Do The Next Right Thing

“Do The Next Right Thing,” a phrase borrowed from 12 step programs is an invaluable piece of advice. We can’t always do the right thing, but we can sit down, take stock of where we are, and do the next right thing. It might have been a terrible night. You might have drank a liter of vodka, ate 2 entire pizzas, drunk dialed your ex and cried to his voice mail multiple times. It might not be so dire, your house might just be messy and you’re aggravated. These are all parts of life and being human. We all mess up, we all suffer at some point and we all You can’t change the past, but you can take stock of what’s happening in the present and do the next right thing. What might that be?

Maybe it’s to choose to prepare a healthy next meal for yourself. Maybe it’s to make your bed. Maybe it’s to send out your resume. Maybe it’s to do one those simple things that you’ve been putting off, like sweeping your kitchen, or changing your light bulbs, or watering your plant.

We just can’t be perfect. We just always mess up as human beings. All of us. All the time. It’s just part of it. And when it comes to food, well, we mess up with food all the time too. You can’t go back and time and undo it. But you can go forward and do the next right thing. Don’t think about the next right thing as being a compensatory behavior for the binge, such as purging or over exercising or fasting/starving/restricting. If you do that, you are still contributing the binge rather than having it be over and doing the next right thing.

Stop. Take inventory. Think about what you can do next and do the next right thing.

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