Having a healthy and active lifestyle is an important goal for an increasing number of persons. In spite of the good intentions, motivation is one of the biggest obstacles to stay fit or to get in shape and the reason why people never get started.
According to health authorities, adults should be active no less than 210 minutes a week, which correspond to 30 minutes of activity every day. However, a busy everyday-life is not easily combined with sport and fitness and therefore, the poor excuses often set the agenda.
Then, how do we boost the motivation?
One of the possibilities is to register physical activities and results and share them with you network. Be it miles ran, hours played or repetitions made it can all be transformed into data, that can be shared with peers, friends and teammates.
In the US, it is called “living by numbers”, in sociology it is called “observer’s effect” and in science it is referred to as “peer reviews”.
Showing results and achievements to likeminded or people who care for you is a tremendously strong motivator. Not just for you, but for everybody who sees it. Likewise, the network can help, inspire and support each other, when the physical data are visible.
At Arena365.com, our ambition is to motivate people to be more active. For that reason we have incorporated the “observer’s effect” not just in the core concept but also in many of the actual features. Luckily, at lot of the feedback we have received stresses that it does get easier to get going when you see other people being active.
In the July issue, Wired Magazine focused on the “living by numbers” effect. The issue is extremely interesting and can definitely be recommended. We are also keen on knowing how the “observer’s effect” affects you and how we can incorporate it even better into the platform.
Bearing this in mind, I will bike to work every day next week and register it at Arena365 –anybody joining?
