Sitting down at his kitchen table, engulfed by personal turmoil and the grip of a global pandemic, New Canaan resident Neil Charran couldn’t help but wonder, “How did I get here?”
While pondering this question, Charran was inspired to grab a pen and start writing:
You are enough.
You’re going to get through this.
Everything is going to be okay.
They were the words he wished he’d heard—the truths he wished he’d known—in the hardest moments of his life.
“I found myself looking for little sparks of hope and wisdom to get me through each day,” Charran told NewCanaanite.com on a recent morning. “I started writing these little notes to myself. After collecting quite a few, I began to call them ‘Neilisms’ as an antithesis to nihilism. They’re meant to affirm, provide hope, and remind yourself of your worth.”
He continued: “As a single dad, I thought they’d be wonderful to share with my nine-year-old daughter. I thought they could be something she could inherit. As time went on and I’d written hundreds of these messages, I thought, why not share them with others who needed a pick-me-up? That’s what led to the creation of the app.”
Neilism Inspire Daily launched on IOS in July as a “product of [his] healing journey.”
When asked which Neilisms were his favorites, Charran compared it to choosing a favorite child. Still, he offered a few:
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but presence strengthens it.
Boundaries aren’t walls; they are doors that open only to that which is good for you.
You don’t have to climb the whole mountain in a day; just take the next step.
“The app is meant to be conversational,” Charran said. “For example, these words mean this to me, what do they mean to you? Let’s have a discussion about it. Let’s find greater meaning together.”
Charran said he aims to enhance the social aspect of the app, making it easier to share messages.
“It’s designed to show people that they are not alone,” he said. “That what they are going through is real. That no matter how small their problems may seem compared to someone else’s, their experience is valid.”
To create Neilism Inspire Daily, Charran learned Apple’s Xcode earlier this year and built the app by himself. He’s transitioned to also using the help of AI to progress the app and now sees himself as more of a “manager of code through AI.”
The app gives three free Neilisms a day, and additional messages can be purchased for 99 cents.
“The goal is that you need three daily,” Charran said. “Three notes that you ponder, share with a friend, and converse about. If for some reason you feel that you need more, there’s the option to purchase them.”
Charran’s goal is simple: to help others—even if it means making just one person’s day a little brighter.
“If there’s someone that’s having a difficult day, someone that’s facing some kind of challenge, the notes can serve as a reminder that they’re not alone,” he said. “Holding on for one more day can change everything. In my personal experience, getting to that next day means the world.”
Charran added: “It’s not just about encouragement. The messages are meant to accept that life is hard, but we are built for hard and can do anything.”
Neilism Inspire Daily can be downloaded here.
Mr. Charran, will Neilisms be made available through the Play Store as well, or will it only run on Apple products? (Fine by me either way, but curious since I use both a MacBook and an Android phone
I love this: “The messages are meant to accept that life is hard, but we are built for hard and can do anything.”