One size doesn’t fit all

Situations where your personal likes and dislikes play a greater role in your choices than the economics or logic of it are often ones where there is no “one size fits all” solution.

For example, the most economically sound decision for most people is to make more money. But some may not want more money, so what would that make them? Mentally unsound would be one frequent suggestion from the onlookers.

Medical advice is another space where there are a multitude of options. Allopathy or Homeopathy? Invasive or laproscopic? Surgery or treatment?

It should come down to our own likes and dislikes, but we are often too scared to make a choice for ourselves. And that is the root of the problem:

We are scared of deciding for ourselves.

So we do the next best thing we know: copy someone else who seems to know what she wants. We read advice columns thinking that there are people out there who’s situation is exactly like ours, so if we hunt long enough we’ll find an exact replica of ourselves, but who has all the answers. Why?

Because there is comfort in crowds.

Find someone with the same body as mine, but an athlete. Someone with the same educational background as mine, but a CEO. Someone with the same salary as mine, but a millionaire. Isn’t that convenient? If it worked for him, it should just as easily work for me.

But there is a mental heuristic here: to get to where they are, they made a hard decision a long time back. And then stuck to it, despite the fear and the ridicule.

Recognizing this fear exists is the first step to making decisions for ourselves. No decision for you can be the same as what it is for me, because we have our likes and dislikes! If you’re looking for fat dividends, there is little value in sticking with the crowd.

On a lighter note:

Have a great weekend ahead!