Getting a routine of devotionals going can be really hard work, it’s not that you don’t want to or don’t think it’s an important thing, but when you aren’t in the habit of doing it. Devotionals are a tricky beast as well as you get a guilt trip whenever you don’t do them and feel useless often leading to an increase in feelings of hopelessness and despair that you’ll never be a great Christian and never start good habits on the go and so you might as well just give up now.
Of course there are some great reminder apps out there and even habit checklist apps that allow you to add in daily/weekly or monthly events with a reminder to help you, but they are only a partial solution. If you miss a week then the feelings of guilt come back and build. Whenever I’ve used one of these apps, I usually end up feeling gradually more guilty and then take away various reminders so I’m left with things I can always do…Until I met Lift with focuses on Gamification and community rather than just doing it on your own. Let me first tell you a bit about habits, and then a bit about Lift and by the end I’m sure you’ll agree that Lift is one of, if not the best app out there to help you kickstart a new habit, like daily bible reading/quite times/memorising verses etc.
The Three Ingredients of Every Habit?
Habits have three essential parts. A trigger, An action (the habit itself) and a completion or reward. If you want to start a habit you need to know about these three parts.
A Trigger or Cue
The trigger is the sign it is time to do the habit. It could be something simple like you wake up, you finish your meal, you get to the bus stop or it could be something more complex like, you feel sad. Whatever it is every habit has a trigger and the more concrete and solid the trigger, the easier it is to start a habit.
Most apps focus on this part of the system. They give you a solid trigger, which you can easily set up and adjust to whenever you need.
A Routine or an Action
This is the actual habit part of the action like reading your bible, memorising a verse, praying etc. Some apps will go a step beyond being just a trigger and open up the bible app or your pray list app for you, but if you’re one of those crazy people who actually prefers paper over e-ink and for the actual main part of the activity, no app will help you here. You just have to do the work.
A Reward
This is the part where most apps and systems fall down. The assumption is that once you’ve done your habit that’s it. You’ve done it, nothing more to think about till tomorrow. WRONG! When you finish a habit you need something to marks it’s completion. All good and easy to start habits have this. They can be pleasurable (in fact they should be) but sometimes a bit of pain is a good thing too. Think about exercise. A bit of pain when you finish let’s you know you did a good workout but the rush of endorphins is the immediate reward for what you’ve done. If you still don’t believe me then just think about pets and giving them rewards and treats for doing something good.
Two ways to Supercharge Your habit
These three elements are the basics of every habit but there are two other elements that can really enhance picking up a habit too and increase the likelyhood of your habit sticking.
A Tally
By keeping score of how many days in a row you have done your habit it provides that extra incentive not to stop. Imagine, it’s a cold morning, the bed is so nice and warm, just five more minutes…but wait. You’re on day 30 of reading the bible EVERYDAY, one more day and you’ve done a whole month! One whole month! Come on body! Let’s move.
If your trigger reminds you how far you’ve come then it can help push you on when the resistance grows.
Competition and social
At university I loved running. Every morning me and a group of 5 other guys would go for a run around our halls of residence and return home. If one person stayed in bed because they had been up to late or some other silly reason like having an exam that morning then you can bet we wouldn’t let them hear the end of it.
This alone was enough to get me out of bed on many a morning.
But the social side doesn’t just stop at competition. It can also be an opportunity to share what you’ve learnt, encourage one another and get people back on track when they fall off. Just like when someone stopped running for a week or more at university, we stopped jibbing them and instead just encouraged them to come back when they could and stay in shape.
Devotionals can be similar.
How can Lift help with all this?
Well Lift is a simple iPhone and Webapp (so it can work on any platform) where you
- Sign up for a new habit (e.g. read the bible daily, get fit, etc)
- set a reminder (if you want, if you have one on your bible app program you might not want to set another one)
- Sign in and log whenever you do your habit (you can leave a comment if you want)
- If you sign in for two days (or more) in a row you get a streak going
- Other members of the community also sign in and log their habits.
- People gives “props” [much like Facebook likes] and can leave comments on each others log ins.
- Start again tomorrow.
As you can see there is a trigger, and a reward for your actions as well as a social side that adds competition and support and you have streaks all to encourage you to keep your habit going. Not only that but you’ll get advice, support and compliments from other habit doers too!
How Groups Can Help Your Whole Church
Obviously you can do this on your own, but you can also set up groups for larger organisation. Here you can set multiple habits and have a custom image for the group too. Imagine your church or a small group within the church sets up some habits for the month, reading through the book they are looking at, praying for a particular cause or memorising the verse of the day and then church members can log on to the group, check in, write their thoughts and feedback and generally encourage one another.
Learn more and signup on the Lift website.
Chris says
Hey Chris,
Nice article! I think Lift.do has a lot to offer. Do you know of any churches (or organizations) who have started using it?
Chris wilson says
So fat I haven’t but if love it Ida group left a comment about how they use it.