How do I stop living in doubt and start making decisions?

Rabbi Landau teaches that certainty is the greatest magnet for success. “That's why winners are called decision-makers,” he says. “That's exactly what they do, they decide.”

This is not only about boardrooms and companies. The reason such people ever reached a seat of power is that they lived their whole life as decision-makers. They cut through doubt and did not waste years on yes and maybe.

He brings the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov: before Hashem there is no such thing as doubt. “If you live in doubt, you just don't live with Hashem. Hashem is certainty.” That doesn't mean acting blindly: “Yes, you check, you study, you ask. But once you move, you move with certainty.” Doubt is poison, he says. It paralyzes us, and it “keeps you waiting for someone else to live your life for you.”

So make decisions and stand behind them. “Even the wrong decisions, certainty will carry you further than endless hesitation,” because “certainty doesn't just lead to success, certainty creates it.”

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Certainty is the greatest magnet for success; winners are decision-makers in every part of life.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

Doubt paralyzes. It keeps a person waiting for someone else to live his life for him.

What may be behind it

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that doubt is not only a lack of knowledge but a lack of connection: a person living in constant doubt is living with his own fears and calculations rather than with Hashem.

Deepest human truth

Before Hashem there is no doubt. Living with Hashem means moving with conviction, and certainty doesn't just lead to success, it creates it.

More questions from this teaching

• Should I be afraid of making the wrong decision?