A hard decision involves loss: by deciding to do one thing, something else falls.

If a manager or owner is simply asking people to do more, produce more, sell more, leave no stone unturned, take on more responsibility, slice their time into smaller bits, organize even more data, track relationships with even more people, drive more miles, serve more customers, take on more shifts, sell an even larger portfolio, and put away even more wine, that has nothing to with hard decisions … these are often methods that higher management use to justify paying you (“growth” without always truly growing … or known in some circles as Work for Work’s sake).

Be conscious of work creep, of the slow build of more requests made of you and your time and your abilities, under the guise of “hard decisions.” If it didn’t involve somebody giving up one thing to do something else, it wasn’t a hard decision for them … it was just more burden added to your job. A very different animal indeed.