Act, Rest, Reset, Repeat - by Katie Hodgetts (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Award-winning youth activist Katie Hodgetts presents eight steps towards a new type of activism: by building inner resilience we create the tools we need to bring about impactful outer action.

What happens once the marches end? "Activism" has become synonymous with disruption, superglue and arrest - but there is another way.

Award-winning youth activist Katie Hodgetts founded The Resilience Project after a period of burnout from climate activism. In this book she empowers young adults to navigate a changing world by building up resilience through rest, community, connection and celebration.

Drawing on her own experiences, as well as research conducted alongside Imperial College London and Stanford University, California, Katie proposes a new type of activism for an anxious generation: one that breaks the cycle of fighting fire with fire, and is sustainable for our mental health and sense of identity as well as the planet. Follow the eight steps in this book:

• Guidepost 1: Humans first, changemakers second
• Guidepost 2: The power of peer-support
• Guidepost 3: Let your feelings eat
• Guidepost 4: Narratives: resist, reclaim and reimagine
• Guidepost 5: The wisdom of burnout
• Guidepost 6: Your resilience rucksack
• Guidepost 7: The eight types of rest
• Guidepost 8: Gratitude without numbing

This is a rallying cry for a different way to do changemaking - one that centres self-change over self-care - for young people who want to be responsible world citizens without sacrificing themselves in the process.

Review Quotes

"Act, Rest, Reset, Repeat feels like a meaningful embrace with someone who truly gets what it means to care this much. Katie Hodgetts offers powerful learnings, showing that we can fight for the world we need without abandoning the parts of ourselves that make us human, hopeful and alive."
- Tori Tsui, activist and author of It's Not Just You

"Too many campaigners burn bright and burn out. This book reframes activism as something rooted in joy, connection and human capacity. It's a much-needed handbook for sustaining ourselves so we can sustain the work."
- Kajal Odedra, author of Do Something: Activism for Everyone and Hair/ Power; Essays on Control and Freedom

"We don't have to choose between exhaustion and defeat. We can burn brightly without burning out. Act, Rest, Reset, Repeat is a life path combining deeper personal satisfaction with more effective contribution to our world"
- Chris Johnstone, co-author of Active Hope

"A brilliant support for all those involved in this great work."
- Sir Jonathon Porritt, campaigner and author of Love, Anger & Betrayal: Just Stop Oil's Young Climate Campaigners

"A practical blueprint for a generation that cares deeply - and is exhausted."
- Seyi Akiwowo, award-winning founder and author of How to Stay Safe Online

About the Author

Katie Hodgetts is an award-winning youth climate activist. She founded of Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate and has coordinated 12+ mass-climate mobilizations. She has delivered speeches to crowds alongside Greta Thunberg, and delivered workshops at the UN Inner Development Goals Summit. Derailed by burnout aged 24, she founded The Resilience Project to empower young people to become resilient changemakers. In 2022 she was one of the SouthWest's 30 under 30, and was named the Conduit's Young Climate Innovator in 2023. She has sat on IKEA's Young Global Leaders Board since 2021 and written extensively for The Ecologist.

Find out more: theresilienceproject.org.uk