This post is inspired by a number of events but is applicable to all facets of our lives whether it’s the social media realm, the employment world, our own emotions or even the salad dressing we choose. That’s right folks; this post is all about choices.

A few days ago, I read Ed Lee’s post about Setting Goals and Expectations. He links to this video of Barry Schwartz speaking at TED about the Paradox of Choice. Considering my own life lately, this presentation was quite thought-provoking, and left me pondering the choices we make and how we feel about those decisions once we made them.

One of Barry’s basic points (if you have 20 minutes worth of time, it’s an interesting talk all around though) is that because of all the choices we have, we are actually less satisfied. But shouldn’t we be happier now that we have so many options to choose from? Instead, he suggests that it is because of the vast amount of choice we have, that we will almost never be happy with our decisions.

His logic is this: Since we have so many options, there is much more room to regret the choice we didn’t make. Even though what we choose may be good, we are often left wondering if maybe there was a better one – a perfect one.

He suggests this could be one of the reasons for high depression rates. We’ve now gotten to a point where our expectations are so high as a result of so many choices, that anything less feels like a failure. And because we had a choice and made the decision, we are left with no one to blame but ourselves.

Given the few weeks I’ve had, this logic makes good sense to me. Maybe not perfect, but pretty good. But now that I see this logic, maybe it’s a chance to turn it on its head – no regrets, just be happy with what I’ve got.

Are you happy with lots of options or do you wish things were a bit more simple?

Side Note:

Schwartz mentioned that there are over 175 choices of salad dressing in one supermarket. Wow…decisions, decisions.