Under Pressure
169+ days until November elections. Every day counts.
Let’s allocate some time to the next 169 days, so that we don’t wake up November 4th thinking “I could have done more …”
You don’t want that guilt, and you surely have desires around the outcome. So, if you woke up today thinking “I don’t know where to start…” or “I’m overwhelmed with the news. I’ll just duck back under these covers...” I’m here to offer some encouraging ideas.
Make a game plan.
Don’t overdo it. Don’t set unrealistic goals. It could include just 1 thing a week to start — something as easy as reading and sharing this post. The first step is staying informed versus misinformed. Perhaps your plan will expand over time.
If it helps, as an example, I’ll share My Current, Personal Citizen Game Plan
- At a minimum, I aim to spend 12 hours per week reading and educating myself on issues, campaigns and politics in general. See prior posts re: some of my sources. I also like to visit 5calls.org every now and then for a hit list of issues getting legislative attention on federal level.
- Make a prioritization list of issues and/or campaigns important to me and continue to iterate on the list — work to keep an open mind.
- Make calls and/or use Resistbot at least once weekly on those critical issues important to me. If you’re unfamiliar with Resistbot, it was created in 2017 & provides an un-biased channel for citizens to create their own, personal messages to be delivered to their state & federal level executive and legislative branches. Use your voice in 2 minutes or less! Is it effective? Yes, read this if you’re doubtful.
- Set & maintain a budget for $ donations & timely, thoughtful allocation to causes and campaigns throughout the year. I recognize this is a privilege & not something everyone can do.
- Sign up for a couple of webinars or calls that align everyday people around progress. Eventually determine where I might want to prioritize my time. In a future post, I’ll share thoughts from a couple of virtual events I attended this past week.
- FUTURE game plan items — 1) Set up some virtual postcard writing parties in TX and for other states. 2) Write postcards sometimes without it being a party. 3) Carve out time to make calls closer to November election time.
- Spend more time (hours) reading, organizing, writing and fact-checking for my Medium posts.
- Make delicious, refreshing cocktails with Casamigos Reposado, Rambler or homemade soda and lime & take a break from all of this and reflect on my gratitude, relationships, family, friends, nature, music and cool breezes.
What’s YOUR game plan? Yours can look nothing like this one and be amazing and impactful. The important thing is to make a plan of action and hold yourself to it. As Ben Franklin said “Fail to plan. Plan to fail.” The definition of “fail” here is left up to the interpreter…
“This is ourselves under pressure”
— Queen
