Get in My Kindle: The Next Right Thing by Emily P. Freeman

Good morning, shelfies! How was Thanksgiving for you? Did you get any reading done? My TBR pile is growing much faster than it is shrinking, but I plan to cram in a couple books this weekend to stay on track with my reading challenge for this year and make room for more of the books I’ll be featuring on Get in My Kindle. It’s just so hard to decide what to read next! If you’re struggling with your next move in life–whether it’s what to read next, where to relocate to, what to do with your life, or any decision in between–today’s pick, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions, might be just the book you need to read.

Title: The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions
Author: Emily P. Freeman
Release Date: April 2, 2019
Description: 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.

Why I Can’t Wait to Read: I found Emily P. Freeman years ago on a podcast (I believe it was The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey). Since my introduction to her and her work, I’ve listened to Emily on many other podcasts and followed her to Hope*Writers, the writing group she co-founded to help provide writers with the tools they need to succeed at writing, whatever that looks like for them. I’ve read her books, blogs, and newsletters, and I follow her Instagram (and her popular hashtag #itssimplytuesday), but the project of hers that really inspired me is The Next Right Thing podcast.

I was already following Emily when she started talking about pursuing a project that didn’t feel like it wanted to be a book. Eventually that project became The Next Right Thing, and Emily began releasing episodes helping people make decisions by doing–you guessed it!–the next right thing. The reason this struck me wasn’t just because I was interested in podcasting or tend to avoid decision making because I get overwhelmed; it was Emily’s assertion of letting a project tell you what it wants to be, and then just doing the next right thing until the project is fully realized.

I love that this thing that didn’t feel like a book and became a podcast is now going to be the basis for a book. It feels like a full circle moment. I don’t think Emily thought the journey into The Next Right Thing podcast would include writing this book, but I’m happy it did. I’m excited to read this book and learn about decision-making, yes, and there’s no one I can think of who frames simplicity in as flattering and, well, simple a light as Emily, but the thing I am most looking forward to is seeing how the message is translated into the medium of a book.

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Hardcover:

Kindle: (Link not yet available. Will update ASAP)

Your Turn: How do you make life decisions? Have any podcasts you’d recommend to readers? Any podcasts you’d like to see turned into books?

One Small Step, and One Giant Leap

Hello, Shelfies! I realize this blog has been dead silent for weeks, and I apologize. It’s not because I haven’t been reading. In fact, I read 2 books more than I needed to for October to stay in step with my Goodreads Reading Challenge. I have quite a few reviews to post and Get in My Kindle recommendations to share, but today I wanted to share a couple pieces of exciting news. 

It is officially fall in Florida right now. I’m sitting in a screened in patio area luxuriating in the perfect weather after a truly exhausting day yesterday. Yesterday, something I’ve been thinking about and planning for months finally took a small step forward, and I’m still basking in the glow of its awesomeness.

In June, I began working through an idea I had for a project I wanted to start working on. I know I have a tendency to bail on things, so I gave myself a few benchmarks of things to accomplish before I would tell anyone about it. Later, an author I was working with specifically ask me if I’d ever thought about pursuing the thing I was mulling over. I reached out to my co-contributors on this site with my idea and they both thought it was a great idea and wanted to know how they could support it. Yesterday, after months of mulling and planning, I took the small step of buying something I need to do the thing: a microphone.

Now it’s time to take the big leap and share with you what I’m working on and how you can help or be involved. *deep breath* OK, here it goes…

I’m working on a By Her Shelf podcast!

The By Her Shelf podcast will feature everyday readers as well as authors, entrepreneurs and influencers who will invite me to peruse their bookshelves to find out the kind of people they are, and add an alarming amount of books to all of our TBR piles. There will also be episodes focused on Upcoming releases and book-related events, publishing news, literary discussions, and more.

Friends, I’m beyond excited to let this cat out of the bag. It’s been killing me to keep this idea between myself, my co-contributors and my mom. However, it’s a scary leap to announce this now because the show isn’t ready to launch yet. I’m at least a couple months away from releasing episodes. So why am I sharing this now? Because I want your help.

I’m looking for guests who aren’t afraid to share the books they love or hate, the works that changed their perspective and shaped their lives. I want to host guests who don’t mind judging and being judged by the books people choose to read, all in the name of getting to know each other. I’m dying to hear about the time you gave in to FOMO and regretted it so hard you might have broken your brain, or the weird way you stumbled upon your favorite author, or your goal to read a specific group of books in a year. I want to know what book people would be surprised to find on your shelves and the book you can’t stop pressing into every pair of open hands you find. Tell me all about what subjects or tropes you can’t help but buy, and which ones you wish would go away for good. And we simply must talk about your TBR pile before your family has an intervention.

If a conversation like this sounds right up your alley, let me know! If you’d like to be a guest, or have suggestions for the content of the show, leave a message in the comments, fill out the contact form, or email me at mz.zeyzey2@gmail.com. Want to keep up with my podcast journey and find out when the show will be ready to debut? Subscribe to the By Her Shelf Newsletter via the pop up, or send me your email address and I’ll add you to the list.

Be on the lookout for a new Get in My Kindle post on Monday.

XOXO,

Erica