Choice enables us to get what we need and want in life. It allows us to express our identity, to show who we are and what we care about. Choice gives tremendous freedom and pleasure to our lives. It enables us to feel sovereignty over our destiny.
We have more choices available to us than at any time in human history. Our culture sanctifies freedom of choice so profoundly that the benefits of infinite options is something we assume to be true.
But when people are presented with too many choices, we can feel exhausted. We can agonize over whether we are doing the right thing. We can feel overwhelm, regret, anxiety and even depression. A substantial number of people tend to pull back and make no choice at all.
Fred Hirsch called it “the Tyranny of Small Decisions.”
We can feel so overwhelmed by the many options we have that we pull back from making even significant decisions that affect our lives. We can not afford to give away so much of our individual and collective power.
Dr. Camille discusses the book, The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. She examines how we make decisions, how we can make our decision-making process more effective and how we can reclaim our power.
