The Most Obvious Reminder In The World

I have a new favorite iphone app. It's called Lift, and it truly helps me every day. And.... it's FREE! To sum very generally, it allows you to set goals that you would like to achieve, in a wide range of categories, that ideally you'd like to work towards on a daily basis. You can choose from goals that others have already created, or you can make your own. There are also "coaching" plans, which span a certain period of time and set a series of preset goals along the way. To give you an idea of the options, some of my goals (both self-creative and "stolen" off of others) include:

• Strength training
• Cut down on caffeine
• Focus on one project at a time (by far the hardest)
• Yoga or Stretching
• Achieve your BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) coahcing plan
• Wake up by 6:30 AM
• Be grateful for something or someone

There are more, but I think that gives you an idea. One of the cool features of the app is that you can set alarms for those goals that you particularly want to be reminded of, and these alarms can be set daily or for certain days of the week. This is where the most obvious reminder in the world comes in. 

One of the goals I have set up, and to me the most important one, is "stop and enjoy life" (it was pre-created, so I can't take credit there).  It's so important that I set a reminder for every day of the week. What really struck me is that when the alarm goes off each day, I actually have to stop and think, "oh I have to do that today." Oddly, I remember "strength trainin" and "cut down on caffeine" most days. Even "wake up by 6:30" much of the time. And the kicker is, I don't have alarms set for those. Well, technically I have my alarm clock set for 6:30, but I do so without an additional reminder the night before. Yet not only did I have to set a reminder to stop and enjoy life, but when it goes off it takes me by surprise and I try to find a time to fit it in. 

It's ironic to me that this most important goal, and this one in particular, is the one that I can't remember to do without that alert. Luckily, after a couple weeks of using this app, I'm starting to put "stop and enjoy life" time into my calendar more often. I wish that I didn't have to schedule it in. I wish it was my main priority, to enjoy and appreciate life, and that the rest was just frosting. But it seems that's not our human, or our human-influenced-by-society, nature. So I encourage you, if you're like me and could use this reminder, to check out Lift or any other similar app.  Hopefully, eventually, it can be a regular part of life without a daily alert to instruct us to do so.


PS: I have no affiliation with the app for which I'd need to write this... I just really like it and it's made a big impact in my day to day life. :-)