SAMPLE 1 MIND MAPPING COMPETITION SECTION 1: NOTE MAKING (1 hour)

SAMPLE 1 MIND MAPPING COMPETITION SECTION 1: NOTE MAKING (1 hour)

SAMPLE 1 MIND MAPPING COMPETITION SECTION 2: NOTE TAKING FROM SPEECH (30 MINS) HOW TO GET ALONG WITH OTHERS We need specific ingredients to maintain good relationships with others: 1. Communication It is the basis for all relationships between people. The easiest thing in the world to do is talk. People who have lost their arms and legs and the use of their bodies can still talk. But the most difficult thing to do is communicate to open up honestly and reveal who we are inside. But that openness and honesty is essential to maintain lasting and loving relationships. We can t be afraid to show our true selves. 2. Authenticity Being friends means we don t ever need to wear masks. We don t need to pretend to be something we are not, and we don t need to pretend that we don t hurt when we do. We can t be something we are not and still expect to remain close to people. They will see right through us. And when we have been identified as phony, we will lose the very people we need the most. Honesty and truth must flourish if we are to enjoy lasting relationships. 3. Caring Communication and authenticity provide the basis for caring. We don t hide our hurts from our friends or our families because we know they really care. We sense within them a willingness to listen with compassion, not condemnation. And we sense when they are hurting and respond to their needs as well. We care about them as much as they care about us and our actions prove it. Page 1 of 2

4. Acceptance True friends are not on probation. Our friends are not with us for a trial period so that when they do something we don t like we cast them out. People are either friends or they are not. Friends can disagree without being disagreeable. They can hold differing opinions without holding grudges. A true friend know s the real you (assets and liabilities alike) and accepts and loves you anyway, just as we love our children in spite of their faults. We must accept our friends as they are imperfections and all. 5. Forgiveness Since we are all human, we are obviously going to make mistakes we regret. Friends and loved ones think the best of one another and refuse to linger over any offense. They are quick to forgive and they forget that they had a reason to forgive! 6. Involvement Friends and loved ones shoulder the same load, take on mutual projects, share one another s burdens and joys, and are available in times of adversity even to the point of sacrifice. They let you know that any problems are shared. It is important for people to know they are not alone in the world. They need to know that their friends or relatives had the same problems and can give them the love and support they need in their time of trouble. Page 2 of 2

SAMPLE 1 MIND MAPPING COMPETITION SECTION 3: NOTE TAKING FROM TEXT (30 MINS) LIFE IS A BALANCING ACT Imagine a tightrope walker in a circus. He is on a rope suspended a few feet above the straw-covered floor. His purpose is to walk the rope from one end to the other. He holds a long bar in his hands to help him maintain his balance. But he must do more than simply walk. On his shoulders he balances a chair, and in that chair sits a young woman who is herself balancing a rod on her forehead, and on top of that rod a plate. The tightrope artist does not begin until all the elements above him are aligned. Only then does he move forward, carefully, slowly, across the rope. If at any time one of the items should start to drift off balance, he must stop until he can get all of them in perfect alignment again. For the tightrope artist, balance is everything. Should his balance fail him, he will surely fall. Life on a tightrope We suggest that life is very much a balancing act and that we are always just a step away from a fall. We are constantly trying to move forward with our purpose, to achieve our goals, all the while trying to keep in balance the various elements of our lives. Getting out of balance Many of us get out of balance with regard to money. If we don t have sufficient money, then our lives become a money chase. We constantly devote our energies toward improving our finances. In the process we tend to take energy away from our families, our mates, our spiritual and mental needs, even our health. More important, we don t move forward toward our life purposes. We don t proceed along the tightrope. We think that only when we get our finances straightened Page 1 of 2

out can we devote our energies to all the other aspects of our lives and then proceed with our purposes. Other areas of our lives could be out of harmony. It could be a relationship with a wife or husband. It could be a spiritual emptiness that is gnawing at our insides. It could be lack of appropriate social contact. It could be illness. If any aspect of our lives draws a disproportionate amount of energy, we have to shortchange the other aspects. This throws us off, and we are unable to move forward on life s tightrope until a balance be reestablished. Getting in balance Our first priority, therefore, is getting our life in balance. We need to deal with any areas that are taking too much energy and put them in perspective, align them so that we have energy available for all areas. We need to create a balance of winning identities as father or mother, husband or wife, son or daughter, worker and so forth. Only when each identity is fulfilled will that area be functioning and not overdrawing our energy. But it does not happen by itself. Achieving a balanced life is a choice that each of us continually makes second by second, thought by thought, feeling by feeling. On the one hand, we can simply exist. But on the other, we can choose to pack our seconds and create valuable minutes in all aspects of our lives. It is important to understand that others cannot do this for us. Only we can be us and only you, you. No one can think, breathe, feel, see, experience, love or die for any of us. Inside, we are what we are. We all come into life without a map, an operating manual or a definition of ourselves, other than male or female. It is up to us to discover who we are and who we can be. It is up to us to balance all the different aspects of our lives. We can do it by pushing the decide button in our lives. Page 2 of 2

SAMPLE 2 MIND MAPPING COMPETITION SECTION 1: NOTE MAKING (1 hour)

SAMPLE 2 Section 2: Note Taking from Speech (30 minutes) The SMART Way To Achieve Goals We all have goals and want to achieve them. How do we do that? The SMART way can help you do this with six points that will make it easier to reach your goals in the fastest time. First you need to Start with your goal. Make your goal worthy, measurable and achievable. Write it down and paste it on a wall or place you can see it every day. You may also want to make your goals public so you can talk to others. In this way people can help reaffirm your goals. If you want to be a pianist and talking about it may lead to someone recommending a good piano teacher. Making your goals public may lead to friends encouraging you to do better. Secondly you need to Measure your achievements. Decide on how you will know you are getting closer to your goal. It could be a diary or recordings to show how far you have come from when you started out. Measurement will certainly show improvements or decline in your achievements. Next comes Monitoring the process of getting to the goal. At regular interval take stock of your progress or lack of it. This is a feedback mechanism. Seek Page 1 of 2

feedback from friends, coach, teachers, and parents and receive feedbacks positively. Fourth point has to do with Adjust your process. Use the information from your monitoring process to make changes so that you can be able to progress towards your goal. This could be in the form of techniques or equipment. If unsure seek professional help to get you closer to your goal. Fifth point deals with resuming the process. After making the necessary adjustments we need to continue to get back on the path towards your goal and continue the journey. Sixth and last point would be your Triumph. This is to say you have achieved your goal. However if you have yet to reach your desired level you go back to step one and work through the process till you eventually reach your Triumph. Page 2 of 2

SAMPLE 2 Section 3: Note Taking From Text (30 Minutes) How to break a habit. There have been volumes written on the methods and procedures for getting rid of, or breaking bad habits. One authority says that you ve got to keep deliberately repeating the bad habit. This, surprisingly enough, does work in many cases. The idea, I assume, is to bring the habit out into the open, force it into consciousness by repeating it intentionally. For example, a person learning how to type may hit the wrong key each time he wants to type an e. At first this may simply be a mistake; but repeated often enough, it becomes a habit. The suggested cure is to hit that wrong key purposely or consciously for a while. In other words, actually practice hitting the wrong key you can consciously and deliberately hit the right one instead. This will work in many instances. Some habits are easily broken once they are taken out of the realm of the subconscious. This same method has been used to break such habits stammering, fingernail biting, and many more. Of course, habits of that sort must be given treatment by a trained psychologist. Page 1 of 3

For some bad habits, however, I believe it is futile to use this repetitive method. Certainly if you wish to stop smoking, it would be silly to increase your smoking. Other authorities simply suggest stopping by an act of will any habit you wish to get rid of. Well, stopping the habit is the end result you desire; it isn t necessarily the road to or the method of arriving at that end. It is also easier said than done. You can tell someone who is a stammerer to stop stammering from now till doomsday, but I doubt if that will stop him. Stammering, like many other habits, is psychological in origin, and a psychologist is needed to help put a stop to it. There has been much talk recently of hypnosis as a panacea of eliminating bad habits. It has reportedly cured people of the habits of smoking, fingernail biting, overeating and insomnia. Here, again, if supervised by a doctor, this method may bring results. Usually, however, if hypnotism does help, it is for a short period of time only. The habit manages to return in full force unless you keep submitting to hypnosis. Or, secondly, and more important, another bad habit often takes the place of the one you get rid of. If you stop smoking via hypnosis, you may find yourself biting your nails, if you stop overeating via hypnosis, you may become a smoker, or smoke more than you did before. I d like to emphasize that I think the best way to stop petty bad habits is to really want to. People who complain that they can t stop smoking would stop if they truly want to. Most of them don t. They enjoy smoking; it s a crutch that they welcome, and so they continue using it. Page 2 of 3

Aside from stammering- anything psychologically caused- ask yourself if you really want to give up your bad habits. I think in most cases you enjoy them. I can only suggest that you stop complaining, and start working on making yourself want to give up any bad habit you may presently possess. Try substituting a good habit for every bad habit that you have, and you ll make progress. Every time you feel like biting your fingernails, get involved in some piece of work you ve been putting off too long. If you really want to stop smoking, when the urge hits you, if you re at home, sit down and write a letter to someone you should have written long ago. Make that phone call you ve been putting off, or start reading that book you haven t opened yet. And keep your cigarettes out of reach. Page 3 of 3