You always start out with the best of intentions. This week, this month, this year you will let go of your old routines and bad habits and embrace new, more helpful ones. However, you soon realize it’s next to impossible to stick to your new health and success promoting habits without a little support and encouragement. What once seemed a conquerable goal now fades into the distance – can you possibly get there from here?

Technology to the rescue!

Thankfully, technology can help you stick to your efforts and help you to realize any goal you set. The following apps will help motivate you, track your progress, and remind you why you started on those goals to begin with.

1. Goal Tracker

With a self-explanatory name, this Android app helps you set goals and articulate your dreams, no matter their size, difficulty, or importance. A goal or new habit can be as simple as waking up early every morning, or as time-consuming as learning Japanese fluently. By sending you a reminder each day, Goal Tracker ensures you stay on track.

2. Typesy

Developed by eReflect touch typing experts, this software lets you define a habit or goal, make a “bet” with yourself and set stakes on it, and even get a video tutorial to help you start working towards conquering that goal.

The option of having money at stake is what makes Typesy an appealing program. The more you have at stake, the more serious you are in committing to a goal. If your goal is to improve your typing efficiency, Typesy will offer you motivation to work daily at this practice, until you achieve it. The great thing about achieving a goal like touch typing is that it gives you the skill you need to reach other goals – faster typing helps students get through assignments quickly and without grade-lowering errors, and top typists are always in demand in the job market.

3. 43 Things

One reason why people fail to stick to their new habits is that they’re often alone in a scary adventure. 43 Things perfectly understood this and developed their app, which is actually more of a goal-setting and sharing community. Having others pursuing the same goal as you are gives you a set of new friends who can offer support, motivation, and tips on how to stick to a new habit.

You’re not alone, as you’ll soon discover! If you’re always falling behind in your schedule, for example, you can join fellow procrastinators in your struggle to never put off a task for later. Turn to 43 Things for support and inspiration by people like you around the globe.

4. Don’t Break The Chain

This app was inspired by comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who allegedly came up with this technique as a useful motivational tool. It helps you stick to your habits and goals by challenging you not to break the “chain” of a new habit. For each day you successfully follow your new habit, that day is marked red on a calendar display. The visual appeal of having more and more red-marked days in a row is what motivates you to stick to the habit. Simple, but brilliant.

5. Mint

Mint is a popular money-management app that helps you stick to your financial goals. The app organizes your spending in meaningful categories so that you can get a clear understanding of how reckless or smart your money decisions are at any time.

What’s more important, Mint lets you specifically set money-related goals and provides tools to help you reach them, from retirement to getting out of debt. Mint is the go-to app for becoming the master of your own financial world.

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