Have you ever found yourself debating dinner plans with your friends or partner?
You want to go out for dinner but now you are burdened with the choice of where to go.
Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Thai, Malaysian, Indian, Greek, Australian...the list goes on.
"What do you feel like eating?" you ask.
"I don't know," comes the reply.
"What about Chinese?"
"No, I don't want that."
"What about Italian?"
"No, I had that last week"
Frustrated, you snap, "Well, then what do you want?!"
"I don't know what I want, you decide!!"
Sound familiar? We've all been in this situation.
But why do we find it so difficult to decide what we want? What was once a simple decision—choosing where to eat—has become a struggle.
The Ripple Effect of Indecision
And it's not just about food! This difficulty bleeds into all areas of our lives:
• Deciding on a career
• Choosing a place to live
• Picking out clothes
• Selecting a movie to watch
An avalanche of options can leave you gasping for breath, paralyzed by indecision.
It feels as if you're tumbling, lost, down an endless, winding path of uncertainty, every turn presenting yet another decision to make.
But why does this happen? Two main reasons:
We worry about making the wrong choice.
We fear we might miss out on something better.
Imagine this:
You open a dating app and see hundreds of people.
You turn on Netflix and there are thousands of shows.
On TikTok, there are new trends every day.
Restaurants have 50 food items on the menu.
Clothing brands have something new every season.
It's like standing in front of a huge candy store — it's hard to pick just one thing. And what scares us most is the thought that we might be missing out on something even better!
So how do we solve this problem of choice overload?
Essentialism: The Solution
Enter essentialism, a concept focused on making decisions based on what's essential. But what does that even mean?
Essentialism is about unearthing and focusing on what resonates with your inner self.
Think of Essentialism as using a magnet at a scrap yard. Within all the clutter and mess, the magnet pulls out only the valuable metals.
Much like you should focus on decisions that truly align with the person you want to become.
That's why you need a blueprint for your life's decisions - a system that focuses on what truly matters to you.
However, knowing this blueprint is often a challenging task for many.
Here's one technique that I use to make decisions that might help you:
Start by envisioning your future self. Paint a picture of what their life looks like.
How they dress.
How they act.
What they eat.
How they speak.
How they treat people.
Treat every decision with this person in mind. Ask yourself - does this decision bring me a step closer to my ideal future self? or away?
If it does, seize it, if not leave it.
Reducing your choices down to two options eliminates the overwhelm of decision-making.
It gives you clarity knowing that the decision you made was yours.
It won't keep you second guessing or thinking 'What if?'.
So the next time you want to know where to eat.
Don't ask me I don't know.
~Stefan Barbas Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
→ Discover Your Genius: If you're still looking at what you should spend the rest of your life doing then this is for you. Discover your unique gifts and what you were born to do in your life.
→ The Life By Design Program: An 8-Week comprehensive deep dive on how to make a living through your genius & how to break-free from the self-inflicted prison of the mind.
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