We were thrilled when online marketing expert Pat Flynn who runs the extremely successful blog SmartPassiveIncome.com started a Lift community for his fans. But we were surprised when we saw the habits he chose:

• Random Acts of Kindness
• Pushup(s)
• Run
• Read

How do Random Acts of Kindess relate to growing an online business? Here’s what Pat explained to us:

“I chose the specific habits in the group because in order to be successful in business, one must be healthy and energetic. Push-ups and Running are just a few of the things I do to maintain a healthy lifestyle, which leads to more focus and productivity for my work.

In addition, when it comes to Random Acts of Kindness, one must learn to give without asking for anything in return. For me, giving has lead to my success online. When you give, people/karma/the universe/whatever you want to call it always finds a way to repay you.

The habits I chose aren’t directly related to passive income and online business, but they are entirely related to the foundation of it.”

If you run an online business and are looking to build habits that will help you professionally and personally, we recommend checking out the Fans of SmartPassiveIncome.com group on Lift. Visit Pat’s blog for tremendously helpful tips, tools and resources for running an online business. Pat also shares our ethos of transparency: he posts his income reports every month.

We’ll be bringing you more examples, case studies, and success stories soon. If you have feedback email feedback+groups@lift.do.

If you’re interested in healthy eating habits, you should head over to Darya Rose’s new Foodist Recalibration group on Lift.

Some of you may know Darya from her Summer Tomato blog and Twitter. She’s an expert on healthy eating habits, and we appreciate her advice on how to eat healthy and well at the same time.

The recalibration group is for people who have not been eating well and want to reset their body. It’s covered in chapter 9 in Foodist and in summary in an article on Summer Tomato.

Lift is working on a groups feature in order for communities to support each other’s goals and habits. We’ll be bringing you examples, case studies, and success stories. Big thanks to Darya for experimenting with us!

Last week we asked Lifters to send in photos and stories about how they use Lift so that we could incorporate them into our landing page (in the works).

From all of us at Lift to all of you, props for all you’ve accomplished and thank you for building such an encouraging, supportive and inspiring community.

We’re still looking for more success stories. All you have to do is sign up for Lift, achieve something awesome, and then email your story/photo to me (erin@lift.do).

“I am very much against the idea of a tiny habit.”
                                                        ~ Buster Benson

Tony sat down with Buster Benson to debate the best strategies for reaching your goals. Buster spent the last 10 years helping people build good habits as founder of 43 Things, Health Month and 750 Words. Watch the video to learn:

• His 1,000 step strategy for reaching goals
• Traps to watch out for when rewarding milestones
• Why he’s a behavior change fanatic… and skeptic
• His favorite fitness gadgets

Transcript after the jump. For more on Buster, check out his incredibly quantified life.

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What if adopting one specific habit made you more likely to achieve all of your goals?

We did some digging into the rituals of Power Lifters (people with the longest streaks on Lift) to identify habits that made them so successful. 

We discovered that Power Lifters share four key productivity habits in common: they set clear goals, keep their work free of clutter, make sure they’re physically able to perform and make their personal development a top priority.

The good news is that these success-boosting habits are easy to adopt.

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Scientific studies show that meditation can improve your creativity, reduce stress, improve your cardiovascular health and even positively change the physical structure of your brain. 

Here’s a collection of tips & research to help you build a meditation habit. 

In our meditation research, 75% said meditation improved their focus at work.#liftchat

April 3, 2013

Data-based Tips & Research

Lift Data Insights: Why you should start with short, daily sessions, your chances of keeping a streak and meditation app recommendations from Lifters.

Lift Data Insights II: Does the time of day you meditate matter, what positions are most popular among Lifters and the most popular meditation styles.

5 Meditation Tips for Beginners by Dr. Alice Boyes, a Psychology Today article featuring data from Lift.

Insights from Quora users on how to build a meditation habit.

User Video Tips

Buster Benson & Tony Stubblebine exchange tips on getting a meditation habit to stick including making it part of your daily routine, using an app and incorporating meditation as a booster for other habits.

Alyson Madrigan explains how she started meditating and the impact it has on her personal and professional life.

John Muldoon tells us why meditation has improved his business success.

Jason Shen explains why you should experiment with different meditation styles until you find the right one for you.

Search for #MarchMeditation on Twitter to read more tips, articles and user stories from the 2013 March Meditation Challenge.

Thanks folks for joining our first #liftchat. 

Here’s a recap of the conversation. Remember to sign up for the Power Lifter list to get updates on what’s happening at Lift and a special surprise this Monday. 

http://bit.ly/powerliftersignup

Q1: How many goals do you track on Lift? Do you think there is an optimal number?

We see a correlation with retention that peaks at 8 habits. So that’s usually how I answer the question of how many. #liftchat

April 3, 2013

@erinfrey A1: I track 6. I think optimal is 3. I never track more than I can see in one iPhone screen (thanks for that tip, BTW) #liftchat

April 3, 2013

@erinfrey The optimal number of habits to track is slightly more than the number that you can usually do in a day. :)#liftchat

April 3, 2013

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For the first time ever, we’re offering Goal Tracking by Mail. You can capture your progress toward Lift goals by filling out a simple paper star chart and sending it in to Lift HQ. 

Follow the instructions at the bottom of this post to learn how to use this feature. Continue reading for some background on why and how we built it.

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Tony sat down with Buster Benson to chat about how to build a meditation habit. Buster is a behavior change skeptic/fanatic and founder of apps including 43 Things, Health Month and 750 Words. Watch the video to hear Tony & Buster’s tips which include:

• Make meditation part of your daily routine.
• Start with guided meditation. It’s easier (even if Buster is skeptical).
• Don’t be discouraged: it’s difficult at first and we all struggle. 
• Increase your chances of keeping the habit by making it part of your personality.

Transcript after the jump. For more on Buster, check out his incredibly quantified life.

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We’ve received a lot of questions about how, exactly, one should meditate since launching the March Meditation Challenge. We asked Lifters in the Meditate habit to share the techniques they use.

Time of Day

Rise and shine, most people on Lift meditate in the morning. 

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