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

1 " A No Mentor is there to help you feel confident about saying no to the things you really don’t want to do anyway or to help you finally discover your strong, brave yes in the midst of fear. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

2 " When we weren’t sure what to do next, we decided to intentionally gather a few people whom we loved in our house to listen to us say words and then see what they had to say back to us. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

3 " Sometimes it looks like you're going nowhere or that you're headed in the wrong direction. I'm learning that the decision itself is rarely the point. The point is becoming more fully ourselves in the presence of God, connecting with Him and with each other, and living our lives as though we believe He is good and beautiful. The point is being honest about where you are and what you need and then looking around in your own community for people to walk with you and with whom you can walk. I spent years wishing people would support me only to later realize I was waiting around for something to come to me when I was perfectly capable of going out and getting it. I'm convinced God is less interested in where we end up then He is in who we are becoming. Whether we're employed or unemployed, encouraged or discouraged, filled with vision or fumbling in the fog. More than anything, our Father just wants to be with us. The most common way He shows His "withness" to us is in the actual, physical presence of other people. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

4 " But in order to give yourself the space to receive clarity, maybe you need to let go of the expectation that clarity will come in a particular way or at a particular time. This could be difficult, especially if you’re not used to holding so much in your heart all at once without being able to move on it. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

5 " 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. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

6 " Making a living is nothing if you're not also making a life. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

7 " Our Western minds are trained to go down the path of explaining. We think if we can understand it, then we can control it...We are conditioned to believe the only reason we should do things is if we know why, where we are headed, and for what purpose. No wonder we have trouble making decisions. If we don't have clear answers or sure things, then taking a big step feels like a risk at best and a wasteful mistake at worst. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

8 " There is power in naming the unnamed things. This is an important part of our decision-making practice and key to taking our next right step in love. Remember today is a plot point. See it honestly for what it is, but don't confuse the moment for the whole story. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

9 " Maybe a reason why a particular decision you are carrying today feels difficult is because there are things beneath the surface that remain unnamed within you, things you either haven't acknowledged or would rather ignore. Sometimes indecision is the result of a busy schedule or a hesitant personality. Other times it's because something within us remains unnamed, and we simply don't have enough information or self-knowledge to move forward. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

10 " Desire often lives next door to grief inside the soul. Access the grief, and you wake up the longing as well. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

11 " New beginnings are usually welcome. But being a beginner? Not so much. We want our circumstances to change, to start again, to be brand-new. But when they change, we often don’t give ourselves permission to be new within them. Instead, we want to rush ahead to mastery. We think we ought to know how to navigate the newness, especially if it’s something we wanted, something we prayed for, waited for, asked for, or planned. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

12 " We can’t prevent storms from coming, but we can decide not to invent our own. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

13 " O God, I am open. The decisions I’m facing have become too much. Ease my fatigue with your presence and my hesitation with your peace. Here is an issue that has me tied up in knots. Will you begin to untangle me? What do you want me to know today? O God, I am open. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

14 " You may continue to show up at a job not beacuse you necessarily wanted to be there but because your deepest desireis to provide for your family and that is truly what you want. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

15 " The process of determing what you want more is actually a gift to your self. It means you've taken time to give your inner voice a place at the table. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

16 " Ease my fatigue with your presence and my hesitation with your peace. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

17 " What now? is not just a panic-stricken question tossed out into a dark unknown. What now? can also be our joy. It is a declaration of possibility, of promise, of chance. It acknowledges that our future is open, that we may well do more than anyone expected of us, that at every point in our development we are still striving to grow. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

18 " Let’s remember that though we may have to wait and see, we never have to wait to be. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

19 " Psalm 46:10 is an invitation to be still and know he is God. There’s a reason why God invites us to be still first: the stillness makes way for the knowing. It creates space in the same way becoming a soul minimalist makes way for the naming of unnamed things. When I am constantly in motion, my body rehearses anxiety rather than practicing the unforced rhythms of grace. Ironically, in choosing to finally stop chasing something we don’t think we have, we may end up finding what was always there. Having an uncluttered soul isn’t a one-time declarative statement but an ongoing way of being. Sometimes I feel centered in the early morning only to lose it by breakfast. Rather than being a scattered person unable to do anything, I want to be a gathered person equipped to do her next right thing in love. "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

20 " The one question people ask when they find out I am enrolling in grad school is why. It’s a normal question, one I would ask you, too, if you told me the same thing. Why are you going back to school? This is the question that has kept me up at night for weeks while I made my decision. Why would I want to do this? I have a job, a family, a full life already. This will take lots of time and lots of money, and what is the actual point? It’s the question that begged for an answer while I tried to decide what "

― Emily P. Freeman , The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions