How to Downsize Your Choices
Realize that excess choice imprisons you., Do your research., Use stores that make quality choices for you., Be happy with what you have and with what you choose., Don't keep up with the Joneses., Value time.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Realize that excess choice imprisons you.
When there are too many things or services to choose from, you can become so overwhelmed that you feel trapped.
You can easily make decisions that are based on quantity and other people's opinions or persuasiveness over real need and utility.
Moreover, you become a slave to goods and services when you've chosen too many:
What about those gym memberships you've never used? What about all those electric gadgets in your kitchen that either get forgotten (but take up space) or require a lot of cleaning effort to keep them in working order? Has the sheer amount of these gadgets made your life easier or simply more enslaved to using them because you have them, whether or not they're really helping you? -
Step 2: Do your research.
Before you go to purchase goods or services, or before you choose which university to attend, which job to take, which club to join, do some background research.
Go online, ask people who are in-the-know, read books, etc., and seek the answers that resonate best with your needs.
If there are doubts, listen to those because they're probably choice-sorting doubts that can allow you to drop those choices.
Whittle your research down to a maximum of 5 to 6 choices and no more, then go and test them out in the store. , Some stores are renowned for only providing a small range of quality merchandise that their buyers are happy to put forward as the best items in their range.
This cuts out all the choices which may or may not be cheaper or more expensive but are liable to be less reliable or worth investing in, and that simply add to the confusion. , Longing for more things when the things you already have are doing a perfectly fine job will fill you with a sense of uneasiness.
And worrying that you might not have made the best choice from the things you have chosen is a constant state of second-guessing yourself.
The happiest way to be is the one in which you accept that the things in your life that are already working are adequate and don't need upgrading, fixing, extending, or decorating. , So what if they own the latest car, computer, games machine? Do they appear happier or simply more besotted and less time free? There is a point of diminishing returns and maybe the Joneses have reached it and you just can't see it.
Ignore their boasting; it could just be that they'd like to see you as trapped as they're feeling. , New things and new must-do's can soon turn into time sappers.
Reading instructions, locating all the pieces, finding where you need to go, etc., are all time-sucking, let alone when you get deeply entrenched in using you new gadgets.
If the new item or experience isn't adding anything to your life but threatens to take away time, don't add it. -
Step 3: Use stores that make quality choices for you.
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Step 4: Be happy with what you have and with what you choose.
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Step 5: Don't keep up with the Joneses.
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Step 6: Value time.
Detailed Guide
When there are too many things or services to choose from, you can become so overwhelmed that you feel trapped.
You can easily make decisions that are based on quantity and other people's opinions or persuasiveness over real need and utility.
Moreover, you become a slave to goods and services when you've chosen too many:
What about those gym memberships you've never used? What about all those electric gadgets in your kitchen that either get forgotten (but take up space) or require a lot of cleaning effort to keep them in working order? Has the sheer amount of these gadgets made your life easier or simply more enslaved to using them because you have them, whether or not they're really helping you?
Before you go to purchase goods or services, or before you choose which university to attend, which job to take, which club to join, do some background research.
Go online, ask people who are in-the-know, read books, etc., and seek the answers that resonate best with your needs.
If there are doubts, listen to those because they're probably choice-sorting doubts that can allow you to drop those choices.
Whittle your research down to a maximum of 5 to 6 choices and no more, then go and test them out in the store. , Some stores are renowned for only providing a small range of quality merchandise that their buyers are happy to put forward as the best items in their range.
This cuts out all the choices which may or may not be cheaper or more expensive but are liable to be less reliable or worth investing in, and that simply add to the confusion. , Longing for more things when the things you already have are doing a perfectly fine job will fill you with a sense of uneasiness.
And worrying that you might not have made the best choice from the things you have chosen is a constant state of second-guessing yourself.
The happiest way to be is the one in which you accept that the things in your life that are already working are adequate and don't need upgrading, fixing, extending, or decorating. , So what if they own the latest car, computer, games machine? Do they appear happier or simply more besotted and less time free? There is a point of diminishing returns and maybe the Joneses have reached it and you just can't see it.
Ignore their boasting; it could just be that they'd like to see you as trapped as they're feeling. , New things and new must-do's can soon turn into time sappers.
Reading instructions, locating all the pieces, finding where you need to go, etc., are all time-sucking, let alone when you get deeply entrenched in using you new gadgets.
If the new item or experience isn't adding anything to your life but threatens to take away time, don't add it.
About the Author
Isabella Hall
Experienced content creator specializing in cooking guides and tutorials.
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