It can be difficult for an ambitious person, with an “I will succeed” attitude, to say “no” to desirable opportunities. The huge majority of executives that I work with feel as busy (or busier) today than they have ever felt in their lives. I have never heard one of my clients say, “I don’t have enough on my plate.” And this busy-ness is not because they have so many problems to deal with. When I surveyed executives about why they felt overcommitted, none of them said they were trying to “save a sinking ship.” They were overcommitted because they were “drowning in a sea of opportunity.”
