Note: These are just on one person’s opinions/advice based on their experience, so take it with a grain of salt. Obviously what is true for one person is not true for everyone. You know yourself and how you work/participate in things better.
A newer person asked me for advice on how to engage in NAC/activism and not burn out. They recognized an urge to “make up lost time” by tripling speed in every direction at once, joining all the Signal chats, trying to do everything, and just generally being really activated.
This is a really great question. And one that others probably have as well. So we thought it’d be a good idea to share some of what we talked about to the group and community. Here are some thoughts:
1. Yes to passion, no to obligation (this is one of our norms). I’ve learned (the hard way) that things that I think that I “should” do, but I don’t actually want to do, take WAY more energy than things I actually want to do. I burn out so so quick when I’m doing things I don’t want to do, and then it takes a while to recover. But if I’m doing stuff I want to do, I can be doing a lot of it, and I will be tired, but not burnt out.
I suspect that a lot of burnout is actually from people doing things they don’t want to do (like jobs).
So I suggest finding the things you really enjoy doing and stick to that and say ‘no’ to everything that you can (within reason of course, sometimes something is important and you have to do it.) Trust that others really do enjoy those things that you don’t (And they do! People like all different things. It still surprises me sometimes.)
It is easier said than done. It can be hard to say no. It takes practice, and paying attention to what seems to take more energy and burns you out quicker.
2. Add one thing at a time. Go slow. Add one role/task/project. See how that feels for a few weeks or a few months. Then add another. And repeat. Jumping into a lot of things at once is probably setting yourself up for a hard time, and maybe to drop things later, which doesn’t help anyone. It is a marathon not a sprint.
3. Urgency is toxic. Urgency is almost always a huge “should” and a huge obligation (not passion). It can be so draining. Sometimes urgency is necessary because something is actually time sensitive and important, and then that’s unavoidable. But often ‘urgent’ things are not actually urgent. There are so many terrible things happening around us that it can be easy to get into an urgency mindset where everything has to be done yesterday.
But if everything is urgent, then nothing is.
Try to de-escalate things when you can. Does that task really need to be done today? Does this project need to be done soon?
I try to go slow and steady for the non-urgent things, then I have capacity for real emergencies.
I hope this is helpful!
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