After stumbling across the Nike FuelBand on a trek to the Apple Store I was compelled to purchase it and give it a shot. A lot of my time is spent working in what can be a sedentary fashion and after reading a great article that captioned “Sitting Is The New Smoking” it was clear to me that it’s in my best interest from a health point of view to track my activities and get moving more throughout the day.

I already knew I wasn't feeling as good as I should as I have a strong athletic background and hoped the extra awareness the FuelBand delivered would help give me a friendly nudge throughout the day and keep me moving.

The FuelBand I purchased was the first generation and was returned immediately as it didn’t work, wouldn’t sync and was a complete failure. I had read that the new version was coming up soon and decided to give it a shot when it was released in November 2013.

It worked right out of the box, synced like a charm and was fun, engaging and definitely gave me an awareness of my daily activities I never experienced before. The FuelBand was like having a virtual cheerleader on your wrist. Hit your self imposed goals and it flashes lights, breaks into song on the iPhone app and was really a fun addition to the day. It compelled you to hit your target and I found myself doing the extra activity required to hit my daily goal. I absolutely loved it and was really disappointed when three weeks later it just stopped working.

I took it back to the Apple Store and decided that while wearable technology is going to be spectacular in the future it just isn’t quite ready. I felt confident that I had formed some great new habits from the experience of living with the FuelBand and would just carry on with some good new disciplined ways.

I went for three days without the FuelBand and found myself looking for it on regular basis and really missed it’s presence on my wrist. And even more surprising I noticed I already slipped away from my newly formed good habits. After researching different brands I was clear that the FuelBand was the best way to go for me and went back to the Apple Store and repurchased it. It’s been running for 5 days now perfectly and I’m back to my healthy ways.

I’m hoping it stays working well but if it fails again it will be replaced with a different version of wearable technology. I’ve enjoyed the benefits far too much to step away from it again. Wearable tech works and is going to have a powerful positive effect on a lot of people’s lives as they experience it.

It’s looking like Nike is stepping up the motivational game with more trophies and awards through their app as well. I’ve already won the Noisemaker and 2014 New You Award. And it feels like the more interactive the app is the more compelled you are to share it. I actually linked it to my Facebook page after getting the second new trophy and discovered 6 out of around 500 friends were using it as well.

The FuelBand was a great conversation starter on NYE and I was really surprised that no one there knew what it was. However after people looked at it and saw the app working in conjunction with the FuelBand everyone thought it was a great idea wanted to learn more about wearable technology. It’s looking like 2014 is going to see some strong growth and success in wearable tech as the exposure and awareness increases.