You may have recently sat down before a bountiful Thanksgiving feast, with or without relatives with whom you could or could not converse about recent developments, and maybe you wondered what on Earth you should feel thankful for. I’m talking about the despair that has gripped those of us watching the initial consequences of the recent election with mounting dread.

Honestly, it’s the paralysis of the privileged, a group in which many of us number ourselves. We have jobs, and roofs over our heads. We have our educations, and enough groceries and consumer goods to swaddle us in comfort. Things have long gone our way in our bubble of righteousness, and now that bubble has burst. Some are having trouble summoning the strength to get out of bed. Really, is there anything to be thankful for?

That’s a rhetorical question, and you know the answer as well as I do. But the response has to be more concrete if we’re to dispel the fog of helplessness we hear every day from friends and colleagues and begin to move forward. Personally, I took a cue from my college-age kids: Both were devastated by the results of the election and both, when I contacted them the next day, were organizing actions and responses with their classmates, all without a shred of self-pity (but plenty of anger) and all while keeping up with their coursework. This is our new reality, one said. We’re going to have to work to keep what we once took for granted.

That shook me out of my suburban complacency, just a little, and I started a checklist for myself. On that checklist are issues that, to me, seem most imperiled in the coming years and therefore important: climate change, civil rights, reproductive rights, the safety of those demonized by the new administration and its so-called “alt-right’’ attack dogs. Your list will vary from mine, but if you’re feeling powerless and overwhelmed, I’d urge you to draw one up.

Then, under each issue, make a list of things you can do, in your own daily sphere, to change things for the better, even if slightly. Concentrate on acting locally with an eye to the national level. Concentrate on adjusting your life and lifestyle so that it more closely resembles your beliefs about what the world should be. Concentrate on finding out who needs help and how you can help them.

Then maybe try to check one item off that list every day, or every other day, or every week — whatever works for you and your sense of urgency. But keep it up like a diet or exercise regimen. Because it is one, only more important.

Some of you — even many of you — already do this. Among other things, we should pause to recognize our daily saints and carefully measure and make up the distance between them and the rest of us everyday sinners.

An easy thing to do is donate, and donating’s good, especially if you know where the money’s going. Think about giving a monthly $25 to any organization of your choice fighting for rights you deem critical.

Climate change? How about first getting your own house in order? Maybe you already knew you can specify your existing electricity provider in Massachusetts to get your power solely from renewable sources. Finding information on green providers is a lot harder than it should be, but www.choose energy.com is one place to start. Think seriously about reducing your carbon footprint instead of just talking about it: Commit to solar for electricity and geothermal to heat your water; buy a hybrid for your next car, sooner rather than later. Use public transport when and where possible. Cut way back on food waste. Plant trees. Lots of trees.

Give food, money, or assistance to a food bank; they’re a Google search away. Become a Big Brother or a Big Sister — the upper age limit is 80 — or get involved in a mentorship program. Think about how you can personally help to protect the LGBTQ community, at-risk youth, the immigrant community, and newly arriving refugees.

Pick your battles and be willing to fight for them. Are you willing to get out there and make yourself heard? Are you willing to pressure your legislators to make themselves heard? Find out your state and national representatives (at www.commoncause.org/take-action/find-elected-officials) and call their local offices — don’t e-mail, don’t text, but call and talk, politely, to a human who will take your information.

The point of all this is this to make an action plan. Make your action plan. And then get to know the others who are working on theirs. It’s the only way to overcome the paralysis of the privileged.

I heard a podcast the other day that put a few things into perspective, a dharma talk given by Jay Rinsen Weik Sensei, abbot of a Zen center in Toledo, Ohio. He was speaking two days before the election but the relevance of his remarks is even stronger now, as some of us search for what to do next and wonder if we’re capable of meaningful action. Parsing the distinction between conservative and liberal mindsets, Weik summed up their respective philosophies of initiating change — in oneself or in the world — as “No one can do it for you’’ and “You can’t do it by yourself.’’

His point, of course, is that both are true. You have to do things for yourself because otherwise nothing gets started. You can’t do things by yourself because otherwise nothing gets done. This is patently obvious unless you insist on putting a fence between the two and calling them sides, which too many of us continue to do. It’s a continuum, really, and a process of ongoing mutual reciprocity, and we each have to figure out where we stand in it at any given time. A checklist is just the framework.

Anyway, no one can do it for you, and you’ll never find out who else is out there unless you try. As this Thanksgiving recedes into the distant past, maybe give some thought to what you’d like to give thanks for next year. Then do your damnedest to do it.

Ty Burr can be reached at ty.burr@globe.com.