In 1933, a shocked and frustrated woman named Frau sent a letter to the psychologist Carl Jung, asking “how to live.”
(He doesn’t have an Instagram influencer to shout motivational platitudes at him, I guess)
Jung replied:
“Your questions cannot be answered, because you want to know how a man should live. A man lives as he can.
…if you do with faith the next and most necessary thing, you are always doing something meaningful and destined.”
He shares the key to life.
It’s part of recovery communities like Alcoholics Anonymous.
It’s even the title of a song on TheDisney’s Frozen 2The.
“The next right thing.”
Looking back at this story made me think about how much my thoughts on success and development have changed over the years.
“Success” Redefined
I’ve been doing this Nerd Fitness thing for 15+ years.
Millions of people visit the site every year, 50,000+ customers have purchased items through NF, and our coaches have served 15,000+ 1-on-1 clients.
During that time, I changed my perspective on “success” and “living well” quite a bit.
I used to think that the only path to success required militant discipline following a specific plan. I never missed a workout, and was incredibly proud of it.
It didn’t occur to me how much one Theprivilege and simple lifeThe I settled down, where I was 100% in control of my time.
(Sorry to all the parents and guardians who read my 25 year old perspective!).
Now I’m 40, and I can see the types of people we are actually with the help of Nerd Fitness, I changed my perspective on success and “living well” dramatically.
Success happens not when we learn how to do everything perfectly, but rather when we become better at staying afloat even when things don’t go well.
In other words, success is learning to be inconsistent. Learning to be good enough for a long time.
And that means, when life seems chaotic, we narrow our focus to the “next right thing.”
Do the Next Right Thing
A Therecent newsletterThe from author Oliver Burkeman talks about how he chooses to keep some sanity in an overwhelming world.
This brings me to these sentences from author Eckert Tolle:
“What you refer to as your “life” should more accurately be called your “life situation.” It is psychological time: past and future.
…Forget about your life situation for a moment and pay attention to your life.
Look for the “narrow gate that leads to life.” It’s called Now.
Narrow your life down to this moment. Your life situation may be full of problems — most life situations are — but find out if you have any problems at this moment. Not tomorrow or in ten minutes, but now.
Do you have a problem? now?
When we think about what has already happened, and we get crazy about all the things that could happen or have to happen in the future…
It’s easy to lose control and panic.
Which brings us back to that cliché solution: “the next right thing.”
It’s just cliché because it’s true.
We can zoom wayyyyyy, and narrow our focus to something within our control. In some situations, yes, there is a problem now. And we can only focus on that one thing.
But in many other situations, we often worry about all the possible problems, or problems outside of our control, which prevent us from acting on the actual things we can control.
Burkeman continued:
As for telling myself I just have to do the next thing… you can always just do the next thing, then the next, whether you want to or not.
It’s a bit odd, really, to refer to any of these techniques as “narrowing your horizons”, as if they involve somehow artificially limiting yourself.
Basically, you’re just recognizing how limited you’ve always been.
We all know how easy it is for us Thethings are too complicatedThe.
And when the world feels like a dumpster fire, it helps to zoom in on the next decision, the smallest goal, and make the next right one.
This may include exercising or going for a walk, focusing on the next meal, calling our therapist, or Thefinally saying noThe on a promise.
If “now” is the only time that exists, then the “next right thing” is the only thing we can do.
I’ll do the next thing that’s right for me: go for a walk.
-Steve
PS: Maria Popova has Thea good writeup about “the next right thing”The because it pertains to his life as a writer that inspired this piece.
PS: Nerd Fitness is hiring some remote and part-time people (especially flexible evenings and weekends) to take incoming and scheduled calls from potential clients who are interested in our 1-on-1s that coaching. TheClick here to learn moreThe.
###
