The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

by Emily P. Freeman

His attention is turned not toward politics, policy, or programming but toward people and their names.

Am I being led by love or pushed by fear?

Take a few minutes to create a Life Energy List for the season you just experienced by intentionally looking back and asking yourself two questions: What was life-draining? What was life-giving?

If you feel more like a robot with a to-do list in your hand than an artist with wonder in your eyes, stop.

Just because things change doesn’t mean you chose wrong in the first place. Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you have to do it forever.

But making a living is nothing if I’m not also making a life.

he would be delighted to know that the decision we are carrying is moving us toward community and not away from it, that it is leading us to depend on others more and not less,

When opportunities come your way, you have the opportunity (ha!) to discern between your values and your vanity.

my job is to listen to Jesus and then to be myself no matter who else is in the room.

For my part, moving forward, I don’t want to live by default. I want to walk into rooms with presence and on purpose, aware of people for God’s sake rather than for my sake.

“What would it look like to trust Jesus, to be patient, to be loving, or to be content just for the next ten minutes?”

Could it be possible that the person you’re competing with most is some idealized version of yourself that you can never live up to?

“With people, you can connect or you can compare, but you can’t do both.”