What do a Prius and a workout routine have in common? On the surface, not much, but I’ll help you make the connection.

I had a great conversation this past week with an old friend from the homebuilding space. We talked about energy efficient technologies and what factors would propel homebuyer demand, which we both agreed was a bit lacking. The conversation drifted to her husband’s Prius and the dashboard inside this vehicle which keeps track of just how energy efficient he drives on a daily basis. To her husband, he looks at it as a challenge to beat his most economic drive each and every time. It’s just natural to become competitive.

We both agreed that perhaps this is the thing most needed when it comes to connected home technology. Perhaps homeowners would be more prone to conserve energy if they had some in-home dashboard that told them you saved ‘x’ amount of energy today—or even better, you saved ‘x’ amount of energy as compared to your neighbor, who saved ‘y’ amount of energy today. I know that there are systems like this out there, but are homeowners really aware of them? I doubt it.

It got me thinking about my own little challenge with technology these days. Anyone that has been following this blog knows that I am training to run my first 5k this September and am using a connected fitness device, which develops my workout program and monitors my results.

One of the things my connected device keeps track of during each workout is my fastest mile time on average during that particular workout. Following my first workout in which my average was around 12 minutes (I know, I know, marathoners are scoffing at me right about now) per mile, I wasn’t feeling too proud. Bu then again, I was only beginning.

But following my next workout where my average time dropped only slightly, I began to get a bit perturbed. How can I not be making better progress, I thought? There has to be something wrong. Am I starting to question my virtual coach? Will I get frustrated to the point that I ignore my coach the next time? My competitive juices stared to flow, and in any case I am beating my time during my next workout.
Dare I say that I am looking forward to my next workout?