Keeping the Motivation UP!

I had a tough run this week. 11 miles training for my RESULTS fundraising half-marathon run. The distance wasn't even what made it so hard. It was the fact that I had to get it done while my 9-yr-old was getting ready for school. It was broken up into chunks while I was multi-tasking. Here's what it looked like:

Starting back again at zero
miles is depressing after
running 6 already!

• 5 miles on the treadmill before anyone got up
• Wake daughter
• 2 miles outside while husband was still home
• Make sure kid's doing chores and eating breakfast. Goodbye to husband
• 4 more miles on the treadmill

5+2+4=11. Whew.

Two miles outside made kept up my spirts
for the 9 miles on the treadmill

It's incredibly hard to keep focus on an exhausting task when you are interrupted and doing other things at the same time. Inertia can sometimes be your friend since an object in motion tends to stay in motion. But it can be your enemy since an object at rest tends to stay at rest. Getting back onto that treadmill was the hardest thing I've done all month.

This is not unlike what happens when you play the long game in activism, working on an issue like global vaccines. We fight and lobby for immunizations for children to secure funding for the GAVI, the vaccine alliance and fight diseases like polio, measles, and rotovirus. Sometimes we have big wins, but sometimes there are long distracting pauses in the legislative process during which life happens. Congress is in recess. Kids soccer games, choir performances, and scouting activities happen. School happens. We forget about what we were doing and when appropriations season (the time when Congress decides how much money to give in a year) or pledging time (the time when the President decides how much the U.S. should be giving) comes around, we have to fire up our engines all over again. But I do. Because this is important. Way more important than my run this morning.

It's so easy to think that we can let the issue go because vaccines are kind of a no-brainer in the fight for global health. They are a "best buy" when you think about the value of a low-cost vaccine that buys a child lifelong protection from disease. How do you even put a value on the precious life of a child? And the value on the dignity of a mother who was protected by immunizations as an infant so she can work to provide for her own kids free of illness?...priceless. With all the benefits to saving lifes and bolstering of world economy, you'd think that it would be automatic for Congress to pass adequate funding.

But it's not automatic. 

It's a fight. Every. Time.

One of my Twitter followers saw my updates urging people to tweet the White House to ask the administration to pledge $1 Billion over the next 4 years for GAVI. He did take the action, but said something insightful. He stands up for issues that are little known or publicized, like human trafficking - which is very admirable and I strive to do the same - but tweeted that he expects our elected officials to take care of those widely known issues without his input. 

I'm glad he voiced this. I understand that viewpoint and it's true that it's hard to stand up for all things all the time. Sadly, though, it's just not true that lawmakers do the moral and smart thing even if the benefits are well-known. I've been on the losing side of advocacy battles, too, when child health programs have been slashed on the state or federal level. 

This is why it's important to keep up the momentum and remember to strap on your shoes and get back in the race at those key moments for global vaccines...like this moment. Right now!

We are on the cusp of the pledging event where all the world's nations will send representation to Berlin to publicly say how much they will pledge to the GAVI Alliance. We want the U.S. to step up and pledge $1 billion over 4 years to the GAVI Alliance, which will have the effect of saving 6 million kids' lives.   

Will you join me in getting back in the game?

Three EASY ways you can join the fight for children's lives:

1. Sign this petition from the ONE Campaign to the White House.
2. Tweet the White House with this message: "Friends, PLEASE Retweet: @WhiteHouse save over 6M kids' lives by pledging $1B over 4 yrs to @GAVI #AYAAction #VaccinesWork"
3. Call the White House by dialing 1-888-213-2881, which will connect you directly to the White House comment line. When the operator comes on the line, tell them: “I am asking President Obama to help save 6 million children’s lives by pledging 1 billion dollars over the next four years to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Thank you.” (If you're worried about this one, go see my past blog about how easy calling in really is.)

I hope you will join me in taking one or all of these actions. Even taking all of them would take less than 20 min, but have enormous impact on our planet while costing you no money...except for your taxes and you have every right to weigh in on what they are spent on. Help us keep up the motivation!

Advocacy Made Easy: The Call-In Action

Tongue-tied with pounding heart. Approaching my phone like it was some sort of uber-important Bat-phone under glass...

That's was me the first time I called my member of Congress. I think I was afraid that someone on the other end was going to challenge or berate me for speaking up. But guess what? That never happened. Calling Congress is funny because it is is actually No Big Deal in the actual doing of it, but it can have profound effects on public policy. Read on and I will spare you from the stress I once felt! Let's demystify the "call-in" action and make it more fun by looking at five things I've learned from years of calling in...

1. It's SUPER easy
Even though I was a tad freaked out the first time I did it, these days I usually call Congress while I'm Mommy Multitasking...doing laundry, making lunch, whatever. To show how easy it really is, I made a video in 2011 when there was a call-in day about an issue that seemed very complicated. I wanted to show that the heart of the issue was simple and it was easy to call in about it. Here are my slightly-staged scenarios with my daughter years ago with very real phone calls.

Click here to see how I called in to fight poverty while making a birthday cake with my 4 year old.

Then, click here to see how we called Congress while playing Candyland! Whee!

2. You won't be talking to a member of Congress
Relax! The person picking up the phone is likely a staffer who doesn't know very much about your issue. The job of that person is to politely take your message, write it down, and get your name (maybe your address to confirm you are a constituent). They're taking a tally of opinions. That might seem minor, but given that not many people usually bother to call in, even 10 phone calls on the same issue on the same day can be very significant!

3. Get some help to simplify the issue
If you're working with a classy group like RESULTS or Bread for the World, they'll have talking points with all the info you need. Any advocacy organization worth it's salt will provide you with bullet points and a sample script that you can customize yourself.  Action sheets and websites simplify the issue and walk you through the steps of the call with a script.

4. You can totally use notes!
(Pssst) You're on a phone. This is not Skype. They can't see you! Here's a secret I've never told anyone before, but I'm sharing with the world for the first time here...I write my name at the top of my paper. Yes. I am literally reading when I say my name. C'mon...if I can't say my own name credibly, how do you think the rest of the call would go? Using a cheat sheet is not cheating.

5. Calling can be more fun with friends
Remember how I said that even 10 phone calls on the same issue together can make a difference? Have a little call-in party. Each call only lasts 2 minutes, so you could fit 5 people in on a short coffee break. Heck, if there is a line at Starbucks you might have your call done by the time your barista hands you your latte!

6. You can leave a message

If you are feeling totally freaked out by talking to a stranger you can’t see, it’s okay. I have a trick for you. All you have to do is call after normal working hours. When I hold training sessions for new advocates, it’s usually in the evening or on the weekends and I can see how relieved my new recruits feel when they are assured that a real person will not pick up and talk to them on their first call. Talking to an aide in real time does have more impact, but is still effective to leave a message. A real human will listen to those messages and log your opinion.

There you go! To make it even easier, here's a sample of a bare bones call for a current global education action. You can add flowery language around it and drag it out for 20-30 more seconds, but this is generally how it goes:

Aide: Hello. Congressman Clay's office. 
Me: Hi, I'm a constituent with a message for the Congressman.
Aide: Go ahead, please.
Me: I'd like him to support HR 2780, the Education for All Act to help all children around the world have access to education.
Aide: Thank you, may I have your zip code?
Me: 63104
Aide: Thank you. Have a good day.
Me: Thank you. You, too.

Tah-dah! Not so bad, is it? Now, give it a try! Use this website to find your U.S. Representative if you don't know who it is, then use the script above to take action for the 57 million primary-school age kids in the world with no access to education. Here's an action sheet from RESULTS to learn more about it before you call, but for the mechanics of the call itself, you have everything you need.

Before you know it you'll be simultaneously folding laundry and changing the world like all the cool mom-advocates. Pick up the phone and save the world!

Image: Book cover

Buy an autographed copy of "From Changing Diapers to Changing the World: Why Moms Make Great Advocates and How to Get Started" at my website www.changyit.com or order it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or any independent bookstore!

When Force of Will Becomes Force of Habit

I advocate every day.
Yep.
Every. Day.

This wasn't always so. I didn't ever really understand what advocacy was until my thirties. So, how does one go from not doing anything about poverty at all to taking action to fight it every single day? How did I go from overcoming my nervousness and writing to my member of Congress through sheer force of will...all the way to phoning my elected officials by force of habit? For me, it started with a Lenten promise and a ONE bracelet.

By 2001, I'd done plenty of fundraising and service charity work, but "advocacy" was an odd, scary sounding word to me...until I realized that it's simply speaking out about something you care about. It took some Bread for the World members at my church to show me that it could be just a simple act of writing a letter, an email, or making a phone call. Yet that didn't mean it was easy. I was rather afraid someone from a senate office would call me back to challenge me, saying, "What did you mean by that!?" For me to write that first letter was not the most natural thing. My heart raced when I made my first phone call to my U.S. representative.

Once I realized I could have more impact with advocacy than direct service and saw that it fit into my life better, I recognized that advocating for better anti-poverty programs was hard for me, but something I wanted to do more because of the potential to have so much more impact than serving people at the soup kitchen one person at a time. So, I decided that for the 40 days I observed Lent (a Christian time of reflection, discipline, and sacrifice), I would put the white ONE bracelet on in the morning. When I had taken some sort of action - wrote a letter, made a phone call, sent an email, wrote a letter to the editor, etc - I got to take the bracelet off. I found that once I'd come so far, I wanted to keep going. After 40 days, I was just used to doing it. I also learned from congressional offices that persistence is a critical characteristic of people who get their attention.

Some UK researchers concluded that it takes an average of 66 days to form a habit. I believe it takes the doing of something regularly and repeatedly to get used to it. Plus - and I find this with exercise - it is inspiring to set a goal and keep up a good habit. I'm reluctant to let go of my goal when I don't want to lose progress I've made. Hm...this is Alcoholics Anonymous strategy, too, isn't it? Well, I also found that when I was happy with myself and impressed with what I had accomplished, I wanted to do more. That's likely why the RESULTS core values resonate with me:

"Instead of waiting to be inspired to take action, we realize that being in action inspires us." 

Now, it's years later and I have even more reasons to do something every day. Now that I've even travelled to Uganda to meet families who need such basics as vaccines, clean water, education for their kids, how can I stop when I've looked into their eyes and shared smiles together? 

Insider Images

I love it when I find campaigns that encourage other people to be in action every day as well...like the Shot@Life Blogust campaign where leaving a comment on a blog each day in August unlocks a donation for a vaccine for a child in the developing world. I like promoting that campaign because it's fun and by sharing it, I inspire other people to get involved and take action every day.

Every. Day.