Next Best Choice

Sometimes, we wake up and the day ahead of us feels incredibly daunting. The thought of making it through the work day or our weekend plans is a weighted burden as depression, anxiety, or burnout consumes you. You likely feel immobilized in bed as no answers come to mind on how you can survive the day.

So don’t think about the whole day.

Instead, think of what the next best choice is. Perhaps it’s getting out of bed and changing out of your PJs, and putting on comfy sweats or a cozier work outfit. Maybe you don’t have the energy to interact in person with anybody but you know you need some social connection so you text a friend. Or maybe you really need to eat something but you can’t summon the energy to make something from the kitchen so you run and pick something up.

The next choice may sometimes be overwhelming, too, but if you can pull your focus on the present, rather than being consumed by the daunting future, you will find you can string together enough next best choices and you make it to the end of your day.

Sometimes my next best choice thinking is so short-term it is genuinely thinking about what I need to do with my next movements. Sometimes I have enough capacity to think through half of the day but not the whole day. Either way, sometimes when the whole day feels far too daunting to tackle, it’s best to not think about the whole day and instead break it down into segments that do feel manageable.