Scouring through Amazon and Temu searching for the perfect shiny new toy. Evaluating endless new AI tools and software to empower your business. Scrolling through endless movie choices on Netflix and My Family Cinema. Does all this choice make us any happier?

The Paradox of Too Much Choice

Our brains aren't wired to process endless options efficiently. We experience decision fatigue and analysis paralysis. It leads to stress, anxiety, and the feeling of being trapped rather than empowered. Then, every time we choose something, we're also not choosing countless others. This breeds a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), and a nagging sense that we could have made a "better" choice. With so many options, we're prone to believing the "perfect" choice exists. This makes us even more critical of our decisions and less satisfied with the outcome, even if it worked out fine.

The Price of Inaction

While avoiding decisions might seem like a way to protect ourselves; it comes at a cost. By avoiding choices, we limit our potential, we miss out on valuable experiences. We all regret the things we didn't do more than the things we did, even if those actions led to mistakes. Constantly avoiding decisions make us feel powerless and out of control of our own lives. Our quest for perfection freezes us and slows us down.

Some Choices Have Far Reaching Consequences

Reckless decision making when it comes to relationships, health and money can come back to bite us for many years. These do need to be approached with more discernment and consideration, especially later on in life. It would then be prudent to follow the advice of people that have achieved what we aspire to achieve.

5 Ways to See the Power in Every Choice

As in all things in life, it’s our perspectives that change anything.

There are so many ways to the top of the mountain. We live on an abundant and diverse planet with 8 billion different ways of doing something. We can make a new way, or we can follow an existing way. By understanding this, we can be kinder to each other, learn more from each other; and trailblaze if that is our path.

We can change choice into power by:

1) Seeing choices as experiments on ourselves to see what we like and don’t like. This taps into the Law of Attraction and helps us create the world we want to live in. If we decide something that ends ‘badly’, we’ll learn that we’d prefer a ‘better’ outcome and work towards that next time.

2) Appreciate the ripple effect our choices have and how it affects people around us. If our experiments are costing money, we are empowering the people we are spending our money with.

3) Embracing the expanded perspectives choosing brings us as we learn different ways of doing things. We’ll get to see other side and have a better appreciation for what their world looks like. This makes us less judgmental and more accepting of each other.

4) If we get a helicopter view on choices and understand the nature of who we really are (eternal souls having a temporary human experience); we will know that we can’t actually get any of this wrong. It’s all just for our soul’s development and experience. We can make that (educated) decision, and trust enough in ourselves that it will all work out exactly as it is meant to.

5) If we take the time to reflect on our choices, they also become our internal guidance systems. We can use the outcomes of decisions to understand if we are going in the right direction or not. For example, if we wanted to move to a new town, and started looking for apartments and jobs but simply nothing was available; it is likely our Higher Selves are gently pushing us back onto our paths. Maybe we are not meant to move at this time because there is something better waiting for us right where we are.

By tapping into our inner wisdom, we can learn to use choices as a life guidance system to a happier, less stressful experience.