Secret of The Millionaires Mind

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind is a book written by T. Harv Aker. This idea map was created by Debbie Edwards Miller after she attended the 2-day workshop "Idea Mapping: A Learning Workshop" that was held at ACH (Automotive Components Holding, LLC). It summarizes the content of the book. The photo I took of her map is a little dark. The pdf version is available on my website. Go to Client Maps and then scroll down to "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind". The maps are listed in alphabetical order. Although a few of the edges are cropped, it is clearer to read.

Oprah & The Osmonds

Debbie Showler's idea map from the Oprah Show (posted on this blog on February 15, 2008) has been so popular that I decided to include another map of Oprah's Show. If it continues to be a popular hit, maybe I will consider a once-a-month Oprah Idea Map!

I created this summary map from yesterday's history-making show titled, "Oprah & The Osmonds". Gathered together were over 100 Osmonds in a tribute to their parents.

For a larger view of this map in pdf format go to my website under "Additional Maps". If you click on any column it will sort alphabetically by author or title of the map.

Philippe Boukobza from Spain previously contributed his book summary of Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. His blogs are in English, French, and Spanish. His contribution today is a map he created of my book, Idea Mapping! This idea map was created using Inspiration 8. Thanks Philippe.

In my previous posting Philippe Boukobza shared an idea map summarizing the contents of my Idea Mapping book. Today's map is also from Philippe and details chapter 9 of my book which covers the "Team Idea Mapping Method". I have used this process successfully with many clients. It helps to gather a multitude of ideas from every participant, keeps a dominant person from taking over the direction of the meeting, fosters shared understanding, give the group a "picture" of their ideas, is more effective than standard brain storming, and no idea gets left behind.

One of my clients from a large automotive company in southeastern Michigan gave me these idea maps she created around de Bono's Six Thinking Hats.

The top map is a description of the Six Thinking Hats and what each hat represents in terms of its focus as well as the benefits to using this method. The second map (featured in today's Mindjet Newsletter) was used to run a meeting. This map was used to analyze a plan and focus the team on one hat at a time -- for example, Black Hat - "let's all think of the negatives with this plan", Yellow Hat - "let's all think of the positives associated with this plan".

For a larger view of this map see the pdf versions by then scrolling alphabetically to the map titles “DeBono's Six Thinking Hats” and “Using DeBono's Six Thinking Hats for a Meeting Agenda.”

Announcement: Two new Idea Mapping Workshops have been added to Jamie’s 2008 schedule. See the Course Schedule for upcoming Vancouver, B.C. and UK classses. More info to come in later postings.

Focusing Your Mind On The Positive

We all go through some tough times in life, that’s just life; it can’t always be a bed of roses. However life is what you make it and by staying positive through the bad times as well as the good can make all the difference and gets you through the tough times with a smile.

But the big question is “how do you stay positive when things get tough?” Staying upbeat at times like this is the last thing on your mind, but it should be the first, you need to think positively now more than ever.

The key to staying positive is to take your mind off your problems and worries and re-energizing your mind, this is especially true when you are having a bad day and you feel sorry for yourself and want to sit down and cry. Here are some excellent tips for keeping a positive outlook in life no matter what’s going around you.

• If you find yourself around those who are negative then break free from them, negativity has a way of passing from person to person and they will drag you down with them.

• Don’t sit in front of the TV for hours at a time, the news is depressing, cop shops feature violence and death and negativity in some form is found on almost every show. If you do watch TV go for the more positive program such as a nature documentary showing the wonderful world in all its glory or a comedy.

• Spend as much time as you can with your family and loved ones, do something together which you all enjoy and aim to have a family night at least once a week where you can spend quality time together.

• In times when you are feeling particularly low and negativity starts to creep in, listen to a motivational CD or repeat positive affirmations to yourself to bring back a positive attitude.

• Take time out each day to just do something that you enjoy doing that doesn’t require you to make choices or decisions, something which relaxes you to the fullest.

• Try doing something that you wouldn’t normally do, something that is totally unlike you and out of character, take up a new hobby or sport that you would never have dreamed of doing.

• Get some exercise, this could be something as simply taking a walk in the fresh air and is totally free or go to the gym or taking part in activities such as yoga.

• Set yourself goals in order to get ahead and when you accomplish a goal give yourself a small reward for doing so

• Learn techniques that allow you to bring your attention and focus back to the task on hand quickly.

• Use affirmations throughout the day to instill self-confidence and positive thoughts and feelings.

• Always look for the best in bad situations, while things might not be what we expect if you look hard enough you may find they are not as bad as they seem to be.

• Remember that the situation won’t last forever, this is only a temporary stage you are going through and it will get better.

6 Ways to Mine Your Dreams for Answers

Try these tips to remember your dreams more vividly and make the most of their problem-solving potential

Start on a weekend: Dreams are best remembered when you wake without an alarm; that way, you'll likely wake from REM sleep, and your dream will be fresh in your mind, says psychologist and dream researcher Rosalind Cartwright, Ph.D., of Rush University Medical Center.

Sharpen your recall: Before you nod off, tell yourself your dreams matter and you want to remember them. Stating your intention is the first step toward enhancing dream recall, says G. William Domhoff, Ph.D., a dream researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "If you think they're unimportant, you'll forget them the instant you wake up."

Sleep on an easy one: Begin with something simple, like how to fit an oversize sofa into your overstuffed living room. Slowly work your way up to more intricate problems, like how to resolve a childhood issue with your sister. When Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, asked college students to solve problems in their sleep, nearly half of the volunteers who chose a moderately easy problem dreamed a solution within a week. But their success rate ebbed as the problems became more complicated.

Stay on track: Make the question the last thing you think about before nodding off.

"As you drift to sleep, you're very suggestible; it's a bit like a hypnotic trance," says Barrett. Use this time to conjure up your problem. Sum it up in one or two short sentences. If possible, put an object representing the quandary on a bedside table. If not, call to mind a clear image of the issue -- just make sure it's the last thing you mull over.

Write it down: Keep a pad of paper and a pen next to your bed. Upon waking, take a moment to lie quietly. Glance around the outskirts of your consciousness to see if a dream is lurking. "If a fragment comes into your head, gently follow it backward," says Domhoff. "We usually remember our dreams in reverse." So, like a loose piece of yarn, a dream may unravel if you tug gently on one end.

Keep still: If you wake up in the middle of a dream, mimic the body in REM sleep by staying still. During REM sleep, muscles are paralyzed, a protective mechanism that keeps you from socking your partner when you reach out to grab a flyaway Frisbee. Use this time to think about the dream and trace its story line. Give the dream a title before you open your eyes, says Cartwright, because when the mind is awake, it's more likely to remember a short catch-phrase than the visual images. Then write down as much as you can remember.

Famous Dreamers

In her book, "The Committee of Sleep," dream researcher Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., recounts stories of celebrities and historical figures who've successfully mined their dreams for gold.

Billy Joel: The singer/songwriter says he often dreams musical arrangements; he's gone so far as to say, "I know all the music I've composed has come from a dream."

Annamaria Gundlach: This artist found over time that she could design pots by waiting to see the next one in a dream. She observed its shape and size; it would usually be embedded with everyday objects such as nails and fabric, and she would faithfully re-create it. Her major traveling show was called Dreams in Clay.

Paul Horowitz: A real-life version of Jodie Foster's character in the movie "Contact," he's a Harvard physics professor whose passion is designing telescopes to hunt for evidence of extraterrestrials. When he's building a new one and gets stuck on a technical glitch, he'll dream he's looking over the shoulder of a man solving the very problem that has stumped him.

Frederick Banting: This Canadian doctor dreamed a way to isolate insulin and, therefore, make diabetes treatable.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: On a rainy night in 1816, Lord Byron challenged his houseguests to write a horror story. That night, Shelley dreamed the basis for what would become her best-selling novel, "Frankenstein."

Paul McCartney: In 1965, the 22-year-old Beatle dreamed the melody of the song "Yesterday." Upon waking, he immediately sat down and played it on the piano.

Stephen King: The prolific writer of grisly tales admits that he's reaped images from his vivid dreamscapes for his novels and short stories, including Salem's Lot and It.

Katherine Mansfield: An unusual dream experience became her successful short story Sun and Moon. It is an impressionistic tale seen through the eyes of a 5-year-old boy. "I dreamed it all," she said.

The Myth of the Million Dollar Psychic Challenge

For ten years, the modern skeptical movement has wielded a cudgel against claims of the paranormal: the James Randi Million Dollar Challenge. In many debates over the possibility of psi abilities, the Challenge provides a final word for one side... "has so-and-so applied for the Challenge?"

The financial reward offered by the James Randi Educational Foundation is seen by many skeptics as providing an irresistible motivation for anybody with paranormal ability - after all, if someone could genuinely exhibit such powers, surely they would step forward to take the million?

However, after ten years, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) says nobody has even got past their preliminary testing. Furthermore, none of the 'big fish' - medium John Edward, spoon-bender Uri Geller, psychic Sylvia Browne - have applied. And now, perhaps as a result of that fact, James Randi has announced that the Challenge will come to an end in two years, on March 6th, 2010.

But does the challenge really make a statement about the existence of the paranormal and/or psi abilities? According to paranormal investigator Loyd Auerbach (who, like Randi, is a member of the magic fraternity):

The suggestion that ending the Challenge after 10 years supports any statement that psi does not exist or someone would have won the challenge, is absurd on many levels."

The procedures for the Challenge included several hurdles in favor of, and multiple "outs" for Randi and the JREF that any discerning individual capable of any kind of extraordinary human performance would think twice about (and here I'm not just referring to psychics and the like).

What are these hurdles that Auerbach refers to?

Chances, of Anything...

First, and perhaps the most important, is the effect size required to win the challenge. While the JREF says that "all tests are designed with the participation and approval of the applicant", this does not mean that the tests are fair scientific tests.

The JREF need to protect a very large amount of money from possible "long-range shots", and as such they ask for extremely significant results before paying out - much higher than are generally accepted in scientific research (and if you don’t agree to terms, your application is rejected). In the case of parapsychological research, however, where effect size is often small (though apparently robust), this means most researchers would have to go to extraordinary lengths to win the million dollars. As one psi researcher pointed out to me:

In the ganzfeld telepathy test the meta-analytic hit rate with unselected subjects is 32% where chance expectation is 25%. If that 32% hit rate is the "real" telepathy effect, then for us to have a 99% chance of getting a significant effect at p <>

Furthermore, applicants must first pass a 'preliminary test', before they are allowed to progress to the actual 'formal' test which pays the million dollars. So an applicant must first show positive results in a preliminary test (yielding results against chance of at least 1000 to 1, apparently), then once through to the next stage they would then have to show positive results against much higher odds to claim the prize (by all reports, at odds of around 1 million to 1). Failure in either test means no cash prize, and a fail beside their name. It many respects it would be like telling a professional golfer to shoot 63 around Augusta National, then come back and shoot 59, to prove that he can play golf. In the words of Chris Carter, author of Parapsychology and the Skeptics:

If Randi were genuinely interested in testing unusual claims, then he would also not insist upon odds of at least one million to one against chance for the results. Anyone familiar with scientific studies will be aware that experimental results against chance of say, 800,000 to one would be considered extraordinary; but results this high would be, according to Randi, a “failure.”

Dr Michael Sudduth of San Francisco State University also pointed out to me a wonderful irony in one of the rules. Challenge rule #3 states: "We have no interest in theories nor explanations of how the claimed powers might work." As Sudduth puts it: “Curiously, Randi's challenge itself is saddled with assumptions of this very kind. The challenge makes little sense unless we assume that psi is the sort of thing that, if genuine, can be produced on demand, or at least is likely to manifest itself in some perspicuous manner under the conditions specified by the challenge.”

Warrent Buffet - Emotional IQ just as important as brainpower

To the legions of wannabes hoping to replicate, or at least aspire to, Warren Buffett's success as the world's greatest stock market investor, it's a depressing thought, indeed.

What if the Oracle of Omaha's brain is simply a freak of nature—a wondrous but ultimately inimitable web of neurons that somehow allows him to deduce profits like no one else? What if Buffett's $52 billion fortune is all thanks to a rarefied double helix strung with the genes of the resolute Scandinavian forebears on his dad's side and the brainy Estonians and arithmetically inclined Iberians on his mom's?

Consider Buffett's typical day at the offices of Berkshire Hathaway, the company he has run for the past 42 years, and you might throw in the towel right now. The spry 76-year-old arrives on the early side—usually about 8:30 a.m.—not to prepare for meetings (he rarely takes them) or check his E-mail (he has no work computer) or even to tally his stock portfolio (there's no Bloomberg terminal or even a calculator on his desk). He doesn't read progress reports from his managers (he discourages them) or study the latest research from the top stock market analysts (he shuns them completely). He doesn't even talk on the phone much, save for the occasional call to his stockbroker, when he might give the nod to buy tens of millions of a company's shares in a single day—all without pumping its CEO for information or getting approval from Berkshire's directors or from anyone else except, maybe, a few words from his longtime confidant and Berkshire vice chairman, Charles Munger.

More than luck. Despite—or, quite possibly, thanks to—the dearth of input, Buffett's results are as impressive as they are his alone. His stock picks beat the Standard & Poor's 500 index in 20 out of 24 years, according to one recent study, and by a margin so wide that its authors conclude that even the rarest of lucky streaks can't explain how $1,000 invested with Buffett in 1956 was worth $27.6 million at the end of 2006.

So what can? To be sure, Buffett possesses one of the keenest intellects in business, with a knack for crunching numbers in his head. "His neurons are really good at thinking in a purely abstract, rational way," says law professor Lawrence Cunningham, author of How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett. "It's a way of thinking in terms of calculations, of instantly recognizing if a company generates profits at a given cost over time. It's something businessmen learn to do before making a capital allocation. But for him, it's an innate apparatus."

Cunningham and other Buffettologists nonetheless doubt that the superinvestor possesses some sort of superhuman intelligence. "If you think he's got different chemicals flowing around in his cranium, you've got it all wrong," says journalist Roger Lowenstein, author of Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, in which he makes the case that it's Buffett's strength of character, as much as his smarts, that has made him so successful. "It's a combination of hard work and good judgment, and having the disposition to go with your call whether it's popular or not."