visionmap-smallest-version-8-2008

On October 27, 2008 Joyce Schwarze released a new book entitled, “The Vision Board: The Secret to an Extraordinary Life“. My above idea map was selected to be one of the examples in this book.

I created my first vision map in February of 1998. I was facilitating Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effecctive People” workshops among other courses, and had been struggling for 9 months to write my personal mission statement in some kind of linear document. It finally dawned on me that I didn’t need to be locked into the linear format, but could create an idea map. I had the map created in about 15 minutes because I had already done all the thinking work. Since that time I’ve only made two very small tweaks to the map. My Idea Mapping book includes the second version of my vision. Daniel Goleman (author of Primal Leadership) best sums up my thoughts about the importance of creating a vision. He states:

A personal vision is the deepest expression of what we want in life, and that image becomes both a guide for our decisions and a barometer of our sense of satisfaction in life.”

I think it is fascinating that he uses the word “image”!

joyce-schwarzes-book