The internet is going to offer millions of gift ideas for the holidays, many taken out of a hat, so we though why not hear ours. This site’s focus has been highlighted on providing you with the right ideas in order to make the perfect lifestyle choices. Following in this vein, we have something to add about gift ideas as well.
First thing first, a gift, in order to nudge someone into starting new and better lifestyle choices has to be original and attention worthy. Suffice to say, this is easier said than done.
I tried, with high hopes of succeeding, to make this list diverse enough, so anyone can go ahead and pick an item. You be the judge and tell me how this went.
Headspace
Yeah, why not start the list with the most unusual of gift ideas, right? I mean, after all, rarely does someone buy a meditation app subscription for the year as a gift. Gifts, and this is just a guess, are usually more tangible, something in the lines of 3D objects that you can touch with your hands. Not this one, no.
Headspace, in short, is a meditation app that you can access anytime anywhere. Meaning, it can be accessed from your laptop, smartphone or any other mobile device.
What makes Headspace unique is… well, almost everything really.
The subscription, which can be monthly or yearly, gets you access to most meditation packages. These, in addition, provide levels of progress, as well as separate themed packages- such as meditation for running, eating, commuting etc.
Andy Puddicombe is doing for meditation what Jamie Oliver has done for food. – The New York Times
The guy behind this app did an amazing job with almost every aspect of the product. We are talking design, UX (since why not worship those too, right), and a through and through meditation resource designed to take you into the world of guided meditation, and then give you enough practice and knowledge so you can make indefinite progress.
Yeah, about the gift aspect, since I digressed enough. This tool has helped over million people to bring the benefits of meditation into their lives. I started using it, and now cannot stop. It definitely made me see things from a different perspective. A point of view that broadens by the day and with each session passed. Here is the thing- as it turns out, they thought about the opportunity to pass this precious experience to someone else as a gift.
It comes with a custom note, and you can choose the date of delivery as well. Besides- and here is the kicker- these guys are willing to donate one full-year subscription for every one that you buy. Headspacetastic (a word) (now).
A full year subscription is quite affordable, but you can also select the monthly package as well. Try the free version for yourself and you will also want this as a gift soon enough.
The P90 workout program
Why not buy someone fitness, right?
I’ve tortured myself throughout the years with more intense workout programs that one cares to admit. Looking back at it now, I want to hug Tony Horton for making this program.
Getting into shape- let me be the one who spoils the surprise- is the easiest part of the whole fitness thing. Staying with it is what kills the fun. And I’ve been there myself, as I suspect many of you were too.
P90 is the on-switch to fitness. The one everybody can do.
It is simplified so much so that beginners can have a go at it and actually complete the whole 90 day stretch. For those who care to ask, fitness aficionados who’ve been in the zone for quite longer are going to love it as well. This workout provides the right level of intensity regardless of your fitness background, and it is as every bit effective as most of its predecessors (P90X, the insanity workout, anyone?). Easiest by far though, and doable.
The P90 workout is also affordable, and it is a gift I reckon many people would greatly appreciate. In physical sense, the product is very well designed, and the bonus gifts that go along with it are equally jar dropping as well- a nicely structured Nutrition guide, high quality resistance band, wall calendar to track your progress.
Give this to someone who you care about and someone who, for whatever reason, is having a hard time staying fit and being consistent with his healthy habits.
Read the huge review I made about the P90 workout.
The complaint free Bracelet
I said I was going to put as much diversity into this list as I can, so there.
This bracelet, which comes at a very affordable price if you order a pack of ten, is something that revolutionary changes the way you go about complaining.
It is a tool that comes along with a book titled “A complaint free world“, and is used as a small experiment in a very simple, yet very effective metacognitive awareness training technique.
Buy the book, or only send the bracelet with a personal note, and change the life of someone dear to you. Yup, this bracelet wields such powers indeed.
What is the catch? Simple as this goes, you take the bracelet and put it on your wrist. Once you catch yourself complaining, whenever this is and for whatever reason, you just take the bracelet out and switch wrists from right to left and vice versa. How long this process ought to go, you ask? Well, as habits take time to form, and many people smarter than me decided to agree on the number of 21 days, you will need to go the distance without complaining at all.
There is some solid logic backing up the efficiency of this bracelet. Not only are you practicing something for the next 21 days, but you do it all over once you take a slip. Meaning, you practice doing the right thing for 21 days which, as logic would tell you, is more effective than practicing “simply trying your best” for 21 days.
Poke the Box
This is not an “I read him, so you should too” type of logic, so hear my arguments; will you?
Poke the box is a book that was meant to be passed along- or as Seth Godin phrased it himself:
Giving this book to someone is giving him a permission to go and try things, do things…
It is a short book that encourages you to take a leap, to test things out, to go and do things instead of contemplating about doing them, or worse still- wait for permission.
It is a book that we here at Lifestyle Updated really appreciate, and if we had a reading list to recommend to people (which I hope we will in near future), “Poke The Box” would definitely earn its place among all the other titles.
Poke the Box is about the spark that brings things to life. We need to be nudged away from conformity and toward ingenuity, toward answering unknown questions for ourselves. Even if we fail, as I have done many times in my life, we learn what not to do by experience and doing the new.
This isn’t the same thing as taking a risk. In fact, the riskiest thing we can do right now is nothing. ~Seth Godin
For the book lovers out there, this is a perfect gift. Buy one, leave a handwritten note on the inside and give someone encouragement and permission to do his own thing.
Recommend a site in a very creative way
This, by far, is the weirdest gift example you will ever come across. Bar none. It came to me once, as I tried getting creative over recommending a site to a friend and being unorthodox and smile inspiring as it is, I think it definitely earns its place here.
First, chose a site you think the person on the receiving end would generally enjoy reading or browsing. Then, send him a handmade cover with a letter inside, each resembling the site’s design and branding. Inside the letter, explain why you think this site’s content would greatly benefit their lives, and then wish them the best of luck in absorbing whatever new information and thus skills or habits they can.
Self-improvement sites tend to work well with this type of gift format, but you can pinpoint craft sites relevant to their taste or interest and really take this idea to broadness.
If the site also happens to have a store, where they sell branding items, go ahead and buy something you can later on add to the gift package. Like a mug, or a T-shirt, or anything else they sell, really. Inside the letter, you can also give them some advice on which articles to start with, and there you have it- a perfect, immersive, attention worthy personal improvement gift. You are welcome.
I hope we did a good job, or at least one fifth-good, in providing you with new and interesting gift ideas for the holidays. You can really use this list when choosing a birthday gift as well (I’m terrible in choosing gifts, and usually have a limited set of ideas, so I tend to put them into rotation as much as I can. Holidays, birthdays… see?) Anyway, I hope we satisfied diverse tastes and price ranges, and allowed many combinations of the two while keeping the ideas original and smile-inspiring.
Here is to amazing holidays, and a lifestyle updated!