The #1 excuse for indecision

Busy. "I'm busy, I didn't have a chance to look at it."

"We're busy, we'll get to it when things slow down."

"I'm sorry I didn't call you back, things are crazy busy around here."

"We're busy, we don't have to time to look at new opportunities."

"I am very busy, call me in two months."

Of the many creative excuses for not making a decision, "busy" takes the cake.

You have to wonder (and I have spent a lifetime pondering this question) when and who decided that being busy is a good thing? Like everything else in life, it must date back to our childhood years and "keep the kids busy and they won't get into trouble." Years later the "busy child" gets a job and her boss continues the vicious busy cycle using the entrepreneurial mantra; "as long as I'm paying, you better be busy" which of course results in employees' self-generated "busy behavior" especially when the boss is lurking around.

The good news?  Shattering the busy glass ceiling is done by simply asking: "Busy doing what?"

"Well, you know..."

"Oh Wow, where do I begin?"

Game over. Busy is BS.

Busy work breeds brain-dead workers.

Busy employees slowly kill the business while busy business owners miss this point chasing their own tail.

There is nothing more paralyzing than indecision, and nothing as is obvious as hiding behind the lame busy excuse.

Here's the thing: We are exposed to massive amounts of information that fight for attention but we still have a choice of how to utilize our time. When making a choice about what to do next, smart entrepreneurs spend their time focusing on how to evaluate and measure results.

Making 120 telemarketing calls is busy, closing 20 new orders is productive.

Sending massing amounts of emails is busy, getting 10% callbacks is productive.

Blasting self-promoting posts on social media is busy, getting quality engagements is productive.

Overanalyzing analytics is busy, making smart return-on-marketing-investment choices is productive.

Using busy as an excuse is busy, making a decision is productive.

When the first word that comes to mind is busy, stop. It is the only way you'll break the indecision cycle.