Hi again, one more thing about GloManWriMo (Global Manifesto Writing Month):  if you participated in this year’s hastily arranged event and met your 10,000 words goal, I’d like to give you a badge that you can post on your blog or website.

Please, either leave a comment here on this blog post or else E-Mail me at thoughtwrestler@gmail.com so I can send you your badge!  Thanks!

Happy Friday!  If you’re trying to avoid the Black Friday mobs (or even if you’re not), here’s some reading to pass the time.  This is a short excerpt from my GloManWriMo project.  This is largely unedited and may be very different in the final version, but nonetheless, here’s a sneak peak.

Stephen Covey, the author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, has talked about the space between stimulus and response. Our instincts and emotions are programmed to deliver instant response in the presence of certain stimuli. When we see someone smile, we are often driven to smile ourselves. Frowns darken our moods. Threats of violence trigger the fight or flight response. Instinct, nature and all of that stuff. We have built in programming.

But… it is possible to override the program. And sometimes it’s necessary. But somehow you need to find that space between stimulus and response.

We need to remember that we always have a choice. We don’t always have to make the obvious choice. We can pause, reflect, and choose another response.

In Mark Goulston’s book, Just Listen, he relates an anecdote of how he responded to a belligerent prosecuting attourney during a criminal trial. The lawyer in question badgered Goulston, trying to make him respond in anger or fear. Goulston waited for seven seconds, cleared his throat, waited for seven more seconds and asked the attourney to ask his question again. This completely derailed the prosecutor, who did not succeed in getting Goulston to react emotionally.’

This is an example of choosing how to respond before responding. It’s a clever and smart thing to do.

Here’s another way to try to handle it: the use of humor. Take a moment to see how your potentially stressful situation could be humorous. Absurdity lives everywhere. Learn to laugh at yourself. Learn to recognize the humor in other people’s actions without alienating them.

Don’t lash out in anger. Try to find a way to hold back and make a thoughtful response.

The consequences of angry retaliation are normally too hard to bear in economic and emotional terms. The thoughtwrestler must never lash out in anger. The thoughtwrestler must learn how to use negative emotion in a positive way. We need to find ways to do positive things in the light of awful painful emotions and stressful situations and decisions.

There’s too much pain in the world already for us to have to unleash more pain and hurt in the world. Think before you act. You don’t always have to have a hair-trigger response.

Many voices make blogging interesting (and fun!)

We haven’t had many guest posts here at Thoughtwrestling during the past month or so, so I thought I’d make a public call for guest posts.

Would you like to submit a guest post for Thoughtwrestling?

Do you think you might have the right stuff to “wrestle” a post into submission (or, rather, to submit a post to Thoughtwrestling for the rest of us to enjoy?

Are you looking to build your own profile as a blogger and a writer?

This could be an excellent opportunity for you.

If you like to write about the following subjects:

• creativity
• creative thinking
• problem solving
• getting things done
• any of the other topics that you see on our About page

and you have a decent command of the written word, there’s an excellent chance that writing a guest post for us will work well for us both!

In addition to having a place to have your say and share your thoughts, you can also link back to your own blog, website, Twitter account or other social media profile.

Please contact me at thoughtwrestler@gmail.com for more information and we’ll discuss your ideas for guest posting at Thoughtwrestling!

Idea creation fascinates me:  it’s one of the reasons that I started Thoughtwrestling.  Today I want to review an eBook that deals with idea creation, using mind mapping as a tool to help make ideas.

Paul Foreman writes the Mind Mapping Inspiration blog.  His mind maps are true to the original vision of mind mapping that came from Tony Buzan:  they are full of color and images.  Virtually all of the maps are hand drawn, so they have a very organic feel to them.

Paul has written and published several eBooks.  He generously offered to let me have a review copy of one of his eBooks and I chose Idea Creation (non-affiliate link).  It’s a 101 page eBook full of mind maps and suggestions on how to create ideas.

It’s nicely done. It feels very stream of consciousness in its layout and delivery, which is an interesting approach.  It’s quite a contrast to a lot of mind mapping that you see these days (including my own) because of the hand drawn mind maps.  It’s obviously a labor of love.

I do think that the eBook has a lot of techniques in it. That may be a bit confusing for some readers, who may not be sure what techniques they are supposed to use in which situations. However, it’s balanced out by the constant message of giving ideas time and space to breathe.

If you are looking for a hand crafted approach to mind mapping and to idea creation, you’ll want to check out Paul Foreman’s website (see link at the top of the post) and his eBooks (he was written several other eBooks besides Idea Creation).  Well done, Paul!

Images in this post were published with the permission of Paul Foreman.

My own mind mapping product deals with using mind maps as a way to get unstuck, focused and organized.

First of all, here’s one last mention about this:  the price of Unstuck Focused and Organized Using Mind Mapping goes up from $24.95 to $37 on Monday, Oct. 18.  That’s a 48% price increase in just a few days.  Note: Chris Brogan just shared some thoughts on the product in his Mapping Your Projects post.

On Monday I’m also releasing version 1.5 of the eBook, which includes a few fixes and five pages of new material.  However, if you buy U.F.O. Mind Mapping before then, you get the updated eBook for the current price!

Think about that while I mention a few other things…

Another eBook! This one will be free and it will be a group collaboration by our fine band of contributors, who will each be contributing a small piece to this eBook.  What’s it about?  Here’s a hint:  it’s about doing your best work.  Sound promising?  Watch for it to appear before Christmas!

And there may be another little project in the works, too…  more details as they become available.

Next: there’s a bunch of us from Third Tribe who aren’t attending Blog World Expo 2010 in Las Vegas so, just for fun, we thought we’d do shout outs for each other.

Here are names, blog links and Twitter handles:

Debbie Ferm http://www.worldferm.com

Kev Kaye The Kev Kay Blog @KevKaye

Paul Cunningham Blogging Teacher @paulcunningham

Susanna (FutureExpat) FutureExpatsForum @bizcopywriter

Cege Smith Thinkblot Communications @thinkblotcom

Beth Page BethanyPage @writeeditproof

RudolfB Miracle Tutorials

Steve Faber Belly Fat Loser

Lisa Kalner Williams Sierra Tierra @sierratierra

Check ‘em out, won’t you?

Finally, one last reminder about the U.F.O. Mind Mapping price increase that takes effect on Monday, Oct. 18.  Find out more about this fabulous information product that will help you get unstuck focused and organized.

See you next week!