In the hit TV Series, The West Wing (1999 – 2006), President Jed Bartlett, played by Martin Sheen, wasted no time moving on when it was time to move on.
“When I ask “What’s next?” it means I’m ready to move on to other things,” he says in the video clip attached here. “So, what’s next?“
What’s next for us, as Difference Makers?
In business, many have been heard in recent weeks to say “after the election.” In the Faith-based discipline of fasting, we learn the freedom of getting away from “after lunch” or “before dinner.” Our to-do lists are rarely written in order of priority, which sometimes means we move on the wrong “what’s next,” or at least a less valuable “what’s next” than if we took the question at face value.
“What’s next?”
In this moment, what is the one thing we should do, presuming it was the last thing we were ever going to do? It might be to write a note. It might be to make a decision. It might be to ask a question, read some research, call a Client, or make right an old wrong. It might be, as Dick Heston used to say, to “don’t just do something, stand there.” In other words, it might be to think. Reflect. Evaluate. Discern. Listen. Pray. Meditate. Just be.
When our “What’s next?” is dialed in, our “What just happened?” tends to have made a difference.
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