Navigating Activist Culture as a High Achieving and Anxious Social Impact Leader

I’ve spent years engaged in community, union, and political activism. I have planned, attended, and spoken at many rallies, protests, and community meetings. I have been on steering committees and kitchen cabinets. I have started organizations and run for local government. These are some of the experiences that I feel most proud of. I love the feeling of exercising my voice, my agency, and power, as a part of a collective to make meaningful change.

I also know how harsh we can be to each other and to ourselves in leftist and progressive activist and organizing spaces. How we can push ourselves and each other to do more no matter how exhausted we are, and how we can punish ourselves and each other when we don’t show up “just right.”

Something I have really struggled with, and write about in Do Your Part, is how to hold a boundary when it means going against the grain of what the group is asking of you when the group is your friends, your community, and the site where you live out your values.

As Prentis Hemphill says, "boundaries are the distance at which I can love you and me simultaneously.” But it can be very hard to set and hold those boundaries when you risk losing belonging, your sense of self, and feel like you aren’t doing enough to resist authoritarianism, genocide, climate change, racial violence, or whatever cause is most important to you.

Activist Culture’s Messaging

To get people engaged, many movement communications amplify fear. We all get those emails saying “This is a crisis!” “We need you now more than ever!.” The purpose of those messages is to get you up off the couch and into action. But for someone like you this can be very activating because you care deeply, you are trying to show up, you are already overextended, and you feel like if you don’t respond to each urgent call you are failing and falling short of being the person you think of yourself as. 

“Fear-based messaging can be effective at getting us to do one-time actions like signing a petition, making a donation, or attending a rally. But research suggests its effectiveness is considerably weaker for sustained, repeated behaviors, which is exactly what long-term movement work requires.”

– Do Your Part: Bold, Sustainable Leadership for Social Impact Leaders in a Time of Polycrisis 

I’m not saying that there aren't real things to be afraid of. There definitely are. I’m also not saying that we shouldn’t mobilize to protect the people, institutions, and things we believe in and love. I’m simply saying that fear is a poor tool for long term motivation. And that when we over-use fear to motivate one another and also to whip ourselves into action (and self-flagellate ourselves when we choose to rest) we are contributing to our own burnout and harming the longevity of our movements.

What You Can Do?

So how do you create and choose to participate in organizing and activism that is purposeful, energizing, and hopeful rather than fear based?

Part of it is taking a bigger view. Seeing yourself as a part of a collective web of people working to build a just world, and letting go of some of the ego and self importance that makes it feel like you are a key player. Humility is hard but also freeing. Part of it is also thinking on a longer timeline. None of the challenges we are facing are quick fixes. This is about being able to continue being a changemaker for your lifetime. There will continue to be crises, and you get to build a way of showing up that lets you activate when needed and also prioritize rest, recuperation, and being a whole person, so that you can still have capacity down the line.

On a day to day basis, you can set some ground rules for yourselves about what you prioritize and how you spend your energy. For me, I've prioritized direct action over committee and organization building work in this season because that feels like the best use of my capacity and the most energizing to me right now. I have also chosen to unfollow some thought leaders I admire on social media because I found myself comparing myself to them or getting sucked into anxious spirals from fear-based messaging. I also try to do as much organizing as possible face to face (including video) rather than in chats. This doesn’t have to be forever, it's just what I have chosen for now so that I can direct and protect my energy.

Continuing To Show Up Without Sacrificing Yourself

I really hope we can build kinder cultures in our leftist and progressive organizations. We are for the most part, all doing our best and trying to figure out the best next step forward. We need a more nuanced and sustainable approach to organizing and activism that doesn’t hinge on individual heroic leaders, that normalizes seasonality in how each of us shows up, and that can hold a longer-term view of social change. I think we can hold the urgency and importance of this moment in history and also take this critical opportunity to shift the way we engage with one another and with ourselves to build something more durable, more easeful, and more joyful. 

This vision is at the center of the work I do with leaders and what Do Your Part is all about. If you want to learn more send me a DM and let’s talk.