Interest Mapping: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Interest Mapping, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
About 2 minutes
Try it here: list 3 interests and where they connect
Write down a few interests and where they connect, since links between them can reveal new directions.
Which interests do you want to map out?
Practices that may help
- IFS Parts Mapping, Made Practical
Parts mapping is an Internal Family Systems (Richard Schwartz) practice of systematically identifying and visually or narratively charting the distinct inner parts — critics, worriers, peacekeepers, wounded exiles — and their relationships to each other. It is a diagnostic and orientation tool: it shows you the terrain of your inner system before you try to work with any single part. Evidence sits within the broader IFS and parts-work literature, which is growing but not yet on par with CBT or DBT. - Add cross-links between branches to capture unexpected connections
Draw connecting lines between ideas on different branches when you notice a relationship that the radial structure doesn’t capture.
Mind Mapping: Visual Thinking for Learning and Creativity - Argument Mapping
Argument mapping is the practice of drawing the logical structure of an argument as a diagram — claims, supporting reasons, objections, and rebuttals made spatially explicit. Developed into a pedagogical system by Tim van Gelder, it is one of the few critical-thinking interventions with controlled-study support: students who learned argument mapping showed significantly larger gains in reasoning ability than those in conventional classes. - Map interests for both sides before generating solutions
Write down both parties’ known and inferred interests before proposing anything — the map reveals trades that no single position could.
Interests vs. Positions: The Core of Integrative Negotiation - Sample widely before committing to a niche
Premature specialization forecloses interests you haven’t discovered yet.
Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love - Map your Johari Window with a trusted person
Identify what is open, hidden, and blind in a specific relationship or role.
The Johari Window - Map your three circles honestly
Separately answer each circle — passion, best-at, economic engine — before looking for the intersection.
The Hedgehog Concept - Ikigai quarterly review
Every three months, map the intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.
Purpose Anchors: Keeping Meaning Accessible Day to Day - Map relationships, not just items
Use concept maps to encode how ideas connect, giving structure a spatial form.
Dual Coding: Learn With Words and Pictures Together - Mind Mapping: Visual Thinking for Learning and Creativity
Mind mapping — Tony Buzan’s radiant, visual note structure — is widely used for brainstorming and learning. Research evidence is mixed: some studies show benefits over linear notes for creative tasks, while others find no advantage for retention. The technique is most reliably useful for brainstorming, idea generation, and exploring relationships between concepts rather than as a universal replacement for traditional notes.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’ve got all these ideas sitting on separate branches and I can feel that some of them are secretly connected across the map
- I’m walking into this assuming it’s a fixed pie where their win is my loss, and I’ve only ever thought through my own side
- I feel like I should already know my one thing and lock in, but honestly I’ve barely tried anything
- I know in the abstract that I have blind spots, but I couldn’t name a single one
- I’m pulled in a dozen directions and none of them is clearly the thing
Related concerns
- Concept Map Ioed
Use concept maps to encode how ideas connect, giving structure a spatial form.
Map relationships, not just items
- Network Mapping
Draw out the distinct social worlds you move in to find where your bridges are thin.
Map your network clusters
- Parts Mapping Exercise
Parts mapping is an Internal Family Systems (Richard Schwartz) practice of systematically identifying and visually or narratively charting the distinct inner parts — critics, worriers, peacekeepers, wounded exiles — and their relationships to each other. It is a diagnostic and orientation tool: it shows you the terrain of your inner system before you try to work with any single part. Evidence sits within the broader IFS and parts-work literature, which is growing but not yet on par with CBT or DBT.
- Parts Mapping Template
Parts mapping is an Internal Family Systems (Richard Schwartz) practice of systematically identifying and visually or narratively charting the distinct inner parts — critics, worriers, peacekeepers, wounded exiles — and their relationships to each other. It is a diagnostic and orientation tool: it shows you the terrain of your inner system before you try to work with any single part. Evidence sits within the broader IFS and parts-work literature, which is growing but not yet on par with CBT or DBT.
- Parts Mapping Worksheet
Parts mapping is an Internal Family Systems (Richard Schwartz) practice of systematically identifying and visually or narratively charting the distinct inner parts — critics, worriers, peacekeepers, wounded exiles — and their relationships to each other. It is a diagnostic and orientation tool: it shows you the terrain of your inner system before you try to work with any single part. Evidence sits within the broader IFS and parts-work literature, which is growing but not yet on par with CBT or DBT.
- Parts Work Mapping
Parts mapping is an Internal Family Systems (Richard Schwartz) practice of systematically identifying and visually or narratively charting the distinct inner parts — critics, worriers, peacekeepers, wounded exiles — and their relationships to each other. It is a diagnostic and orientation tool: it shows you the terrain of your inner system before you try to work with any single part. Evidence sits within the broader IFS and parts-work literature, which is growing but not yet on par with CBT or DBT.
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