I have a lot of interests. If I had many lifetimes ahead of me, I might pursue all of these careers:

  • Animal advocacy
  • Fantasy author
  • Spoken-word poet
  • Professional soccer player
  • Tattoo artist
  • Archaeologist
  • Teddy bear repairer

And the list goes on.

However, I only have one life, so I am pursuing the career that is most important and urgent: animal advocacy.

The thing is, I can safely rely on other people in the world to produce wonderful fantasy novels, write and perform amazing spoken word poetry, play soccer at a professional level, create outstanding tattoo art, and so on. Those are all highly competitive careers that other people will definitely do. In contrast, there are far fewer animal advocates than there need to be, given the staggering scale of industrial animal suffering. So, I chose to become an animal advocate, knowing that I can safely delegate the fantasy novels/poetry/soccer/tattoo art/etc to everybody else.

Now, changing topics: not only am I an animal advocate, but I am an autistic trans woman playing on a women’s sports team. I have many bold and highly visible tattoos. I am child-free by choice. I spend tens of thousands of dollars to ensure that my dogs have the best possible healthcare.

Naturally, I face a lot of self-doubt in my work and life. It’s scary both to stand up for animals and to take up space as a trans woman. Self-doubt is a loud and persistent voice in my head.

But here’s the thing: I’m busy. Engaging in politics to prevent animal suffering is an uphill battle against a vast opponent. I don’t have the time or the energy for self-doubt. Whenever I care about what somebody else might think about the fact that I’m seeking to abolish industrialized animal torture (or the fact that I’m a trans woman in a women’s space), that takes away valuable time and brainpower that needs to be fully focused on helping animals.

Happily, self-doubt can be delegated in the same way that fantasy novels and poetry can be delegated.

There are over 8 billion people on this planet. Millions of those people actively support industries that seek to torture innocent animals. Millions of those people live with hatred for trans people in their hearts. Millions of those people probably don’t like women with tattoos on their hands, or women who choose not to have biological children, or people who spend thousands of dollars on dogs’ healthcare.

Basically, there is no shortage of people who want to judge me and shame me, no matter what I do. This is completely unavoidable, as long as I intend to live according to my truth and my values.

But precisely because there are milions of people who want to judge and shame me, I can safely set aside that self-doubt and inner judgment and shame within myself. I only have so much time — four thousand weeks, give or take — and I need to focus completely on helping innocent animals, on living my life in line with my deepest values and aspirations. I can do this while trusting completely that plenty of other people will readily take over that shame and judgment.

This is a wonderfully liberating realization: precisely because there are so many people who seek to judge and shame me, I can completely let go of shame and judgment within myself. Shame and judgment can be safely delegated, because I have better things to do!