What Do They Mean…Do The Next Right Thing?
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.~ Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US president 1901-09
I had been doing nothing for quite a while. Then one morning after a suicidal blackout, I started my life over.
When I was newly sober I was also newly acquainted with AA. I found out about the program and the problem of alcohol in one fell swoop after Googling ‘alcoholic’ for a definition of the word. I know. No I wasn’t raised in a barn, but I can say in all honesty, I was raised with very little TV and no running water during a my growing up summers. Could lack of the basic conveniences have made me stupid?
Whatever you think, I have to admit that I was ill-informed about a lot of things. I covered my lack of sex education already, so I’m not arguing that I had some issues understanding life. I still do. That’s where the Teddy Roosevelt quote comes in.
One of the Old Timers in my daily 9:00 upstairs-in-the-corner group told me to do the next right thing when I felt confused. I was confused a lot and in all honesty, I wondered how I would ever know the next right thing? I needed a NRT button. You know, like the Staples Easy button.
I have to admit doing the next best thing, the wrong thing, had been my habit for so long that it was difficult to change. I’d tried moderation. As an alcoholic, I’m not a fan of moderation–although it worked until 4:30 most days. I didn’t even know about the whole moderation program that some alcoholics use for treatment. That would just never work for me. If I could moderate, I’d have done it. There were plenty of times I was told to just sip, not gulp. Doesn’t work for me.
If the worst thing you can do is nothing, then that was what I was doing until Google pointed me to the nearest AA meeting. I was doing nothing about the words of friends who suggested that I drink less, I was doing nothing about my conscience that told me getting drunk was wrong. I was doing nothing about the fact that most of my money was spent eating at restaurants that served alcohol or was spent at the local liquor stores. Doing nothing was the worst thing I could do. No disrespect to Teddy, but maybe the quote should say, Doing nothing and being dependent on my daily intake of alcohol was the worst thing I could do. Too bad because I was doing it a lot and doing it very well.
from Wikipedia
I suggest Teddy was right. My Old Timer was also right. Do the next right thing. You’ll find it works.
We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while. ~AA p 86
I was just about to write you again, when I got this great reply from you! Thanks so much for your welcoming message. I did just publish my post and I included a link to your post. Thanks again.
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Ann–I’m so glad my post came up in response to your inquiry. I’m delighted to have you here. Grab a chair. Get comfy. We have a really interesting group at GoodLife. Welcome.
About ‘credit’. I’ll email you the link, in case you need that. Thank you for asking. Usually I just copy the url above the post I’m referring to and paste it into the edit screen while I’m composing. I’d be happy to help. Feel free to email me with questions. I do love this blogworld!
Hi! I’m new to blogging, and I am in the middle of writing a blog post today about the phrase “The Next Right Thing.” I Googled the phrase and found your post. And I wanted to “like” this post, but I couldn’t see how to do that. (I’m a newbie, and will be for a while, I think.) So I figured I would leave a comment and tell you how much I appreciated it. Also, I just clicked “follow”, and I plan to read more of your writing.
For now — because it’s the moment that counts — I wanted to convey to you how much it helped to read this post. I may refer to this post in my post today … I’m not sure. Let me know if you have any preferences about how I might “give you credit” if I do refer. All the best, Ann
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I love this, Heidi! It’s more my nature to try to figure out the next 12 ‘right’ things, which often prevents the 1st next right thing from happening. I thank you and Bill W and Teddy for reminding me how to move forward.