The Next Right Thing

From the scientists to the school board, no one really knows for sure what the next best step is in the midst of this continuing coronavirus epidemic — and those who thought they knew for sure before keep changing their minds.   We have to make decisions without all the facts, with a rapidly changing landscape of advice, and with fewer certainties we’ve come to rely upon. Now more than ever it’s essential to remember what we already know and practice doing just the next right thing. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Today's episode is sponsored by Ancestry.com. The Next Right Thing listeners can get their AncestryDNA kit and free trial here. Episode 33: Gather Co-Listeners Psalm 23 (MSG) Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

Today’s episode is inspired by a few comments I received after I shared on Instagram that I am a slow processor. Several of you raised your hand and said you are slow processors too and it’s good to hear from someone like me who continues to put content out weekly and seems to be a functioning human adult person but that I too am someone who thinks slow.   Is there room for slow processing in this fast moving world? How can we make thoughtful decisions when everything moves so fast? Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: The Next Right Thing listeners can get 2 free months of Skillshare! Details here. 10 Things To Tell You: Has The Internet Ever Changed Your Mind? Episode 60: Start Before You're Ready Essentialism by Greg McKewon Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

For the last few years, I've created some intentional space to slow down a bit on purpose around the same time every year. In today’s episode I wanted to share with you what that looks like practically and a few ideas that could help you do the same. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: The Actor's Life by Jenna Fischer The Nap Ministry on Instagram Episode 88: Come Away For A While The Rest of the Body // A Guest Post by Tara M. Owens Embracing the Body by Tara Owens Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

How can we continue to move forward when so many things seem like they’re standing still? When we're still carrying grief? When our hearts are broken? Sometimes our next right thing isn't to solve a problem, it's to carry it longer. It's called lament and I'm learning it is my next right thing. Maybe it's yours too? Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: The Next Right Thing listeners can get 2 free months of Skillshare! Details here. This Too Shall Last by K.J. Ramsey Psalm 13 (NIV) The Redemptive Edge: Creative Action Begins with Lament Whistling in the Dark by Frederick Buechner Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer John Dewey once said, “We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.” At the end of every month, I take some time to reflect because in order to discern my next right thing, it's important to learn from the past. If you would like to practice refection but don't know where to start, asking and answering questions is a solid beginning. Today I'll show you how. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Sign up to receive my monthly newsletter The Book of Waking Up by Seth Haines With You Now by Ellie Holcomb Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

In the United States, we place a high value on our independence, on our ability to choose for ourselves, and to have things the way we want them when we want them. And while I know I’m speaking in broad strokes and this doesn’t necessarily describe every US citizen, it does in many ways describe us as a whole. But this is not necessarily a shared value around the world. Why is it so hard for us to make decisions? Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Literary London with Tsh Oxenreider In Europe, little refrigerators hold a grand reason for less waste by Evan Kleiman for the LA Times Sheena Iyengar's TED Talk The Art of Choosing and her book by the same title How cultures around the world make choices by Amy S. Choi What's Your Decision? by Fathers Michael Sparough and Tim Hipskind Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

What can I do? This is a question many of us are asking as we're learning more about what it means to work towards hopeful change and justice in this country. And in that question, it can become quickly overwhelming to know where to start. Speaking as a fellow journeyer without easy answers, I still believe what we talk about here every single week is as relevant now as ever - do the next right thing. Listen in.  Links + Resources From This Episode: On Racism: Learning to Speak and to Listen Ephesians 2 (NIV) One by Deidra Riggs Start Where You Are by Rashawn Copeland One by Deidra Riggs Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

I'm used to asking what sounds smart, wise, kind, or thrifty. But when it comes to making decisions, one question I often forget to ask: what sounds fun? Here’s a personal story of how I’m learning to give that question some attention in my own life and how it's impacting my business and ministry. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Episode 114: Welcome Your Loneliness Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert Annie F. Downs and her podcast That Sounds Fun That Sounds Fun Network Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

This episode may seem a bit disjointed, last minute, and scattered. That’s because it is all of those things. But if we wait to speak out until we feel polished or impressive, I fear we’ll be silent for far too long. I confess that’s been true for me. Sometimes our next right thing is to stumble forward together, not because we know exactly what we’re doing but for the sake of love and justice. May we know when to speak up and when to stay silent. When we are silent, may it be because we are learning and listening and not because we are afraid. Links + Resources From This Episode: Brownicity and Dr. Lucretia Berry Osheta Moore on Instagram Download a transcript of this episode.

Months of stay-at-home orders or even safer-at-home campaigns can drive even the most homebody among us to find ways to at least want to get outside or find a change of scenery. But since travel might not be in the cards for us anytime soon, what might be a next-right-thing posture we could practice today? Inspired by Tsh Oxenreider's book At Home in the World, lately I’ve been thinking a lot about books and about home so today you’ll get some reflection on both. Perhaps you, like me, could use a bit of reframing as it relates to this place called home. Listen in.  Links + Resources From This Episode: My interview with Anne Bogel on What Should I Read Next My book, Simply Tuesday Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary How Ramona Quimby Helps Kids Make Sense of This Unstable World by Rachel Richardson At Home in the World by Tsh Oxenreider Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

At the beginning of the year, you may have imagined what 2020 would bring. I feel sure no one imagined what we would end up getting. Today I want to invite you to join me in an exercise of reimagination. And here’s a hint: you’re already really good at it. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Grace Discipleship: John Freeman Here and Now by Henri Nouwen hope*writers: We're open for enrollment May 18 - 22, 2020! The War of Art by Steven Pressfield Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

In his book based on a commencement speech he gave at Dartmouth College in 2011, Charles Wheelan tells a story about advice he never forgot and wants to pass on to graduates: Don't try to be great. Let's put the pandemic aside, discover the freedom in that counter-intuitive advice, and give three cheers to the students, teachers, and families of the graduating class of 2020. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: 10 1/2 Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Said by Charles Wheelan Life Without Lack by Dallas Willard Souvenirs of Solitude by Brennan Manning Episode 81: Listen To This Before Graduation Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

These days, we all are making decisions with less awareness of what’s going to happen next, with less dependence on a predictable life rhythm, and with less solid information. It’s no wonder our daily decisions feel so hard. Should we clean or rest? Watch the news or avoid it? Be strict with the kids or lighten up? Should we use this time to be productive or take a break? Work hard or calm down? See friends from a safe social distance or not at all? Celebrate now or wait for when we can all gather? What is our next right thing and how can we know? That’s today’s episode. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

The six verses in Psalm 23 do more than comfort us in death. They guide us in life. And if we’re paying attention, these six lines can teach us how to walk into every room every day of our lives. Psalm 23 is a next right thing kind of psalm and I will never get over it. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Psalm 23 (NASB) You Learn By Living by Eleanor Roosevelt Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

Today I’m revisiting a topic we’ve talked about here before but with a bit of a new spin in light of the world having changed and everything. I hope this will be especially helpful if you worked from home before the pandemic and now you have to find new ways to do that thing you’ve always done —  listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Episode 01: Become a Soul Minimalist Episode 88: Come Away For A While Episode 84: A Beginner's Guide to Self-Reflection Episode 73: Design Your Rhythm of Work – Theme Days Episode 121: How to Discern and Decide A Case for Single-Tasking by Jason Fitzpatrick for Lifehacker Episode 90: Start with this Simple Rhythm Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

From Halley's comet in 1986 to the Total Solar Eclipse in 2017, I've been fascinated with sky things my whole life. Earlier this month it was the full April moon that reminded me of the truth I hold most dear: that in every transition, in every grief, in every goodbye, disappointment, offense, breakup, misunderstanding, and ending, there is mysterious potential. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Colossians 1:27 The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser 2 Corinthians 4 Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

Sometimes the words we speak when we're afraid sound like fear. Other times, they sound like control, irritation, confusion, manipulation, ambivalence, shame, discipline, guilt or research. Fearful words come out naturally in all kinds of ways. The fearful words find us. But good words are found by us. Let's find some good words together. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Discern + Decide, my online self-paced course. Enrollment open until April 8, 2020 Will the Circle Be Unbroken? by Sean Dietrich Grab a copy of my book The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

How can we trust ourselves to make wise decisions during an uncertain time? I have a couple of tools I hope will help. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Discern + Decide, my online self-paced course. Enrollment open until April 8, 2020 That Discomfort You're Feeling is Grief from the Harvard Business Review Episode 120: What to Do When the World Shuts Down The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser Parks and Recreation on Netflix Proverbs 20:27 Get the ebook version of The Next Right Thing for free via Amazon Prime Grab a physical copy of The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

Doing the next right thing has been a life-line for me in parenting, schooling, work, relationships and all manner of decision-making. But these last few weeks navigating the rapidly changing situation in our world as we fight to slow the spread of Covid-19, doing the next right thing has taken on an entirely new level of meaning. As we move forward together I want to walk along with you as you navigate your next right thing - for yourself, in your families, with your friends, and as you carry so many question marks as it seems the world has shut down. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Psalm 31:14-16 Get the ebook version of The Next Right Thing for free via Amazon Prime Grab a physical copy of The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript

Today’s episode is for parents, caregivers, or anyone with children in your life who may need help with their next right thing. Though this episode was recorded just a few days ago, a lot has changed in the world since then as our global community continues to try to slow the spread of COVID-19. I only address the pandemic for a moment at the top of the episode and then continue with the regularly scheduled conversation about helping children navigate their own decision-making posture. Perhaps more than ever before this is a good time to talk with kids about keeping our minds on just the next right thing in front of us. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Episode 94: Ask the Second Question Too Small to Ignore by Wess Stafford Families Where Grace is in Place  by Jeff VanVonderen Mark 10:15-16 Grab a copy of The Next Right Thing  Find me on Instagram @emilypfreeman Download Transcript