One thing I’ve very slowly learned about activism is that it attracts a lot of good, strong-willed people with a lot of contradictory opinions who have a powerful internal drive to do, or at least seem like they’re doing, the right thing. This means that activism itself is driven by tensions and contradictions.

You can’t ask for permission to do activism. Back in 2007 or 2008, I put together and bulk-printed legislative fact sheet for people who wanted to organize against bad bills. A longtime lobbyist and dear friend chewed me out for it, citing important context I’d failed to mention, and basically told me to leave this stuff to the professionals. I did, and then I felt bad about that.

You can’t work without an accountability structure. Your numerous conflicts of interest (and everyone has them) will derail you.

Organize in public if you want, but be ready to be told it’s just self-promotion.

Organize in private if you want, but be ready to be told you’re not actually doing anything.

Organize online if you want, but be ready to be told it’s just slacktivism.

Organize offline if you want, but be ready to be told you’re inefficient.

Organize on the neighborhood level if you want, but be ready to be told it’s just a coffee klatch.

Organize on a larger scale if you want, but be ready to be told it’s just advocacy.

Organize with funders if you want, but be ready to be told you’re an establishment sellout.

Organize without funds if you want, but be ready to be told you’re irrelevant.

There is no right way to do *any of this*. We must all work out our salvation, as it were, with fear and trembling. And we will all be wrong enough, in the eyes of at least half of the people doing the work, to burn most of us out.

That’s why activism rewards resilience more than it rewards talent. A good burglar isn’t somebody who steals with exceptional grace or talent; a good burglar is someone who doesn’t get caught. Don’t let your activism get caught. Practice self-care. Take breaks. Don’t surround yourself with people who hate your guts, no matter how much you agree with them. Give yourself room to grow and make mistakes. And if you can—and I fail at this more often than most—be gentle with the people trying, with characteristically human imperfection, to do the work.