Indecision is the Greatest Thief to Opportunity

Options are a wonderful thing to have. The ability to choose your direction in life an extraordinary gift. Is it possible to have too many choices? Can unlimited choices impair our ability to select anything? My wife and I were watching the television show, The Big Bang Theory, one evening and this subject came about. The characters on the show had a difficult time determining what to eat for dinner one evening. By the way, I briefly wrote about this subject in this previous post.

If we are honest with ourselves, options can be overwhelming. Baskin and Robbin’s 31 Flavors of Ice Cream sounds like a great idea until you have to choose your ice cream. In recent months, I have been experiencing cases of decision fatigue. Decision fatigue refers to the idea that your willpower or ability to make good decisions comes from a limited amount of mental resources. Consider your mental resources like the battery in your smartphone. If you have been using it all day, your ability to operate will be limited until you charge up again.

At the end of the work day, I would have limited capacity for decisions. The small decisions would take me longer than usual and large decisions just didn’t compute. After googling a bit, I learned that several notable individuals did everything that they could to reduce decision fatigue. Steve Jobs wore turtlenecks and jeans everyday and President Obama had only two suits to choose from. As leaders, they recognized the importance of their decisions and valued their capacity.

Now, I won’t limit my wardrobe to turtlenecks and jeans, but I will have to learn to automate certain tasks or plan ahead. Either way, I want to save my ability to make the best decisions when needed.