We make hundreds if not thousands of little tiny decisions every single day: whether to hit the snooze button, what to eat for breakfast, what to wear, what emails or calls to answer\u2026and the list goes on and on, and usually we can make most of these decisions without having to put much thought into them.\u00a0 But then we have decisions like what items to buy, what job to take, what employee to hire, what paint color to use\u2026and these decisions usually do take some thought going into them.<\/p>\n
Lately I have had TONS of these thought requiring decisions to make as we are now in the stage of picking out tile and carpet, and furniture and paint colors for our new house.\u00a0 And for months I have been researching couches and fabrics and every hue of paint out there\u2026to the point I have been making myself crazy with all the options to look at.\u00a0\u00a0 And as I have found more and more options I have found myself more and more hesitant to actually make a decision because I have that voice in my head saying \u201cBut what if there is an option you haven\u2019t seen yet that is still out there waiting for you to find it?\u201d\u00a0 And so I have been scared to commit to anything in fear something better would be found in the future.<\/p>\n
I started to realize that my problem was a mental block.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a problem of not having good options to choose from \u2013 it was the fear that I would make a choice that I would regret later.\u00a0 I started to remind myself of that girl or boy that can never commit to their current dating relationship because they are living in constant fear that someone better is about to come into their life so they aren\u2019t willing to make a permanent commitment to the person they are with\u2026often times risking losing that person because they are too dumb to appreciate that what they have in front of them is amazing!\u00a0 Yeah\u2026that has been me with all my choices lately…but no more!<\/p>\n
I found an article called the Happiness Project in which the following was described:<\/p>\n
\u201cSatisficers are those who make a decision or take action once their criteria are met. That doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019ll settle for mediocrity; their criteria can be very high; but as soon as they find the car, the hotel, or the pasta sauce that has the qualities they want, they\u2019re satisfied.\u00a0 Maximizers want to make the optimal decision. So even if they see a bicycle or a photographer that would seem to meet their requirements, they can\u2019t make a decision until after they\u2019ve examined every option, so they know they\u2019re making the best possible choice\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n In a fascinating book, The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz argues that satisficers tend to be happier than maximizers. Maximizers must spend a lot more time and energy to reach a decision, and they\u2019re often anxious about whether they are, in fact, making the best choice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Oh my goodness \u2013 I am being a Maximizer rather than a Satisficer!\u00a0 No wonder I am not feeling as happy!\u00a0 I need to be more of Satisficer!\u00a0 I want to feel HAPPY!\u00a0 So the last few days I have gone back and started making final choices and committing to them.\u00a0 I have picked out couches and fabrics and the list goes on and on\u2026and guess what?!\u00a0 No regrets!\u00a0 No feeling like I made a bad choice\u2026 the choices I am making fit my criteria and I am choosing to be satisfied with them! \u00a0And Barry Schwartz is right \u2013 I am HAPPIER!!!\u00a0 YAY ME!<\/p>\n So for all of you out there who are caught in the trap of being a Maximizer\u2026 STOP IT!\u00a0 Become a Satisficer!\u00a0 It is a much, much happier way to live!\u00a0 Trust me\u2026I learned that lesson the hard way :)\u2026.so hopefully you won\u2019t have to! We make hundreds if not thousands of little tiny decisions every single day: whether to hit the snooze button, what to eat for breakfast, what to wear, what emails or calls to answer\u2026and the list goes on and on, and usually we can make most of these decisions without having to put much thought into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[174,877,2413,91,504,159,1086,2401,650,873,97,2411,2412,7,55,2405,180,2403,296,11,2400,2409,875,2407,52,1196,2410,2399,2408,1168,2402,275,2404,2406,173],"class_list":["post-3908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anxiety","tag-barry-schwartz","tag-best-possible-choice","tag-change","tag-choice","tag-choices","tag-choose","tag-commit","tag-dating","tag-decision","tag-decisions","tag-examin","tag-examine","tag-future","tag-happiness","tag-happiness-project","tag-happy","tag-hard-way","tag-lesson","tag-marriage","tag-maximizer","tag-optimal","tag-options","tag-qualities","tag-regret","tag-relationship","tag-requirements","tag-satisficer","tag-satisfied","tag-stop","tag-stop-it","tag-stress","tag-the-paradox-of-choice","tag-what-to-do","tag-worry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3908"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3911,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions\/3911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n~Amy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"