If any of the following apply, you’re in the right place:

• You want to participate in making the world a better place–or at least keep it from becoming worse,
• You find that your insecurities, fears and excuses hold you back,
• You feel like you’re not doing enough or that you’re not qualified enough,
• You’re lost in how to politically participate or are scared to do so,
• You’re aware of a privilege that’s allowing you to disengage or avoid participation altogether, and/or
• You’re reading this.

There are real dangers when it comes to seeking perfection when advocating, politically participating, and civic dutying. Your idea of “proper” activism keeps you from taking any actions at all in pursuit of what you believe is sound for this world.

If you can’t do something perfectly or to the greatest extent possible or how it’s “supposed” to be done, then why do it at all?

Because anything worth doing is worth doing imperfectly.

Defining perfectionism and perfectionism in activism

Perfectionism is a personality trait characterized by setting excessively high standards for oneself and others, often leading to self-criticism and anxiety when those standards are not met–or even preemptive anxiety before you’ve actually done the thing.

Perfectionism in activism, for me, is having a narrow and specific view of what activism must look like. For example, my brain thinks activism must look like X hours volunteered or dedicated per week, X dollars donated, a certain kind of visibility, a certain kind of relationship building, and a certain amount of communications going out.

I know I will not be able to attain this specific and unrealistic vision, so I’ll employ some all-or-nothing thinking, do nothing at all, and then feeling guilty about it. This is what we’re trying to avoid.

I hope that the following tools can help propel us into imperfect but active activism rather than perfect but actionless activism.

Tools

1. It’s not all or nothing. It’s small is all.

Name a person who’s going to do it all. You can’t.

No one’s doing it all, so I guess we’re all… doing nothing? That’s not going to cut it. That’s why we lean into small is all.

Small is all is an idea from adrienne maree brown’s book Emergent Strategy. It’s the idea that every small action and interaction leads to the big change. This is a helpful reminder that it’s not possible to be the best at activism. Instead, there’s power in numbers and repetition. In politics and societal change, it never comes down to one person. It’s grassroots. It’s trees connected underground. It’s millions of thoughts, interactions and conversations eventually adding up to something that “just happened.”

2. If you don’t want to do that, do something else.

A lot of my time is wasted thinking about how I don’t certain things that others have prescribed as the gold standard of activism. But my energy could have been used to contribute in a different but still meaningful way. For example, if you’re not able to attend the protest, do something else; don’t just think about how it’s so bad that you can’t make it to the protest.

3. Draw your personal teeter totter

Creating your personal teeter totter is necessary for healthy media consumption. Everyone knows if you consume too much media, you’re going to feel very sad and burnt out and you’re going to be on an emotional roller coaster. I believe this is part of the strategy of the administration–to actively burn us out and disengage us.

So then, one side is your consumption and the other side is your health and wellbeing. What does it look like for you to consume so that you’re informed but not to the point of having to disengage? Hint: your balance will look different than others’. It will probably also look different than yesterday’s.

4. Yes, it will never be enough

It will always feel like it’s never enough, prompting us to turn to radical acceptance. In my experience, there’s no overcoming the feeling that what we’re doing is never enough, that we need to do more, and that we need to pile on until we can’t anymore.

It’s better to choose the sustainable route and amount than to burn out hot and fast.

5. Admin Override

I am constantly in pursuit of individual comfort. My predicted uncomfortableness is a reason I won’t engage in certain activities. I’ve discovered recently that this uncomfortableness is something I’m going to have to get over. This may sound insensitive, but I believe getting over being uncomfortable is a better use of my time that individually working to make every possible situation comfortable.

Being uncomfortable has happened and will happen and I can get through it.

6. Quantity Over Quality

“Quality over quantity” is what I grew up hearing in school and beyond. This is a valid approach in many cases, but not necessarily in politics and not necessarily for perfectionists.

For example, the amount of times you call a legislator’s office is going to matter more than one (of what you perceive as being) perfect call. Four hours is much better spent calling your legislator’s office over a week period and encouraging others to do so, instead of spending all 4 hours preparing endlessly for a 5-minute perfect call.

There’s also something to be said about practicing a skill over and over again. If you’re a perfectionist and you spend all your time on a single call, you’re not practicing doing it more than once.

Somebody I met through work writes her legislators every single week as part of her routine. I love this for many reasons. She doesn’t work on one letter for several months to make it as perfect as possible. Because she has a consistent routine week after week, she knows she only has one sitting to complete the letter and send it. Therefore, it likely won’t be perfect but perfect isn’t the point.

I imagine adopting her routine would help me challenge my perfectionism. Plus, then I’d be in the habit of challenging my perfectionism, too!

7. Slow, Don’t Stop

Slow, don’t stop is the mindset of choice when getting from point A to point B. On the roadtrip, we don’t go 60 mph the entire way there; we encounter stoplights and other obstacles forcing us to change our speed or take pitstops. Lowering your speed doesn’t mean your trip is over, just like how not participating politically for a period of time doesn’t mean you’ve stopped entirely and can jump back in (hello, again, to the all-or-nothing thinking). It means you’ve got a different pace for this leg of the trip.

If you are like me and perfectionism not only impacts your activism but also so many other areas of your life, please subscribe to my YouTube channel. I create perfectionism and other content and I’d love to see you there.

P.S. in case we haven’t met…

youseemnormal is a mental health platform run by a 26-year-old (hello!) who… well, seems normal. Turns out, my roommate is mental illness. Actually more like my unborn, and non-conceived baby. Because it’s like, inside of me. This is getting weird already.

Topics of focus: self-awareness (we love it), mood, anger management, perfectionism (and obsessive compulsive personality disorder), relationships & boundaries.