Choosing can be hard

One of the most confusing issues we face today is choice. We want choice, but choice can be more difficult than we think, because it works on a simple principle.

And the principle runs like this: In order to choose something we have to eliminate everything else. This means that if we have 20 ice-cream flavors to choose from and we just want one, we have to eliminate nineteen.

Too many choices lead to confusion, unhappiness, and regret. For no matter what we decide, we later think about all the options we left behind.

As technology advances so do our choices. There are now 40 different toothpastes to choose from, 50 different loaves of bread, and even milk isn’t the same anymore. There’s whole milk, skim milk, 2% milk, 1% milk, coconut milk, almond milk, rice milk, and every type of milk we can possibly think of.

With more options to choose from, we become mentally tired and the principle of least effort kicks in where we then make the decision based on the easiest option available.

Save the decision making for things that matter to you. Whenever you’re in a decision paralysis, just pick something, anything, and try it out for a few weeks. If it works out, great, you’re on the right path. If it doesn’t, no problem, pick the next thing and try that out.

When we’re afraid to pick any path, we’ll never get on the right path and never get to the right choice.

Think of some of the great examples where limiting choices and keeping things simple increases its power. Think of Steve Jobs and his uniform of black pants and a turtlneck. Think of Barack Obama who wore the same suit when he was in office. Think of all the decisions these two people in power had to make. I’m glad that figuring out what to wear did not take up too much of their time!

To battle the war on choice, eliminate and plan.

Eliminate the choices that don’t matter.

Plan around the rest.

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