Change BEFORE You Have To

There is an article in our newsletter this month talking about retirement planning and how easy it is to think planning for 'it" is a long way away and there is plenty of time to deal with it.  This "there is plenty of time to deal with it" mentality is prevalent in our culture and is probably a basic human characteristic. 

Smart Hours from OGE is an example of a tool to help each of us take action now rather than wait until the brown-outs occur or costs are so high we can't manage them.  Here is the link to the website and a graph describing the cost of electrical power.  http://www.ogepet.com/programs/smarthours.aspx

You can imagine many people are nervous about having BIG BROTHER in the house in charge of the thermostat.  For me I hope I'm like Warren Buffet who said "It's best to make changes before you have to." 
I was fortunate to be in the first test group of homes for this system and have had time to get used to the idea.  IF it goes according to everything I understand about it, a lot of energy will be saved by people being more conscious about how they consume it thus giving each of us MORE control over our costs.  Also OGE has to build capacity for peak utilization not just regular times.
Unlike retirement savings this meter can be read from afar (meaning no meter reader) and shows you the cost/kwh as you use it.  It also can be managed from afar in the event we have a spike in usage and a danger of essential services being put at risk. 
Maybe we all could use a meter that would make our room warmer or cooler based upon whether we are making "healthy" decisions or not.  In August I would be doing everything possible to cool it down and in January warm it up.  Unfortunately most significant decisions are not reserved for the peak decision times only and it is when we are hottest or coldest (metaphorically speaking) when decisions are often made.
How can we be more open to making the changes necessary BEFORE we have to?