I Pledge Allegiance to ... Taking Care of Myself

A “pledge” is defined as a serious promise in an effort to hold one’s self accountable for doing something. You may be familiar with a few pledges already:

• The Pledge of Allegiance: if you grew up in America, you probably still remember this (I said this every morning from K-12). "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”
• The Giving Pledge: initiated by 2 of the wealthiest people ever, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, this pledge encourages billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth to charity.

With Calamores, our goal is to encourage parents to focus more of parent self-care. However, this is often easier said then done. For example, when Ioana and I got married, we both promised that each of us would take a solo trip each year. It has been almost 6 years, and I have yet to hold up my end of the promise. Even though a trip is supposed to be fun and recharging, it was easy to find reasons not to take it: I have work, plane tickets/lodging expensive, I didn’t plan the trip, and the list goes on and on… Clearly, pledges are not easy.

So, how do you implement this pledge into your life?

• Subscribe to Calamores!
• Put calendar reminder so that you can come back to Calamores.com to see upcoming events in your neighborhood. The cadence is purely up to you, but reminders that are more frequent (weekly / biweekly) will encourage building up this behavior. Also, be creative with it too: A weekly calendar reminder could be for taking a weekly gym class or martial arts class, while an annual reminder could for planning solo trips to see your favorite band or sports team play!
• Start with recurring events. For example, join a gym class that is held weekly at 8 PM. Or a 30 minute mediation each morning / evening. Build consistency towards attending an event that is focused on “me-time”.
• Bank accounts often provide different buckets so that users can create budgets. Create a bucket within your bank account that allocates funds towards your pledge, like for solo trips or parent events.
• ***If you really want to maximize follow-through on this pledge, then put your money where your mouth is and include a “financial penalty” to your pledge.  Whether you call this loss aversion, sunk cost fallacy, skin in the game, cognitive dissonance (or any other buzz words from your psychology classes), in this approach, you put money on the line to commit to a pledge. Personally, I used a website called stickk in a period of my life when I buying some “unnecessary” toys, so I used stickk to refrain myself from making further purchases - and it worked! This obviously does not need be done on a website, but the  money needs to be out of your reach.

Inertia, in this day and age, is strong and constantly holds one back. I know, because I have also been a victim for many years myself. It is easy to say you will do something about your wellbeing, and find an excuse not to do something. So start small, and build up this behavior. If you don’t take care of yourself, then who will?

Join the Amores Pledge and our community, and truly be part of the movement towards being a better you!