‘It’s somewhere there in the pile, hope you find it – good luck!’
This metaphor describes the state of most people’s minds. Their minds, even though they may – and often do – contain the information they want, are so horribly disorganized that it is impossible for them to retrieve that information when they need it. This leads to frustration and a reluctance to take in or handle any new information. After all, what is the point of taking in new information, if you are never going to be able to access the stuff anyway?!
Imagine, on the other hand, that you have a giant library, filled with incredible amounts of information on everything you ever wanted to know. In this new super-library, rather than all this information being piled randomly in the middle of the floor, everything is filed in perfect order, exactly where you want it.
In addition to this, the library has a phenomenal data-retrieval and access system that enables you to find anything you want at the flash of a thought.
An impossible dream?
An immediate possibility for you!
Mind Maps are that phenomenal storage, data-retrieval, and access system for the gigantic library that actually exists in your amazing brain.
Mind Maps help you to learn, organize, and store as much information as you want, and to classify it in natural ways that give you easy and instant access (perfect memory) to whatever you want.
Mind Maps have an additional strength: you would think that the more information you put into your head, the more stuffed your head would become and the more difficult it would be to get any information out. Mind Maps turn this thought on its head!
How?
With Mind Maps each new piece of information you put into your library automatically ‘hooks on to’ all the information already in there. With more of these grappling hooks of memory attaching to any piece of information in your head, the more easy it is for you to ‘hook out’ whatever information you need. With Mind Maps, the more you know and learn, the easier it is to learn and know more!
In summary, Mind Mapping has a whole range of advantages that help make your life easier and more successful.
It’s time for you to start your first one!
What Do You Need to Make a Mind Map?
Because Mind Maps are so easy to do and so natural, the ingredients for your ‘Mind Map Recipe’ are very few:
7 Steps to Making a Mind Map
1. Start in the CENTRE of a blank page turned sideways. Why? Because starting in the centre gives your brain freedom to spread out in all directions and to express itself more freely and naturally.
2. Use an IMAGE or PICTURE for your central idea. Why? Because an image is worth a thousand words and helps you use your Imagination. A central image is more interesting, keeps you focussed, helps you concentrate, and gives your brain more of a buzz!
3. Use COLOURS throughout. Why? Because colours are as exciting to your brain as are images. Colour adds extra vibrancy and life to your Mind Map, adds tremendous energy to your Creative Thinking, and is fun!
4. CONNECT your MAIN BRANCHES to the central image and connect your second- and third-level branches to the first and second levels, etc. Why? Because your brain works by association. It likes to link two (or three, or four) things together. If you connect the branches, you will understand and remember a lot more easily. Connecting your main branches also creates and establishes a basic structure or architecture for your thoughts. This is very similar to the way in which in nature a tree has connected branches that radiate from its central trunk. If there were little gaps between the trunk and its main branches or between those main branches and the smaller branches and twigs, nature wouldn’t work quite so well! Without connection in your Mind Map, everything (especially your memory and learning!) falls apart. Connect!
5. Make your branches CURVED rather than straight-lined. Why? Because having nothing but straight lines is boring to your brain. Curved, organic branches, like the branches of trees, are far more attractive and riveting to your eye.
6. Use ONE KEY WORD PER LINE. Why? Because single key words give your Mind Map more power and flexibility. Each single word or image is like a multiplier, generating its own special array of associations and connections. When you use single key words, each one is freer and therefore better able to spark off new ideas and new thoughts. Phrases or sentences tend to dampen this triggering effect. A Mind Map with more key words in it is like a hand with all the finger joints working. A Mind Map with phrases or sentences is like a hand with all your fingers held in rigid splints!
7. Use IMAGES throughout. Why? Because each image, like the central image, is also worth a thousand words. So if you have only 10 images in your Mind Map, it’s already the equal of 10,000 words of notes!