These days, it can feel an awful lot like the ground beneath us (and our democracy) is cracking.
Threats to human rights, the planet, and the future we dream of howl like wolves outside the door.
And the pace of information is relentless. Designed to exhaust us, make us feel helpless, and keep us from fighting back.
But we are not powerless.
We can resist. We can take care of ourselves and each other. We can remember our shared humanity. And we can keep our eyes on a future worth fighting for.
I had intended to have a section of the February edition of Resourcing the Revolution dedicated to resources I’ve gathered over the past couple of weeks. But the amount of hopeful writing, sobering revelations, and actionable guides got… well… a little out of hand.
So, instead, this post is a living repository of voices — writers, thinkers, and revolutionaries — offering wisdom, strategy, and perspective.
I’ll keep updating the list of resources as I find more (which I’m sure will happen often).
Let’s start with the mid-month missive I wrote for newsletter subscribers at the beginning of February:
There are times along our journey when we stop and think… What. The. Actual. Fuck.
The past four weeks have seen a torrent of change. Like the crashing of a thousand waves, all at once. Hardly time to take a breath, much less gather yourself before the next one comes crashing down.
And (I believe) this is all on purpose.
The magnitude of change happening in front of our eyes has been designed to overwhelm us. To cause us to withdraw. To stick our heads in the sand. To fear. To spiral in anxiety. To sow division and chaos.
With a firehose of information headed our way every minute of every day, and from every possible direction, it’s important to choose our sources of information carefully (as well as how much you allow into your sphere).
Remember, we can’t do anything if we get so overwhelmed that we shut down. Pay attention, but in ways you can manage long-term. Burned out and in shock… that’s not going to inspire anyone else to join the fight.
As Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
When choosing your news sources, look for both factuality in reporting and tendencies toward bias. (And follow the money; who is profiting from you believing what they’re “selling”?
There are two big names in understanding media bias:
There are several places I check regularly, as well as some of the writers I’ve included in the list below:
WTF Just Happened Today calls itself Political News for Normal People. It’s a breakdown of just that: what happened, links to news sources, and “notables” if you want to dig deeper.
Letters from an American is a Substack written by Heather Cox Richardson, a professor of American History. I’ve been told that mostly progressives have been sharing her work, but I personally don’t see much bias.
The Alt National Park Service page on Facebook. I’ve been following them since 2016, and now that things have gone seriously sideways, they have been a line on what’s really happening inside certain US Government agencies.
We (the People) Dissent is a bulletin board, a collection of information and announcements on upcoming protests, boycotts, call campaigns, and strikes. Their pledge — to keep it simple and provide a variety of ways to engage.
Here’s an interesting take about what’s flawed in the mainstream American media’s coverage of this new administration:
“I’ve long believed that the American media would be more clear-eyed about the rise and return of [47] if it was happening overseas in a foreign country, where we’re used to foreign correspondents writing with more incisive authority.“
And before we get into the heady section of this post, a thread of good news (for Democracy).
Now let’s get into the four other categories of resources, starting with resistance.
Defy and Resist
We analyzed the literature of protest and spoke to a range of people, including foreign dissidents and opposition leaders, movement strategists, domestic activists, and scholars of nonviolent movements. We asked them for their advice, in the nascent weeks of [this] Administration, for those who want to oppose these dramatic changes but harbor considerable fear for their jobs, their freedom, their way of life, or all three.
There are some proven lessons, operational and spiritual, to be learned from those who have challenged repressive regimes—a provisional guide for finding courage in [47]’s age of authoritarian fear.”
Right now, in 2025, everything feels chaotic. Disorganized. Like there are a million things to do, There are protests, petitions, news articles, social media rants—we are calling, sending postcards, emailing representatives but nothing is actually moving the needle. Worse than that, no clear leaders, no singular force is pulling us all together. It’s all a swirl of sound and fury that that signify nothing. Or so it seems.
Take heart—this isn’t a sign of failure, it’s a sign of where we are in the process. We’re still in the early stage of this movement, and at the start, every social movement feels like this—scattered, frustrating, impossible.
But here’s the thing: momentum is building. And it might help to see how.”
This is the entire point of Operation Flooding The Zone. As these new elites syphon funds to their own late-stage collapse coffers, they need us – the masses – to be tied up in distracted, overwhelmed knots. They need us to miss the *actually substantial* orchestrations amid the scatter-gun Shit. And they need us to give up, tune out, disassociate and to go…consume.”
It may feel like a lot of our Democratic legislators are being quiet and not doing much. But AOC has some words for you:
If you’re looking for some great databases of the ongoing resistance (as well as some other useful resources) here’s a thread on Bluesky of where to start:
Jason Kottke has a writeup of a few other writers talking about “The Information Overwhelm,” a tactic often referred to as flooding the zone with shit:
Let’s be clear: the narrative that Americans are sitting idly by, doing nothing in the face of injustice, is a lie. The government and corporate media have a vested interest in making you believe that protests aren’t happening, that mobilization isn’t occurring, that we have all simply accepted the state of things. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. […] The fact that you don’t see it on mainstream news isn’t proof of inaction—it’s proof of suppression.
Corporate media, social platforms, and government entities suppress footage, de-rank protest videos, and minimize coverage of demonstrations. They want to make it seem like resistance is futile, like no one is fighting back. This is psychological warfare. If you believe that you are alone, you are less likely to take action. If the world believes Americans are complacent, they are less likely to stand in solidarity with us. This is a deliberate tactic to make us feel isolated and powerless.
History has shown us that when the people rise, change is inevitable.“
The fascists like to call people who care about others ‘snowflakes,’ but I know that you know what happens when enough snowflakes come together. Creating a storm, becoming an avalanche, these things are not easy. Like JFK said, you do it because it is hard. Become a snowflake, join with others, and relentlessly resist.”
If the U.S. ever found itself in a situation where an invading force—or, say, a homegrown authoritarian regime—managed to get its hands on the government, what would we do? If every federal agency, every institution that keeps this country running, suddenly fell under hostile control, what would resistance look like? France already gave us the playbook. Let’s take some notes.”
Our enemy is apathy, cynicism, and fatalism; the pernicious, authoritarian-friendly belief that we are merely victims of world events rather than active participants in a global struggle for freedom and justice. Every time one of us—a family member, a community organizer, a representative, a senator—takes a step forward in this fight, a thousand pairs of eyes watch and learn. Courage is contagious.”
My definition of defiance is ‘to act according to your true values when there is pressure to do so otherwise.’ We say integrity, benevolence, and compassion are important, yet we don’t always act like they are. We can be compliant in ways that impinge on those values. We want to consider: Does the situation go against our values? That’s the key question. If it does, if it’s something that you would not feel comfortable with, then that is the moment to defy.”
“Perhaps the most effective tool in responding to misogyny is the strategic question. These questions serve a dual purpose: they shift the conversational power dynamic and force reflection from the person making inappropriate comments.”
Democracy is in grave peril, but it is not dead. Fascists depend on convincing us to give our power away and fall in line, that the fight is over and we lost. And while we must be clear-eyed about the threat, we must not do the fascists’ work for them by giving them powers they do not have.”
People are doing things. You will meet those people when you start doing things. […]
There is no magical way out. We are reaping what has been sown by many, many years of inattention to the eroding foundations of our democracy and we must face it.”
At the end of the day, when the dust settles, the actions that good people take or don’t take determine the outcome. While that may not seem reassuring or comforting, it’s powerful stuff. There is still time to steer the future in the right direction.
You are the future and you can create a just, equitable world if you are willing to do your part – and that is the only reassurance I can give you.”
Here’s how to be really annoying, according to the CIA:
A declassified World War II-era government guide to “simple sabotage” is currently one of the most popular open source books on the internet. The book, called ‘Simple Sabotage Field Manual,’ was declassified in 2008 by the CIA and ‘describes ways to train normal people to be purposefully annoying telephone operators, dysfunctional train conductors, befuddling middle managers, blundering factory workers, unruly movie theater patrons, and so on. In other words, teaching people to do their jobs badly.'”
Will Americans recognize what is happening, or will they be sufficiently distracted, pacified, or misled by their billionaire overlords into inaction. Social-media platforms have one purpose, which is to keep people attached to their devices. It does not matter to them if what they are showing people is real or factual; what matters is that no one stops scrolling.
The goal is to keep Americans in that cage. The purpose of this cage is to make companies a profit, but we are now entering an era when the government is pressuring them to keep Americans docile, obedient, controlled, and, in some cases, hopeless, ‘spinning on an endless hamster wheel of reactive anger,’ as the journalist Janus Rose put it.”
Only two institutions stop leaders like these, the military and the people. […] These are foreign to American political instincts. We have never needed to dig for this tool. But that is about to change. We need to greatly expand our resistance toolkit, and quickly, before [47] dismantles everything our 248-year experiment in multiracial democracy has built.”
No group of people is entirely to blame for what’s happening, and no group of people is totally without responsibility for what’s happening. But every group, and every individual, has a part to play in making things better now. […] Starting with the Founders and moving through all the chapters of American history, the souls of all the greats who have been among us are calling out to us now: You’re on. Don’t fuck this up.”
I wrote this for people who, like me, have spent much of the past few weeks hoping that somebody else would do something bolder in this political movement. We are downtrodden because we’re full of rage and heartbreak, but the polls tell us that our neighbors don’t share those feelings. We realize we’re seeing something that so many aren’t, but we’re not sure how to bridge the gap. We have wished (appropriately) for bravery from our media, from elected Democrats, from public officials in general. However fair those wishes are, they come with a risk: that we miss the opportunity to be the lonely voice for justice in our own community, the person who makes it a little easier for a second and third and fourth lonely voice to start perking up by our side.”
Along with the 5 Calls App I mentioned in the linked Mid-Month Missive, there are also other call scripts floating around.
Here’s one that will help you contact your representatives and senators and tell them to vote against ANY government funding bill until the administrative coup is ended.
Take Care of You (and Yours)
Back in the good ‘ole days when I was no stranger to marching and civil disobedience, I wrote the following guide to self-care for activists:
Let’s face it: being involved in days of large-scale action doesn’t exactly lend itself to an environment that is beneficial or conducive to self care. In fact, it’s often exactly the opposite. Long days, most often outdoors, with a stressful lead up… that often end up with us crashing afterward. We push ourselves so hard getting to the finish line that our bodies often collapse right after, leading to sickness and general exhaustion.
But what if there was a way to alleviate some of this stress, and make our participation in days of action a little bit easier on our bodies, and a little bit more fun in the process?”
We are very clearly in a lot of emergencies right now. They demand action. But action demands thought and thoughtfulness: who are we, what are our values, our goals, our allies, our possibilities, and our powers? What can we learn from those who’ve faced similar crises, what’s distinct about this one, and what equipment is at hand? […] Sometimes even in an emergency, or rather especially in an emergency, meditation as gathering ourselves and deepening our understanding is exactly what we need to do.”
The changes of this time require of us our grief, for all things must change and should rightly be mourned. It might even be that the grief is what opens us, what rouses us from our slumber into a charged state. In mourning we can also begin to incorporate into our waking awareness the truth that our reality is but a segment or aspect of a much greater reality, a reality that is always speaking to us in a language that our bodies can understand, for it is a felt experience. And if we do not give the paradigm of the day authority over our own experience, and allow the Mystery to blossom within us, something wild happens.
The world that is now crowning in our collective Imaginal realm, the world that will become in this next age, the Age of Repair, this world can begin to take root in the here and the now. We can begin the work of bringing it forth.”
Dr. Stephen Porges, who developed Polyvagal Theory, explains that when we’re in a chronic state of fight-or-flight, we start seeing everything as a threat — even things that aren’t. Our bodies stop distinguishing between an actual crisis and a perceived one. We can’t think straight. We make impulsive choices. We either shut down completely or live in a constant state of simmering panic. And yet, despite everything, we have to keep moving. We have to find a way to stay present, to stay engaged, to stay here.”
Hatred and outrage make me sick. They steals my creativity. They exhaust me which is part of the ruling party’s plan — grind me down so I feel powerless and give up. Hatred erodes everything I hold sacred. It changes me into someone I don’t want to be. […] Join me in refusing to let hate corrode our hearts. To warp our brains with fear, fear that others try to profit off. Let’s refuse to reduce ourselves to being less than human, and everybody else as well.”
This can mean not trying to go full tilt at a speed that was comfortable for your younger self — or maybe just your ideal self. This means being very realistic about where your body is and where your creative practice is. This means literally slowing down […] and also slowing down our expectations.”
I’m not sticking my head in the sand, but I have increased somatic practices to mitigate the dysregulation that’s been creeping in. I can’t afford to let my health suffer more than it is and I don’t want to be driven to paralysis or overwhelmed by fear and anxiety, which will lead to degrading my sense of hope that a better world is possible.
There are small, simple things that we can do repeatedly everyday to help build capacity within our body’s nervous systems. I say this while also acknowledging that some people are dealing with more than others on physical, practical, and material levels, and that no bodies are built for this. What I’m offering is something small and accessible to all that can help to resist the deregulation we are being made to feel.”
Five Ways to Create a Calming Political Environment: Resisting authoritarianism requires endurance, but most people opposing [this administration] aren’t doing enough to protect their own resilience. While we can’t manage everything, we can be intentional about the factors that shape our emotional resilience. In doing so, we won’t just feel better—we’ll build a stronger, more effective movement.”
What do we know about fear? The first predictable characteristic is that fear always begets more fear. First, what you fear can easily be associated with other similar but different things. If you are afraid of the dynamics of one conspiracy theory you can easily fall prey to others until that is your reality, everything is going to kill you. If you know this you can easily set traps for people and make them more and more afraid and the more they are afraid the more you can control their behavior.
Second, that it is catching from others like a virus. This is the motive behind mob behavior. Notice that every one of them is afraid of annihilation one way or another. That is always lurking behind the human experience. The cure for the fear of annihilation is to finally get annihilated and find out that it didn’t hurt, it didn’t actually work, and that you are perfectly fine without the burden of an ego that is constantly threatening you. This is where the Taoist sage laughs long and hard.
Fear then is not necessary to human survival at all. What is necessary is to be mindful, discerning, and prudent in the situation.”
I had behaved exactly as they expected a leftie intellectual to behave, thus missing an opportunity to invite any new or even exciting ways of thinking about issues they already engage with. Rather than surprising them, I had confirmed everything they thought they already knew. I had done everyone at the table a disservice—me, a journalist who has made it her job to have difficult conversations. […]
We are all going to be confronted with incredibly difficult conversations with people we disagree with to such an extent their existence feels like a threat to our safety—and in many cases it is. Aside from casting a vote, we can do nothing … to address the systemic inequalities that generated such a vast ideological divide beside how we choose to have these conversations.
And converse we must. Remember the wisdom of David Graeber who said the moment we think we cannot talk to another human being is the moment we have decided they are no longer human. Language makes us human; we enact violence on that we consider to be less than.”
Listen. It’s gonna be a weird bad day. It’s just the first of the weird bad days.
And if we’re being honest, it’s not even the first of them, it’s just another in a long line of weird bad days where the weird part and the bad part are spiking simultaneously, like an outbreak of a particular kind of illness. It’s not just turbulence on a flight, it’s a turbulent flight, from start to finish, snout to tail.
But we can get through it, we can land the plane.
This country is a mess, it’s always been a mess, always will be a mess, but it’s our mess. We’re with it, in it, and have often helped to make it, and that’s not defeatist, that’s not apathetic, it’s just realist to see that we’re a fucking goofy nation that has stumbled and staggered up and down some big hills and into some mucky fucking ditches. Just try to remember we need to climb the hills to see the beautiful views, you know? And first we gotta get up and out of the damn ditch. Beyond that? I think at the end of the day the people we’re with, that we surround ourselves with — that matters.”
Thing is, it just doesn’t work like that. People individually are messy and we’re not pebbles on a train track able to derail the entire train just be existing as a pebble. Things are fucking shitty out there and it’s okay to feel like they’re impossibly, overwhelmingly shitty and it’s further okay to say how things feel impossibly, overwhelmingly shitty. You don’t need to correct someone’s feelings, because feelings aren’t facts.”
If the ruling class has learned anything from history, it is that as long as they can divide the poor, they will stay rich. They pit rural workers against urban workers, white against Black against Latino, women against men, immigrants against native-born, all while they consolidate wealth and power at historic levels. Both major parties in the US are doing this, and the only winners are the wealthy elites.”
What I’m writing about here is the hazy idea of collapse. It’s come into my intellectual consciousness (and algorithm) slowly over the last few years, and more intensely recently. But before that was a feeling that came much earlier, and it’s one that may sound very familiar to you.
It’s a nagging sense that has hung over modern life since 2020, or 2016, or 2008, or 2001 — pick your start date — that things are not working anymore. And that waiting for them to get better after the next Most Important Election of Our Lives, or another war to end, or a new economic recovery cycle doesn’t seem to be having the desired effects. […]
Seeing the world change so quickly in such a short amount of time in 2020 jolted something awake in me. Collapse, though I may not have called it that at the time, felt breathtakingly close. It no longer made sense to me to pursue the same version of success I had up to that point. Even though I was covering the travel industry critically and aggressively, the entire premise of friction-free, carbon-intensive travel started to feel like a relic. No matter where I worked or who published my work, I wasn’t sure I would ever be allowed to fully articulate what I believed the problem was.
The good news is that the work of doing this is not some kind of grim disaster preparedness. It can actually be very joyful. Indeed in writing about connection, care and how to build a village over the last year, I realized I’ve been writing about collapse already.
So what does that look like? It’s worth pointing out that in Bendell’s definition I shared above, he does not say collapse is the end to sustenance, shelter, security, pleasure, identity, and meaning — just that it’s an end to our “normal modes” of acquiring all those things.
So start thinking today about how you can attain some of those things elsewhere, from non-monetary or transactional means.
Indeed if you lean into collapse awareness, you might be surprised how those small steps I listed above start to expand and morph. How you suddenly have more energy to engage in the kinds of things you didn’t before — even the incrementalist politics of There. How you care about different things. How it feels much lighter than you expected.”
SNARF stands for Stakes/Novelty/Anger/Retention/Fear. SNARF is the kind of content that evolves when a platform asks an AI to maximize usage. Content creators need to please the AI algorithms or they become irrelevant. Millions of creators make SNARF content to stay in the feed and earn a living.
We are all familiar with this kind of content, especially those of us who are chronically online. Content creators exaggerate stakes to make their content urgent and existential. They manufacture novelty and spin their content as unprecedented and unique. They manipulate anger to drive engagement via outrage. They hack retention by withholding information and promising a payoff at the end of a video. And they provoke fear to make people focus with urgency on their content. Every piece of content faces ruthless Darwinian competition so only SNARF has the ability to be successful, even if it is inaccurate, hateful, fake, ethically dubious, and intellectually suspect. […]
Unlike the platforms, we care about internet content and know that it moves culture and the world forward. We have an opportunity to fight back against SNARF and bring some joy and fun back to the internet.”
A biocentric philosophy places all life at the same level as human life. This philosophy recognizes that we are all equal, all deserving of a place to live, to eat, to have shelter, and an ecosystem in which to thrive. Ecocentrism zooms out a bit and says the entire ecosystem is equal to the human biosphere and the ecosystem as a whole has a right to sovereignty and life.
While these shouldn’t be radical ideas, because we also depend on that same ecosystem to survive, they really are quite radical.”
I’ll leave you with a take about Senator Cory Booker’s historic filibuster from March 31 to April 1st from Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg:
“The point of Senator Booker’s filibuster is to be INSPIRED by this man to go find YOUR ROLE, not to wait for them to go save us now.”
The point of Senator Booker's filibuster is to be INSPIRED by this man to go find YOUR ROLE, not to wait for them to go save us now. That is not this assignment.Thread of places to go to get started. More coming out of LiST this Thursday.
As we’re becoming increasingly aware by the day, the fight for democracy, justice, and a livable future isn’t a sprint — it’s a marathon.
And the fact that you’re here, seeking knowledge, building resilience, and finding ways to take action, proves something powerful:
You haven’t given up. We haven’t given up. And we’re not alone.
This repository will keep growing, just like our collective power. Keep coming back when you need guidance, strength, or a reminder that resistance is not futile — it’s necessary.
Take what you need. Share what resonates. And most importantly, keep moving forward.
It was some season or other, warm enough to spend time outside just shooting the shit. I stood beside my dad in a friend’s side yard, in a group of people circled up and having a conversation. Or rather, everyone around me was having a conversation that I was not a part of, given the state of my gender.
Namely, the menfolk were talking.
Standing in that circle, I had two strikes against me: I was young. And I was female. I was as good as a fly on the wall.
Growing up in rural Appalachia, there was an unquestioned truth about women. “The woman” cooked food, cleaned dishes, did laundry, raised the children. She remained (most times) nameless and voiceless. A background character in the larger lives of men. So-and-so’s wife. His-her-their mother.
I had male friends who graduated from high school having never done a load of laundry or washed a dish. That’s what their moms did. And when they inevitably got married, that’s what their wives would do. No reason for them to trouble themselves with the domestic tasks best left to the women.
On the other hand, you had my parents. They moved to the county from a small coastal city in the early ‘70s. Both of them taught me from an early age that the world was larger than our rural community. That being a woman wasn’t a life sentence.
When I grew up and moved away, some things changed while others stayed mostly the same. I made male friends in college who still didn’t know how to do their own laundry. But I also discovered more of a world where women’s voices were equal. Respected. Even sought after.
And for a while, I began to believe we – humanity – were making progress.
I stand on the shoulders of the women who came before me. The brave ones who stood up and fought for a woman’s right to vote. For her ability to move beyond the kitchen and into whatever field she chose. For her equality.
But sometimes I hear whispers on the wind of times gone by. Where even though we finally have a woman of color in the second-highest office in the nation, just over a quarter of CEOs are female, and female-identifying folks are making a bigger impact than ever before… I also feel the steady drumbeat of regression.
As much as I want to believe that things will only continue to get better, I also see the groundwork being laid for the erosion of our rights. I watch as those not #blessed to be cis-gender straight white males face the blowback of a system rigged against them.
I see a growing movement of men who would happily take us all back to a time and place where women were silent, relegated to the kitchen, sidelined from the conversation.
And on quiet nights when my mind wanders to darker futures, I wonder:
What do we teach our children when we show them that to have a uterus is to lose your voice?
Wouldn’t it be great if every time you worked hard on something, you succeeded?
Because…
Nothing is impossible if you work hard enough”
– every motivational speaker, ever.
But let’s get real. The likelihood of everything going right (and exactly as expected) is slim to none. Even the Wright Brothers weren’t successful at first — but they stuck it out through years of trial and error, and now they’re forever written into the annals of history for their (eventual) successful flight at Kill Devil Hills.
When you’re on top of the world, it’s easy to go with the flow. Yet, every successful inventor and entrepreneur has a history of failure(s) behind them.
So how do you deal with the uncertainty and failure that often marks the path to success?
When the road gets rocky and you fall down, what happens? Do you give up and go home? Or do you get back up, dust yourself off, and try again?
When resistance comes knocking
It makes me wonder how many great ideas never see the light of day due to resistance. How many people were one failure away from success, and just walked away. Or how many looked at the road ahead, decided it was too hard, and never even took the first step.
But if you’re here reading this, chances are that you’re still on the path. That you haven’t walked away. And that you see bigger possibilities up ahead, if you can stay the course.
So what can you do when you encounter resistance? When you fall down, how can you pick yourself back up (over and over) and be one of the few who make it to the finish line?
Enter resilience. The ability to recover from whatever comes your way. To get hit. To fall down. And to get back up, every single time.
Resilience isn’t something that you’re born with. But it is something you can cultivate.
And with practice, it’s something that becomes so second-nature that after a while you can fail, fall, and recover without blinking an eye.
A brief history of standing back up
Like the Wright Brothers, I’ve had my share of what the outside world would consider failures. Times where the rug got unceremoniously yanked out from under me. Projects and launches where things went nothing like I expected.
But those experiences taught me an important lesson about resilience, and continue to show me how far I’ve come.
I’ll give you a couple of recent examples.
Example #1 – the rug disappears from under my feet
April 2017
I was working part time for a company, on a long-term contract basis. I walked into a meeting on Monday morning, and when I walked out of that meeting, the contract was done. No notice, and just a few hours of work left to complete — and no other significant income on the horizon.
That afternoon, I cried.
Tuesday, I got pissed. How could this happen to me? The world was unfair. Full stop.
Wednesday, I went to a good friend’s yoga class in the morning and then took the dogs hiking when I got home.
By the time I woke up on Thursday morning, I was ready to make a plan.
Less than a week between hit and recovery. I considered that to be a significant improvement — had it happened to me even a few years before, I probably would have found myself in a funk for much, much longer.
Example #2 – the “failure” that validated everything
March 2018
Back in December I decided it was time to put myself out there in a way I never had before.
The program that I launched (MindFULL to Mindful: A 14-Week Journey to a Balanced Modern Life) was the culmination of everything that I’ve been living and teaching. I spent the next three months pouring my heart and soul into the program and the launch.
The end result?
Not what I had hoped. Not even close.
So I faced reality. Sitting on my futon on a Saturday night, I let myself be upset about the outcome. I cried, hard enough that one of our dogs decided to crawl up all in my business.
Very quickly, the sadness turned into tears of laughter, and I laughed until I couldn’t breathe. My partner went out to get takeout for dinner, and came back with flowers to “celebrate” my failed launch.
And then I laughed some more (okay, a lot more) as we watched an episode of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot.
Less than a day between hit and recovery.
Yes, I still get occasional flashes of bitterness or frustration that things didn’t turn out as expected. But I’m okay with how things turned out.
Really, for real.
Invest in the process, not the outcome
The really important lesson that I learned from this “failure” of a launch? That the program material I’m teaching is spot on — it’s the foundational practices and ways of being that I’ve cultivated over the years. And it works.
Now I get to dive back into entrepreneur mode and figure out where things went sideways. How I’ll do things differently moving forward. And what parts get to stay. I’ll take the lessons that I learned from what didn’t work this time around, and be stronger next time around.
Five years ago, a failure like this would have sent me straight back into job search mode. I probably would have given up, hung up my entrepreneur hat for something stable. And missed out on the amazing journey that lies ahead.
I’m genuinely excited about continuing to strengthen the foundations of my personal entrepreneurial resilience — the practices that guide my daily life. And from that foundation, I’m ready to continue exploring the path ahead.
Do I have any idea what’s out there? Probably not. But isn’t that one of the best parts of the journey?
If you invest in the process, the steps that take you from “here” to “there”… who knows what greatness, what world changing projects and ideas you and I may uncover along the way.
Admit it: you clicked through to read this post because you’re both 1) giddily excited to see all the bad things that other people are doing and 2) worried that you’re secretly doing all those things yourself.
And here’s the truth: we’re all doing these things. At least some of the time. Usually, you intellectually know better. But sometimes you don’t even notice that they’re happening.
The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. So let’s name these little lies, so you can start to kick them to the curb.
Ready?
Let’s go.
1. I’m not really that stressed. Well, not all the time…
This little lie is easy to believe. Because stress (especially when we reach the point of chronic stress) is really good at fading into the background. It’s insidious. Before you know it, you don’t even notice when you’re stressed.
When I came out the end of several years of chronic stress (due to high pressure work environments, pushing myself too hard on too many projects at a time, on and on) it took me months to get back to a less-stressed state of being.
And it wasn’t until I was completely separate from the constant stressors that I was able to recognize how my body felt when I was under stress.
The constant tension in my abdomen, the twitching under one of my eyes, the buzz of nonstop adrenaline — it all became “normal” after a while.
When you create an environment where totally stressed out is the new normal, something’s gotta give.
2. I’m too busy too exercise today. I’ll do it tomorrow.
Alright. Truth time!
Hands up: how many times do you actually exercise when tomorrow rolls around?
It’s okay. I’ll wait…
Mmhmm. That’s what I thought.
This is just another convenient excuse to push until tomorrow what we don’t want to do today. (And tomorrow becomes tomorrow becomes tomorrow…)
I’ll be honest with you: I hate the gym. You would have to pay me a lot of money to enjoy spending time there. (And it would probably just mean that I was getting paid to pretend like I didn’t hate it.)
For a long time, I tried to force myself to go. For all the reasons, I sucked it up — and hated every single second.
Until the day I realized that I don’t have to go to the gym to get exercise. That was a good day.
The day that I finally admitted that I could do yoga, go hiking, take the dogs for a walk, ride my bike… that I could get exercise while doing things that I actually (gasp) enjoyed.
So instead of lying to yourself and saying you’ll go to the gym tomorrow, what if you could find some kind of movement that you actually enjoyed, so you can quit making excuses?
3. I don’t have time to sit down and meditate today.
This one slays me.
My rational brain understands that the days where I take even five or ten minutes to sit quietly and meditate equates to a much more productive day, like 99 percent of the time. I’m more focused. I work more efficiently. I react less to any stressors that pop up. Insert a long list of positive benefits here.
But…
How many days do I look at my schedule for the day and think, “I literally do not have five minutes to sit quietly. There’s too much to do, so I need to get started right away.”
See this? This is my palm. Smacking myself in the forehead.
#facepalm
Seriously?
4. I’m a hustling, groundbreaking badass. I’ll sleep when I’m dead!
I’m actually living a really good example of this one recently.
Starting point: didn’t sleep well one night last week.
I’ll award myself points for sleeping in a little bit the next morning.
But, take away points because I literally sat at my desk later that day and thought, “man. I’m really tired. I wish I could take a nap.”
Which was immediately followed by my brain going, “nope! You’re too busy. You have to finish this blog post. #alltheexcuses”
Because a 30 minute nap is going to derail my entire week. Riiight…
5. Food is complicated. I’ll just stuff something quick in my facehole.
This little lie has been a struggle off and on for me for much, much longer than I care to admit.
There are a number of variations on the excuses I use to not fuel my body properly:
I’m too busy to cook. I’ll just grab something fast. (Which usually means processed, and not that great for me.)
Too many decisions. Too complicated. Too [insert your excuse here.] I’ll just skip this meal.
I don’t feel good and/or I feel better when I don’t eat. Therefore, I just won’t eat. (Side note: there’s a lot more to unpack here, just not in today’s post. If you’re struggling with an eating disorder, reach out to someone for help. Please. I did, and I’ll always be grateful for the guidance I received.)
Wait. Someone is telling me to eat X, but I just heard someone else say that X is the worst food you can possibly eat. Why are there all these rules?
All these rules make me HANGRY!
It’s a little harder to poke fun at myself about this one, because food can be a really complicated issue for lots of folks, myself included.
Let’s just leave it at this: can you find a way to eat that makes you happy, keeps you properly nourished, and doesn’t involve hours of prep and cleanup? Do that.
Fuck what anyone else tells you to do. They don’t have to live in your body. You do, so you get to make the rules.
6. Hiking and stuff is fun, I guess. But who has time for fun?
There’s a broad spectrum of how we as humans feel about getting out into nature.
Example 1:
“Nature? Eww. It’s cold and wet out there. And there’s dirt. No thanks. I’ll just stay inside.”
Example 2:
“Everyone should forego electricity and go live in a mud hut and eat bugs for sustenance. Mother nature rules!”
Example 3:
Somewhere in the middle. Which – in my experience – is where most of the rest of us fall.
Thing is, you can easily get so focused on the hustle that you forget to have fun. You spend your days (and nights, and weekends) glued to your screen. And sometimes the only fresh air you get is walking between your house and your car.
And that’s not cool.
Those times when I realize that my skin has not touched outside air for days… that’s a sign that something is seriously off.
7. No rest for the wicked. Once I push through this last { }, then I can take a break.
Fill in that blank with whatever project, task, or thing is currently sitting at the top of your to do list.
Entrepreneurs are really good at having a revolving door of projects going on. Which usually means there’s always an excuse to keep going.
I think I’ve been telling myself this little white lie for… oh… something like five years now. Admittedly, I do occasionally take a break and step away from the computer (sometimes even for extended periods at a time), but there’s always the draw of some pressing task that tempts me away from self care.
For example, I’ve been in launch mode since getting back from Mexico in January. While it’s been tempting to push through and work on either the new program or the launch every single day of the week, I’ve made it a point to turn off my laptop on Saturdays.
At least most Saturdays…
8. I have to do this all by myself. I’m all alone! Woe is me.
This one is a doozy. I find myself caught up in this little lie all the time.
Two recent examples:
As I’ve been working on the new program, I’ve run into tasks that felt like I stepped into tar and couldn’t get my feet out. I would struggle with a piece of content (say, the high level executive summary) for about a week.
I finally sat down with my coach / co-conspirator and together we managed to get it moving again during a single session. Same goes for the high level program outline. Stuck for over a week working on it by myself — sat down together, and came away with an outline in about 30 minutes.
So why the heck do we flail and struggle all by ourselves, when we could just ask for help?
Because being vulnerable and admitting that we need help isn’t exactly built into the entrepreneurial world or mindset.
Next time you’re caught in a loop of all-alone and struggling, reach out to someone. Brain bump. Or just sit down and talk things through with someone you trust.
I’ll bet it helps you push through that blockage in no time at all.
9. I have to be productive. Therefor I must stay constantly glued to my screen.
I may have gone off on a little rant about this one on Instagram recently…
There’s apparently now a shower curtain that has all these little pockets in it so you can still use your devices while you’re in the shower…
Wait. What?!
You can now text, watch Netflix, check your email… while you’re in the shower.
Here’s what I wrote shortly after discovering that little gem:
Are you f**cking kidding me?
See… this right here is why there’s an entire module dedicated to our relationship with technology in my new program. Because we apparently can’t even take a shower anymore without being connected to our devices. Seriously?
I get the utility — really, I do. And I can see situations where it could be helpful. For example, you get a brilliant idea in the shower and don’t want to forget it… but I would counter: there are these really cool things called diving slates. I’ve got one in my shower, and it’s one of the greatest investments I ever made (a whopping $12).
So what happens if you NEVER give your face a break from a glowing blue screen (it’s in bed with you, in the shower with you, disrupting conversations, etc on and on)?
Expecting to produce groundbreaking original thought from a brain full of other people’s content? Good luck with that.
Let’s take a good hard look at how we use tech – and bring it into our lives in a way that supports our work, our thinking. Tech as tools, not distraction.”
10. My external environment has no impact on how well I do my work.
I once had a boss who yelled at me because I kept my desk “too clean.” No joke.
She was pissed because she thought I was wasting time keeping things organized. While her system of stacks of paperwork all over her desk might have worked for her (somehow I doubt it), I know that I do better work when I can find things.
I get stressed out if my desk is a mess. If there are dirty dishes in the sink. If there are piles of laundry that need to be folded. If the house needs to be cleaned because the clouds of dog hair are getting as big as the dogs…
I do not work in a bubble. I function as part of a larger ecosystem, and as much as it might be nice to be able to ignore the fact that sometimes it’s harder to get motivated on a cloudy, rainy day in the middle of winter, it’s a fact.
Rather than fighting against your external environments (your desk, your house, the weather, the time of year), how can you work with those factors to do your best work?
11. I can constantly shove whatever crap I want into my brain. No biggie.
To continue with a theme, your brain can only take so much input.
When you’re continually putting information into your brain – via your ears and our eyes, as well as your other senses – you don’t give yourself a chance to fully process any of it.
Much like your digestive system, which needs time to take the food you consume and turn it into energy for the body, your brain needs time and space to process what you’re putting in through the inputs.
Similarly, your digestive system likely also responds better to healthy foods than it does to greasy fast food. So paying attention to the quality of the things you’re taking into your brain is as important as the quantity.
For example, I have different modes of music that I listen to depending on what I’m working on. I have different playlists for different tasks. Some with lyrics, most without.
If I tried to write while listening to really loud music with lots of lyrics, I would be completely distracted. Instead, I choose music that will either fade into the background, or support the vibe that I’m working with.
Either way, I’m using external inputs to support the work I’m doing — not to distract me and clog up my brain.
12. I’m clear on my priorities, and what I need to do to reach my goals.
You’re talking with a colleague about your business or your current project, and in the course of the discussion, they start asking the tough questions. And maybe you feel like you kind of know the answers, but it’s really hard to articulate, and, and…
What are those goals and priorities, they may ask?
And you answer, “Well… um… I need to check my notes.”
Any time you find yourself in the position where having a discussion with someone about what you’re working on becomes painful or embarrassing, chances are that you could use a little more clarity around what you’re doing.
Probably not around the small day to day details (but maybe those, too). But definitely around the big picture. It’s really easy to get wrapped up in the go-go-go and forget about the bigger why that drives your work.
If you want to change the world, you have to stay rooted in your why. To be clear on where you’re headed, and how you’re getting there.
13. I want to do this, it’s so cool. But I can’t because X, Y, and Z.
How often do you look at something and it piques your interest – it looks like it’s something you would really enjoy doing – but then your brain starts making one hundred and one excuses about why you can’t do it?
I don’t have enough time.
It’s too expensive.
What would my friends or family think?
This is selfish.
I “should” really be doing A, B, or C instead.
This is obviously not a comprehensive list of excuses — that list could make up an entire post all by itself. But it gives you the idea of all the barriers you might be putting in your own way.
Instead of constantly coming up with excuses why you can’t do something, what if you started making a list of the reasons you can?
What if you told the truth instead?
Instead of secretly (or not so secretly) making life harder for yourself, what if you could let go of some of these little lies? What if you could start being honest with yourself, and lay a foundation that supports your worldchanging work?
You want to do big, amazing things and bring your vision to life in a way that benefits the world. How about giving yourself the chance to foster a business that’s not stifled by the status quo, and let go of whatever isn’t working?
Join me, and together we can help you take the first steps toward turning these little lies into truth, so you can live the life you dream of — and have the positive impact you crave.
Everyone who is out doing big things in the world experiences “it”.
That moment where uncertainty rolls in like a thick fog. When you start questioning everything. And when you start comparing yourself to others… resulting in the mother of all entrepreneurial stresses:
Imposter syndrome.
In my experience, there’s nothing more stressful. Nothing that overwhelms me faster. And it’s usually a surefire way to suck every last ounce of motivation out of me, to leave me wanting to curl up on the couch and binge Netflix for the rest of my life. Because, really. Who needs that kind of stress in their life?
But, rather than succumbing to the fetal position, there’s a sure-fire way kiss this kind of stress goodbye.
Stress. Busted.
Let me tell you a little story.
Last week, I was stuck. I was in what I’ll call really crappy headspace. Questioning everything. Feeling totally overwhelmed.
I sat at my computer for a while, staring at the list of priorities I wanted to tackle. And I couldn’t motivate myself to do anything.
So I sat there, feeling sorry for myself. And… I may have cried a little bit, too (if I’m being totally honest).
But the last thing on my to-do list was simple. I wanted to clean up the house. And it felt like if I couldn’t accomplish anything else, I could at least do a little dusting.
So I forced myself out of my chair, grabbed my phone, pulled up Pandora, and put on one of my favorite playlists.
And then, something remarkable happened.
The Magic of the Perfect Playlist
Pandora served me up a big ‘ole smack in the face of musical inspiration and awesomeness. I finished up the dusting, and decided I also wanted to vacuum. And by the time I was done cleaning the house, I had worked my way out of my funk.
You may not know this about me, but I was a music major in college. I’ve listened to and played music for most of my life, and yet I still manage to occasionally (okay, regularly) forget the power of music.
It’s a totally individual experience, and everyone will have a slightly different type of music and general vibe that’s their perfect mix. But I truly believe that everyone who’s out there in the world trying to make a difference needs their own “resilience” mix.
(Side note, I find that randomly shuffled playlists have the tendency to play just the right song, at just the right time. Maybe I attribute it to lucky coincidence. Or maybe I attribute it to signs from the universe… #nojudging)
Either way, music is a powerful – and ridiculously simple – tool we can add to our entrepreneurial toolbox.
Curate Your Mood
So how do you curate your list? Simple. Pick music that makes you want to shake your booty. Music that inspires you, and leaves you with a smile on your face.
If you’re still having trouble getting started, I’ve curated a list of a few songs you can start with to build a playlist of your own, including the lyrics that speak to the entrepreneurial journey.
Here’s a taste of what your stress-busting, imposter-syndrome-overcoming playlist might include:
Rachel Platten: Fight Song
Like a small boat
On the ocean
Sending big waves
Into motion
I might only have one match
But I can make an explosion
My power’s turned on
And I don’t really care if nobody else believes
‘Cause I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me
X-Ambassadors: Renegades
Long live the pioneers
Rebels and mutineers
Go forth and have no fear
Come close the end is near
It’s our time to make a move
It’s our time to make amends
It’s our time to break the rules
Let’s begin
Phillip Phillips: Home
Settle down, it’ll all be clear
Don’t pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found
Just know you’re not alone
American Authors: Go Big or Go Home
I’m thinking life’s too short it’s passing by
So if I’m gonna go at all
Go big or go home
Sheppard: Geronimo
Well we rushed it
Moving way too fast
That we crushed it
But it’s in the past
We can make this leap
Through the curtains of the waterfall
So say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Shakira: Try Everything
I messed up tonight
I lost another fight
I still mess up but I’ll just start again
I keep falling down
I keep on hitting the ground
I always get up now to see what’s next
I wanna try everything
I wanna try even though I could fail
I won’t give up, no I won’t give in
Till I reach the end
And then I’ll start again
American Authors: Best Day of My Life
I had a dream so big and loud
I jumped so high I touched the clouds
I’m never gonna look back
Woah, never gonna give it up
But all the possibilities
No limits just epiphanies
No, just don’t wake me now
This is gonna be the best day of my life
Andy Grammer: Good to Be Alive
I’ve been grinding so long, been trying this shit for years
and I got nothing to show, just climbing this rope right here
and if there’s a man upstairs, he kept bringing me rain
but I’ve been sending up prayers and something’s changed
I think I finally found my hallelujah
I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life
Now all my dreams are coming true, yeah
I’ve been waiting for this moment
Feels good to be alive right about now
Eminem: Lose Yourself
Look
If you had
One shot
Or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted
In one moment
Would you capture
Or just let it slip?
Journey: Don’t Stop Believin’
Do I really need to explain this one? (Yeah, didn’t think so.)
Get Up Off That Thang
So my challenge for you today? Go create your own “get outta this funk” playlist.
Open up Pandora (you can sign up for a free account with just your email address), search for “Shut Up and Dance“, and create a station from that song. Then go to station details, and “add variety.” Add the other songs above, or some of your favorites.
Then, any time you’re feeling stuck or otherwise questioning everything in your life, open up the station, crank the volume, and dance around your house like no one is watching.
Here’s to rising above the funk, getting inspired to do big world-changing things, and celebrating the small things in life. Including booty-shaking playlists.
And if you’re feeling like you could use more than just a little booty shaking to cultivate all-around resilience and flow in your life and business, sign up for the Resourcing the Revolution newsletter. Every edition delivers a mix of soul-level insight, somatic tools, and playlist-worthy inspiration — designed to help you ground your energy, reconnect with your purpose, and keep showing up for what matters.
For years now, “work-life balance” has been a huge buzzword.
The way it’s presented, there’s this magical point at which everything in your life just falls into place.
You have more than enough time for everything. All of your worries and stresses magically fall away, leaving behind a shiny and perfect version of your life where time is no longer an issue.
And then there’s the flip side. They’ll tell you that work-life balance is bullshit. That it’s impossible to achieve, and you should quit trying. Or, that you should call it something else, because balance isn’t really what you’re striving for.
So what are we, left standing in the middle of these two extremes, to believe?
I recently came across a beautiful quote that bridges the gap:
The Daoists believe that the world is always an interplay between chaos and order, and that if you live your life properly you stand with one foot in order and one foot in chaos. Because if you are only in order then nothing interesting ever happens to you, nothing is anything other than a repeat of everything you already know. […] And if you are in a state that’s only characterized by chaos, then you are at sea, or overwhelmed, or things have fallen apart for you, and there’s too much of everything for you to deal with. […]
A meaningful life, the optimally meaningful life, is to be found on the border between chaos and order, and I would say that your nervous system tells you exactly when you are there, and it’s a kind of place. You can tell when you are there because you are secure enough to be confident, but not so secure that you are bored, and you are interested enough to be awake, but not so interested that you are terrified. When you are in a state like that, when you find things interesting and meaningful, then time slips by you and you are no longer self-conscious.”
So rather than fight against the things that fill your life, how can you instead embrace the flow? How can you find balance between chaos and order, and live comfortably in the exchange?
The Interplay Between Chaos and Order
Let’s be real for a minute.
Modern life? It’s messy. And loud. And usually pretty chaotic.
And it can be super stressful trying to create order out of that chaos — especially when you fight against it and try to force your particular and exacting desires onto it.
As a result of all this fighting, this resistance, you end up feeling stuck. Stuck in the middle. Stuck in the status quo. Stuck in your head.
You end up mindlessly muddling through, just trying to get through your day. Wishing that you could push a magic “pause” button that would deliver you effortlessly to a tropical island, drop you into a beach chair, and put an ice cold beverage of your choice in your hand.
But what if you don’t actually need to disappear to a far off tropical island to get unstuck?
A Road Paved With Great Intentions
Truth is, getting away and stepping outside your comfort zone is great. It gives you perspective you wouldn’t have otherwise. It gives you the chance to see things from a distance, rather than right in the muck of the everyday.
(I should know — I just got back from 9 days totally off grid in Mexico, retreating it up with one of my favorite teachers.)
That being said, how often do you get back from vacation or a super relaxing retreat filled to the brim with great intentions? You’re going to change everything! You have a new outlook on life, and all this motivation to make it happen.
So you head into this new chapter of your life, full-on-excited about the changes you’re going to make.
And then you realize you have to do the laundry — all those dirty clothes you wore on vacation aren’t going to wash and fold themselves.
… and you have to catch up on however many days of emails that you missed while you were way — they’re not going to magically get dealt with.
… and you come to the sinking realization that other people depend on you, so you can’t just drop everything and start fresh.
… and you have to deal with all of the other (annoying) day to day things that are suddenly back on your plate, because well, real life.
… sigh.
You end up frustrated. Tired. And most of that motivation to make big changes? Poof. It’s gone, along with that post-vacation glow.
Real life has returned. With a vengeance.
So if getting away to a tropical island doesn’t fix things, what will? Should you just give up and resign yourself to a life of imbalance and exhaustion?
Your Personal “Pause” Button
Truth is, the answer for most people is to give up. To allow themselves to slowly sink back into the status quo. They saw the possibility, but either they didn’t believe they could get there or they simply didn’t know how. (Or it looked like a LOT of work…)
But if I know you, you’re not most people. You see the possibilities. And even if you’re not quite sure how to get there, you’re going to figure it out eventually. You’re sure as hell not going to give up and sink back into mindless slogging. (Because that’s no fun for anyone.)
The good news for you is that I’ve been there, done that… and there’s a 3 step process I use to work through all the elements of the “balance” I try to cultivate in my life:
1. Rise up: rise above the status quo, and identify the patterns that keep you stuck
For example, I have a consistent pattern of saying “yes” to too many things. Too many new projects, requests for my time, and things that I see as big possibilities (but maybe aren’t totally aligned with where I’m headed right now).
2. Innovate: what’s a new approach that you can take, so you can leave those patterns behind?
To continue the example, I have a rule about closet space in my house — if something new comes in, something old needs to go. So I could use a similar strategy when deciding on new projects. I only have so many hours in a day, and by agreeing to something new, I need to make space for the “yes”.
3. Celebrate: celebrate the shit out of the things that are working, and bring more of those things into your life.
Recently, I’ve made the decision to let a couple of projects go that weren’t in line with my current priorities. I had been stressing out because I was feeling the time crunch, and after making the decision to let them go… let’s just say that there was a ‘lil bit of dancing going on. Celebrate what’s working!
As my teacher Britt says, fill up so full with the good things that everything that no longer serves you falls away.
Quit Chasing, and Start Cultivating
Now, let me be clear — you and your life, your grand visions? While we may each follow similar paths, we are very different individuals. What works for me may not work for you.
Over the years, I’ve developed a toolbox full of practices that I can turn to when life gets overwhelming. I also have a pretty good idea of what works for me in this moment, and I’m living those ideas to test out my theories. The things that work, stick around — and those that don’t, fall away.
Instead of chasing “work life balance”… I cultivate the practices that allow me to make aligned choices. I find my own personal version of balanced and centered. And I leave the rest.
All this being said, I also understand the frustration of constant overwhelm and chronic stress. I understand hustling hard to create the positive impact you want to see in the world, and still feeling like you can’t possibly accomplish everything in front of you.
That’s why I’m putting the final touches on a new program, designed for folks just like us. Overwhelmed, and ready to quit chasing “work life balance” and cultivate a life that works for you?