Feel overwhelmed when you have too many options to choose from? That’s a feeling most of us experience, because we want to ensure we are selecting the best option, but it can leave you feeling stuck. This is due to a phenomenon called the Paradox of Choice.
WHAT IS THE PARADOX OF CHOICE?
The Paradox of Choice suggests that an abundance of options requires more effort to choose and can leave us feeling unsatisfied with our the choice that we eventually make. This dissatisfaction is due to two main reasons: cost-opportunity and cognitive cost.
First, there is a high cost-opportunity to any decision we make, and we are generally well aware of it, which adds to the stress. When you select one option, you are forfeiting all the other options and the benefits that may come with them. The FOMO can be serious, especially when you are making life-changing decisions.
Second, the cognitive cost of making the actual decision is high. When faced with lots of options, you can get mentally exhausted pretty quickly as you weigh the possible outcomes of every choice that you have available to you.
HOW TO MAKE BETTER DECISIONS & AVOID FEELING UNSATISFIED
The paradox of choice isn’t something that we’re stuck with forever. We can set ourselves up for making decisions that will leave us feeling satisfied. It’s just a matter of preparation. Here’s how we suggest you make decisions without feeling exhausted or unsatisfied:
1. HAVE A SET OF DECISION CRITERIA
The best way to start is to create a decision matrix — either on paper or in your head — where you list out all of the important criteria when making a decision. Whether it is the monetary cost, time, convenience, or even alignment with your values, you need to identify which criteria are important to you in your decision. Then, you’ll have a better sense of what exactly to base your decision on.
2. REDUCE THE NUMBER OF CHOICES
When you know what matters the most to you, you can apply these criteria to all the choices you have in front of you. The options which do not meet your criteria will be crossed off the list of potential choices, and you will be left with only the options that are aligned with exactly what you want. In other words, you’re reducing any chances of experiencing FOMO because you know you aren’t missing out the important things.
At this point, your list of options will have drastically diminished, and it should be easier to focus on what options are left.
3. FOCUS ON WHAT YOU KNOW RIGHT NOW
With the remaining options you have in front of you, remind yourself you can only make decisions based on what you know right now. You can’t expect yourself to know the information that will only become apparent in the future, nor should you make decisions based on those unknown facts.
Focus on what you know today, and if you feel like you made a bad call in a year or two, remind yourself you did what was best for you based on what you knew at the time.
Following these three strategies when making tough decisions will help you overcome the Paradox of Choice. Next time you are feeling particularly stuck, exhausted by the amount of options, or afraid of missing out on something, take out a piece of paper and use these tricks to work your way through it. You’ll be more satisfied with your final choice if you know that you made it with all the right tools.