Just Do the Next Right Thing

Full transparency: I am in a post-holiday-winter-blah funk (with the added layer of covid stress). My mood is “bored and rammy yet I have no motivation to do anything”. I feel sort of…flat? I considered just putting up an image for this blog post that was a sign like the ones in store windows that show the time a shopkeeper will return, and instead have it display, “Back in…February!”

I know many of you reading this are likely feeling similar if, like me, the sheer volume of articles, memes, and posts floating around social media are any indication. Maybe you too saw the one stating something like, “The only challenge I am doing this January is to get through January.” YEP. THAT FEELS ACCURATE.

So here is what comes to mind to share here: Just do the next right thing.

In the movie Frozen 2 there is a scene where one of the lead characters, Anna, loses Olaf (her magical snowman) and knows she has to save her sister, Elsa, on her own. The way she keeps going is to “do the next right thing.” The chorus of this song kept popping into my head lately when I would be rallying to keep up my energy. Then I went and looked up the lyrics. She sings: 

Just do the next right thing
Take a step, step again
It is all that I can to do
The next right thing
I won't look too far ahead
It's too much for me to take
But break it down to this next breath, this next step
This next choice is one that I can make
So I'll walk through this night
Stumbling blindly toward the light
And do the next right thing

This isn’t the entire song…but DARN if this doesn’t very eerily and accurately apply to how I am feeling lately (and dare I say many, many other parents too). 

So, for the foreseeable future I will be channeling my inner “Anna” and only thinking a little bit ahead. Focusing only on the next step and the next day, and the essentials, to get through this season. More screen time will be had. More lax meals and snacks will be eaten. New year goals may wait until February…or March…or 2023. But lucky for me (for all of us?) seasons are just that–temporary. So although it is hard right now to see the end in sight…it is coming. As we all work to get through this season I am sending you some “Anna energy'' and lets "just try to do the next right thing".