The paradox of choice
Over the years, I have spoken at length on the paradox of choice across the design and leadership lectures I do.
The Paradox of choice is causing havoc in our lives, making us more anxious and less satisfied. Gone are the days when one was satisfied and happy about the simple things in life.
Confession: I have struggled with the paradox of choice every single day. It is not something I am proud of and I am trying my best to declutter or consolidate things to deal with this.
As we grow in our careers, the number of choices keeps increasing, because we are better connected, better exposed to the world, have tasted success and failures in different capacities. And especially if one is the hustler type, who is not satisfied with things and is not afraid to try out things, the paradox of choice comes to haunt more often than not.
Adding more choice, is like adding more variables to a situation, thereby resulting in more complexity. With a higher complexity, there is bound to be a state of instability.
The paradox of choice has to be one of the most pressing issues that an entrepreneur, and for that matter an individual faces these days. The ability to focus and decide things based on proper rationale and being non emotional about it, is a critical skill to have.
There are two things to emphasise on here. One is the proper rationale, which is obtained by having a justification to yourself of what you are doing and why you are doing at that moment. The second is to be non-emotional in de-prioritising things that are not necessary or important at that moment in time.
When one is used to multi-tasking; which again is not a good thing to do for most, there is always the struggle to understand what to prioritise. There are certain tasks that do not seek attention, but you end up doing it. Some that needs your attention and you procrastinate over it and then regret why you did not spend enough time on it.
If you are an extrovert, who is a good networker, even deciding whom to take advice from adds to the paradox.
When information is available at your finger tips, and when there is literally too many choices to choose from it is difficult to make sense of things quickly. The paradox of choice gets played out in our lives in multiple areas. Whether is what dress to wear, what food to eat, which places to go for a vacation, its everywhere.
The paradox of choice causes the indecisiveness when you have too many things to choose from.
Decision making is hampered and there is often a regret on the choice one has finally made, because in your mind you always think you had an opportunity to make a different choice.
A good video to watch on the same is this TED talk by Barry Schwartz , an American psychologist and faculty at University of California, Berkeley . He shared some really interesting examples that we can relate to.
I have used this in during my design and self development lectures, and coaching sessions and have loved the discussions around this.
More often than not, students and workshop participants reflect upon their lives and are able to point to many instances of the paradox of choice at play.
Temptetations are easy to give into. Constant marketing and advertisements drive up our desires and wants to an extent that we are left craving to possess more things. The more we seek, the more we explore. The more we explore, the more choices become evident and the more indecisiveness creeps in.
There is a constant rise in the mental health issues as well and the paradox of choice can be one of the things contributing to it.
Spiritual gurus have often spoken about the need to declutter lives, so that we develop the ability to take decisions faster. Control over this paradox of choice is something that I aspire for. Having the ability to choose fast, but with a good rationale and not feel too emotional about the decisions. The ability to choose and get to a state that results in peace and eventually in happiness.
I am learning a lot in the process too.
#reflection #personal
