Notes From A Psych Student: On Decision Making

I have always struggled to make decisions. It is so hard when you are faced with two options and you know that if you choose the wrong one you will live the rest of your life with regret whereas the right one will be your key to everlasting freedom and happiness.

Or is it?

Consider the words of the philosopher Kierkegaard:

“Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy.”

Isn't that so freeing? No matter what decision you make you will feel the same way. And psychology has backed this up.

Psychologists in Northwestern University and the University of Massachusetts asked two groups of people about happiness: recent winners of the Illinois State Lottery — whose prizes ranged from $50,000 to $1 million — and recent victims of catastrophic accidents, who were now paraplegic or quadriplegic. When they analyzed their results, they found that the recent accident victims reported gaining more happiness from these everyday pleasures than the lottery winners.

And no, this does not mean you shouldn't want good things to happen or should want bad things.

What it simply means is that people overestimate how bad they would feel when faced with problems and how good they will feel when good things happen. We get used to our baseline levels and go back to them once the initial feelings wear out.

This means that no matter what decision you make, in the end of the day you will feel just as good with both outcomes. The difference between the two options in terms of your happiness is far less than you think it will be

I hope this makes decision making easier for you :)