The Next Right Thing

By with Emily P. Freeman

Personal Journals Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality Christianity

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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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226: When Someone You Love ...

05.17.2022

Maybe you're not the one who is chronically hesitant but someone you love seems to always struggle with making decisions. What’s the best way to help the indecisive along? How can you help them move forward in the midst of ...

The Next Right Thing episodes:

05.17.2022 226: When Someone You Love is Indecisive Maybe you're not the one who is chronically hesitant but someone you love seems to always struggle with making decisions. What’s the best way to help the indecisive along? How can you help them move forward in the midst of ...
05.10.2022 225: Discerning Your Next Right Thing After High School Today's episode is especially for high school students and those who love and advise them. As my twins prepare to graduate from high school, I've been thinking a lot about our past year and how we've helped them make decisions ...
05.03.2022 224: Naming What Matters in Friendship, Life, and the Kitchen with Kendra Adachi Today's guest is all about helping us to be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. New York Times bestselling author, Kendra Adachi, shares her five-step framework for transforming every part of our ...
04.26.2022 223: How to Move Through Small Disappointments Whether you're making plans to travel, to be with friends or family, or to host people at your house in your very own neighborhood, chances are you have some expectations for how things will go. So what do you do ...
04.19.2022 222: What's Saving My Life Right Now It's the question Barbara Brown Taylor asks and answers in her memoir, Leaving Church, and one many of us have carried forward to ask and answer as well. The best questions are shareable and re-answerable and today I'll share my ...
04.12.2022 221: Psalm 46 May this simple reading of Psalm 46 be a reflection you can return to as you discern your next right thing in love. This Psalm is a reading from the New International Version. Listen in. Links + Resources From This ...
04.05.2022 220: Our Favorite Yeses When was a time you said yes and were so glad you did? I asked you that question last week and this week we’ll share your answers. We're celebrating your favorite yeses and a few of mine too. Listen in. ...
03.29.2022 219: 20 Questions to Ask Before You Say Yes to A Great Opportunity How can we discern our next right thing when presented with a great opportunity? Is there a framework to follow when discerning when to say yes or when to say no? Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Episode ...
03.22.2022 218: A Story of Discernment with Jamin Goggin What do you do when you work hard on something for years of your life, you believe you’re being faithful to your next right thing, and then you release your prayed for work into the world only to later learn ...
03.15.2022 217: An Early Spring Reflection Two days a year, the earth from pole to pole receives an equal distribution of light and dark, day and night. The equinox is always around this time of year — spring for those above the equator, autumn for those ...
03.08.2022 216: How to Collect Your Favorite Quotes We underline a quote because it mirrors, questions, or inspires something in us. But it does no good for us if we don't have a way of recording and organizing it for later use and reflection. Today I'll share my ...
03.01.2022 215: A Soul Minimalist's Guide to Spring As we begin the slow transition from one season to the next, let's revisit a familiar framework in another Soul Minimalist’s Guide, this one specifically for spring. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Episode 1: Become a Soul ...
02.22.2022 214: Psalm 22 Sometimes you need someone to read to you words spoken by a sufferer in the midst of struggle, words without a filter or a reframe. Here is a simple reading of Psalm 22, a Psalm of individual lament that may ...
02.15.2022 213: How to Make Embodied Decisions with Dr. Hillary L. McBride What do you do when you feel like your decisions are running counter to your bodily experience? How can you know when you are living a disembodied life? My guest today has asked (and answered) these questions and more in ...
02.08.2022 212: How to Walk Out of A Room Some rooms are not for us. Other rooms are not for us anymore. What do we do when a room we've walked into is no longer a room where we belong? Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Episode ...
02.01.2022 211: The Daily Examen What is the Daily Examen? How does it work? What is the purpose? And what does it have to do with discerning my next right thing? Today I'll share a spiritual practice that I’ve found to be personally transformative in ...
01.25.2022 210: What if You Could Trust Yourself? When I asked readers to send in their episode suggestions related to discernment and decision-making, one common thread ran through them all. Today we'll take a step back and imagine what we want even more than a right decision. Listen ...
01.18.2022 209: Find Life After the Death of A Dream with Scott Erickson What do you do when you feel like your life hasn’t turned out the way you thought it would or the way you wanted it to? How do you keep going in the face of personal or vocational disappointment? My ...
01.11.2022 208: Hold the Tension Longer What do we do when our next right thing is to wait for an indefinite amount of time or to hope in the face of what seems to be an impossible situation? Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: ...
01.04.2022 207: The Prayer of St. Francis One of the most helpful spiritual practices I’ve found in the last several years is borrowing the prayers of others when I can’t find words for my own. Today I’ll share one of my favorites and maybe it will be ...
12.28.2021 206: What Worked in 2021 At the end of every year, I write down a list of what worked and what didn’t work that year. I’ll share my list of what worked for me this year as well as a few tips and resources for ...
12.21.2021 A Christmas Blessing A blessing for you and yours on this week of Christmas. You may recognize these words from last year’s version of The Quiet Collection and I hope they extend a welcome to you on this Christmas, when we mark the ...
12.14.2021 205: 5 Strong Ways to Finish Regular There are as many ways to approach the end of the year as there are people. Still, it’s easy to be fooled into thinking there’s just one right way to finish — Finish strong! they say. For anyone who feels ...
12.07.2021 204: A Soul Minimalist's Guide to Christmas A minimalist asks, "What am I holding on to?" A soul minimalist asks, "What has a hold on me?" Let's ease some of the decision fatigue that can come along this time of year with another Soul Minimalist’s Guide, this ...
11.30.2021 203: Introducing The Quiet Collection 2021 Chances are at some point during the next four weeks, you'll find yourself feeling extra frazzled, lonely, or distracted despite your best intentions. Here's the simplest way to quiet your mind during one of the busiest months of the year: ...
11.23.2021 202: Abuelita Faith with Kat Armas What if the greatest theologians the world has ever known are those whom the world wouldn’t consider theologians at all? I'm glad to welcome theologian and author of Abuelita Faith, Kat Armas, who tells the stories of unnamed and overlooked ...
11.16.2021 201: Your Decision-Making Starter Kit Our lives are endlessly complicated and our decisions are almost always laced with layers of nuance which is why it's always a challenge (one I love!) to create episodes about decision-making. Is it possible to share principles, perspective, and simple ...
11.09.2021 200: Ask Emily Anything! Celebrating 200 Episodes Today’s conversation is between me and you—because today we celebrate 200 episodes of The Next Right Thing! What a gift it has been to be a small part of 200 of your Tuesdays. For the first time, I'm hosting an ...
11.02.2021 199: Psalm 27 May this simple reading of Psalm 27 be a reflection you can return to as you discern your next right thing in love. This reading is from the Common English Version of the Bible. Listen in. Links + Resources From ...
10.26.2021 198: Be Present Not Perfect with Shauna Niequist Today I’m joined by a writer who deeply understands what it means to live life on autopilot, chugging through the day "on fear and caffeine." As it turns out, that life is a train to nowhere and Shauna Niequist decided ...
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 ...

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