Consider this for a moment. As important as it to have choices, why is it so easy to become paralysed by them, and not actually choose?

Choice Paralysis.

I am a fence sitter. I have the splinters in my butt to prove it. But I also have a ripper of a self-justification for doing so. When I am presented with choices I like to stop and ponder. I consider, I weigh up, I peruse and muse. I am the UN of the fence-sitting world, always trying to see it from both sides. And for my sins I am quite often prone to over-think and not do. Rather than procrastinate, I waste time as I ruminate. There I sit upon my fence, a finger tapping upon my chin. I am stuck, paralysed by choice.

With the seemingly infinite amount of choices and variations and customisations available in this world today, can you blame me for struggling to choose? I tried choosing toast the other day. I was presented with three options for bread, about five options for topping, and did I want a side dish? And that was just from Wifey offering me breakfast in bed! But, because I’m pretty in tune with myself, I know how to crack this behaviour and climb down off my fence.

Choice Analysis.

Choice is something I am extremely grateful for, always have been. There are no right or wrong choices in life. There’s just good and bad. They’ll both wind up at the same endpoint, just the bad choices will take us on a far more interesting journey. So how do I spot good choices? Not easily because I’m a self-confessed over thinker. Step one, stop over-thinking. Step two, see step one.

There’s quite a few factors which come in to play whenever I have to make a significant choice. Am I compromising myself or satisfying others? Am I negotiating in my favour, or just settling for the sake of reaching an outcome? Is my ego overriding a common sense approach? But the one factor that breaks my overthinking cycle is this. What are the positives here and do they outweigh the negatives?

Freedom Of Choice.

Breaking free of my choice paralysis is quite simple. And it’s true that simple things can often be the hardest to implement. Humans love to overcomplicate things unnecessarily. As a result believing in the ‘simple’ might be hard for us to do, until we do it. In order for me to choose, I have to let go of “stuff”. By putting aside my ego, my high expectations, and my overly speculative imagination, I release myself of the clutter that prevents me from choosing.

Without all that clutter in my thought process, I allow for greater objectivity in my decision making. I can analyse faster and more easily recognise what suits and what doesn’t. I can see if my priorities will be met, satisfied, or improved. That’s an important bit, knowing what my priorities are. There’s no way I could choose wisely without being clear on what I want or where I want to be. Every time I’ve caught myself out sitting stuck upon my fence, it’s been courtesy of the dreaded “I don’t knows” and the equally evil “I’m not sure about this”. That’s my self-doubt creeping in, a lack of confidence in my ability to choose. By reminding myself of what’s important and what serves me best, I can let go of that clutter, and my choice paralysis disappears

The Good Choice.

I make good choices consistently when I’ve first chosen how I will think. If I’m considering a choice and the first words to overtake my thought process are akin to compromising, negotiating, or settling, I stop. That’s me using loss-language, as in what will I lose. How about looking for what there is to gain? What’s on offer here? Is what I feel I’m losing actually as important as what I stand to gain? When I’m clear on what I want from the choices before me, I can see good choices more clearly. My choice paralysis is removed, my self-confidence grows, I act and I choose. What can you let go of, and choose to do?

Post originally published here.

P.S Yours free, click here for an e-copy of my biography “Shift Your View”.

Simon Sharky Clark

Helping individuals and businesses create 
positive shifts in their mindset and their way of thinking.

E: simon@theshiftinitiator.com
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