If you’re interested in increasing your capacity for personal growth, the PACE card deck developed by B.J. McCabe from Idein Rise Incorporated is worth your investment.

What’s in this card deck?

This 52-card deck features beautiful photographs on one side, selected to evoke your own experiences and stories. On the other side, each card contains a brief lesson on a principle for doing successful, innovative work, while thought-provoking questions and action steps help you apply each principle to your own life and present situation.

The cards are divided into four “suits,” just like a deck of playing card. The PACE acronym stands for:

• Pay attention – to engage in reflective thinking
• Act – to make things happen
• Compassion – to lead with inspiration
• Expression – to collaborate and share stories

Some examples of the topics the cards cover include these:

• Embrace passion and face fear
• Act as if
• Listen up
• Create a panoramic view
• The amazing journey

Why was the PACE card deck created?

I recently had a chance to talk to B.J. about the thinking that went into creating the PACE card deck. It’s clear to me that she is very sensitized to the stories of others, as well as developing a deeper understanding of her own stories. She started by creating a limited number of card decks to use with her clients, but they proved so popular that she decided to launch them as a full-fledged product.

B.J.’s deep level of experience in helping people to tell their stories gives PACE a unique depth that I haven’t seen in other card-based brainstorming and self-improvement tools. The goal of the PACE card deck, she explains, is to help “surface” useful ideas in your life, so you can contemplate and take action on them. She acknowledges that it’s hard for you to see opportunities when you’re busy with your day-to-day work. Using a tool like the PACE card deck prompts you to take a mental excursion and explore ideas and connections that you may otherwise have missed as you rush through your overly-packed work days.

B.J. not only uses the card deck with her clients, she also uses it to explore her own challenges and opportunities. In her blog, selects a card at random, and then explores what she thinks it means in the context of her current situation with her readers. In so doing, she provides potential buyers with a great example of how the cards can be used – as a thought trigger for journaling.

It’s also quite refreshing that the PACE card deck isn’t just about self-improvement; a number of the cards urge you to pay attention to your interactions with others, and to better understand their stories.

How can you use the PACE card deck?

B.J. recommends these of her thought-provoking tool:

• Draw a card at random and see if it “speaks” to you in some way
• Draw one card per week, and invest time each week applying the principle on that card
• Select one at random and send it to a client or coworker to inspire them
• Use them as fodder for your writing

She emphasizes that there is no “right” way to use the PACE cards – you should use them in whatever way makes the most sense to you.

Conclusion

The PACE card deck is a valuable addition to your personal improvement toolkit. It can help you to become a better thinker, to “see” challenges and opportunities from fresh perspectives, and to listen more clearly. At a cost of only US$9.99, it’s easily affordable by anyone who wants to up their impact in their work and life.

If you haven’t guessed by now. I’m a big fan of tools to help me think better, to think laterally and get out of my mental ruts. It’s essential in doing creative work. I find that tools like PACE serve as excellent “kick-starts” for my synapses, and help me to explore fresh ideas and perspectives that I otherwise would never have discovered. Why not give the PACE card deck a try? You have very little to lose and much more to gain by letting it enrich your life.