The Power of Choice

“The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose” – J. Martin Kohe

Life is all about choices, every situation presents a choice and you choose how to react to each. Making that choice is the starting point of everything you do in your life, and your choices matter. You encounter a choice, you analyse your options, and you make a choice and then live with its consequences. Choices need to be guided by rationale, reasonableness, practicability and knowledge.

In situations where the possible consequences are large (i.e. important personal or business decisions), and you are not in your circle of competence, try to be as rational as possible when choosing. In situations where the consequences are small, say which soft drink to choose or which cinema to see and when you are well within your circle of competence let intuitions take over, especially when errors in such decisions do not do great or lasting damage.

However, as we commonly overestimate our knowledge, it is necessary to ensure that you get a clear grasp and understanding of your circle of competence.

This way of choosing or decision making, based on less irrationality, may not be the key to success and happiness but it will definitely avoid much of the self-induced unhappiness.

We do not know for sure what makes us successful or happy. But we know with certainty what destroys success or happiness. Negative knowledge (what not to do) is much more potent than positive knowledge (what to do). Strive to eliminate all errors and better thinking will follow. Instinctive negative reactions should be given greater value in your decision making.

Your choices determine your happiness. Choosing a positive attitude over a negative attitude helps you overcome the challenges you face. Such choices are made internally as you talk to yourself and as you are ready to take responsibility for your situation instead of blaming others or circumstances. It is not what happens to you that matters, it is how you choose to respond to those circumstances that counts.

Why do we have a hard time making good choices? The problems seem to arise from our biases, our irrationality and how evolution has wired our brains to react and, as Samuel Johnson says, our illusion of’ triumph of hope over experience’.

As Rolf Dobelli writes in ‘The Art of Thinking Clearly’ –

Intuitive choices, even if they lack logic, are better under certain circumstances. For many decisions we lack the necessary information and the time to acquire it, so we use mental shortcuts/intuition, rules of thumb or heuristics. Intuition improves with experience.

Intuitive thinking is swift, spontaneous and energy saving. In our evolutionary history, where the price of a first-degree error was death, lightning-fast reactions were vital and long ruminations were fatal. But where you have the time and most, if not ALL, of the information necessary then single-minded rational contemplation, though slow and demanding and energy guzzling, would be the way to go.

Let me exhort you to ‘wake up!’ Recognize that it is your life we are talking about and that only you can live it. So stand-up and take responsibility for it as best as you can so that you can get the best out of it and be as happy as you can in it. Once again remember that choosing not to make a choice is also, your choice, and whether you accept it or not what happens in your life is still, and will always be, only your responsibility.

A surfeit of choices destroys the quality of life. As psychologist, Barry Schwartz noted – Broader selection leads to poorer decisions. Large selection options lead to discontent, as you can never be sure that you have made the optimum choice. Also, you may then not stay with your choice but change it again and again and thus lose focus as well as the opportunity to be happy with what you chose. Also, always –”be careful what you choose. You may get it”.

You, no doubt desire a full and meaningful life, with happy relationships within the family and with friends and the satisfaction of achievement and its recognition in your family and your workplace.

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