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The Key to Maintaining Motivation in Advocacy: Reflections on An Inconvenient Sequel


I took a trip to the AMC River East theater in downtown Chicago last Tuesday night to see the sneak peak of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. The film was spectacular: beautifully tragic shots of melting ice in Greenland, a behind-the-scenes look at Gore’s involvement with helping bring India on board to the Paris Climate Agreement at COP21, and scenes of Climate Reality trainings (where I was present!). It was an allover heart wrenching and moving experience that recharged my battery and left me with a burning desire to take immediate action on climate. I walked out of the movie thinking, “I need to watch that every morning.”

Like me, you’ve probably experienced the post-documentary high: you feel invincible and driven to respond to the film’s call-to-action and transform the world. After watching An Inconvenient Sequel, I felt a limitless supply of enthusiasm, energy, and creativity. I felt as though I could change the world in two hours, and I sat on the train filling my notebook pages with plans and ideas. But at this point in my career as an environmental advocate, I know my pattern: I watch a documentary or go to a conference, feel fired up for 3 days, furiously write down my goals and dreams, take action on a few, then slowly fizzle out as other aspects of my life take back my attention.

As all activists know, maintaining that high level of enthusiasm and inspiration takes massive amounts of energy. Therefore, we need to know how to recharge ourselves. For me, I know that watching documentaries, going to see speakers, attending conferences, reading, and meeting in-person with like-minded community are all activities that stoke my fire. If I don’t do those things on a consistent basis, my fire burns out, and, while I don’t stop caring about climate change, the urgent desire to take action diminishes and seems less attainable.

Feeling inspired is the easy part; channeling that feeling into sustained action taken on a consistent basis is the challenge.

With Climate Reality Leaders after the show

With Climate Leaders after the screening

Today, while consciously sitting in this energy of inspiration, I am wondering: How can I maintain the high level of inspiration I felt after watching An Inconvenient Sequel everyday in order to do more work and create more pieces of writing?

I recently came across a quote in The Artist’s Way, which defined enthusiasm as “an ongoing energy supply tapped into the flow of life itself. Enthusiasm is grounded in play, not work.” I read that passage the same day as my trip to see An Inconvenient Sequel, and it got me thinking a lot about the difference between approaching activism as work versus play. Personally, I find that what drains my energy in advocacy is the pressure I feel to constantly be doing something important and to be making an impact. While advocacy is of course important, Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, reveals that perceived importance is not what fuels productivity. Rather, joy and love are the necessary ingredients for sustained action. Because, according to Cameron, when you come from a space of enthusiasm rather than pressure, you have access to an endless supply of energy.

While I know that the work of environmental advocacy is important, that knowledge is not what keeps my energy high. If importance was the only thing I needed for motivation, then I would floss way more than I do (sorry, Dr. Lynch). What keeps me doing the work of advocacy is love, and the fact that I really love my fellow advocates and friends and derive joy from engaging with politics and nature, two things that put me in my zone of excellence.

So, long story short, to keep my flame of inspiration kindled post-film, I plan to keep watching documentaries (though not every morning), make regular dates to meet with fellow advocates, and most of all, intentionally approach this work from a place of joy, rather than responsibility or moral obligation.

And floss more.

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