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The Paradox of Choice

Posted on November 3, 2008 - Filed Under Freedom, Miscellaneous, My plan, Simplicity, Travel | 10 Comments

I’m reading this really interesting book, The Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz.  I’m not quite finished yet but so far it confirms some gut feelings I’ve been having lately about the overwhelming choices a lot of us have and how that truly affects us both positively and negatively.  I would highly recommend it. 

It looks at many issues but mainly focuses on how having too many choices can limit rather than enhance our freedoms.  For example, when we go to the grocery store and have 35 different shampoos to choose from, a woman can easily get overwhelmed wondering which would be the best for her hair type.  Should she choose A or B or C… and if she chooses one over the other, is she passing up the one that would work the best for her hair?  10 minutes later, she walks out with Pantene.  That’s 10 minutes out of her day that she could have spent connecting with her best friend or family member over the phone or a cup of coffee.

On a larger scale, where and how one lives, works, plays, vacations, chooses insurance, cars, clothes, etc. is all a series of choices with virtually limitless information one could research in order ot make the ‘best’ choice.  Choosing can eat up our days before we know it.  ‘Good enough’ no longer is acceptable when one could have the ‘best’. 

It really got me thinking about how I tend to constantly look for ways to make my life better (it’s already pretty great).  Due partly to the Internet and so much information at my fingertips, I see all the amazing and beautiful ways one can live one’s life and get paralyzed by choice.  But by being paralyzed, and keeping options open, I limit the joy I could experience by diving into a choice and living it up within that decision.   

While I think it’s healthy and normal to be striving and looking for the best options for our lives, I think we have to simplify, and pick things we want to focus on and not spend our time wondering ‘what if’.  The grass is always greener, right?  When you make a choice you make a commitment and other things no longer become available.  This is downright scary, definitely to me as well as others.  I’m pretty good at not wasting too much time on picking out the basics… clothes, insurance, what to do, eat…etc.   It’s the bigger things that tend to paralyze me a bit.  How to live my life, what hobbies to pursue, what kind of partner would be best suited for me, where to live, (in an exotic location or closer to family?), have children or not, work for myself or someone else? 

Perhaps I’ll start smaller.  Where do I want to travel beginning in May?  This changes for me on a weekly basis.  Obviously, I can read all the magazines, web sites, books on travel and be constantly changing my mind on what’s the best place for me to go.  However,  I’m just going to choose, and go with that choice full steam ahead without thinking, well, what if I had gone to Spain instead?  Would that have been more fun?

Anyone else have thoughts on this?  I’d love to hear them.

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