Choices

Once a number of years ago, I was talking to my mother-in-law about something we were planning. I adore my MIL. She is very independent, and, like the rest of my husband's family, likes to plan things that my family would consider too complicated to entertain. I find this fun, as long as I don't have to be one of the planners. I don't remember what it was we were planning, but I remember at some point in the planning, she said something the gist of which was: "Let's stop planning here; we have some good options, and we can decide later." We have some good options. She says this pretty often, and I usually see it as a good thing, but this was the first time I remember thinking: "What is she talking about!? I don't want some good options! I want one option! I want a clear path, and a plan!"

I think I will probably have a number of posts about choices, and The Paradox of Choice. Some people think that we (first-worlders who aren't in poverty, say) have too many choices in our lives. Too many drawer pulls at Lowe's; too many spaghetti sauces at the grocery store; too many classes in college; too many toys in the playroom. And all these options actually make us unhappy. From the same Wikipedia article:

when people are faced with having to choose one option out of many desirable choices, they will begin to consider hypothetical trade-offs. Their options are evaluated in terms of missed opportunities instead of the opportunity's potential. Schwartz maintains that one of the downsides of making trade-offs is it alters how we feel about the decisions we face; afterwards, it affects the level of satisfaction we experience from our decision.

 From the same article:

when participants [in a study] were faced with a smaller rather than larger array of chocolates, they were actually more satisfied with their tasting.

It seems to me that too many choices can really snuff out feelings of abundance in many situations. I have noticed this in my closet, and I think it applies in many other areas as well. To be continued, I hope...