The Darker Side of Choice

I’m finishing up a book, “The Paradox of Choice: How The Culture of Abundance Robs Us Of Satisfaction.” Essentially, this book is dealing with the overload of choices we are faced with daily and why the freedom to choose seems no longer to liberate but actually debilitates. The author writes:

“There is no denying that choice improves the quality of our lives, yet the fact that SOME choice is good doesn’t necessarily mean that MORE choice is better.

There is a cost to having an overload of choice. As a culture, we are enamored of freedom, self-determination, and variety, and we are reluctant to give up any of our options. But clinging tenaciously to all the choices available to us contributes to bad decisions, to anxiety, stress, and dissatisfaction–even to clinical depression.”

Hmm, resonates with me. Our best choice sometimes is the freedom to simplify. I’ll post more on this tomorrow.