I frequently get asked, “Why is it so difficult to make important decisions in my life?” and I find that for most people there is a simple answer. People so often impose a great deal of pressure on their decisions – they bring in all the factors why they are unable to do something, rather than giving consideration to what they want and how they can do something. It’s often a case of giving up before you even give it a shot.

There is something really valuable to know – it doesn’t matter what the excuse is, it will always stop you getting something done. If it’s always been your dream to learn the piano, your excuse can be that you haven’t enough time in your life. You may as well have the excuse that pianos have black and white keys. There’s no real difference between the two, they both prevent you from achieving your dream.

It’s the same in the big decisions in your life e.g.  Jo is deciding whether or not to leave her partner and go and start a new life somewhere else. In this example, deep down Jo knows that the best thing to do for herself is to move on – the relationship is not helping her to express herself in her life. Faced with this difficult decision, she can decide to stay for the following reasons:

• It’s comfortable and she knows what she’s getting in this life
• She doesn’t want to hurt her partner’s feelings
• Her new life is going to mean that she’ll not have much money for a while
• There is so much to sort out with the house they own together, joint debts, joint savings, cars, kids, etc. So it’s easier to stay
• Her partner has brown hair

Clearly the last reason (excuse) is nonsense, but it’s still going to stop her from getting what she wants.

We place so much importance on our decisions in life and to be honest, if we just learn to take ourselves less seriously, it’s so much easier. Ultimately, the only way that we can live our life without regrets is by always going for what we really want. If you do that, even when it’s the much harder way, then you will always make great decisions.