Post on 03-Mar-2017
How To Maintain Your Resist/Work/Life Balance
Jennifer Dziura GetBullish.com
@GetBullish
GetBullish.com
Use tools to automate as much as possible without losing effectiveness
•5calls good / form letters bad •Daunting tasks have an intro and an outro; how much of that can you eliminate (or share the burden)?
GetBullish.com
Easiest thing to automate: donations
•Most nonprofits are set up to take recurring donations
•For smaller orgs, use your bank’s online bill pay •Unless you enjoy making donations, especially as a big middle finger to the latest outrage
GetBullish.com
If something matters, SCHEDULE IT
•Put your phone calls (and even news reading) on the calendar
•Do you need intro/outro time? •When you’re not scheduled to do it… don't do it
GetBullish.com
Feeling bad that you’re not a full-time activist?
•We need some “normals” (haha) to persuade regular folks all around them
•Full-time activists rely on others for funding and resources; you are a necessary part of this system
GetBullish.com
It’s OK to focus on one or two issues
“The movement works as a coalition of people focused on different issues, so don’t let anyone convince you that by focusing your energy on one or two issues, you have effectively sided with the bad guys on everything else.”
- Mirah Curzer, How to Stay Outraged Without Losing Your Mind
GetBullish.com
Adopt a Low(er) Information Diet
•Tim Ferriss coined this phrase, but he was suggesting you stop reading the news and start a possibly scammy internet business
•This sort of idea can be repurposed for good!
GetBullish.com
ASK BEFORE READING
•Am I likely to find out something I didn’t already know?
•Will more emotional impact on me serve a useful purpose for anyone?
•Will reading this likely change my future actions?
GetBullish.com
Adopt a Low(er) Information Diet
•You stay more outraged when you have a base of normalcy
•Let people you respect update you •Save articles to GetPocket or Instapaper for later (or never!)
GetBullish.com
Adopt a Low(er) Information Diet
•Advanced technique: Disengage more by doing longer-form projects – a month to put together a march or fundraiser, that’s all you have to do
GetBullish.com
Input/Output Theory
•How much info do you really need in order to take action?
•You don’t need 20 pieces of input for one output
GetBullish.com
Input/Output Theory
•50 inputs and zero outputs is a RECIPE FOR FEELING TERRIBLE (and maybe for good reason!)
•This is like emotional Toxic Shock Syndrome
GetBullish.com
Input/Output Theory
•Figure out your ratio. 5:1 means 5 inputs to one output. If you can do maximum 3 actions per day or week, how many inputs do you need to get them done?
GetBullish.com
Why your job is important
•What are you able to do? Donate? March? Travel to marches? Could you do those things without your job?
•If not, don’t half-ass your job.
GetBullish.com
But my job involves doing things that don’t matter much
•That’s true of most jobs. Does your job generate value for someone, somewhere, such that it is worth your being compensated for? Then it’s a system that generates resources over which you have some control.
GetBullish.com
Making more money can be a feminist act
•Donations •Funding someone else’s activism one-on-one •Security for your own loved ones •Helping people harmed by Trump
GetBullish.com
Get some credit in the straight world
“No, no, no. 200 or 500 bucks worth of tools rusting away in the shed is not an investment. It’s 200 bucks worth of tools for which you don’t have any use. That’s not an investment. An investment generates money, while products rotting away in some basement does nothing for you… I’d worry about REAL investments. Buying real estate that will provide me with a steady income on the longer run, an investment portfolio divided in a couple of reliable (or as reliable as any organization can be) that will slowly grow, most of it set on minimum and medium risk investments, and not falling for the promises of high risk ones.”
- Fernando “Ferfal” Agguire
GetBullish.com
Do you run a business?
•A desire to marshal more resources for activism can help you build a better business by systematizing and automating
GetBullish.com
Think you might become a full-time activist?
•Yeah, all those business skills will be hella useful •Kill it in the working world and you can use those connections and sales skills for anything
GetBullish.com
Taking care of yourself is non-negotiable … except when it isn’t
•Is anyone any better off if you aren’t eating and sleeping well? Possibly during an actual protest action, but are you doing that when you read FB all night?
GetBullish.com
Fun and frivolity are allowed
•If you feel guilty for enjoying things, try to articulate who is being harmed. There’s generally no cost to looking cute or watching Netflix.
•But if you were going to take a private plane…
GetBullish.com
Sometimes hard things need to be done
•No one likes calling their Senator •If what you love is pottery or graphic novels and what needs to be done is an emergency protest at an airport…
GetBullish.com
Two business terms that apply
•Does your fun-tivism have an opportunity cost?
•Make sure you get an ROI on your suffering
GetBullish.com
Sleep well, bullicorn
•Try a 2-hour news blackout before bed
•We need you to recharge!
GetBullish.com
End on a hopeful note
•Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and all those millions of people are still here
•There are a lot of us and we’re all hustling as best we can
GetBullish.com
Order Free #Resist Postcards on Shop.GetBullish.com
This exclusive, members-only community features networking, friendship, workday motivation and challenges to help you #slay.
Level up your career and life with powerful discussions in topics that interest you.
Join us!
BullishSociety.com