Sustainably Living the Activist Life
This is the first post of 12 dedicated to a year in the activist life. Each month will explore a different theme and include thoughts and suggestions for incorporating Commitment, Ritual, and Creativity into your activism as a way of making this work sustainable over a lifetime, not just a moment.
In conversations with a number of people in the work of activism I’ve heard something that has been concerning. People are reporting that engagement with the day to day work of change making has been falling off. Fewer people taking regular action even as things spiral further into fascism. Honestly, I’m not entirely surprised. These past 9 months have been a lot. And, for a lot of people, it’s felt overwhelming. Believe me, I get it.
I also know that these are people who would be horrified to wake one day and realize that their lack of action contributed to things being even worse than they are with even more irreparable damage having been done.
So, I started thinking about what I could do to address this and what I’ve decided is that over the next 12 months (starting this November) I’m going to cover the elements I have found to be essential in sustainably living the activist life.
It’s not like breathing, we weren’t born knowing how to do this. While some of us were taught early at our parent’s knee, others of us came to the work later, when we woke up to the injustice and harms of our systems. Whenever you entered the work, what matters is that you are here now — when we desperately need the contributions of all people of conscience.
As we push back against rising fascism there is intense pressure to respond to the threats and the assaults. And this is when we need to remember that this isn’t a moment, it’s a movement. A movement towards true democracy, true justice. That means that we have to sustain what we’re doing over the long haul.
Movements require care and attention, they need a culture that lets them grow and adapt, but first they need to know what their aim is, individually and collectively.
The purpose of this series is to give you strategies throughout the next 12 months that will help you stay grounded, bring others into the work, and keep showing up. Commitment, Ritual, and Creativity, are the tools we’ll be using.
If you’re new to the work, my intention is to give you an onramp that makes it easy for you to add your contribution. If you’ve been in the work for a while I hope that you’ll use these thoughts as a way of fine tuning what you’re doing and how you’re doing it so as to avoid burnout.
My plan is to guide you, one piece at a time, to help you to, if you’re starting from scratch, design a rhythm, or, if you’ve been in the work for a while, tweak what you’re doing, so that you can show up sustainably — not constantly.
I’m going to be working within the context of three pillars, Commitment, Ritual, and Creativity. Let me start by defining what these pillars mean to me in the context of activism.
Commitment is what keeps movements going. Not constant urgency about everything, but clarity about what you are willing and able to do and showing up with consistency to do that thing, whatever it may be. You consistently show up to do the email notifying people about what’s going on every week, and you build trust which builds power and momentum. The same is true for whatever role you choose to take on. Demonstrate commitment and watch what a difference that makes.
Movements are sustained not by constant urgency, but by clarity, care, ritual, and creativity. Commitment means finding your lane and staying in it, trusting that when others do the same, with millions of people in the work, we’ve got it all covered. Commitment builds trust, power, and momentum.
Ritual is about having an anchor. Rituals ground us. They create structures that help us stay resilient, give us time for reflection, correction, and adaptation. They are touchstones we can regularly return to in order to not be blown off course by the chaos, of the moment.
For some it’s their faith or spiritual practice, for others it’s a practice like daily journalling, dedicated time in nature, or time disconnected from devices and spent in the analog world. It could be a regular coffee date with a friend or going to a movie, listening to live music, playing music. What it is, is completely up to you. The point is to create a practice that reconnects you to your deeper self. A practice that gives you respite from the stresses of the world so that you can return to the work restored.
Creativity is about joy! It helps us stay connected to the world we are working to build. Creativity pushes back against narrowing of our options that dictators seek to impose on us. Your creative practice isn’t about how good you are at it, it’s about how much pleasure it brings you. Sure, your art can be used in the movement, but the main purpose is so we don’t forget what we’re fighting for. So crochet, knit, paint, needlepoint, draw, dance, sing, write a poem, a story, or a protest song. Cook, make pottery, write a limerick, arrange flowers, hook a rug, make a joyful noise, make a zine. Maybe you create a space for others to be creative in.
Whether as a solitary pursuit or a communal one, the idea is to bring something that gives you joy into the world with no regard for how “perfect” it may or may not be. I, for example, can’t draw well, but collage? Man, I’m a wizard with a stack of magazines, a pair of scissors, and a glue stick.
Our inaugural theme for sustaining the activist life is Clarifying Your Role and Finding Your Rhythm.
Commitment is about getting clear about your values, the cause you want to support. and your role in the work.
In my book, Micro Activism, I talk about the Activist Archetypes. The Headliner, the Producer, the Organizer, and the Indispensable. You can find the archetype quiz here and find your archetype. Once you do that identifying your role in the work becomes much more straightforward.
When your capacity and your actions match, sustaining your activism becomes much easier. Trying to force yourself into a role that simply isn’t you is a sure way to burn out and drop out. Recognizing that we need the contributions of all types of people to successfully change our systems means that you can show up exactly as who you are.
Commitment Action prompts:
Make a list of your skills, capacities, available time and energy.
Ask: Where do I want to put my energy? Protecting democracy, environmental issues, women’s reproductive rights? You can’t do it all, pick one and focus. You can always move on to something else later but try to commit for at least a year to give yourself time to gain traction.
Ask: What does the movement I’m working with need that I can provide based on the above?
Name your role. The role you can fill right now. Our roles change over time and that is as it should be, so don’t worry about a year from now. Just identify where you are today and what contribution you can make.
Ritual Action Prompts:
Personal: What personal ritual can you adopt as a regular practice?
Collective: Each week, make it a practice to check in with yourself, ask:
What did I say yes to?
What felt energizing? What felt draining?
Based on this: What do I want to do more of? What do I want to say no to this week?
Creativity Action Prompts:
Make a list of creative practices you would enjoy including in your life.
Pick one and play.
Remember it’s about joy, not proficiency. If you get better at what you do, that’s a bonus, it’s not the goal. The goal is to reconnect with that part of us that is willing to dive in for the sheer pleasure of the moment and the creative endeavor at hand.
That's it! I hope that this feels as exciting and nourishing for you as it does for me. Next month's theme is Rest. Look for that email in your inbox the last week of November. Until then, reach out with questions or feedback. And please, do share this widely. We need as many people in this work as we can get!