What does this research tell us? First, that we love having options (âWhoa! Twenty-four jams?! Letâs check this out!!â), and, second, that we canât deal with too many of them (âUm...so many...canât decide; letâs go get some cheeseâ). In fact, most minds can choose effectively between only three to five options. If weâre faced with more than that, our ability to make a choice begins to waneâmany more than that and our ability to choose completely freezes. Itâs just the way our brains are wired. Weâre attracted to having alternatives, and our modern culture almost idolizes options for their own sake. Get lots of options! Keep your options open! Donât get locked in! We hear this sort of thinking all the time, and it seems to make sense, but there absolutely can be too much of this good option thing. When you toss in the Internet and the fact that we can now be made aware of seemingly every idea and activity on the planet after a subsecond Google search, most of us are suffering a pandemic attack of too many options.
The key is to reframe your idea of options by realizing that if you have too many options, you actually have none at all. If you get frozen in front of your daunting list of possibilities, then, in fact, you have no options. Remember that options only actually create value in your life when they are chosen and realized. We often teach our students that when an option grows up it becomes a choice. So, when youâve got twenty-four jam options, you actually have zero options. Once you understand that, in choice making, twenty-four equals zero (and, boy, is it hard to believe when you love your options and worked so hard to find and come up with them), then you are free to take the next step: narrowing down.