Tips for Supporting Others

1.  Since it’s going to take some effort, be clear on your own motivations and incentives. Such as:

–  More benefits for the taxes you must pay.  (Or eventually lower taxes)

–  Greater long term security for you and your family.

–  Better long term quality of life.

–  Because others fought for this country and its freedoms. This helps maintain our freedoms.

–  Avoiding great economic hardship, or some other threat to the country.

2.  Make use of the metaphor that we are fighting for our country. Fighting involves effort. Fighting involves sacrifice. We also encourage you to remember and use the phrase “No half measures!”  When your friend is done learning, they will have a broad understanding of practical politics and high-quality political skills. It will be much harder to be manipulated by politicians, parties and special interests. Have the expectation that they will follow through and that this is a great thing you both are doing. (Remember you are a model for them.)

3.  Have a conversation with them about their incentives and reasons for doing this. Have them express the benefits they see.

4.  If they are feeling overwhelmed with the commitment, break it down into pieces that are “reasonable stretches.” Maybe for one month, they will concentrate only on taking in political news. Then the next month you can add advocacy.

5.  If they’re having problems following through, celebrate any efforts they made. Then try to diagnose the exact problem or obstacle. For instance, if it’s forgetting to act, they need to create reminders (perhaps through their schedule book or computer). If it’s time management, then you can try to work together on learning time management –or you ca offer to do some of their tasks (babysitting, errands, etc. to help them find the time.)

6.  Offering to do things to free up time sends a strong message that you think this movement is worth the sacrifice. It’s a very potent gesture. It makes sense at the start, when they are doing the basic learning of political information and skills they don’t yet know, since this is a one-time extra commitment of time.

7.  If you can see that they really can’t do all the parts of the program, don’t put pressure on them. Celebrate whatever they did learn or accomplish.

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