A thought struck me when I was at the grocery store spending more time than I should have spent choosing between a healthier, more expensive cereal vs. a cheaper, sugarey cereal. I thought to myself that if a simple decision like this gives me pause, how would I ever survive if my life truly gets complicated. And for that matter, how in the world does someone like the President avoid paralysis at every decision point? Every 10 minutes of his life he faces choices that affect at minimum, thousands of people. Does he eventually get used to the enormity of the implications and just deal with it?

More recently, my life was in flux as I unexpectedly had to move twice in one week. There were many moments of neurotic paralysis, where it seemed like I had to make quick decisions with large financial implications. And yet, somehow, with all that stress, I was able to forge an important lesson about life; in order to help me sort through everything, I came up with this principle:

Wants are many, needs are few. Needs are simple, wants are complex.
During the most stressful periods of that week, I asked myself, "okay what do you need?" Usually there'd only be one thing on my mind. Most often, it'd be something mundane like, "I need to eat." Othertimes it would pertain to the main things causing me stress, like, "I need to get Internet set up so I can start working," or "I need to meet with my landlord." The point is, there'd be generally only one thing in my mind that I truly needed, and if I just followed a critical path from need to need, ultimately the broad strokes of my life would form a good picture.

Have you ever stuck out your hands and tried to visualize the actual weight of decisions? If you're dealing with just your needs this is easy, and you usually only need two hands. But when it comes to your wants, there are too many if-then statements and complicated contigencies that you ultimately get lost in your head.

One psychologist (can't find the link) was talking about how Americans have so many consumer choices that they face small moments of choice anxiety everyday. Anxious parents, for example, are faced with choosing between an ordinary stroller and a $1,200 Orbit Infant System (You want the best for your baby right??). The psychologist mentioned that one way to get over the paralysis is to figure out what is "good enough" and get anything above that line. By that line of thinking, the baby stroller decision would flow as follows: "If you need a stroller, then any will do. If you have the money, throw it at the Orbit, sure. Otherwise, don't sweat it."