It’s easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

The first exception to a rule you set is cheap to refuse, because nothing has been built on it yet. By the end there is habit, sunk cost, and a story about who you are, all pulling the same direction. Saying no gets harder in proportion to how much of your life has arranged itself around saying yes. The moment of real freedom is earlier than it feels.

Look for the thing you are currently telling yourself is still small. Decide about it now, while deciding is cheap, rather than at the point where refusing would cost you something you have come to depend on.