Maya Angelou said it best:

It’s such a simple thing, to do right. Whenever we’re standing at a crossroad and need to make a decision – Just do right. We always know what the right thing is. But, sometimes, we don’t see it. We don’t even look for it. Our emotions cloud our view and influence our actions.  How many times have you done something other than the right thing because you were angry? Or jealous? Or because it was self-serving? 

What if, instead, we took a step back and asked ourselves, “what is the right thing to do?” My guess is that the best path would immediately become clear. All negative emotion would be removed from our action. Our decision would be clear. It would be one with which we could live. We might even feel good about it. We would not have to repeatedly justify our actions to ourselves or anyone else. We did what was right. Maybe it didn’t feel especially satisfying in the moment. Perhaps our friends didn’t understand our motivation, initially. But they’ll come around: They have to, because we did the right thing.