When Boredom Takes Over

Last week, I went to an ice cream parlour, and laid before me were a variety of flavours of ice cream to chose from. Having eaten a mango flavoured ice cream at home (which I heartily enjoyed) before going to the said parlour, I settled for the maple syrup one; however, I didn’t enjoy it because it was too sweet for my taste. But was it really too sweet? Or perhaps, I was only dissatisfied with my choice because there were more than ten flavours right in front of me—mango, my favourite, included. Knowing that one of those flavours would be the best for taste lessened the satisfaction value the maple syrup ice cream could’ve had. Of course, I could have tried another flavours, but that would have been a waste of money. And I had none.

In the book, The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, he talked about the importance of the choices we make, and how they affect our lives. He argued that the freedom we hope and fight for can actually hinder us from achieving satisfaction and happiness. He said that equating liberty to choice, as if increasing the number of choices defines freedom, can be harmful to us, and, he even went further by stating that, too many choices might cause us psychological disorders such as depression.

I am not saying that the abundance of choice is evil; all I'm saying is that it has a negative and a positive side. Having too many options to chose from consumes an enormous amount of our precious energy and time. For example, spending a day in a shop looking for a perfect clothing is time consuming because knowing that there would be thousands of designs makes us search more intently for the best one. We have to find the best! In the end, we try on the product that we bought and still feel that it's not the perfect choice because somewhere, someone is already wearing the same clothing or a better one. Also, it increases our expectations, therefore, we are more prone to disappointment. However, on the positive side, more options gives us higher possibility of making the right choice.

Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist, said: “Freedom is not the absence of commitment, but the ability to choose—and commit ourselves—what is the best for us.” It is not about the quantity of choices. It is about making the right choice. I think, to escape or to overcome this dilemma is to know what we really want or what we love, and then we must pursue it. Be it in choosing what to have for dinner, what cell phone plan to sign, or what car to buy, up to more personal things such as who to choose as a husband or wife (if given a chance to choose), we should think carefully and thoroughly and commit ourselves to our decision. Only by that, we’d be able to be happy with the choices that we make.