The Next Right Thing

By with Emily P. Freeman

Personal Journals Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality Christianity

What's The Next Right Thing about?

For the second-guessers, the chronically hesitant, or anyone who suffers from decision fatigue, best-selling author and host Emily P. Freeman helps create a little space for your soul to breathe so you can discern your next right thing in love. Because out of the thousands of decisions you make everyday, chances are a few of them threaten to keep you up at night. If you're in a season of transition, waiting, general fogginess or if you've ever searched "how to make a decision" on the internet, listen in.

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197: For Us, As Our Faith C...

10.19.2021

A lot of us are looking for our truest words these days. We’re taking the hymns and choruses of our childhood faith, the verses we have memorized, our adolescent optimism, our adult commitments, our 2020 cynicism and our 2021 exhaustion ...

The Next Right Thing episodes:

10.19.2021 197: For Us, As Our Faith Changes A lot of us are looking for our truest words these days. We’re taking the hymns and choruses of our childhood faith, the verses we have memorized, our adolescent optimism, our adult commitments, our 2020 cynicism and our 2021 exhaustion ...
10.12.2021 196: Why Your Pro/Con List Isn't Working It's the list we all know to make when we're stuck in the decision-making process. There are helpful things about the pro/con list but we all know they don't work all by themselves. This type of list could be a ...
10.05.2021 195: Be Your Own Friend What do we do when we wish we were different but struggle to make a change? What do we do when a thing we’re good at (that is sometimes good) is also a thing that is sometimes trouble? Every strength ...
09.28.2021 194: Being Human with Kate Bowler She believed that life was a series of unlimited choices, until she discovered at age 35 that her body was wracked with cancer. In the years that have followed, Kate Bowler has wrestled honestly with the reality she has been ...
09.21.2021 193: A Soul Minimalist's Guide to Autumn If you need to get in that autumn state of mind, today's episode is for you. Maybe the season has caught you by surprise or you're feeling a little off but don't know why. It's time to clear the summer ...
09.14.2021 192: Hold On To Hope It’s a short trip from helpless to hopeless, just a shuffling of a few letters and you’re there. If you've been struggling to hold on to hope over the last few weeks (or years), then today's episode is for you. ...
09.07.2021 191: What We're Learning We don't learn just from experience. Transformation happens when we reflect upon our experience. Of all the lists we keep, the most important isn't a to-do list but a list of what we're learning. Because you're not just doing things, ...
08.31.2021 190: Psalm 139 May this simple reading of Psalm 139 be a reflection you can return to as you discern your next right thing in love. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Order The Next Right Thing Guided Journal Grab a ...
08.24.2021 189: How to Use The Next Right Thing Guided Journal I've been meaning to do an episode like this for months now and the time has come. Whether you already have The Next Right Thing Guided Journal or if you didn't even know it existed, this episode will tell you ...
08.17.2021 188: You Are Here (And It Matters) Invisible things are real and it all matters. As we move through this month, if you’re feeling swept along, hurried up, or even passed on by, this episode is for you. It’s time to recalibrate a bit, to pay attention ...
08.10.2021 187: State of the Podcast 2021: The Next Right Thing Turns 4! This month marks the 4 year anniversary of The Next Right Thing! Today I'll share the state of the podcast using a simple framework I follow for reflecting on everything - what's been life-giving and life-draining, what I'm grateful for, ...
08.03.2021 186: A Late Summer Reflection We’ve been wearing our burdens like thick, heavy furs. Summertime stepped up beside us, whispering kindly, May I take your coat? I hope you've let her. No matter what this season has looked like for you, there's no wrong. Here's ...
06.29.2021 185: Why Makers Struggle to Get Things Done If you are in a season of decision fatigue because your work, church, schooling, parenting, or just life circumstances, in general, require you to work in a way that disrupts your natural rhythms, this episode is for you. Listen in. ...
06.22.2021 184: The Next Right Thing in Marriage with John Freeman In honor of 20 years of marriage, I've invited John to join me today. We'll talk about life together through various transitions, griefs, fears, and personality quirks. We'll also share about how we met and what the Enneagram has taught ...
06.15.2021 183: Real Talk About Overfunctioning How can you know when responsibility and being a caring grown up turns into overfunctioning? Is this exhaustion and overwhelm just a season or has it become a pattern? Today I'm sharing honestly what this looks like for me. As ...
06.08.2021 182: One Fun Decision (The Shoe Episode) For all the talk about decision fatigue, chronic hesitation, and the important practice of doing the next right thing, it could be easy to overlook some areas in life where overthinking isn’t something to avoid, but something to indulge. It's ...
06.01.2021 181: A Soul Minimalist's Guide to Summer Author Joshua Becker says that “Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it.” We could say the same thing about soul minimalism, except instead of focusing on ...
05.25.2021 180: Use Your Voice If you’ve been doing the sacred work of watching, listening, and paying good attention, we're grateful for your hard work. You don't have to be in the spotlight to make a difference, I know that full well. But what if ...
05.18.2021 179: Stop Overworking with Megan Hyatt Miller Years ago, Megan Hyatt Miller found herself at a crossroads where she felt like she had to choose between being present with her family and present at her work. It felt like an impossible choice until she created a third ...
05.11.2021 178: How to Find A Spiritual Director Are you curious about meeting a spiritual director but don't know how to find one? A spiritual director is a person who holds prayerful space for someone else to help them discern what God is up to in and around ...
05.04.2021 177: The Next Right Thing for People Pleasers We all have the capacity to live our lives in such a way that we forget to remember who we are, we hurry through our minutes looking for the next important thing, we are overly attentive to what people think ...
04.27.2021 176: What to Do When You Can't Find God For generations, people have wandered through the wilderness and the valley of the shadow; they have navigated life in the midst of difficulty, loss, and seemingly impossible circumstances. If you are walking through your own wilderness right now, you are ...
04.20.2021 175: How to Find a Mentor with Natasha Sistrunk Robinson How do you know if you're in the right place with the right people at the right time? And how can we find mentors to help us discern our next right thing? Natasha Sistrunk Robinson is a leader we all ...
04.13.2021 174: Is it Time to Quit My Job? When it comes to the decisions we make in our lifetime, questions about our job and vocation top the list as the ones that can cause the most decision fatigue. For 15 minutes, let’s consider the question beneath the question ...
04.06.2021 173: How to Journal Using One Word If you want to incorporate journaling into your daily rhythm but don’t know where to begin, here's how to use just one word to get started. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Enjoy 10% off your first three ...
03.30.2021 172: Make These 2 Lists Now When you have a decision to make, the first place to start is not with a pro/con list. Instead, start with a Q+A list: questions and arrows. I’ll use an example from my own life so you can see how ...
03.23.2021 171: What to do When the World Opens Up We've had a year of hearing about closings, shutdowns, and cancelations. We've become somewhat expert at navigating those last minute change of plans. But now that a new season is upon us and hope is creeping toward the door, maybe ...
03.16.2021 170: Try Softer with Aundi Kolber As restrictions lift and the season changes, you might be facing more decisions now than you have all year. Instead of trying hard to move through decision fatigue, what if trying softer is your next right thing? I'm talking with ...
03.09.2021 169: Create Your 10 Minute Evening Routine From dinner time to bedtime, evening can often feel like a mad dash to end the day. Instead of closing the day with intention, we have more of a hurry up and rest mindset. Rather than giving you guideposts to ...
03.02.2021 168: Is it Time to Dream Again? Of all the things we lost in the last 12 months, one that has taken the longest for me to name is a sense of possibility. Maybe 2020 was the year the dreamers stopped dreaming. So much felt impossible for ...
02.23.2021 167: Spiritual Direction for Beginners What is spiritual direction and how is it different from counseling, discipling, mentorship, teaching, coaching, soul care, or friendship? We'll answer this and more in today's episode, including how spiritual direction can be a helpful practice in discerning our next ...
02.16.2021 166: How to Cope With Disappointment What is our next right thing when we’re confronted with disappointment? What do we do when someone else’s next right thing leads to our own broken heart? What if their win is our loss? What if their freedom leads to ...
02.09.2021 165: Journal Your Seasons One way to make more confident decisions for your future is to reflect on decisions you've made in the past. I do this on a seasonal basis, but the goal is not to obey the calendar. The goal is to ...
02.02.2021 164: Start With the Punchline in Mind with Michael Jr. When it comes to finding your purpose and knowing your why, many of us have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's inspirational and motivating. But there is another hand, and that's the one filled with anxiety and questioning: how ...
01.26.2021 163: Reflection as Activism When we witness dissonance in the world around us, when we see people make terrible choices on live TV or in the parking lot of a Starbucks or in the sanctuary of our churches or in the halls of a ...
01.19.2021 162: Is it Time to Move On? It's one thing to change your mind when you're sure of your decision. But how can you know if it's time to move on when circumstance, desire, and opinions are mixed? Here are 8 questions to ask yourself to find ...
01.12.2021 161: Change Your Mind You are allowed to change your mind. In fact, this might be the most courageous, spiritually forming thing you could do. If we want to participate in true transformation, we may have to be willing to let go of what ...
01.05.2021 160: The Welcoming Prayer This time of year encourages a new start, a letting go, a shaking loose of old skins and embracing a new kind of strength. Maybe growing and maturity means releasing. But what if part of releasing is allowing? What if ...
12.29.2020 159: What We Made in 2020 From favorite foods to honest confessions, 2020 has been a year of making beautiful things. In our final episode of the year, I'm sharing seven categories of things I made and encourage you to reflect on the significant memories, confessions, ...
12.22.2020 158: 5 Favorite Things I Listened To This Year This episode is part of a mini-series where I'm sharing my favorite things I read, watched, listened to, and made this year. If your year had a soundtrack, what would be on it? Today I'm sharing a few of my ...
12.15.2020 157: 10 Favorite Things I Watched This Year Today’s episode brings us to another level of our relationship because I’m going to share with you shows I watch and in doing so, you will learn something about me for better or for worse. I tried to be super ...
12.08.2020 156: 5 Favorite Books I Read This Year In our brand new The Next Right Thing Guided Journal, we'll have one page per month dedicated to A Happy List: a place to record the things we read, watched, listened to, and made. In the spirit of celebrating my ...
12.01.2020 155: Collect the Quiet This year has led us to places we would rather not go. But here we are anyway, waiting for relief, praying for healing, and holding on to hope the best we can. To help usher us into the Advent season ...
11.24.2020 154: Remember Who You Are Today I want to talk about Jesus. I can’t talk about the importance of remembering who you are without talk about who I am. And to talk about who I am, I have to talk about Jesus. It’s funny when ...
11.17.2020 153: Keep Advent Simple (with Tsh Oxenreider) In today’s episode I’m sharing about one decision I’ve already made for the holidays and I have a special guest to share the news with. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Shadow and Light by Tsh Oxenreider Experience ...
11.10.2020 152: Say Words With Your Out Loud Voice Most of us long for clarity -- in our decisions, our relationships, and our vocation. As Brene Brown has taught us, "Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind." Sometimes the simplest way to offer clarity is one we often overlook: saying ...
11.03.2020 151: 3 Steps to Restart Your Life-Giving Rhythms No matter what happens in our elections, our churches, our families, and relationships we still have work to do, people to care for, places to go, dinner to make, homes to clean, proposals to write, losses to grieve, appointments to ...
10.27.2020 150: A Guide for Personal Reflection One common mistake we make when we have the desire to make good decisions is that we try to peer into the future to discover what it might hold, what the outcomes we want to achieve are, and what roadblocks ...
10.20.2020 149: How to Stay Grounded During Election Season With an important Presidential election coming up in the United States in just a few short weeks, we are preparing to make decisions that don't only impact our own households but also the people who live all over this beautiful ...
10.13.2020 148: Remember the Medium Picture When the big picture is impossible to grasp but the next thing feels inconsequential, it can help to remember the medium picture instead. If you're questioning if your daily decisions are adding up to something good, holding on to the ...

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