There’s a Lift for that

I was invited to the Lift beta roughly 3 weeks ago, and have been using it nearly daily ever since. I like the idea of a social activity app that promotes good habits, but I’ll be honest, I was a little weary when I “added habits” and checked into them at first. Hmm… okay.

Then, I checked into them again the next day, and began receiving “props” from other users for my consistency. That’s cool… sure.

Then, I checked into a few of my habits again the following day, and began to see my progress chart. I was being consistent with “Drinking more water”, but not so much with “Sleep by midnight”. Damn… I’m slacking.

It’s true, I didn’t even realize it. I’m making such an active effort to improve some of my habits, yet, I still end up in bed around 2am every night. It’s not even always a conscious decision, I just forget. Ahhhhh…. I get it!

It might sound basic to some, however, anyone who’s constantly looking to improve their habits, any tool that helps you keep track of them with a social layer of like-minded peers built on top of it, is a welcome tool! Nike’s FuelBand users have proven that.

Lift became publicly available today, and I definitely recommend giving it a shot. Especially, if you’re committed to improving your daily habits.

liftworldwide:

Lift is a simple way to achieve any goal. Our first version is available, as of today, in the Apple App Store. Go get it.

Unlimited Aspiration

In beta testing, we saw our users achieve habits across 180 different goals. This is just the tip of the iceberg—people have an unquenchable desire to pursue their better selves.

Sometimes you have big goals, like changing your diet or running your first marathon. Other times you are missing a basic habit that sounds trivial but has eluded you for years (yesterday, 105 Lift users celebrated their new flossing habit).

Sometimes goals already have the support of in-person organizations paired with detailed advice. What what do you do when you’re away from the organization? Or if the advice is too daunting?

One Lift user thought going to a weekly meeting and counting every calorie was more effort than he could give to weight loss. Instead he adopted an “eat low-carb lunch” habit and lost 15 pounds.

Sometimes good advice doesn’t travel well. I love my dentist, but his advice fades the second I leave his office. We had a leader of a Zen Center email his solution to this problem, “We love meditating at the center, but always struggled to keep up our practice individually. Now with Lift, the support of the center goes home with everyone.”

However, most of your goals have no support at all. Nobody is going to create an organization dedicated to helping you achieve “Don’t buy anything on Fab.” That is actually an active habit on Lift (and also a huge compliment for Fab).

When your mind is wandering and you think, “Gee, I wish I had the motivation to get up and do [blank],” remember there is probably a Lift for that.

Version One

Today, we’re releasing an iPhone app that hands you two things: habit tracking paired with a supportive community. You may be wondering, rightfully, why these two things?

Our most successful Lift users wanted to track their progress toward goals because they believed that created mindfulness. One user described her success succinctly, “I started paying attention.”

There are plenty of tracking tools out in the world, each with their own opinion on what matters. Here’s our opinion: focus on simplicity and consistency.

Did you make progress today? You should be able to mark that with a single touch. At no point should you have to scroll through a list of options or browse through a hierarchy of choices.

Once you have made progress, we show you how consistent you’ve been (and call out when you’re on a streak). There are no tricks, nags, or gimmicks. Real life progress is more motivating than a game.

For many people, tracking progress is already a fundamental tool for success. Lift is that tool, made simple, and packaged for the phone so that it can go anywhere with you.

However, that’s not all it takes to achieve your goals.

Sometimes you need a boost of encouragement, a dose of inspiration, or a bit of information. For that we connect you with your friends and with the people in the habits with you. They’re like a portable support community—there when you need them.

As an example, two of us on the Lift team tried out a vegan diet, and what we needed more than anything was to know where our vegan coworkers ate lunch. That’s the kind of information that you don’t find in books.

So welcome! Download Lift and enjoy your trip.

Tony, Jon, Mark, Matt.

(email: team@lift.do)