Book Review: Hillary Rettig's "The Lifelong Activist"

The Lifelong Activist
How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way
By Hillary Rettig
Lantern Books
New York, 2006
256 Pages

Activism is the act of influencing a person or group of people with the goal of eliciting a desired behavioral change.

If I had but one book to spend hard-earned cash on this year, this one would be it, hands down.

Lifelong Activist is a unique and luscious hybrid, part inspirational tract and part practical textbook on sustaining effective and dedicated activism over the long, long haul.

The author, a business coach involved in progressive causes, brings her approach in training entrepreneurs for success to the realm of political involvement, adapting pragmatic and measurable exercises to the personal realm.

Admitting from the get-go that one of the biggest problems facing progressive activists is burn-out with its accompanying guilt and joylessness, Rettig begins the book by walking the reader through the logic of taking care of yourself, which includes your health, your personal relationships and – yes, it’s true, despite the pushback Rettig admits she gets on this final issue – your financial stability. She explains:

All this, by the way, has nothing to do with selling out, and everything to do with common sense, meeting your obligations to yourself and others, and not being a burden on your loved ones. It also has to do with building the kind of happy, stable life that fosters a sustainable and productive activist career.

... if it is our privilege as activists to dream of a better world, it is also our responsibility to do the hard work of figuring out how to integrate our dreams into the real world around us, not only as a means of taking care of ourselves and those whom we love and are responsible for, but as a crucial step toward building that better world we all dream of.

This message of self-care recurs throughout – Rettig clearly recognizes in progressives the tendency to overwork, self-blame and ultimately undermine one’s own better dreams through feeding a guilt-based deprivation syndrome. Short of time, money, patience, comfort and health, many activists, often without acknowledging it, sabotage their own attempts to change the world.

To help progressives learn to sort out their priorities and operate from an individualized base of strengths, Rettig guides readers through a series of exercises and mission statements to help set priorities and realistic goals. Time management skills are outlined in a step-by-step process ("If you hope to succeed at an ambitious goal such as activism, you need to make conscious decisions about how you spend your time, and not let others, or random circumstance, decide for you."). Realistic assessment of money needs – beyond mere survival, where comfort is recognized as an acceptable value – is undertaken ("Choosing to be an activist and choosing to be poor are two separate choices, and ... choosing poverty will generally make you a worse activist, not a better one."). Schedules and time-tracking charts are provided in the book (and are downloadable at Lifelong Activist. Methods to combat procrastination and to root out its causes – which usually can be traced to perfectionism, negativity and hypersensitivity – are offered.

A whole section of the book is devoted to managing fear, which is often an underlying stumbling block in one form or another to those participating in activism. Figuring out which unproductive behaviors are on display can often help point to the specific fears that often hold us back, and Rettig examines ways to overcome these before they undermine our mission.

As one would expect from a guide on progressive activism, networking and relationships are emphasized, but instead of offering vague, feel-good advice, there are concrete, practical steps advised, particularly in the realm of finding and cultivating a mentor, which Rettig claims is "the most powerful ‘success catalyst’ around." Tips on how to identify, contact and maintain this vital relationship are included, as well as advice on how to serve as a mentor one’s self – one of the most fulfilling roles a seasoned activist can take on.

I suspect the most difficult portion of the book for progressives to swallow – aside from the "it’s okay if you have some money at your disposal" aspect – is going to be the final chapters of the book, in which the nitty-gritty of marketing and sales techniques are explored. The author herself realizes that most liberals find these areas an "anathema," and spends quite a bit of time laying the groundwork, debunking this notion, before she gets down to details. It’s worth keeping in mind the blockquote that opens this review, as well as quoting Rettig in depth here:

... marketing and sales can, in fact, be used non-exploitatively and to positive end.... I teach what is called "consultative sales," where you’re not manipulating the customer, but working alongside of him to arrive at a solution to a serious need he has.

....The bottom line is that activism is, or should be, marketing and sales. Meaning, that you should use the same marketing and sales techniques that corporations use to sell products to sell your activist cause, and progressivism in general. You should, moreover, use these techniques wholeheartedly and without shame or embarrassment, for two main reasons:

1. Modern marketing and sales are, literally, the most powerful persuasive techniques ever devised.

2. What corporate marketing and sales harms, progressive marketing and sales heals.

Once she establishes that these techniques are simply tools that can be used for either good or bad purposes, Rettig reveals what she calls the three "Bitter Truths" that progressives are most resistant to acknowledging:

• The success of your venture depends much less on the quality of whatever it is you are selling than on the quality of the marketing and sales you use to sell it.
• People buy a product not because of its intrinsic qualities or characteristics, but because they believe it will either solve a problem or meet a need that they have.
• In any sale, the customer’s needs and viewpoints count far more than yours. In fact, yours hardly count at all.

I won’t take the space here to elaborate how the author persuades the reader that these bitter truths need to be accepted, except to point out that she succeeds. Once the persuasion is out of the way, she dives into the concrete details of marketing and sales techniques used most successfully in the business world, and how they can translate into convincing voters and other activists to sign on to your cause with the goal of eliciting a desired behavioral change, i.e., a petition signed, a vote made, a donation given, a meeting attended. Promises or self-proclaimed changes of heart, she emphasizes, are not enough; closing the sale of progressivism means soliciting some tangible commitment from the "customer" and helping him or her through the process of following through.

With the holiday season upon us, I can think of no better gift for beloved activists in our lives than this wide-ranging guide to lifelong commitment to important political and social causes. And bonus points should be given to those who purchase an additional copy for themselves – the person who, according to the author, each of us should be most concerned with empowering.

To learn more about the book or to place an order, visit Lifelong Activist.