Choosing Wisely Every Single Time

                                                             Choices, choices, everywhere,

                                                             Did not find the perfect choice anywhere.

I came across a Ted talk by Sheena Iyengar on the Art of Choosing and was blown away by the sheer number of choices that an individual makes on an ordinary day. Right from the moment we wake up to the time we hit the sack we are enveloped by choices. Honestly, it never occurred to me that I was so much of a choice-maker. Or, may be the choices were always there, I hadn’t looked upon them as choices per se. Not until I came upon this presentation, which by the way was also a choice made by me inadvertently, considering the multitude of videos that are uploaded on You Tube on any given day. Toward the end of her talk, my mind took a U-turn to last Sunday.

 Last Sunday, I decided to unwind myself by watching a comedy movie. After scrolling through the many options, I zeroed in on a trailer. The trailer looked alright, but there was always the probability that the next movie in the list could guarantee more laughs. So, I watched one more trailer, then one more, so on and so forth. Twenty minutes was the time I had set aside over the weekend for the movie as I prefer watching movies in short stretches of 15-20 minutes spread over 5 to 7 weeks than in one continuous stretch of uninterrupted action. Twenty minutes also turned out to be the time I spent in choosing and deciding the best fit.

Choice paralysis is fast picking up as a worrisome trend. The notable American writer and furturist, Alvin Toffler was the first to introduce the term “Overchoice”in his book Future Shock. Ofcourse, Toffler makes a clear case for certain pre-requisites that must be met for the creation of an overchoice setting. For all practical purposes, it is better to view too many choices as a blessing, and realize that we are always in control even though at first glance it may not always appear that way. When we are actually grateful for the choices endowed on us, we are infact, getting autotuned for calmness. It doesn’t need any scientific study to prove that the best choices are made when we are our calmest selves. Our experience in life so far is proof enough. Our best exams, our best interviews, our best conversations, our best recipes, in short, all our best wins had calmness at the core.

Another good practice would be to avoid shying away from opportunities that require choosing; however, trivial the activity may appear. On your next dine-out, instead of being okay with whatever the party just ordered, take the initiative and choose from the lengthy restaurant menu. With every act of choosing, we are exercising and strengthening our choice-muscle, and in turn, becoming better in the art of choosing.