Too much to be contented

Go to any store in any mall, shopping center or Internet site. An array of options awaits you for anything you might desire: Clothes, shoes, electronic equipment, books, vehicles or toys for every age. So many alternatives – we should be able to find the perfect item and be happy.
But, many are not happy.

In fact, Professor Barry Schwartz of Swarthmore University thinks the very reality of the voluminous number of options leaves us with a vague feeling that if we would just look at one more shop, one more Internet site, one more ad, we might find an even better item – and attain “the best.”
Schwartz, who is a professor of social theory and social action, thinks that the abundance of choices leaves people overwhelmed and indecisive. In an article in the New York Times he cited a study which showed that shoppers were 10 times more likely to buy jam when six varieties were on display than when they were offered the opportunity to choose from 24.
Those with fewer options – those who purchase what is available – fit into Schwartz’s category of a “satisficer” or someone who finds something “good enough” and quits searching for something else. They are not caught in the paralysis of analysis.

Schwartz’s other category are the “maximisers” – folks only satisfied with “the best.”

The problem with being a maximiser in a world with the Internet and an abundance of choices is that to find the item, event, person or job that tops everything else requires the maximiser to spend hours looking at every possible option for the perfect choice, rejecting “good enough” options along the way.

Even after the maximiser makes a choice, he is never quite satisfied, never quite happy because mentally, he continues his never-ending quest for the best. And therein might lie the succinct explanation for the number of people in their 30’s who have not yet married or settled on a career – they continue to anticipate and look for the perfect person to marry or the perfect job.

The only way to find the absolute best is to look at ALL the possibilities and today – with the Internet and speed of transportation – we literally have access to a world of options.

“People who are out to find the very best job (”maximisers”) feel worse than people who settle for good enough. We’ve tracked them through and after college. Maximisers did better financially – they found starting salaries that paid $7,000 more than satisficers’ starting salary. But by every other measure – depression, stress, anxiety, satisfaction with their job – maximiser felt worse,” Schwartz said.

Maximisers experience more discontent with their choices because they have not made the first choice: To decide to be content. It is an old command, “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” I Timothy 6:8 (KJV) And again in Hebrews, “Don’t be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you.” Hebrews 13:5 (The Message)
Or if you prefer Schwartz’s three suggestions to find contentment:
1. Learn that “good enough is good enough.” On rare occasions it’s worth struggling to find the best. But generally it makes life simpler if you settle with “good enough.”

2. Learn when to choose. Sometimes don’t choose at all. Buy what your friend or the Consumer Report says. You don’t have to take their advice about everything – just some things, so you don’t have to choose all the time.

3. Compare yourself and what you have with others who have less – not with those with more. Focus on what you’re grateful for in your decisions, instead of what you’re disappointed with.

– And then turn off the computer, close the catalog and quit shopping around. You have what you need: enjoy it.


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