What’s Next?

By Randall Franks

I can remember standing nearby as I watched my mother move through business projects.

She would finish one task and from her mouth I’d hear the words, “What’s Next?”

In many respects that is how I have looked upon my entire life and career. I complete one task, one project, or reach a goal, then I refocus my attention on the next one at hand.

By flowing from task to task, always keeping one’s eyes looking forward, many goals may be achieved.

Many people rest upon the completion of objectives, spending time looking back at the achievement.

This can often be a great moment. That is as long as only a moment is spent looking back.

With each passing year, I find myself desiring to that more, resting briefly upon my laurels.

It is so easy to allow past successes to prevent our forward momentum.

Sometimes it is simply in getting tied to the ways we have done something and being unable to change as the world changes around us.

What’s Next?

The answer could be: I need to re-evaluate why the latest project did not eclipse the success of an earlier one.

What’s Next?

The answer could be: I should define a path that brings us closer to achieving a goal we have never even imagined we could accomplish.

What’s Next?

God grants each of us the ability to imagine it, the will to strive towards it, and the hope to achieve it.

We must take each step trying to fashion the future that within our grasp. Only through great effort can great goals be reached.

I pray your “it” enlightens, emboldens and uplifts the world and all of us that wonder “What’s Next.”

Randall Franks is an award-winning musician, singer and actor. He is best known for his role as “Officer Randy Goode” on TV’s “In the Heat of the Night” now on WGN America. His latest 2019 # 1 CD release, “Americana Youth of Southern Appalachia,” is by the Share America Foundation. He is a member of the Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame. His latest book is “A Badge or an Old Guitar: A Music City Murder Mystery.” He is a syndicated columnist for http://randallfranks.com/ and can be reached at [email protected].