A book review of The Next Right Thing: a Simple, Soulful Practice For Making Life Decisions by Emily P. Freeman

Stars: ***

Baker Publishing Group (2019)
Christian Living
256 pages

Disclosure: I received this book in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links.

Summary: Nothing gets our attention like an unmade decision: Should I accept the new position? Which schooling choice is best for my kids? How can I support my aging parents? When we have a decision to make and the answer isn’t clear, what we want more than anything is peace, clarity, and a nudge in the right direction.

If you have trouble making decisions, because of either chronic hesitation you’ve always lived with or a more recent onset of decision fatigue, Emily P. Freeman offers a fresh way of practicing familiar but often forgotten advice: simply do the next right thing. With this simple, soulful practice, it is possible to clear the decision-making chaos, quiet the fear of choosing wrong, and find the courage to finally decide without regret or second-guessing.

Whether you’re in the midst of a major life transition or are weary of the low-grade anxiety that daily life can bring, Emily helps create space for your soul to breathe so you can live life with God at a gentle pace and discern your next right thing in love.

The Next Right Thing

The book is touted as a decision making guide which intrigued me because I have so much trouble making decisions. Some of the book was helpful for big decisions like changing jobs or moving but not so helpful with the small decisions. It’s the small decisions that I struggle with the most. My anxiety makes even simple decisions like what to make for dinner or what to do next feel like a life or death decision.

The book contains 24 chapters, each with a lesson to learn. Each chapter also ends with a prayer and a practice aka putting the lesson into practice. All of the lessons were helpful, it’s just that they weren’t all necessarily decision related.

There were a couple ideas I hadn’t heard before which is always a good thing. Like gathering co-listeners. This is a group of people who are close to you and you trust. You tell them about your decision including your feelings and doubts. They are their to listen. They can give feedback but they are mostly there as a sounding board so you can work out what you want.

If you have a big decision to make soon, this would be a good book for some faith related ideas to help you make your decision. But if like me, you struggle with everyday decisions, every day, it might not be the right book.

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Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.