You may have heard advice to enhance your productivity by figuring out the “next right thing to do.” There’s even a Disney song from Frozen 2 that offers this as a way out of sadness and depression.
Figuring out the next right thing is reckful; there is no one right thing to do, and to think that there is traps you. It makes you think about what you should do rather than what you will choose to do, to bring your future into being.
Existentialist philosophy says that you create yourself and create meaning through your actions, chosen not because there is some right thing to do but instead because by exercising your freedom you are creating meaning in the world.
Instead of asking yourself, “What is the next thing I need to do?” or “What is the next right thing?” ask yourself, “What am I meant to do?” or better yet “How can I create the meaning I want to create in the world?” A how question will get you thinking more flexibly than a what question.
Meaning isn’t given to you by your culture, your parents, or your god. You create meaning through your choices and your actions.
How will you create meaning today?
Today, I choose my next action based on the meaning I want to create in the world. Then I choose this way again and again, escaping the expectations that my society puts onto me.