In only the last century, choice was severely restricted compared to now. You had one choice for many things: telephone, internet, TV, school, career, and countless others. People typically didn’t leave the place in which they grew up unless there was a very serious reason to do so. In a lot of ways, life was simpler. Few people were paralyzed by the overabundance of choice. The path for many people’s lives was relatively clear, as their options were limited.

Now, we live in a world that is rife with choice. With each passing day, an uncountable multitude of choices are added to everything you can think of: new products are released, new stocks are introduced, new retirement plans are made available, new technologies emerge, new people are made, and with all of what the age of information brings, the overall chaos of the world increases. 

There are certainly measurable benefits to this. With the constant competition of technology and medicine, we are seeing a marked increase of the quality and availability of products, some of which save lives. We now have more options from which to choose how to live our lives. In many ways, this is a fantastic boon to optimizing our individuality. Nowadays, you are rarely forced into a choice. Instead, you have several options and you are free to choose which path to follow.

By the same token, the consequences of your choices now burden you far heavier as they rest on your shoulders. Because the choice is no longer being made for you, you decide the choice and accept its subsequent consequences. For a lot of people, if or when a choice is finally made, the decision is regretted. After all, one of the other countless options would no doubt be superior. Forty years ago, we may not have had the choice and thus the consequences of our choices were perceived as a part of life with few or no alternatives. Now, however, we make our choices and we alone are responsible for the outcomes.

This is clearly seen when you purchase new objects. I have often bought something only to find a better deal a few days later, or to see a better product that I wish I would have seen sooner. This may seem like a small issue, but it is one that compounds quite rapidly. After all, life is a long series of micro-choices and micro-issues.

In a TED Talk by Barry Schwartz, a psychologist who popularized and explicated the paradox of choice (The paradox of choice | Barry Schwartz | TED), he provides an example of how we used to have fewer choices in the realm of medical treatment. It used to be that the doctor would take a proactive stance for treatment and make our choices for us. When that was the reality, we trusted the doctor’s expertise and let the chips fall as they may. While I do personally prefer having more options in this domain, I understand how much harder it would be to live with the consequences of a choice you make on the treatment of yourself or a loved one.

As an example for which your choices have more dire consequences, let’s say you have a dying mother who has been hospitalized. There are three treatment plans, all of which carry risks and benefits, but her survival rate is far above zero with any given plan. You agonize over the choice, going back and forth between the options until you finally land on one.

For a little while, the plan works and mom starts recovering. It appears you have made the right choice; you heave a sigh of relief. One day, mom has an adverse reaction to the treatment plan and passes away. This is your fault. You chose the treatment plan. Her life was in your hands, and you chose the wrong option. Your mother is dead because of you.

It’s impossible to say whether this is accurate or not, but your inner roommate doesn’t care (see The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer for details). Your conscience blames you. You made the decision and you now have to live with the consequences. This is a real situation resulting from a dire choice of one option among many.

Let’s take a step back. We’ve just gone over a very severe and unusual consequence of the drawback of additional choices, but for most people that’s not the everyday reality. Instead, I’d like to outline the paradox of choice by looking at a classic study regarding jam samples in a grocery store. A visual representation can be seen in this video: Are You Actually Happier With More Options? | Paradox of Choice, but I’ll give you a brief description and synopsis of the study. 

You can view the full study here: https://faculty.washington.edu/jdb/345/345%20Articles/Iyengar%20%26%20Lepper%20(2000).pdf

Two tables were set up in a grocery store: one table (the “extensive-choice” table) had twenty-four varieties of jams on it; the other table (the “limited-choice” table) had six. In which table do you think shoppers were more interested? From which table did shoppers buy more jam?

Now that you’ve contrived a hypothesis for both questions, I’ll tell you what actually happened (and why).

More people approached the extensive-choice table (145 people out of 242 [60%]) than the limited-choice table (104 people out of 260 [40%]). This makes sense, because having more options is more attractive. You probably got this answer right.

The amount of samples people had were nonsignificant between both tables. Simply, even though more people were attracted to the extensive-choice table, they sampled roughly the same amount of jams as the people who approached the limited-choice table. So, although having more options is more attractive, it doesn’t result in more action.

Now, which table sold more jam? Surely, with 20% more people approaching the extensive-choice table, they had more sales, right? Or maybe not, because they sampled the same amount as did people who approached the limited-choice table. That’s it, right? You thought I would say that the extensive-choice table sold more jams than the limited-choice table, but they sold the same amount!

WRONG! 

The limited-choice table sold TEN TIMES more jam than the extensive-choice table. TEN!!!

Of the people who approached the extensive-choice table, only 3% of them bought jam. For the limited-choice table, 30% of samplers purchased jam.

The researchers of the study (Sheena S. Iyengar and Mark R. Lepper) wrote in their conclusion: “Thus, consumers initially exposed to limited choices proved considerably more likely to purchase the product than consumers who had initially encountered a much larger set of options.”

This study and its effects underscore some very serious human tendencies. Once you understand the prevalence of this, you’ll unlock another key insight into human behavior. As much as people love choice, we are inundated and often paralyzed by too many options. This is one of the main reasons why “perfectionists” are never satisfied and rarely complete things. There are too many other ways in which something could be improved—too many options. There always will be.

To recognize this and to make thoughtful, but quick, decisions and stick with them is a superpower. You can agonize over the overabundance of choices until your last breath, but it’s a waste of time. Do diligent research (when it makes sense to), make an informed decision, and follow through with it. If it doesn’t work, adapt for the situation or go back to square one. Perfectionism is debilitating. It will never be perfect, and keeping in mind the economic law of diminishing marginal returns, you are wasting your time and energy trying to improve something that is already sufficient. Move on to the next thing and make that sufficient as well. You can accomplish so much more.

Also, appreciate your decisions. Even if it’s not perfect, you made a decision and you’re seeing salutary effects. Instead of agonizing over what could have been, or the potential benefits of an alternative option, be grateful for what was right about the decision you made.

For example, I recently upgraded my PC’s cooling system. There were HUNDREDS of options from which to choose, which could easily be paralyzing. Instead, I decided what criteria were important to me, narrowed it down, found one with a reasonable price and many good reviews, and pulled the trigger. I’m very happy with my choice, and I’m glad that I made it quickly and decisively. If I were to wait six months, would there be a cheaper and better cooler out there? Probably, but who cares? I have a far superior cooling in my PC now than I did last week. That’s what I set out to do, and that’s all that matters.

Here’s a non-personal example: you go on vacation to a tropical island. Wow, it’s beautiful, warm, and the water is perfect! But you can’t help thinking about the other island you were looking at. Why, that one had monkeys! You really wish you were on the other island right now seeing those monkeys. You’re on vacation on an idyllic tropical island. You could be at work right now sitting in a damn cubicle and you’re fretting over monkeys? Put things into perspective. Also, what makes you think the other island is so perfect? Let’s say instead you went to the other island and saw your monkeys. Congratulations! Everything is perfect now, right? No, of course not. The water is darker and less warm and the beaches aren’t as nice. You got to see your monkeys, but you wish you went to the other island. You will never be satisfied, because the perfect choice doesn’t exist. Be grateful that you’re on a beautiful beach, because things could be much worse.

Gratefulness is another superpower. Gratefulness protects and inoculates you from many harmful effects: envy, greed, dissatisfaction, and more. It’s interesting how a superpower such as decisiveness in the face of the paradox of choice also facilitates the superpower of gratefulness. The more of these powerful embodied life lessons you can incorporate and stack up inside yourself, the closer you become to being a self-actualized person.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed. Fight back. Be decisive: make a choice and follow through with confidence. You are not a slave to choice; you are emboldened by it.