Community & Government

Taking Care of Yourself

Lesson time 06:52 min

Advocating on behalf of others is motivating work, but it’s still important to consider your own needs. Learn how Malala remains confident and deals with burnout, so that you can keep your advocacy work and personal life in a sustainable balance.

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Topics include: Confidence · Try New Things · Burnout

Malala Yousafzai

Teaches Creating Change

Nobel Prize–winning activist Malala teaches you how to be an activist in your own community, from research and strategy to action and impact.

Preview

[MUSIC PLAYING] - In this section, I want to talk to you about what it means to be an advocate, how it impacts your own journey, your own health, and how do you make sure that you take care of yourself. Advocacy and activism is a lot of work. You can get tired, exhausted. So what you need to do is give yourself a bit of time to actually reboost yourself with energy. Along with that, you need to make sure that you eat good food, you drink enough water-- you don't dehydrate yourself-- and you have a good sleep. I'm not saying that I'm doing all of these things. I'm very bad at hydrating myself and with sleep. But these are the things that I know are important, and I am told many, many times to do it. And I remind myself to do it. It's very easy to forget about it because you're just so busy in your work that you don't look after yourself. But, you know, again, I'm reminding myself, and I'm reminding you, that we have to look after ourselves, make sure that we are good, we are healthy, we are taking enough sleep, we are taking care of ourselves. [MUSIC PLAYING] Confidence does not come from perfection. You don't have to be perfect to be confident. I am still nervous in so many places, and I don't have, like, the perfect speech. And I can still be in positions where I don't feel fully ready, and I'm like, oh, I'm not wearing the right outfit, and the shoes are not really matching my dress. Those moments are always there, but that does not mean that you should doubt yourself for a second. You are courageous. You are brave. You have a mission. You have so much work to do, you should focus on that. Confidence does not require perfection. All it needs is you believing in yourself and you accepting yourself as you are. It is a bit of that conversation that you have with yourself that you keep on encouraging yourself, keep on motivating yourself. And that is how I have developed this confidence. Another thing that really helps me is that the things that I speak out about are really important. I'm speaking the truth. I'm sharing my stories. There are moments when you get nervous, and you get a bit anxious. And-- and you're sweating. Those things are common. They are normal. I tell myself that it is okay to go through this because once you go to the stage, and once you are there, you're focused on delivering your message. There's nothing else to be afraid of because the stage is yours. So don't worry about anything else. No one can remove you from that place. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's very easy to try things that you have already been used to, right? But there are things which we are a bit scared to try. We are not fully comfortable to be there yet. And, you know, it could be a bit frightening. But sometimes, it's good to try that because it is a challenge to you. And you realize that this was something that you initially doubted yourself that you would not be able to do it, but now you did it. And it g...

About the Instructor

When she first took a stand, Malala simply acted on her belief that all Pakistani girls like her had a right to education. Now the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in history teaches you how to fight injustice in the world and in your everyday life, starting with your own community. Learn Malala’s framework for influencing change: Research issues, build a strategy, take action, and create an impact right where you are.

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Malala Yousafzai

Nobel Prize–winning activist Malala teaches you how to be an activist in your own community, from research and strategy to action and impact.

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