Your Personal Growth Reference Card

Personal growth literature is full of tips and exercises on how to achieve the results we want in different areas of our lives. But it’s absolutely impossible to put all the advice we come across into practice and definitely not at the same time!

We need to decide what we want to put into practice and leave everything else for a later time. Possibly when we’ve developed what we have currently taken on into habits, or if we find that the exercises we want to practice don’t suit us.

This is where your Personal Growth Reference Card comes in handy.

The Purpose of a Reference Card

The idea behind a Reference Card is quite simple. You want a single point of reference on what you have committed yourself to doing that you can check on a regular basis (to ensure that you don’t forget what advice you wish to follow).

Knowing that your favorite blog has a great post on how to overcome procrastination won’t do you any good, especially when the post will soon make its way into the blog archives, with more and more useful posts making their way to the blog. You will soon forget that great post, and all the posts that came before it and after it as you continue to wonder what you will put into practice and why you aren’t getting the results you want from what you read!

A Reference Card helps you focus on a set of manageable exercises and resources that you will make use of for the time being. Everything else will have to wait unless there are things that can be incorporated into your Reference Card.

Principles of a Reference Card

To get the most out of your Reference Card, fill it in with these principles in mind:

– Categorize the tips into different areas (health, work, family, etc.) and try to have a set of tips that span the most areas you can (to develop a more balanced life)

– Mention the schedule or time in which an exercise is to be practiced (if it is time specific). For example, if you want to drink 8 glasses of water in the morning, you have to include the time you want to drink the glasses, or simply note: First thing in the morning

– Be specific on how the advice is to be put into practice. “Be focused while working” isn’t very practical. “Close all program windows except for the task you are working on” is more practical

– List the resources/tools you want to use. Dumbbells for exercising, a speed-typing software, a set of DVD’s you want to go through, etc

– Be realistic. Don’t put too many routines that are time intensive and which won’t even fit into your schedule!

A Peek at My Reference Card

To give you a sense of what a Personal Growth Reference Card looks like, I’ll share with you some snippets of what I have on my Reference Card:

Health

– Decide what to eat and how much to eat before starting to eat

– Eat slowly. Put the spoon/fork down while chewing

– Don’t drink juices/soft drinks

– Go to the gym before work. Burn at least 600 calories (cross trainer and rowing machine)

Waking Up Early

– Wake up as soon as the alarm rings (snoozing is evil!). Sit up as soon as the alarm rings

– Meditate in bed before going to sleep. Close eyes. Think of how I feel about waking up in the morning. Imagine waking up early full of energy and looking forward to going to the gym

Work Habits

– Write a to-do list of the 3 most important tasks to do early in the morning and ensure they are done before moving on to other tasks

– Close all browser tabs that aren’t related to the task I’m carrying out

Punctuality

– Add a 30 minute buffer for every appointment I need to get to

Starting Your Own Reference Card

Think of the most important habits you wish to develop in the different areas of your life and note them down with a practical description of how you will apply them.

Focus on the habits that make their way into your Reference Card and ignore all other advice (for the time being).

Monitor the progress you make with the habits you have in your Reference Card. If you aren’t feeling comfortable with some habits, replace them with others intended to achieve the same result (e.g. a productivity habit with another productivity habit).

You will notice that this simple tool will help you gain enormous focus on how to advance your life in different areas without feeling overwhelmed with all the exercises you can practice!