Create Analogical Mind Maps
Boost your mind maps
Everyone gets afraid.
There you are again. Your crisis has intensified. You can sense the time running out. The opportunities are slipping out of your hands. Your plan hasn’t worked. Your strategies and tactics have brutally crashed. You need to solve your problem quickly.
IF you have felt this way, you have felt what Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins probably felt on the fifth day of the 2nd Ashes match when Ben Stokes was batting and scoring runs at a great pace and had England needing just 94 to get their target of 371 runs with still six wickets remaining. (Don’t panic if you don’t watch cricket. It’s not about cricket, I promise!)
So, what does the Australian captain do?
He stops Josh Hazlewood from bowling who was going for runs. He then goes to his two best bowling options: himself and Mitchell Starc.
The result?
The runs dry. In the next 42 balls, England score just 21 runs. In between, he uses another bowler who was smashed before. That bowler does well this time. The runs remain dry.
To put this into context, 41 runs had been scored in the previous 42 balls. And 46 in the 42 balls before that.
And then the captain asks Mr. Hazlewood to bowl again. 13 balls later, he gets Stokes out!
Six balls later, the captain gets another batter out.
England now need 69 runs but only have two batters left.
Seven balls later, Mr. Hazlewood gets another guy out.
England still need 69 runs but now only have one batter left.
Relief for Australian captain, I guess.
This is not about cricket, this is about our mind.
Now let me put this into further context:
This morning, I was trying to come out of my professional problems through my mind map. At the same time, I was following cricket action from another tab.
I was finding my typical mind map limiting. So I was trying to find ways to make them more powerful. I was ready for a little experiment.
I wanted to compare my situation with someone else’s different but similar situation.
As I was following a cricket match, I realized that the Australian captain’s situation was quite problematic. I decided to put myself in his shoes. My goal was to hopefully solve my problem by learning from his decisions in real time. Or by making him solve his problem (if he didn’t solve his problem.)
I then opened my notebook and made the following connections.
Australian captain = Me
His match problem = My life problem
Australian bowlers = My skills (Writing, creativity, thinking, begging.)
Taking wickets of English batters = Things I had to achieve
Controlling runs = Doing things quick (time passes quickly!)
And I said this to myself:
Just as the Australian captain uses his bowlers to get the English batters out and win the match, I need to use my skills to solve my problems and get what I need.
The task now was to figure out how the Australian captain would try to win and apply that to how I was to fulfill my needs.
Just as Australia needed four wickets, I had four objectives based on their urgency:
- Immediate Income
- Writing Career
- Creative Career
- Others
Immediate Observations
- I found myself worrying about my creative career way too much. I compared it to the Australian captain thinking about getting the 9th wicket when he hadn’t been able to take the 7th.
- When I noticed myself wondering if mind maps were efficient, I compared it to the Australian captain wondering in the middle of the ground if choosing cricket was the right decision.
- I found cricketing team structure pretty relevant to life’s goal setting. Especially when we need to go one step at a time. You can’t decide to take the 9th wicket unless you take the first. You have to go one step at a time.
- I looked at the Australian team and marked their strongest bowlers. I did the same to my skills.
Now, to the action I described above. This is what I would do in my life if I were to follow what the Australian captain did in the game:
My first objective would be to manage immediate income in a short time. And since I wouldn’t be able to do that, I would need to give certain skills some break. I would stop thinking about abstract stuff and focus on a skill that was my best so that it could make me some money immediately. I consider my writing to be my best skill. So…I would write to a job agency.
(Australian captain stops Josh Hazlewood from bowling who was going for runs. He then goes to his two best bowling options: himself and Mitchell Starc.)
Time would slow. I would relax. The fact that I have written to a job agency would relax me.
(The runs dry.)
A few days later, I would bring my abstract thinking back. I would go and talk abstract concepts to the job agency. A few days later: I would get the job.
(The captain asks Mr. Hazlewood to bowl again. 13 balls later, he gets Stokes out!)
I would persist with my writing and … A few days later, my writing would go viral.
(Six balls later, the captain gets another batter out.)
A couple of days later, my abstract thinking would land me a creative job.
(Seven balls later, Mr. Hazlewood gets another guy out.)
I would have just have my final professional goal to reach.
(England still need 69 runs but now only have one batter left.)
I would be relieved.
(Relief for Australian captain, I guess.)
Of course, my life will not pan out that way.
But the point is that this process of cricket comparison has given my mind map some wings.
I can simulate my situation with something that is close to me. In my case: cricket.
Mind maps now feel powerful. Let’s call these Analogical Mind Maps.
What is an Analogical Mind Map?
It is a mind map that is supplemented by an imagination of yourself in someone else’s shoes or vice-versa.
Here are a couple of other possible Analogical Mind Maps:
- You can compare your annual report mind map to a football manager’s report to the team owners.
- You can compare your recipe mind map to a film director’s film plan.
Analogical Mind Maps can give your mind map context that you are familiar with.
Go ahead, try it yourself.
Australia won the match, by the way.
This publication is about Mind Mapping — the best way to enjoy and be in control of our minds. Here we discuss and analyze the history, methods, and future of mind mapping.
Our minds are beautiful and complex, we need an effective way to see and solve them. Mind mapping is that way!
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