You decide to start a new business, but you don’t commit to it fully because you’re afraid it won’t work. Problem is because you’re not committed to it fully, you may actually be causing it not to work.

You decide to date someone new. You like them, they like you. But you spend your time worrying that you’d be better with someone else.

You decide to change the way you eat, but you don't want to miss out on birthday cake for the rest of your life.

Halfheartedly making decisions makes a fool out of those decisions.

It’s scary to commit fully to something. It means dropping other things. By making the decision to do this, you’re making the decision not to do a bunch of other things. You don’t want to close the door on all those other opportunities.

You can have both.

Use the duration of a decision as a way to fully commit to your decisions.

Decide to commit to something for a specific length of time. At the end of that time, you have another decision to make - you keep going with this, or you take up any of the other opportunities that exist at that time.

Your decisions all have an expiry anyway. Whether you realise it or not, they only exist until you decide to do something else.

Opening a new shop? Take out a lease on the shop for two years and commit fully to trying to make it work for two years. You’re not in this for the rest of your life.

Dating someone new? Try assuming that it’s going great and that you’re committed for the next six weeks. At the end of that time, see where you’re up to.

Trying to change the way you eat? Decide to be strict for a week, then have a day off once a week. You get to make the change, while still enjoying the social side of eating.

When you make difficult decisions, create an expiry date for it. Commit yourself and have a moment planned when you will have to make the decision again.