Micro Activism Cheat Sheet
You want to make a positive difference in the world and you would prefer to do so without frying yourself to a crisp. I’ve got you covered.
I’m going to give you the highlights here, but for a deeper dive into this unique philosophy of activism, please buy my book which is titled Micro Activism: How You Can Make a Difference in the World (without a bullhorn). It will be out on 10/24/2023 from Storey Publishing. I will let you know when you will be able to pre-order your copy.
The 10 major things to keep in mind to make Micro Activism
a sustainable part of your life, just like brushing your teeth.
Narrow your area of focus: I strongly recommend limiting your activism to one or, at most, two areas. It’s hard to sustain our work when we spread ourselves all over the place. For one thing, we don’t have the benefit of seeing the accumulated impact of what we’re doing. For another, it’s more difficult to build relationships that help sustain your activism when times are tough.
You can change your focus. You’re not wedded to your one area. If something happens that feels like it critically needs your attention, shift. Just remember to drop something from your list, not necessarily forever, just for the present. When Trump started putting babies in cages at the southern border of the U.S. that knocked a focus area off my list until that situation felt stabilized enough for me to return to my main area of concern.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint. None of the issues that we’re tackling are easy to solve. If they were, they wouldn’t be on our lists. Pace yourself. It is far better to take slow, sustainable action over the course of a year than burn yourself out over a month. Be radically realistic in assessing your capacity. You can build up to doing more.
Small, sustainable actions have the added benefit of giving us time to build relationships with others interested in our area of focus. Those relationships are critical, not just in being a source of support for us, but also in extending our reach on our chosen issue into the world.
Remember that antiracism work is foundational for all social justice causes and make sure to ground your work in those principles.
Talk about what you are doing. Too often we keep this side of ourselves to ourselves but conversations with others are how we spread the word and invite others to join us in the work we’re committed to. Sometimes it can feel risky to share these aspects of ourselves and yet, sharing our stories is the quickest way to connect with another person and, perhaps, to inspire them to join you in your efforts. It’s how we build our communities.
Look for the intersections. Who else is doing work in this realm, work that shares an overarching common goal with what you’re doing? For example, if you are working towards police abolition, who do you know, or could get to know, who is working to end cash bail? Even though the specifics of what you’re working towards are different there are ways in which you each can leverage the work that the other is doing to advance your cause.
Consider what legacy you wish to leave behind. Our daily actions are an often overlooked part of our legacy. Pay attention to the small details and make sure they are in alignment with the legacy you wish to leave.
Celebrate your wins. Both the big wins and the tiny ones. We humans are programmed to pay attention to what’s not working. That’s fine and necessary. So is paying attention to what is working and what we have accomplished. Celebrating the small wins doesn’t mean you’ve taken your eye off the larger goal, it means that you recognize that it’s a long game and the only way to stay in it is to own what’s been accomplished as well as what still needs to be done.
Lastly, make a plan. Decide on your actions and then, make them smaller. Make each action so small that the idea of not doing it seems absurd. Our tendency is to overestimate what we can do and then we’re disappointed when we don’t meet our own standards. Micro actions build, one on another, to significant change. Make a start and then keep going.
Omkari Williams © 2023 all rights reserved