Too many choices
On my honeymoon many years ago, more concerned with my wardrobe than my toiletries, I overpacked dresses and underpacked my daily cosmetic needs, thinking I would buy what I ran out of. Once we got to Venice, on the third leg of our trip, my toothpaste ran out. We went to the pharmacy and I asked, in my best Italian, where I could find toothpaste. A pharmacy in a European city is nothing like a pharmacy in the United States. There are no aisles of snack foods, soda, seen-on-TV items, or toilet paper. A pharmacy in Europe contains medicine and personal care products. That’s it.
On a typical shopping trip in the U.S., we are faced with an alarming number of choices, with toothpaste having around 25 options. While there may be only three to five big brands, each has various “recipes”- bright white, mint paste, mint gel, bubble mint, extra white, charcoal, etc. And while European pharmacies may have expanded their offerings today, at the time I was offered two choices in Venice. The decision took approximately 5 seconds to make. Once I made the decision, I was done and on my way to enjoy the city sights.
Yet, in the U.S., we have so many choices that even choosing a toothpaste can cause anxiety. If I get the bright white, will that be good enough? Perhaps I should purchase the extreme white? Do I need whitening toothpaste? How white should my teeth be? Like choosing products, choosing partners and jobs has become a never-ending buffet of options.
When we have so many choices, it’s too easy to imagine something better on the horizon. Choice is necessary, and I welcome the choices that we, especially women, have today thanks to the trailblazing activists who have come before us. But there is such a thing as too many choices.
In “The Paradox of Choice” by Barry Schwartz, a psychologist, too many choices can exhaust us and impede decision making. We make hundreds of decisions per day; such as what to eat, what to wear, and where to park. If there are too many choices, we may become paralyzed with indecision, or “if we overcome paralysis and make a choice, we tend to be less satisfied with our choice later. The bar [for obtaining satisfaction] rises with the more options people have to choose from.”
How does the abundance of choice affect our careers? It can lead to early dissatisfaction from a constant undercurrent of do more, be more, be better. Even if you are not intending to make a career or job move, are you spending a significant chunk of time reviewing job opportunities? LinkedIn, the professional social platform, peppers job opportunities throughout your feed. Even when you select to hide them, they appear again within a few days.
The constant noise of “look here, this might be better for you” is mentally exhausting us.