Do The Next Right Thing

with your health

My baseball coach in college used to have this saying that always resonated with me. I still will never forget the first time he said it because it hit home so hard for me. We were in a preseason team meeting talking about what it would take for us to be a championship-caliber team and he said, “just do the next right thing.”

The saying sounds simple enough but the meaning behind it I found to be quite powerful. What he was saying is that there are a lot of things that we need to do to be a successful team. From showing up to practice with a good attitude ready to work hard and get better to simply running hard to first base when we hit a pop fly all the way to choosing to go to bed early the night before a game instead of hitting the bar with your roommates. There are a lot of things required to achieve success and sometimes all of these things can feel overwhelming or in some cases even unattainable.

What was so powerful about this simple phrase of, “just do the next right thing” is that it took away all the pressure and anxiety that can come with thinking about achieving success. It simplifies everything, keeps you present, and allows you to focus on what truly matters which is the task that is right in front of your face. The more you do this, the more your hard work and accomplishments stack up and lead to long-term success.

I carried this phrase with me for the rest of my playing days and even after I finished playing baseball, I was still able to find utility in this phrase when it came to my health.

Achieving success with your health is a lot like winning a championship or being successful in your career. There are a lot of things that need to be done. We have to eat right, sleep better, move our bodies, reduce stress, strengthen our minds, etc. Even tougher is that we are challenged in these areas every single day and in some cases like eating, multiple times per day. We have to wake up and choose between the eggs and protein shake over the breakfast muffin. We have to avoid the doughnuts that always find a way into the office conference room. We have to resist the urge to get a drink at lunch with our co-workers, reach for the quick dopamine-dumping sugary snack when we are stressed while watching our kids, opt for cooking a home-cooked meal instead of ordering takeout, and resist the temptation to snack on sugary foods right before bed. All of this while trying to make time for exercise, sleep, and stress reduction which is itself very stressful and can leave one feeling overwhelmed and helpless when it comes to getting and staying healthy.

This is where the old saying my baseball coach said can make a difference in your health. Stop thinking about all of those things. Simplify it and think about just “doing the next right thing.” Before your go to bed, the next right thing to do is set that alarm to hit the gym in the morning. After that, the next right thing is to make sure you don’t hit snooze on that alarm when it goes off. On Sunday, the next right thing is to take that extra hour to plan your meals for the week. After that, the next right thing to do is go to the store and grab healthy foods so that future you will be more likely to choose healthy foods rather than whatever is available when you are hungry. When you are at a restaurant, the next right thing to do is to avoid that bread bowl before your meal gets there. After that, the next right thing is to choose a meal that aligns with your health goals and that future you will be happy about eating.

When you are thinking about the next right thing, nothing else matters except for what that next right thing is. You can worry about the next next right thing after that. I think if we can all simplify our health down with this thought process and focus solely on doing the next right thing, we can remove a lot of the anxiety that comes with making a change to our health, make taking control of our health seem much more attainable, and finally stick with it and take control of our health once and for all.

Thanks for reading,

Chris Irvin

P.S. Did you know that BioCoach is open for preorders? We have been working hard on our new app and are planning to finally launch it in November! Right now we have a $1 preorder deal where you can reserve your spot and get your blood sugar/ketone meter for free! We will only have this promotion available for a couple more weeks so be sure to take advantage. We’d love for you to join our community that is working so hard to fight metabolic disease!