Posts

, , ,

How Anticipating a Fun Future Event Will Bring You Happiness

What if I told you that there’s a way to bring happiness and excitement to your day, no matter how busy, stressed, or distracted you might feel?  Aaaand, it won’t cost you a thing.

Cue the dreamy music with you sitting with your head tilted, chin propped as you gaze wistfully to the heavens.

Now, answer these two questions:

First, is there something coming up in the next few weeks or months that you’re really looking forward to?

I’m guessing, with the summer months on the horizon, you might have some sort of trip planned, or better yet, for some, a stay-cation.  Maybe you have an old friend coming for a visit, a family reunion, or you’ve signed up for a fun class at your local community college.  Maybe it’s anything related to your favorite holiday that gets you excited.

Second question:  How often do you think about this future event?

If the last time you thought about it was a month ago when you booked your airfare, made your reservation, or made plans with a friend for a visit — or in the case of a holiday — you only begin thinking about it just a couple of weeks out, I’d like to suggest you think about, and eagerly anticipate, your fun future plans more.

Why?  Because I want you to experience Rosy Prospection, like I do.

Rosy prospection is when a person’s anticipation of a planned event is greater than the actual experience.  It’s when you get excited just thinking about the future event you’ll be embarking on.  Friends, anticipation is half the fun!

I got to thinking about this when a friend stopped by the other day and laughed when she saw that the only thing I had on my 12 month wall calendar was my vacation and a few other work obligations that I didn’t want to forget.  Might I add that the vacation notation was in fancy lettering with green ink and palm trees sketched in!

Making a fun reminder on a visible calendar was just a small part of rosy prospecting for this eagerly anticipated future trip.   Other things I did in anticipation, other than the typical planning and organizing for the trip, was checking the weather of the place I’d be visiting, looking at pictures on Instagram that other people posted, researching restaurants, hikes and other fun stuff to do in the area, and most fun of all, talking about the upcoming trip with my husband.  Doing these things basically stretched out my vacation experience from the actual one week of vacation to several months of fun anticipation.

Maybe you don’t have anything big, like a trip, coming up.  That’s OK!  It’s fun to utilize rosy prospection for daily and weekly events too.

My husband thinks this is crazy, but I eagerly anticipate what’s for dinner while I’m eating breakfast!  Don’t let this make you think I’m an expert meal planner either.  I just love food, so I enjoy thinking about my forthcoming meals.

During certain times of the year, a friend and I go walking at the beautiful Biltmore Estate.  This is a weekly event that I eagerly anticipate in the days leading up to it.

Friends, sometimes we can get bogged down in the everyday routine of life, and I guarantee that if you add a little rosy prospection to your days, you will receive a nice boost of happiness and excitement.

Here’s to all of us enjoying the anticipation of fun future events!

Jill xx

/0 Comments/by

Mind Mapping: Who Should Use It and Why

I have an awesome “tool” to tell you about that anyone reading this can benefit from using.  This process is fun, will save you time, and will help you retain information.

It’s called mind mapping.

Mind mapping is a process for brainstorming and organizing your ideas.

Wikipedia defines it like this:

A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. A mind map is often created around a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank landscape page, to which associated representations of ideas such as images, words and parts of words are added. Major ideas are connected directly to the central concept, and other ideas branch out from those.

I frequently use mind mapping to prepare blog posts.  I write the main idea or topic in the center of a page in a notebook and start “throwing” out ideas on the paper all around it.  The key is to write without over-thinking—just let the ideas flow.  This process will allow you to get all your ideas on the page and then you can go back and edit.

Here is the simple mind map I drew up for this blog post:

Mind Mapping Map for blog

WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM MIND MAPPING?

The question should be “who can’t” benefit from mind mapping?

Writers.  As I mentioned, I use mind mapping for brainstorming my blog posts.  Writers also use this process for organizing and brainstorming ideas for their books.  I am going to be writing an e-book in the future and I have already mind mapped all the chapters.  I will later mind map ideas around each individual chapter.  I’m telling you, this is a fantastic way to organize your thoughts!

Teachers.  First of all—God bless and thank you to all you teachers out there!  Mind mapping can be an excellent tool for lesson planning.  It can also be a tool to teach your students to use for note taking and studying.  See next entry…

Students.  Mind mapping is a great tool to capture the “main ideas” during lectures or presentations.  Students will also find it helpful to use this tool during study and review time; writing out all you know in an organized fashion like this is great for kinesthetic and visual learners.

Parents.  The possibilities are endless for this group: meal planning, grocery shopping, choosing schools, back to school shopping, birthday party planning, summer vacation planning, etc.

Vacations Planners.  That’s you!  Next time you plan a vacation, sit down with a piece of paper, write your destination in the middle and draw spokes out with all your dreams, ideas, and to-dos for your trip.  (I’m using Italy as an example in the “how-to” section below.)

Party Planners.  Whether it’s a party for a 2 year old or a 50 year old, the process of mind mapping will draw out all kinds of ideas, many which will get nixed, but you may come up with a brilliant idea that you wouldn’t have thought of had you not completed a mind map.  Your mind map will also visually organize your grocery, decorations, and party favors list like a charm!

Gardeners.  The process of mind mapping can take a huge, overwhelming task and bring it down into manageable “chunks.”  Consider mind mapping out your next vegetable or flower garden—I think it would be fun to sketch pictures for this “map.”  If you have several areas you are working on, you may create a grand overall mind map and then create mini mind maps for each individual section.

Business People.  Whether you’re working up a rough agenda for a meeting, a strategic plan, a proposal, or a presentation, mind mapping works well for lots of business applications.  Get a flip chart out at your next planning meeting and mind map out everything discussed with your co-workers.  Getting the visual out in front of everyone will generate even more ideas than discussion alone.

Preacher or other Public Speakers.  Not only will this help you organize your message or speech, but it will provide a visual that will stick in your mind—a good thing to reference if your nerves get the best of you or you have lost your place.

Song Writers.  I’ve never written a song, but I imagine this process could be a fun, creative tool for song writers, just as it would be for a writer.  Are you a song writer?  I’d love for you to try this process and let me know how it worked out for you.

As you can see, mind mapping can be used by pretty much anyone for anything.  Grab a pen and paper and try it out.

HOW TO MIND MAP?

TOOLS:
Paper.
Pencil, pen or markers.
Sticky notes.  This is similar to the paper and pencil method, but you are writing out your words/ideas on sticky notes instead.  The advantage to this method is you can rearrange/remove/add sticky notes during the editing process.
Computer programs.  I prefer pencil and paper, but click here to see who LifeHacker.com chose as their top five mind mapping software programs.  I’d personally add Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and/or Publisher to the mix—all of which most of us have access to.

PROCESS:
Let’s use an example of planning a vacation for this exercise.  I’ve sketched out a simple mind map to go with our example and placed it right below the three steps here.

  1. Write your main idea in the center of your paper. Trip to Italy.
  2. Now, think of all the things you will need/want to do in preparation for your trip. Draw lines out from the middle idea to these subsets.  For example: Budget, places of interest to visit, packing list, home and pet care while you are away, items to purchase before the trip, transportation and accommodation bookings.
    NOTE:  It’s important in this step to just get everything out on the paper—don’t overthink and don’t edit during this step.  You can fine tune your “map” later.
  3. Voila! It’s that easy.  You’re now more organized and much closer to your trip to Italy!
  4. Now you’ve got a “to do” list all ready for your trip.  As you approach your vacation date, you may decide to create mini mind maps for each sub-section to get in greater detail if you’re a nerd like me.

Italy Mind Map

Remember when mind mapping, there are no bad ideas.  Get everything out on paper and edit later.  Have fun!

Let me know how your mind mapping goes.  I’d love to see pictures of you work.  You can email your pictures to me here.

Wanna see some really cool, artsy mind maps?  Click here.

I appreciate you spending time with me today.

Jill xx

/2 Comments/by