The feelings evoked by the perceived availability of a wide selection of people, places, or things in life that we consider stylish, beautiful, emotionally fulfilling, practical, delicious, or status-enhancing can be compared to similar feelings evoked by love and narcotics.

If we’re talking about only the pre-virtual era, this feeling could have been triggered by walking into a large department store that smelled like designer fragrance and looked like the pages of Vogue, eating at a fast-food chain location armed with a dazzling, drool-worthy, juicy menu of salty and sugary delights, or entering a singles bar in New York City as a young 20-something with all of your youth, good looks, and dating options intact. All of this certainly still applies in 2024.

Enter the age of the internet, online shopping, and social media, and that range of selection doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in size. Variety and options in dating, dining, fashion, travel, and even the choice of careers available to us have scaled up and niched down in every sense.

Hours and hours can be spent fruitlessly perusing what we think we want, need, and can genuinely afford. It feels so productive and thrilling while we’re doing it. You feel like you’re making important, trajectory-changing decisions about your life and want to ensure that no stones are left unturned regarding the quality of the options available to you and your loved ones.

However, according to this article, it becomes more difficult to know what is best when the number of choices increases. Instead of increasing our freedom to have what we want, the paradox of choice suggests that having too many options actually limits our freedom.

It also increases decision fatigue which is a genuine and frequent problem we consciously and unconsciously face daily. It’s the mental and emotional exhaustion caused by the thousands of small decisions our tiny human brains have to make to get through an average day. (I’ve written a previous post on decision fatigue HERE.)

Now that I’m at the age that I am at (38), I believe I’ve accumulated enough lived experiences ranging from early youth until now to learn that personally, I am far more effective, happy, and correct when I have a small and limited range of options to choose from – be that for clothing brands, travel destinations, restaurants, or cities to potentially live in. The mental relief that comes with straightforward, minimal choices is truly reassuring and calming.

It’s so incredibly easy to get caught up in the hype that gets served to us daily around every literal and virtual corner we turn. The entire psychology of marketing revolves around creating an urgent need out of what is usually nothing more than a fleeting want or momentary piqued interest, triggered by something we’ve seen or heard that resonates with our common human experience.

Staying self-aware about what your genuine needs are can truly help to guide your living and spending choices.

The illusion of extensive choice isn’t as empowering and liberating as we tend to believe that it is. What can be empowering is simply saying no to your own impulses from time to time. This simple act can make you feel in control and confident about your lifestyle decisions.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope what you have read has somehow educated, informed, or inspired you.

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