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Indecision is costing you more than you realize.

After watching hundreds of entrepreneurs come through our programs, I can tell you that the biggest difference between those who succeed and those who stay stuck isn’t strategy—it’s their ability to make decisions and commit fully.

In this episode, I’m sharing why indecision is one of the most dangerous places you can be as an entrepreneur, the mental framework I use to make hard decisions quickly, and how to stop wasting your precious mental capacity on endless back-and-forth conversations in your head.

If you’ve been stuck on a decision lately, this episode will give you the clarity you need to move forward.

Key Takeaways

• Why indecision is more dangerous than failure—the real cost of going back and forth on decisions and how it’s keeping you in the same place (while draining your mental energy)
• One question to get clarity on any decision—use this to tune into your body and get clarity on choices in minutes (not months)
• Why going “all in” is your only option as a CEO—the shift from reactive entrepreneur to strategic CEO and why your ability to decide fast determines your success

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh:

Indecision is dangerous because it is such a waste of mental capacity. So you commit to a decision. The only way to move forward is all in. It is such a big indicator and contributing factor to if you’re gonna be successful or not. Embodied. CEOs don’t chase trends. They pave the way they lead from within, move by purpose, unshaken by noise.

When you are the source, you do not need permission. Hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you guys are having an amazing week. I am. I’m excited for this episode. So my team, actually, Morgan, who was on the podcast, requested that I talk about this and I’m like, you’re right. That’s such a good topic because I think it’s.

An important reminder for people. We just did a big launch for our expand program. So I hosted my free challenge. We do it about maybe every three months. It’s one of the most popular free experiences that I host, and then we lead people into our expand program. So our team’s been having a lot of calls and just speaking with potential.

Business owners going into expand. And I think that Morgan has such a unique perspective because she sometimes helps with, with our sales. So she talks to people before they join, expand. That’s just a temporary thing right now she’s supporting me with, but also we, she oversees expand, so she sees hundreds of business owners come in to expand, have success stall sometimes in the program because they don’t implement, like she sees the whole thing, right.

And. I asked her on the podcast what was the biggest contributing factor to people’s success in our program. And she said, the people who do the work. And one thing that we’re I’m seeing right now is this difference of people who are struggling with indecision. And I think it is such a big indicator and contributing factor to if you’re gonna be successful or not.

Because somebody who is struggling with indecision is likely operating from place of fear. And I’m not saying that you have to make the decision of yes, every time. Sometimes the decision to invest in something, join a program, whatever is gonna be no, and that’s okay. But indecision is dangerous because indecision is a waste of energy.

You sit in a place where you’re going back and forth and like think about, you know, I think about times where I’ve been in indecision. ’cause of course we can’t all avoid it. I think about times I’ve been in indecision and how much energy and capacity that takes because my mind’s going back and forth and what about this?

And it’s weighing all the options and it’s looking at both sides. And someone said something to me once, which is, if you had to do that thing today, like the only option was you’re gonna do it today and, and you knew that today it was the right thing for you to do, it was the most in alignment thing, then your answer is yes.

And if your answer is no, you wouldn’t do it today. Then the answer’s no. And you know, actually this was Dan Martel when he was speaking to our mastermind group that I’m in, and he said, when a friend texts me and asks me to go to dinner, if I ask myself the question of would I go to dinner today? Like, let’s say they’re like, Hey, will you go to dinner on this date?

And I say, I wouldn’t say yes today. Then I tell them no. I see indecision in entrepreneurs in so many things, specifically related to getting support. Hiring support, hiring a team, hiring a coach, getting a program, hiring an agency in what to do with their marketing, in launching a new offer, executing a project in their business.

And I cannot stress enough. Indecision means you’re staying in the same place. It means you are pouring energy into a back and forth conversation in your brain that’s going from probably like. Future self. This is what I want. Is this in alignment? Let me consider this to, I’m scared. What if this, what if that?

What if this? And you’re bouncing between those two things and it is such a waste of energy. So if you stopped that, if you found yourself an indecision about something, this is what I do. First of all, I ask myself, why am I even have, like, why am I even having to decide this decision? What’s the goal? So if I’m deciding am I joining a mastermind that I joined, or am I hiring that team member, or am I making that decision of.

Stopping a, a big initiative in the company or starting a new one or putting resources somewhere, like I have to make these decisions all the time, and a lot of times it means a money investment. Like we’re making a decision to hire more support in content. I talked about this in a podcast. I’m gonna be prioritizing media more and going bigger with that.

Possibly getting an even bigger studio like in 2026, putting more energy into that. So I have to make decisions that are related to investments into the future. If I’m struggling with the decision, and let’s say there’s fear of like, well, I’m adding this expense and I won’t have the ROI. Right away I pause and I ask myself first, what’s the reason I’m making this decision?

Like, what’s the outcome I’m trying to achieve? What’s the problem I’m trying to solve? Okay. To hire more support with media. I’m trying to increase my brand awareness. I’m trying to increase my content, my impact, and really quote, go pro with that and take it to the next level. Because I see the value in attention.

I see the value in a big, warm audience, and having that attention do I know that the ROI of that is not gonna pay off right away? Yes, I know that. I know it’s a long game. Am I willing to invest in that? Yes, I already made that decision. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken our team through the process of saying, this is priority.

Let’s find somebody in Austin by this date, et cetera. Okay, so if I know that, then what’s my decision? My decision is yes, because I know the outcome I’m trying to achieve, the problem I’m trying to solve. I know how I’m gonna solve that. I now have to make that decision despite maybe there being fear or discomfort.

On the flip side, if I make a decision and I say I. You know, I’m tempted to say yes to this thing. That sounds really cool. That sounds really nice. But if I go back to the core thing of what we’re trying to solve, what we’re trying to accomplish, what the outcome is, and that’s not the best next move, then there’s my decision.

And if I’m still not sure, using that of like, okay, if you had to make the decision today, like you had to make it today, what would the answer be? And then that’s your decision, and then you move on. I had a friend a few years ago who told me I have this problem with indecision when it comes to spending time away from my kids.

I will go in loops in my head. Sometimes I’m not, not as much anymore, but I used to where it was like I was going on a trip, you know, let’s say to see a friend or with a friend or for business even. And I would go in loops of like, do I fly out here or do I fly out here? That’s one more day away from my kids, but this, I really wanna go to this thing or I wanna have this extra day.

And I would like spend a lot of time in this push pull kind of back and forth with myself around. The mom guilt driving one side of it. And then what I really wanted, probably driving the other side of it, which is probably to spend that extra night to do X, Y, Z, whatever it was. And I had a friend that was like, once you make the decision, you can’t undo it.

Because I would make the decision, then I go, oh, maybe I should change my flight now. I actually wanna go out earlier, or now I actually wanna go home earlier. I’m starting to feel guilt, you know? And he is like, once you make the decision, you can’t go back because that’s just a waste of your capacity and a waste of your energy.

And there’s a reason you made that decision. Stay accountable to that decision, and I’ve kind of stuck with that. It’s like once I’ve made a decision, even if I waiver, which especially before I leave my kids, you know, I’ll waiver, should I be going on this trip? Should I be doing this? But I stick with the decision.

I don’t have this problem as much in business, but I see entrepreneurs have this problem. I’ve see, I see people who are wanting to buy our expand program, wanting to sign up for expand for my mastermind. I see this all the time, and it’s like there’s a reason you filled out an application and you booked a call and you get all the way up until like, you know that point.

Let’s say it’s a cliff, right? And you’re gonna jump off the cliff and you’re gonna say yes to that experience because something brought you right up against the edge. Then you let the fear creep in, and then you let the doubt creep in and then you can’t make the decision, and now you backpedal. And I have seen people where they do this for months, they do this for years, and then they wonder why they’re in the exact same place.

Indecision is one of the most dangerous places you can be because it is such a waste of mental capacity. I literally have times in my calendar or to-dos, like, I will write this on my to-do list for the day, make decision about X, Y, Z. It’s an actual to-do because I understand too that it, it requires capacity to make decisions.

You have to weigh the options. I also, a lot of times, will leave decisions up to my team or I’ll say, what do you think? And then if they reply back, I’ll say, yeah, I agree with that. Go ahead. Because I try to spend as little time as possible on. A bunch of little decisions and instead really try to make the big decisions, try to drive, connect to my intuition, connect to my being in alignment, and when I know like there’s that feeling where you’re like, this is scary, or this feels like a next level, or there’s risk associated with this, but I know it’s the right decision.

You’ve gotta make those decisions because I want you to look back at your last six months and kind of take inventory around. Have I allowed myself to be in a place of indecision and how much Ima imagine if that wasn’t there. Imagine if you made decisions like this. Imagine if when you decided something, it was already in motion.

Oftentimes that’s the way that I am almost to a fault, where it’s like I see a vision for something and I, I see a pathway and I have a decision of like, we’re doing this and it’s already going. It’s already in motion. The more you can put yourself in that place, the better. Now, back to what I was originally saying around the outcome.

In order to be in that place, you have to be clear. I also think a lot of times indecision comes from a lack of clarity. If you’re not clear on why you’re. Possibly deciding this. So let’s just use my program. For example, somebody I’m considering signing up for a program. If you book a call with our team, and I promise this is not like a a sales thing, I’m walking through the process that I think a lot of people would find themselves in if you go the route of exploring to get help.

My expand program, hiring a team member, bringing on a va, whatever, it’s, if you go through that experience, there’s a reason that you found yourself looking for that support, right? Something in your current state of your business isn’t working. And either you doing it by yourself or you doing it anymore.

You need help because you’re at max capacity or what you’re doing isn’t working like there’s a gap. You’re trying to fill a gap, okay? Or you wouldn’t be considering that experience. So you get yourself in that situation. You go to explore this option, you go to explore possibly. Saying yes to this, and you get right up on the edge and then you go backwards.

If you can bring yourself back to what’s the original reason why I was gonna make that decision and have full clarity around that, then the decision kind of gets made for you because you ask yourself the question of, okay, well if I say no, what does that mean? What am I gonna do differently? Am I gonna be able to fill this gap without X, Y, Z?

So sometimes I’ll ask people you know, if they, if they are, are gonna say no to signing up for a program, or even in my mastermind, people who are like, I’m not sure if I should hire this team member or not and invest in this. I’ll ask them like, what’s the alternative? Okay. Because you have this gap that you have to solve.

That’s a fact. We wouldn’t be having this conversation if you felt like everything you’re doing right now to solve this problem is working. There’s a gap we’re trying to fill. So what are our options to fill the gap? There’s the one you’re considering and you’re wavering on, what are the other options?

And then they’ll be like, okay, well, like I could do it myself, or I could focus on this first, or I could do this. Okay. So put out those options. And now when you look at those options compared with the decision that you were thinking of making, what makes the most sense to fill the gap? Because we’re still in agreement that we gotta fill the gap.

So what’s your alternative? Because you can’t keep doing the same thing. Are you gonna be in the same place and you’re gonna be asking the same questions and you’re gonna be wondering why your business hasn’t grown, why you’re not getting to the next level, why you’re not making more sales, why your marketing isn’t changes.

’cause you’re doing the same thing. And he, we do this like delusional thing where we just think like, magically it’s gonna get better, we gotta take different actions. So I, when I have a mastermind member considering a decision like that, that’s what I do. And then a lot of times the decision gets made for them.

Because you lay it out in that logical, factual way. And I think oftentimes that’s what our brain needs. It needs the facts. We gotta remove the emotion from these type of decisions. Yes, have the connection and the intuition and the alignment, but you’re in alignment that you need to solve that problem.

And if you’re not, that’s a whole different conversation. But what’s the gap we’re trying to fill? What’s the options to fill it? What’s the best option decisions made for you? Do not allow yourself to stay an indecision. And if you find yourself in that ruminating state over anything. Like for me, I don’t have this problem in business because I’m, I’m not really afraid of failing in business.

I’m not afraid of taking risks. I have proven to myself time and time again that I’ll be okay no matter what. I trust myself and yeah, do I make wrong decisions? Totally. Recently we made a hire. Where it’s pretty challenging for me to get fooled, but I was fooled by this hire, like quick complete bait and switch on a sales hire in our team who ended up stealing my email list, like a whole thing.

And I made the decision to hire this person and it, yeah. Was it a mistake? Sure, I could say that, but actually I can look at it and say. From this person, it opened my perspective to something. It opened my perspective to different thinking, different strategies as it relates to our sales. And I, and I had this whole idea of how that was gonna work out and that didn’t work out that way.

But I trust myself to make the right decisions in the moment. And so do I. Do I make the quote wrong? Decisions sometimes, yes. I also think any of those wrong decisions had to happen for future things to happen. So I don’t really have this struggle in business. Where I have this struggle is oftentimes when I’m being pulled between my kids and my family and something else I want.

So whether that’s traveling or even sometimes my training, I’ll feel guilty like it’s a Saturday and I need to go to the gym for two hours and this is what’s on my plate. But I feel bad because I’m leaving my family and I’ll waver. And so I try to set myself up where the decision’s already made and I don’t have to put the time and energy into that place of wavering, of having to decide, of having to ruminate.

’cause it really is a waste. And I would like to put that into more visionary, creative thinking, next level things. So use this episode as inspiration for you to take inventory today. Are there decisions in your business, in your life, and how you spend your time, how you spend your money, how you spend your energy?

Are there decisions that you have found taking up a lot of mental capacity, going back and forth, and like literally block out time in your calendar and be like to yourself, we’re making these decisions, we’re making the decisions today, following that process of what’s the gap that we’re trying to fill with the decision?

Okay. Based on that gap, this is the best decision that I have right now in this moment to make this is. What I’m gonna move forward with. And then you’ve gotta do it unapologetically and not afraid of failure and not afraid of making the wrong decision. ’cause like, again, you’re gonna make the quote wrong decision sometimes you don’t want that to stop you from making future decisions.

I, I had a one of the girls in my mastermind who was struggling on the first day of our retreat last month to make a big decision in her life. And I literally, like day one, I’m like, you know what? Sit there, close your eyes. Okay, close your eyes. I want you to imagine making one decision. Okay? Play it out.

You made the decision. How are you feeling? How does it feel in your body? Like that’s moving forward, okay? Now I want you to play out the other side. It was a yes no decision that she had to make. I want you, but it was a big one. It was a big life decision. Now I want you to play out the other decision.

Close your eyes. How does it feel in your body? Whichever one feels lighter. That’s the answer. And I’ll also do that where it’s like I can’t decide something. I will tune inwards and I will feel myself making both decisions in which everyone feels lighter, which everyone feels like it has more ease to it.

That’s the one that’s in more alignment. And then I tune out the noise. I don’t ask for feedback. I don’t ask my friends and family what they think unless I really want their opinion, because I think they have. An expertise and an experience that can weigh in. You gotta be careful with that. You ask anyone their opinion and they’re gonna throw out ideas based on their experience, but are they qualified to give you that opinion?

I follow myself and I make the decision, and there are a lot of times I ask for feedback, but I’ll ask intentionally. My team, my husband, business mentors, people who I really. No would be the right person to ask for that decision, not just ’cause I want someone to make it for me. So try that exercise and then if you find yourself next time in a moment of indecision, really sit with that.

Like sit with the, what’s the gap we’re trying to fill? What decision do I know is the right decision? When I remove emotion, I remove fear. I remove the, the ruminating and then make the decision like, go all in. If you can do that, you’ll be so successful. Like you’ve gotta go all in. Once you commit to a decision, the only way to move forward is all in.

And if you’re not all in, like there’s a different conversation to be had. Alright everybody, I hope you guys found this helpful. Thank you so much for tuning in and I will talk to you next time.