An App That Took More Than 25 Years To Become A Reality - Life Inventory

Indie developer James Hollender's Life Inventory apps literally took more than 25 years to become a reality. The Life Inventory apps may be complex, but once understood are amazing. These apps guide users in creating their own Life Inventory, another term for Moral Inventory, which can provide greater self understanding of personality, strengths and weaknesses leading to a better quality of life.

They apps allow any user, even someone not in a 12-Step program, to learn more about themselves than they ever thought possible and at only a small fraction the cost of a single visit to a therapist.

Many thanks to "George" and his "Dungeon Prison Complete" spreadsheet which has been used as the outline for this app. This spreadsheet was developed based on years of his own personal research of the AA Big Book, along with help from many others who had already gone through the process of doing their own Moral Inventories. This was done in order to more fully understand the application of the concepts for doing his own Moral Inventory. His extensive research resulted in the creation of the "Dungeon Prison Complete" spreadsheet, a detailed set of instructions on how to do your own Moral Inventory, including several new concepts not covered in the AA Big Book: Sources of Anxiety/Excitement as a 4th Category; and a set of Sex Relations exercises. Both of these new elements were discovered to be critical in eventually understanding why we do what we do, the end result of doing your own Moral Inventory.

James Hollender attended several of George's workshops on how to properly prepare a Moral Inventory. He then got the idea that it would be great if this could be done on his iPhone, but just how to accomplish that seemed impossible. It was when the iPad was introduced that he finally had the screen space needed to convert this spreadsheet into an app using an underlying database to keep track of all the information collected. Several friends helped with testing the app and it quickly made it's way into the App Store. Eventually James found a way to accomplish the same task using the smaller iPhone screen size. The total time to create these apps, especially including all the work done by George, literally took more than 25 years.

Additional security has been added to the Life Inventory for iPad app which doesn't allow any access to the app at startup until proper authentication has been supplied, but only if the user has password protection implemented. This was a feature requested by a user who sometimes wants to loan out his iOS device, but doesn't want the other user to see anything, even the instructions. A similar upgrade is in the works for the iPhone and iPod touch version.

The Life Inventory for iPad app was rated as the 3rd Top iOS App for 2012:

Life Inventory for iPad: This iPad top iOs apps 2012 as the potential to let users create their very own Life Stock, which may present higher self-understanding of their character, strengths, and weaknesses. Life Stock is geared towards folks working by manner of a 12 step AA program and has quite quite a bit of spiritual connotations as faith and fellowship is the cornerstone of these kinds of programs. It assists customers in probing into not solely what happened, but in addition why it happened. Life Stock is certainly equivalent to moral inventory. Because the idea behind the app is advanced, new users might wrestle a bit with it. Life Stock is suitable with iPad and requires iOS 4.3 or later. This app costs USD 9.99. There may be additionally an iPhone version available.

Update: The app now required a minimum of iOS 5.0.

Both the iPad and iPhone/iPod touch versions accomplish exactly the same thing, only the interface is considerably different for each because of the significant differences in screen size.

The process of completing a Life Inventory does not directly address anyone's specific problems, habits or addictions, but rather helps the user examine in detail events that have transpired in their life. The Life Inventory apps gently assists the user in probing into not only what happened, but also why it happened. The questions asked help the user delve into areas often never considered before, like:

* What did I want?

* Why did I want it?

* What am I not admitting?

* What lie did I tell myself?

* What did I leave out or not say?

* What lie did I tell others?

* Have I ever done the same thing?

* Was it any of my business?

* Were my expectations reasonable?

* What was the real truth?

* What was I not seeing?

* Did I fail to see the facts of the situation?

* What actions did I take to get what I wanted?

* What actions did I omit to get what I wanted?

Life Inventory guides the user through six different steps, each with its own activity grouping, for making a Life Inventory:

* Build Lists

* Causes and Effects

* My Part

* Fears Analysis

* Fear Questions

* Sex Relations

Throughout the process, users are encouraged to enter data into their Inventory, be completely honest about themselves and take advantage of encouragement and support.

The Inventory begins by making one simple list, which defines four fixed Categories in which to file away what are broadly categorized as Incidents:

* People

* Institutions and Organizations

* Principles, Ideals and Beliefs

* Sources of Anxiety and Excitement

Each of the four Categories will contain hierarchical sub-categories. From there, users outline Entities and then individual Incidents related each Entity.

Step-by-step, users complete the Causes and Effects of each Incident. Next, users determine the part they played in each Incident listed. It is not unusual to create hundreds of Incident forms, each devoted to a single incident. The app includes the ability to create and save all written lists and forms with password protection. Having completed all their Incident forms, users can refer to these forms to help list all their Fears. The app includes the following eight pre-defined fears, to which the user is free to add:

* Other people's opinions

* Not getting what I want

* Not having control of the situation

* Financial insecurity

* Abandonment

* Physical harm

* Failure

* Success

The fifth step is examining each Fear category and answering the following key questions:

* Why did I have this fear?

* When did I first notice this fear in my life?

* How did I hold on to this fear?

* What did this fear make me do?

* What chain of circumstances did this fear set in motion in my life?

* How did I react to this fear?

* What decision did this fear cause me to make?

* How did self-reliance fail me?

* What should I have done instead?

And the sixth and final step is examining Sex Relations, where users answer all the following questions regarding each of their sexual relationships:

* How was I selfish?

* Where was I dishonest?

* Where was I inconsiderate?

* Who was hurt in this situation?

* Did I arouse jealousy, suspicion, or bitterness?

* Where was I at fault?

* What should I have done instead?

* What will I do in the future?

* Did I pray or have spiritual conversations with him/her?

* Did I pray for him/her?

* Did I enjoy his/her company?

* Did we bring each other closer to God?

"The process of completing a Life Inventory doesn't directly address anyone's specific problems, habits or addictions, but rather helps the user examine in detail events that have transpired in their life," stated indie developer James Hollender. "The Life Inventory app gently assists the user in probing into not only what happened, but also why it happened." James Hollender is also the author of a suite of Nutrient apps based on the USDA National Nutrient Database:

* iCarbs (Carbohydrates)

* iCholesterol (Dietary Cholesterol)

* iFiber (Fiber)

* iKals (Calories)

* iPotassium (Potassium)

* iProteins (Proteins)

* iSatFat (Saturated Fat)

* iSodium (Sodium)

* iSugars (Sugars)

* Vitamin K (Vitamins K1, K1D & K2)

* iNutrients - encompasses all of the same ten nutrients above, plus includes the entire USDA National Nutrient Database for those nutrients built right into the app so no Internet connection is needed.

Device Requirements:

* "Life Inventory" - iPhone and iPod touch

* "Life Inventory for iPad" - iPad only

* Requires iOS 5.0 or later

Pricing and Availability:

Life Inventory and Life Inventory for iPad are each $9.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the iTunes App Store in the Lifestyle category. A Lite version of each app is $1.99, which supplement the main app by providing a mock Moral Inventory from which the user can learn by example and experimentation. Review copies are available on request.