Who else wants to make decision easily and without regret? Today begins a series of exercises on how to do just that by learning to be a saticficer.
If you missed the previous post about maximizers and satisficers, take a second and go test yourself before reading on.
Ready? The exercise comes in two parts:
1- Think of a choice about which you already are a satisficer. Pay attention to the way you think, feel and act in that circumstance.
2- Pick a choice about which you are a maximizer. Try to apply those same patterns to this new choice.
For example:
For some strange reason, I am a satisficer about car shopping. When it came time for me to buy a new car last fall, I set a few parameters for myself. I cared about price, fuel economy and the overall size of the car. The first dealership didn’t have anything that fit my parameters, so I went to a second. They had what I wanted. I bought it. I didn’t care about color. I didn’t need to test drive. I didn’t worry about possible better deals elsewhere. And I don’t regret my decision. I love my new car.
Grocery shopping, on the other hand, can send me into complete roblock, especially when it comes to choosing dessert. I’ll stand in front of the cookie section forever trying to make a decision, afraid I’ll pick the wrong one. I think of a zillion ways I’ll regret my choice, all the things I’ll lose out on if I skip any of the other cookies. After several minutes of this, I’ll finally give up and just pick one (or, on a good day, pick none) then eat it completely without joy, continuing to ruminate over the failure of my decision.
Even if I end up choosing the best possible cookie, I’m not happy about it. So, part two of the exercise: Shop for dessert with the Maile Car-Buyer mindset. That is, I’ll set parameters for myself ahead of time and then take the first dessert that fits those parameters, no matter what else is out there. Chances are I’ll still wonder what I missed (you can’t will thinking-habits to change), but I’ll save a load of time in the decision making. Time I can devote to other ways of being happy.
Easier said than done! How did this go for you? How did your satisficer self make decisions? Were you able to apply those techniques to other parts of your life?
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Oh, maile, you’re funny! I’m the same way about pies! My mom will order coconut cream and I will want butterscotch until I see hers; then it’s all over…I should have gotten chocolate, I picked the wrong one! So what we always do now is split them!
I was just about to take apart a necklace I was working on tonight, standing back and looking at it after much worrying over whether or not people would like it. Then I just decided after about an hour or more that if I liked it that was all that mattered. Screw what anybody else thought. Maybe my sister would buy it if no one else liked it!
In the time I wasted worrying about it I coulda had a pairs of earrings and a bracelet made to match!
Hehe. I hope you weren’t fretting over that new pink one (or if it was, glad you left it how it is). I love it!
So interesting that one can exhibit conflicting tendencies on different occasions. I’m always so pleased to be a vegetarian, because of the limits it puts on all the hundreds of choices on a menu, but find clothes shopping impossible, because I always believe there’s something better out there.
One of the best gifts my husband ever gave me was to tell me that he thought that in my creative work, I had really good instincts, and that my first idea was usually my best. This caused me to stop reviewing, second-guessing and rethinking my work to death and instead to trust myself. And boy, has it increased both my productivity and my enjoyment of my work.
I like the stuff in your blog – very different from all the design blogs I usually read. Thanks.
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