Is choice a good thing?
Posted by Phil Black on Mon, Jan 23, 2012 @ 08:36 AM
Mental Edge Monday
Topic #44: Is choice a good thing?
It seems obvious that more choice is almost always better than less choice. Who wouldn't want more choice? When it comes to careers, partners, places to live, et cetera, who wouldn't want the ability to see and do it all?
Well, I've definitely fed at the trough of choices over the last 40 years. From Investment Banker, to Navy SEAL, to Money Manager, to firefighter, to entrepreneur - I've never hesitated to explore different career choices. Sometimes I wonder whether this freedom of choice is a blessing or a curse in today's society.
An ability to choose a career, for instance, was not always so easy, accepted, or celebrated. Back in the day, you chose a career and stuck with it until you retired with a gold watch. Your occupational identity was well entrenched and it created a well-organized life with a coherent set of expectations, goals, social interactions, and financial trajectory.
While the career you chose might not have been the perfect fit, it helped to create a focused, concentrated, internally coherent set of experiences that felt meaningful and enjoyable. You knew who you were and who you weren't.
Nowadays, we can shed our occupational identities at will. No one needs to remain a factory worker forever.
The number of options we have today is incredible. However, having so many equally attractive choices may create an uncertainty of purpose. This uncertainty can destroy resolve and ultimately devalue your coveted choices.
A freedom of choice does not always help us develop a meaning for our lives - and in some cases, may muddy these waters. If our options become too flexible and attainable, then our concentration can fizzle and it may be more difficult to find meaning and purpose in our lives.
Commitment to a goal (even if it's a gold watch) and to the rules it entails (e.g. promotions, relocations) is often easier when the choices are few and clear. With the added complexity and freedom we have today, we must fight even harder to find goals worth spending our lives on. Without a fight, we risk wasting our energies on contradictory and meaningless goals.
My favorite example of someone who has committed to a career in the face of dozens of opportunities and choice is legendary high school basketball coach Bob Hurley Sr. of Saint Anthony's High School in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Coach Hurley has coached one of the best inner-city high school basketball programs in history for over 30 years. He retired from his "day job" as a parole officer several years ago and continues to coach his high school team in retirement.
Coach Hurley has been offered millions of dollars year after year after year to coach at the college level, pro level, etc. He has respectfully declined. He lives in the same house he's always lived in and his team still shares their tiny auditorium gym with the church. In his nearly 40 years of coaching, he's never earned more than a $9,000 annual stipend for coaching.
One has to wonder what he knows that everybody else doesn't? How could he turn down millions of dollars, fame, prestige, notoriety, and instant life change - not once, but year after year after year?
It appears that Coach Hurley is not interested in such choices. He has discovered his ultimate purpose in life. He has an inner congruence that helps him make decisions - without being swayed by the carrots of wealth, fame, or the spotlight. Coach Hurley exudes the inner strength and serenity of a person who has come to terms with himself.
- Have you come to terms with yourself?
- Have you found a goal worth spending your life on?
- Do you have too many or too few choices in your life?
- Are you experiencing inner strength from your sharp focus or inner conflict from the many competing claims on your attention?
Let's work on this together. I'm still haunted by the many choices that I'm faced with every day. I strive to cut through the clutter and get to the few things that that bring my life true purpose, meaning, and direction.
How about you?
Until next week, Keep the Edge.
Phil Black (FitDeck Founder)
If you like to think about these types of issues, check out Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book called "Flow".