Converting my mind map into an outline and ultimately a central topic for my book

As you know or may not know, I have started to write my book. The last post I wrote about the process was the mind map, if you missed that post here is the link to go back and get caught up: click here

Today I want to talk about the process of taking the mind map and converting it into the outline. This was a tough process for me because I had so many ideas from the mind map that I thought I could include in my book.

Turns out, you can’t put everything into one book. So I ended up doing another mind map specifically focused on one of the things that came from the first mind map. I started focusing in on one particular topic, something I can talk about for hours and something that really resonates with me.

That topic is the idea of inner harmony and how important it is for project managers to find what that means for themselves. 

Now many of you know that I have been focusing on building more inner harmony for myself this year and so it seems like it is becoming the theme of my book as well.

So then I started unpacking that idea and came up with a few ideas around the idea of harmony and got something like this:

Central Theme: Inner Harmony

• Justice
• Continuous Improvement
• Courage
• The importance of harmony
• Compassion
• ikigai
• etc.

I won’t bore you with all of the details but what I discovered is that in order to truly have inner harmony there needs to be authenticity present. I believe when a pm is in tune with their authentic selves, the projects they lead will also be led with authenticity.

As you know if you have been following me for any amount of time, I believe one way to find your authentic self is by going the process of discovering your ikigai (your reasons for living life).

Turns out that there are a lot of connections with finding your authenticity and continuous improvement as well. As you learn who you are, there are things you need to continually focus and improve upon in order to keep nurturing that part of you.

As an example, I really enjoy learning about Japanese culture and the language. So I have taken the next step to start learning how to speak, write and read the language. This is because I was no longer satisfied with just being on the sidelines and looking in from the outside.

Anyway, I ended up developing an outline that really helps a project manager think about inner harmony as a way to lead projects more effectively.  I am excited with the direction it is going and the writing has been natural. I didn’t realize that I had so much to say on this topic.

Next time I will talk about the writing process and how I started turning the outline into chapters.

P.S. I am looking for an editor, so if you know of someone or are an editor please let me know. Ideally I would like to find someone who understands the genre and topic a little bit so as to help with overall content editing. A few details about the book:

• Approx. 25,000 words
• Non-fiction: Directed toward project managers and quality professionals
• Rough draft is completed currently
• Budget: Not huge but can swing something to make it work

Thought I would ask for help here before going to look for random people to help me. So my question to you all, do you know anyone that can help me?

Have a stellar day friends.

#innerharmony #harmony #ikigai #writing #myfirstbook #publishingjourney