I'm Emily P. Freeman and welcome to the next right thing. You're listening to episode 112.

This is a podcast about making decisions but also about making a life. Many of the decisions we

make are second nature, but I'm here for the ones that aren't. A lot of what we talk about here

isn't necessarily about the specific decision that you're holding, like which jobs say yes to or

whether or not you ought to marry that particular person. Instead though, we talk a lot about mindset,

about posture and cultivating a listening way of life so that when tough decisions do come our way,

we're better equipped to move through them. Today I'll share two words that in my opinion,

we can eliminate from our vocabulary, especially when we're talking about our roles, our work,

or the roles and work of others. Listen it.

I can't remember where I was and I can't remember who was speaking.

Already, this is a riveting story, I know. But here's what I do remember. It was a woman and she

was talking about the importance of the work we do in the world and she was using motherhood as an

example. And she made a comment that I do remember. She said no one is just a mom. You know that,

right? Because I don't have time to get into that right now. And we all laughed because we knew

exactly what she meant. We have all at some time in our lives felt like a just something, whether it's

a mom or another kind of role, just a teacher, just a babysitter, just a librarian, a pastor, a bank

teller, whatever. And her offhand comment of we don't have time, she was just implying that this in

fact is an important conversation, but it wasn't the conversation she showed up to have that day.

Well, today's next right thing is to have that conversation because it seems like no matter how old

I get or how many times I've actually already had this conversation with people or how many times I

give myself the pep talk, it still finds ways to creep in when I let my guard down. So I'll say a

few words and then we can be on our merry way. Sound good? Sounds good. The truth is most of what we do

...