We don’t just have almost everything within our hands reach. We also have a plethora of options to choose from for everything. And this dilemma of overwhelm is only getting dire.
For example – if you want to buy a new brand of soap other than the one you regularly use, just go to your nearest supermarket and you will know exactly what I mean.
This is not just limited to products and services but is also true for life. The endless flow of information is getting faster and deeper. And it seems like nowadays, the sunrise brings with it a new breakthrough innovation.
So the problem isn’t about the availability of solutions. It is about the ability to choose the right thing for ourselves from this sea of solutions.
In other words, understanding what matters to you is crucial to keep yourself sane in this world.
The problem with having too many options
Having many options feels great until we are asked to pick one of them. This is proven by an experiment called “The Jam Experiment” which was conducted by Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper.
In this, the experimenters organized a jam-tasting booth which first had 24 options for visitors to choose from. On the other day, the options were reduced to only 6.
More jams attracted more people, 60% of the total visitors against 40% when lesser options were placed, for the purpose of “tasting.” However, the experimenters were interested in the influence of more choices in buying (the actual decision-making).
Here is where things are turned upside down. The conversion rate when the jam-tasting options were 6 was 30% which drops to a mere 3% when they had 24.
Interestingly, the average number of jams tasted by each visitor was also similar in both cases – 1.5 samples for the 24-jam booth and 1.38 for the 6-jam booth.
This concludes that we may refrain from making a decision altogether when given more choices which may sometimes turn against our interest.
On top of that, InsideBE, a hub dedicated to behavioral economics and psychology in business, says in its blog post on choice overload:
“Our ability to make a good decision is reduced by the overload of choices, as is our satisfaction with the final decision.”
However, the overwhelm of options doesn’t reduce the importance of making the right choices in our lives.
Why choices are important?
At this very moment, you have the option to continue reading this blog post, watch a movie, scroll on social media, take your dog out for a walk, or do what truly matters to you.
It is these choices that we make from moment to moment that ultimately determine whether we have a fulfilling day or not. This is perfectly illustrated by James Clear in his best-selling book Atomic Habits.
To take this even further, how we stack up our truly fulfilling days then leads us to our final destination before our inevitable death.
Will you feel the comfort of satisfaction or stings of regrets – it all depends on the choices we make every single day. That’s the importance of making the right choices.
But what are the right choices? It all depends on …
What matters to you?
You cannot make options to go away. In fact, it will only grow longer on the list. However, you can make them irrelevant so that you can make easier choices from the meaningful few. How?
By defining your values.
Your values are things in life you give a fuck about. For example – some of my values are health, simplicity, and contribution.
Values guide us in our decisive moments on what choice to make. Since I rate my health to be my priority, I make sure I don’t overindulge in eating junk food and exercise 4-5 times a week.
Confession – I don’t refrain from eating fast food. I just like to keep a healthy balance that allows me to have experiences while staying in good shape.
Values are like having the noise cancellation feature of a headphone. It works so that only the music reaches your soul and the noise gets cut out.
So what are your values, my friend? Ask yourself:
- What truly matters to you?
- What is your life purpose?
- What final destination do you want to reach with your choices?
- What experiences your soul have enjoyed (not your easily manipulative mind)?
- How do you want to live your life?
Conclusion
The world and life have everything to offer you – instant highs of alcohol, weed, and non-stop entertainment as well as the soul-gratifying path to your true purpose (and everything in between).
It is up to you. You can’t undo the choices you have made till now. But can make better choices from now on. And it all depends on what matters to you. Go on. Define it for yourself.
