Life is filled with two things: contentment and regret. There is an easy way to tip the odds in your favor toward contentment, rather than regret. It is all about your choices. Some people grew up in houses where they didn’t have a choice in anything. They were told when to go to sleep, what they were going to wear and even how they were going to wear their hair. When they became an adult, they love to go wild with their choices and like to keep their options option. However, there is such a thing as too many choices.
Choice Can Lead to Contentment
Jim Fay and David Funk have made careers with their ‘Love and Logic’ series, which specializes in ensuring people are given appropriate choices. This works well with raising children and with being an educator. It works because it gives the children contentment in their lives. Fay and Funk were right about children, but that can be translated directly to adults as well. If a person is not given a choice, frustration can quickly set in.
An Example
Let’s look at two men and their search for a vehicle. Man A decides he wants a truck, either a Dodge or a Chevrolet. He goes to the dealerships, test drives both and makes a decision. He is content with his choice. Man B decides he wants a sports car. He can’t decide if he wants a Mustang, Camaro, Corvette, Challenger or a Charger. He tests them all and makes a choice. He spends the rest of his week in regret over his choice. Why is this? When you give yourself a choice between two things, the decision can be easily made because there is a clear winner. When you spread out the choices, there are no clear winners; the tallies become too close, increasing the risks of a tie. This causes you to agonize over whether you made the correct decision. This experiment can be done in any situation. Whenever you have too many choices, you always know there were other options that could have been better.
For more information on achieving contentment through the power of choice.
