There are two key questions that need to be answered right up front. The first of these is the ‘what’ of your decision. This needs to be very clear and specific. For example, rather than “I am going to get fit”, you should specify exactly what activities you are committing to in order to get fit, when you are going to do them, where, with whom, and so on. It should even include a specific plan B for when unforeseen circumstances get in the way of plan A. In other words – don’t allow yourself any loopholes. And DO commit these specifics to paper. The second key question has to do with time-frames – for what period of time will you commit to the above, before re-evaluating? It is crucial to set a specific review date right up front, as it allows you to just focus on the ‘doing’. There is less need to constantly question whether you are doing the right thing if you already know that on a pre-determined date you will indeed review, and allow yourself to change your mind if necessary. It is very important that your commitments are challenging but do-able. If the ‘what’ is unrealistic, or if the time-frame is too long & overwhelming, it defeats the purpose. Ensure that the ‘what’ is easy enough, and the time-frame short enough, in order to feel confident that you can indeed tough it out. Each time you make and fully implement a decision, you will have gather a little more evidence of your ability to stick to a decision. By repeating this process over time you will slowly start trusting yourself more. Ultimately you can then gradually make the decisions more challenging. But don’t worry about that yet – for now, just one, small & specific step at a time…