Tuesday, 5 June 2012

How to Start Creating Your Own Moral Inventory Using Life Inventory App

Revere, MA    Jun 05, 2012

[prMac.com] Revere, Massachusetts - Indie developer James Hollender provides jump start instructions on how to begin your own Moral Inventory using either of his two Life Inventory apps (one for the iPhone or iPod touch; and another for the iPad). Originally designed for persons participating in 12-Step programs, it has since been discovered that a Moral Inventory can help anyone analyze their life to learn more about themselves than ever imagined possible ... and at only a small fraction the cost of a single visit to a therapist.

First, some general information about the Life Inventory apps:

The process of completing a Life Inventory does not directly address anyone's specific problems or addictions, but rather helps the user examine in detail events that have transpired in their life. The Life Inventory app 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?

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

* Build Lists
* Causes and Effects
* My Part
* Fears Analysis
* Fear Questions
* Sex Relations

To get started, it is best to read through all the on-line documentation as it will provide useful information on how to navigate throughout the app, how to backup and/or restore your data, how to set a password.

Now to start entering data ...

Building Lists - The first thing users will enter are entities (people, organizations, etc.), but these need to be entered in their appropriate sub-category. If a new sub-category needed., in the "Enter List Sub-Categories" activity users press the " " button for the selected Category and then enter the name of the new Sub-Category. Once that's completed they can create Entities using the "Edit Entities in Lists" activity. At any time they can use the "View Lists Hierarchy" to see the hierarchy of Categories, Sub-Categories and Entities.

It is highly suggested users make their complete lists of Entities before entering any Incidents (things of concern that happened in their life).

Causes & Effects - The "Edit Incidents for Entities" activity is where users add specific Incidents (Causes) to each Entity. Again, it is highly suggested this activity be completed for all Entities before getting into any details, which starts in the "Determine Effects" activity. Similar to the Build Lists "View Lists Hierarchy" there is now a "View Lists Hierarchy with Incidents" listing available to help users get an overview of their progress.

Marking Records - Initially Incidents and other records as marked as Unmarked. The user can take advantage of changing the marked value to either Needs Review or Completed. When appropriate, the user can move forward or backward through their records by the status of the markings, e.g., search forward to the next Unmarked record.

My Part - Finally, in the "Examination of My Part" activity much more detailed information is allowed to be entered in the form of answering specific questions, some of which are hard to answer because they will be probing into aspects of Incidents users may never have thought about before.

This is more than enough to get the user well into creating their own Life (Moral) Inventory.

Now for some additional information:

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

As stated above, the Inventory begins by 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 associated with those Entities.

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 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 apps gently assist the user in probing into not only what happened, but also why it happened."

Device Requirements:
* Requires iOS 4.3 or later (iOS 5 tested)
* Current version 2.1
* Size: Life Inventory 4.7 MB; Life Inventory for iPad 8.0 MB

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


Based in Revere, Massachusetts, Indie developer James Hollender is a well seasoned Information Technology professional who has been familiar with Apple products since the days of the first Macintosh computer and has been involved with object oriented programming since the introduction of Java, culminating most recently in writing apps in Objective C for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. His innovative ideas have resulted in numerous suggestions and other awards including a commendation from The President of the United States. James Hollender has been involved writing iPad apps with Foliage, Kronos, Olympus and Cross Country Automotive Services (now Agero, where he was involved in creating the new Hyundai Blue Link app). Copyright (C) 2010-2012 James Hollender. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks may be the property of their respective owners.
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