The Next Right Thing

📌the blog post for later

🔉to the post on substack

We’re three weeks into exploring decision-making, and if you’ve been following along, you know:

Week 1: Decision fatigue comes from volume, methodology, and the cascade. Here's the post.

Week 2: Decisions aren’t endpoints. They’re doorways that lead to more decisions. Here's the post

Now, the question becomes: how do we actually move forward when the path isn’t clear? I’d like to introduce you to a framework that has helped me and many other women I coach.

It comes from Emily P. Freeman’s The Next Right Thing.

When you are standing at a decision point, you usually can’t see the whole path. You don’t know what happens after the decision. You don’t know if the choice will lead to the outcome you want. You want a guarantee before you take the first step.

So, you freeze.

Or you do more research.

Or maybe consult one more person.

Or wait for a sign that never comes.

Emily P. Freeman offers a different approach: Do the next right thing.

Not the next ten things. Not the perfect thing. Just the next right thing. This means we’re not trying to figure out which thing unlocks our perfect future.

We’re simply taking the step in front of us, with the information we have, in the direction that matters. It’s the thing you can do right now that moves you toward who you want to be and the life you want to build.

Sometimes the challenge isn’t choosing between a good option and a bad one. Sometimes it’s choosing between two good options.

One time, when the one who called me mom second had a decision like that. Both choices were good. Both came with possibilities. She needed to decide and it was stressing her out.

Here’s a trick that helped her…

Write each option on a piece of paper.
Fold them up.
Put them in a cup.
Shake.
Pull one out.
Read it.

Notice how you feel. If you feel relief, that’s your answer. If you feel disappointed, that’s also your answer. You just discovered you have an opinion you couldn’t hear before. Sometimes, we just need permission to trust ourselves and what we know.

The “next right thing” framework helps when we are in the grips of decision fatigue. Instead of:

· Agonizing over the perfect choice

· Treating every decision like it’s high-stakes

· Trying to control outcomes we can’t control

· Burning through our bandwidth trying to overcome paralysis

We practice:

· Identifying what’s actually in front of us.

· Taking one step

· Trusting we’ll figure out the next step when we get there.

This doesn’t eliminate the volume or the cascade, but it stops us from making the process harder than it needs to be.

The “next right thing” isn’t always big, sometimes it’s getting out of bed, drinking water, texting a friend. Taking a walk.

I’ve had seasons where the next right thing was writing one sentence. Not a chapter. Not a book. One sentence…because one sentence leads to another to another sentence and that leads to…a book.

Here’s your invitation for this week:

Think of a decision you’ve been avoiding or agonizing over.

Don’t ask, “What’s the perfect choice?” Ask: “What’s the next right thing?

What’s the one step you can take today, with what you know now, that moves you in the direction you want to go?

Then take it.  

I’ll be cheering you on,

P.S. I’ve created daily journaling prompts for you over on Pinterest. Follow me on Pinterest and save the journal prompts board. You’ll find a journaling prompt around creativity each day this month.

I love Emily P. Freeman’s podcast, The Next Right Thing, but this is one of my favorite episodes.

You can find my books on Amazon. They support your life coaching journey and accomplishing your dreams.