Weigh a change you're ambivalent about — not with a pro/con list, but with two honest numbers and the reasoning behind them.
Before you start: this works best for something you're genuinely undecided about, not something you've already decided and are just delaying. Ambivalence is the actual terrain here — if you already know the answer, this tool has nothing to add.
What's the change you're weighing?
In a few words
Two rulers
How important is this to you right now?5
0 — not at all10 — couldn't be more important
Why a 5, and not a lower number?
This question does the real work. Explaining why it isn't lower means you're generating your own reasons for it — nobody handed them to you.
How confident are you that you could do it, if you decided to?5
0 — no idea how10 — completely confident
What would move that one point higher?
One point, not ten. A concrete, small lever beats a vague leap in confidence.
Weigh it out
Four honest cells. Some may stay empty — that's fine, it's information too.
Good things about changing
Costs of changing
Good things about staying the same
Costs of staying the same
Sources & further reading
Miller, W.R., & Rollnick, S. Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change — the importance/confidence rulers and decisional balance are core MI techniques for working with ambivalence.
Honest framing: Motivational Interviewing itself is well-supported across many behaviour-change contexts when delivered by a trained practitioner in conversation. This self-guided version approximates the structure of that conversation — it's a reasonable starting exercise, not a substitute for the real thing if you're stuck.
Questions people ask
Where are my answers stored?
In this browser only — nothing is uploaded or sent anywhere. Changes save automatically as you go; "Start fresh" clears them, and clearing your browser's cache or site data does the same.
What if both rulers say the same thing?
That's still useful information. If both are high, the barrier probably isn't motivation — it's something practical getting in the way, which the "costs of changing" and "good things about staying the same" cells often surface. If both are low, this may just not be the right change to focus on right now, and that's a legitimate answer, not a failure to complete the exercise.
Nothing here is uploaded or sent anywhere — it stays on this device, and only for this session unless you choose to keep it.