Тони Бьюзен - Mind Map Handbook

a cave

a home

a car

a boat

a secret hideaway

And you yourselves will be able to supply, using your own childlike and creative imagination, at least another 20 imaginative uses that a child might have for a box. Try jotting some down now.

So we will now reverse the modern trend, and instead of getting ‘ out of the box’ we are all now going back ‘ into the box’, where the playground for our Creative Imagination is infinite – as long as we, like children, know how to use it .

In traditional Creative Thinking circles ‘in the box’ is bad, and ‘out of the box’ is good. From the child’s point of view, when you are ‘in the box’, as long as you have your imagination with you, you are already out of it. So in the new perspective of the Power of Creative Intelligence, you can see that whether you are in or out of the box, you win!

From now on, therefore, you will be able to follow two guides through your life to help you nurture, grow and develop the power of your Creative Intelligence: Leonardo da Vinci and the child. As promised, this Workout is child’s play!

Creativity Playground

1. Stare at Things

Like a child, stare at things. When children stare, their eyes are absorbing every detail, which they store up for later use in their fertile and creative imaginations.

2. Listen to Stories

Like a child, search out stories and storytellers, and listen to them with rapt attention. As you listen with eyes and mind open like a child, your own fantasy world is being filled with riches for its further use.

3. Make up Stories

By giving your Creative Imagination totally free reign, you’ll be able to make up incredible fairy stories and fantasies, just as a child does .

4. Play with your Food

We are constantly telling children not to play with their food. Why do they play with it? Because it’s such fantastic multi-sensory fun! When we say: ‘Don’t play with it’ we are really saying ‘Don’t enjoy it! Don’t become a chef!’

Cooking is becoming one of the world’s most popular and fastest growing hobbies. Happily more children are following in the children’s foot and hand-steps. Follow them!

5. Play with Children

Rather than giving children adult games that they can play with you, when you next play with children (and it should be soon and often!) let them be the total leaders of the game. You will find your Creative Intelligence infinitely stretched, as well as your body!

6. Learn to Do New Things

The child’s life is creatively filled with constant, second-by-second and day-by-day learning and experimentation. Re-create this attitude in yourself, and explore and learn more. As you redevelop this habit throughout your life, every aspect of it will become more creative and more fulfilled.

7. Allow Yourself Simple Treats

One of the greatest enjoyments for children is special small treats, like an ice-cream cone with their three favourite flavours on it, or an especially warm, crusty and fresh-from-the-oven loaf of bread. When you have been a ‘good kid’, reward yourself in these little and incredibly pleasurable and pleasuring ways.

8. Use the ‘Kids’ Kit’

The ‘kit’ that children use to climb up the giant mountains of knowledge is based on the grappling hooks of ‘What?’ questions! Children are always asking ‘why?’ ‘who?’ ‘where?’ ‘what?’ ‘when?’ The answers, their growing little brains intuitively know, provide the links and associations that build up the huge maps of knowledge that they need as they go through life. Ask as many questions (and with as much persistence!) as children.

9. Ask ‘Why?’ or ‘How?’ Five Times at Least!

As a creative mind-expanding exercise, get into the habit of asking ‘why?’ and ‘how?’ five times. After the first question there will be an answer. Ask the question again, with reference to that answer. This will force your imagination and knowledge banks to expand and delve deeper. Repeat this process five times, and you will usually find that you have reached the boundaries of current knowledge and are progressing into the realms of required imagination and Creative Thinking and Problem Solving.

10. You are a Child at Heart!

Realize that no matter what people have said (or even what you may have thought), you are a child at heart, and always have been:

Who are the best learners on the planet? Children!

Who are the best question-askers on the planet? Children!

Who are the most persistent humans on the planet? Children!

Who are interested in everything? Children!

Who are the most active? Children!

Who are the most sensual? Children!

Who get the most pleasure out of the most simple things? Children!

Who see things in the most novel ways? Children!

Who make the most astonishing and original associations? Children!

Who use both sides of their brains? Children!

WHO ARE THE MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE ON THE PLANET? CHILDREN!

You are now one of them, again!

The ideas in this chapter are summarized in Plate 24.

Congratulations!

You are now one of a growing number of world-wide Mind Map graduates.

When I invented Mind Maps, my original dream was to create a Master Thinking Tool that could be used easily by anybody, that could be applied to thousands of different situations and that would help people in all aspects of their lives; in other words, a tool that applied to life itself. This tool also had to enable the individual to express her- or himself uniquely – and very importantly, it had to be fun!

That tool turned out to be one that reflects the natural radiance and magnificence of your human brain. That tool was the Mind Map!

Mind Maps can help you in all daily activities, from the practical day-to-day level to the generation of important new ideas. Mind Maps are spreading around the world, and more and more people are adopting this profoundly useful thinking tool. I’m thrilled that you are now a member of this growing global community of Mind Mappers! I wish you continuing good fortune in the use of your amazing brain and its incredible thinking and Mind Mapping powers.

Think of the incredibly powerful position you are now in:

your Verbal IQ’s history and development

all the ‘secret’ techniques of that vocabularian genius, the baby

a fantastic ‘Verbal Architect’s Kit’ of roots, prefixes and suffixes for building infinite improvements in your vocabulary

an understanding of your brain and its operation, and how to use brain power to increase word power

a knowledge of your amazing body’s amazing body language and how you can improve it

an awareness and skill in that most important of human arts: becoming a successful and convincing conversationalist and speaker

an ability to absorb at speed everything from words to entire books

a new ability to communicate on multi-levels

an awareness of how to use your other incredibly powerful intelligences to maintain and accelerate the growth of your Verbal IQ

you are now in full control of the knowledge of your magical left and right brains, and have already begun to accelerate the development of their synergetic capabilities

you have understood and mastered the principles of the world’s ultimate ‘Swiss army knife of the brain’ – the Mind Map, and are able to use it in all Creative Thinking and Problem-solving situations

you have accomplished amazing feats artistically, and are unleashing that artistic power to improve your life in every possible way you can imagine