I'm Emily P. Freeman and welcome to The Next Right Thing. You're listening to episode 352.

This is a podcast about making decisions, but also about making a life. If you struggle with

decision fatigue, with chronic hesitation, or if you just need a few minutes away from the

constant stream of information and the sometimes

delightful but distracting hum of entertainment, you're in the right place for discerning your next right thing.

I'm an author, a spiritual director, and an occasional workshop leader.

I live in North Carolina with my family and through my work I've helped thousands of spiritually

thoughtful people overcome decision fatigue so that they can discern their next right thing in faith, work,

and life. At the risk of you growing weary of me talking about clarity, I'm going to do it again

today because it's the time of year when I think a lot of us are looking

for clarity in various areas of our lives, but also the time of year when we might feel bad

or feel behind if we don't yet have it. If that's you, then this episode is for you. Listen in.

Every author runs a small business, whether we like to call it that or not. Some are large small businesses with huge teams and lots of support and others are truly small with just the author

and a tiny list of on a Google Doc maybe of receipts for coffee bought during writing days.

Well, when I was preparing to release my first book, this was back in the fall of 2011,

I was in the middle of learning the ropes of this very strange, exciting, sometimes confusing

world of publishing.

I had a reader reach out and offer to be my virtual assistant for free.

I still have the email, by the way.

I looked it up and here's what she wrote.

Hi, Emily.

I'm currently in the process of

...