Hey, do you remember that resolution you made this year? well, whether you made one or not that is not the point. Most of the time we always want to make the right choice, not that I am complaining, in fact, that is the most logical way of doing things yet when it comes to deciding we seem to not make a choice and move on with it and we fall into a pit we call agonizing.
Agonizing looks something like this: "Am I sure this is the best decision ?" "what if I did option 3 instead?" "I wonder if I can go back and do it over?" If you have never fallen into such a pit consider yourself unusually fortunate, thank your parents for the good decision chemistry in your brain, and just read for the information.
But if you are like most of us you know these are familiar questions. The reason we agonize is that we care for our lives and the lives of others. These decisions we make we know are important and we want to give the future its best possible chance. We want to make a good decision right at the start, but of course, we can not possibly know if we have done so right at the start.
Unknowns are always there, none of us can see the coming future accurately. Now the unsettling question is how do we overcome this agony thing? Well, it turns out that the mindset to make that choice is as important as making the best choice. It seems obvious right? that the best way to actually do stuff is to make the best choice. Simple enough except it is impossible.
You see if we make the goal to be, to make the best choice in the first place we will not get to actually do anything. We end up not making up our minds and eventually not accomplishing what we were so eager to accomplish in the first place.
Consider a study that was done involving decision marking by a university professor where he set six types of jams on a table in the middle of an alley in the supermarket. And as they watched from a distance he recorded the results. Then the next day conducted the same experiment but this time with 24 types of jam on the table.
Then the results were compared it turned out that during the first experiment where there were only six types of jams on the table very few people come to the table, but of those who came, a third of them actually picked one and moved on to buy it. In other words, it was easy for customers to pick a type and go ahead and buy it.
The second experiment showed more people came to the table but only a quarter of those who came actually picked one and went ahead and bought one. So what this study actually tells us is that when we are faced with so many options, it is very unlikely for us to make a decision and stick with it. The thought that when we pick a choice and still have this other many options is so powerful that it devalues our choice already taken.
So what am I saying? I am saying the key is to pick a choice and move on with it. I mean let's face it if we are to make the best choice in the first place. We need to see the consequence of each choice to know which choice is the best (and we all know this is impossible).
So if you are the kind of person who has so many things on your list so to speak consider narrowing it down, pick one, and move on in doing it. As the year is coming to a close consider what you want to accomplish next year and remember to keep it real.
As always thanks for reading, if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions feel free to leave them in the comment section below. If you love the content sharing it with someone will be highly appreciated and you will help the blog reach someone new. I wish you an awesome and productive week ahead.
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