With the economy apparently descending into oblivion and wave after wave of depressing layoffs, the next few months (or years) are looking pretty bleak. Fortunately Noomii, a startup that launched two weeks ago, is here to help you get your life back on track. The site aims to help friends pair up and life coach each other in an effort to set and achieve their goals more effectively than they would on their own.
For the uninitiated, Life Coaches are people who specialize in helping others achieve their goals and dreams. Unfortunately these professionals can run hundreds or thousands of dollars a week, making them primarily accessible only to the wealthy (Noomii notes that they are especially popular among celebrities). But Noomii says that while these professional Life Coaches are certainly worthwhile, anyone can be a Life Coach with a little help.
To begin using the site, you first have to find a friend that you’d like to coach (and who’s willing to coach you). Once you’re paired up, you both fill out a survey that gauges which parts of your like you’re happy with, as well as the goals that you’d like to achieve (you can set sub-goals for each of these goals). Then the site presents these goals in an intutive panel with checkboxes next to each goal.
The idea is that because both partners can see the others’ goals, you’ll feel more motivated to get things done. The site also recommends meetings once a week in person or online to discuss how much progress has been made and what needs to be done. It seems like a good idea, provided you pick a good friend to pair off with, though I could see it straining a relationship if one person refused to keep up with their goals.
The site is free, and plans to monetize in the future by offering access to professional Life Coaches online (presumably for a much smaller fee than they’d charge in person). For now you’re forced to pair off in friends in real life, but the site will eventually allow people with similar goals to pair off over the web.
For another site specializing in self-improvement, check out watchMEmelt, a weight loss site that we covered here.