When you’re on a trek up a steep hill, what pushes you to ascend? The thought of scaling the peak made you choose this path, but an occasional reminder of how far you’ve come encourages you to continue climbing.

A lesser known inspiration, it is often our own progress that motivates us to move ahead. Signs of growth kindle the little steps we have to take to commit to a long journey. Your health, too, relies on this intrinsic motivation— on your readiness to perform daily tasks, as per your healthcare provider’s advice— to ensure long-term wellbeing.

Smart health tech devices are evolving to accompany you on this road. They hold up a mirror to your progress, allowing you to interpret your body’s signals, tap into your intrinsic motivation, and elevate your approach to health.

What makes you tick? Hacking health motivation

As human beings, we thrive on goals. Be it academics, a job, a sport, or other interests, the idea of reaching the finish-line, fuels our efforts to put in our personal best. But striving for these achievements means daily work, and along the way, you need smaller, frequent wins— like positive feedback from a client, or a thumbs up from your trainer— to keep you going.

Taking care of your health is no different, especially if you are dealing with a chronic health condition like diabetes. The aim of your healthcare plan is to stabilize your blood sugar levels and maximize your time in range. A number of lifestyle factors impact this goal— your bedtime, mealtimes, diet, physical activity all affect your glucose levels. Mustering the motivation to monitor your choices in such minute detail can be hard, more so on days when you’re busy running errands or preparing for an important business pitch. The ability to track your progress and get a regular reality check can stimulate your health motivation— your intrinsic drive to take charge of your wellbeing.

Smart Choices for Smarter Healthcare

Keeping an eye on your health becomes easier when it is mapped against tangible metrics. Innovations like biosensors and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices discreetly record your health data, giving you real-time readings of your glucose levels. They display trends that make you aware of how your lifestyle decisions impact your glucose behavior, allowing you to tweak your routine. The result— the improvement in your health metrics— is captured by your device, which further pushes you to go on. This positive feedback loop of information and action not only satisfies our innate curiosity about our bodies, but also fosters accountability and a sense of ownership. When you have access to a live stream of data about your health, you engage more proactively with your healthcare plan— if you find that your blood sugar levels remain stable when you walk a certain number of steps a day, you’re motivated to complete your quota of exercise every day. If your weekend binge is accompanied by a spike in your CGM readings, you are more likely to regulate your next meal.

Health tracking apps, too, help you build micro-habits— small activities that have the power to bring big change. They remind you to adhere to your treatment protocol, cheering you along, bringing you back on track when you start to drift, to reinforce your commitment to your health goals.

Smart devices are ushering in an era of smart healthcare. By sharing personalized insights with you, futuristic innovations like biosensors and insertable cardiac monitors are empowering your body to become a ‘smart body,’ capable of attuning to its intrinsic needs, and making choices that prioritize wellness.

Health is a lifelong commitment that requires a consistent, sustained approach. It needs us to connect with ourselves, to find intrinsic motivation even in the absence of an immediate (external) reward. Smart devices like biosensors are a conduit between our mind and body, rewarding us with the awareness to make better, more informed decisions and choose a life of health.

Disclaimer: The information mentioned in this document is only suggestive /for patient education and shall not be considered as a substitute for doctor’s advice or recommendations from Abbott. Please consult your doctor for more information.