Guys, I just listened to a recorded phone call that made me feel good. It reminded me of so much, and there’s one thing I want to share with you.
First of all, the recorded call was the Quarterly Coach Call with Martha Beck. I have been a certified Martha Beck coach since 2009, and she hosts these calls four times a year for her coaches and coach cadets (those who are in the training program but not certified yet), and I always find that they are exactly what I need. (In case you don’t know who Martha Beck is, she’s a columnist for O Magazine, she’s written a number of books, and she’s one of the first well known life coaches, though she didn’t coin the name. She also has three degrees from Harvard, so there’s that.)
As usual, she coached a couple of people during the call. The first person who came on talked about feeling so long and just not knowing what to do and feeling so much pain and knowing they were meant to do something but just didn’t know what.
Martha did a variety of things, but what stuck out to me was when she said that the only thing to be done is live in the present moment. Stay right there, do the right thing for that moment, and that’s it. Don’t try to plan everything, don’t try to make everything perfect. Listen to your intuition. If something will need to be planned, you’ll get the message and can plan in the moment. Otherwise, just stay right there.
This immediately reminded me of my number one takeaway from Glennon Doyle Melton’s book Love Warrior: Just do the next right thing. That’s it.
That’s it.
This has been such an important lesson for me, and today I was reminded of that. I so want to plan everything. I want to know what’s going to happen: Am I going to make a living as an artist and blogger and writer and awesomeness inspirer? Where will we end up living (we’re in Western North Carolina right now, but both come from “up north” and often wonder where we belong)? Should I go back to school in the fall in order to become a school guidance counselor? Should be buy a house?
I get so wrapped up and so worried, and it feels awful. It pulls me out of the moment and away from the things I love to do: writing, painting, drawing, hand-lettering, hanging out with my family, enjoying the beauty of where I live, all of that.
I’m glad this happened today, because I get to share it with you. I get to share it with myself, too. Just do the next thing. The next right thing for you. It might mean going to bed. It mine mean sitting down and crying. it might mean watching a TV show to get your mind off things. It might mean folding laundry or packing lunch. It doesn’t have to be big, in fact, it probably shouldn’t be if you’re feeling confused and out of control. Just do the next right thing. That’s it.