Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

modemmark — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:08:59 GMT

"some luck lies in getting what you have, rather than what you thought you had wanted...which woud've been what you wanted anyway, had you known" Garisson Keillor

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

cwc0000 — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:21:13 GMT

I thought exercising produces cortisol, not burns it?

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

mikecarrie01 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:40:49 GMT

This article is so true. A simple life is a better life. I read an article recently that said that not only do an abundance of 'things' not bring us happiness, they actually impede happiness. Stuff is fun, but fun is not happiness. Get rid of excess stuff and the responsibilities that go along with it and see how free and relieved and de-stressed you feel, making space and time for more important things. Whee!

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

Newportian — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:56:48 GMT

Meaningful informed choice is the key. Truly informed choice is a process that takes information, insight and wisdom. Without the time, ability or interest to discern and perceive the real spectrum of significant choices, we are left feeling frustrated, manipulated and confused by PR, dogma and disinformation. Real choice like beauty, is in the mind's eye of the beholder. To become a seeker of truth applies to all aspects of perceiving the really important choices of our lives. Successful adaptation to significant change requires new ways of perceiving, integrating and applying new information.

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

Maurine1 — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:50:26 GMT

Earlier this year there was a study reported that Danes were the happiest people in the world. Yet when you talk to Danes they are not particularly jolly. What further investigation revealed was that Danes did not have very high expectations! They are a small country and they go about their lives in a solid, down-to-earth way.

As for myself, I like having choices available but I take time to decide what is important to me -- my health, my pocketbook, certain conveniences. My cell phone is very basic (only used for emergencies), my car is a darling little 2001 Echo, etc. I shudder when I see people's shopping carts filled with junk food: a waste of money and destroyer of health. Who cares if one has designer clothes? I just want to look nice. Planned obsolescence of simple products (e.g., antenna TVs and probably my old model cell phone) is very frustrating. Change is inevitable and necessary but....

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

Margaux — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:10:32 GMT

Hi All.

I totally disagree!

I think limiting your choices diminishes your ability to act. Just like people who let others choose for them. So you should follow someone else's rules? That will limit your choices.

Instead of limiting your choices get your priorities in order. The more choices you have the more power you have. It is needing to make a choice and not making it that will make you unhappy. So make lots of choices. It takes practice and courage but you can get good at it. If you have your priorities in order it will be easier.

I think it is irresponsible and symptomatic of wanting to stay a child to limit your choices. Grow up and choose as much as you can.

If you make 10 choices and only 3 are right, you have make 3 more right choices than someone who made none. How many choices did the germans have under Nazi rule? Wake up. Cherish your freedom. Expand your choices!

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

hoopoe — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:53:26 GMT

This reminds me of the scene in the movie "Moscow on the Hudson" in which Robin Williams's character is overwhelmed by the number of coffee choices in the supermarket, since he'd never had such choice in the Soviet Union. If you're interested, the scene can be viewed at

vids.myspace.com/index.cfm

In this country I think the huge number of choices in consumer goods gives us the illusion of freedom. True freedom isn't about all the "stuff" we have, but the moral choices we make and how we live our lives.

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

Arizona — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:45:08 GMT

I understand his primary points and agree for the most part. However, when it comes to my body, I want to be in on the decision making. I want the doctor to include me in on how I will pursue my options.I want the doctor to empower me. I am a very goood researcher and want options, not directives. This was not a very good example, in my eyes. I don't one man/woman deciding on my fate. We are all different and our bodies react differently. I am tired of being lumped in one basket and being told to deal with it. That is why I got rid of my cardiologist. He would not allow me to pursue integrative medicine. Simple option

keep him or get rid of him. I got rid of him.

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

dmspilot00 — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:22:54 GMT

"Income redistribution will make everyone better off."

This guy is a royal idiot. He is advocating a tyranical society in which government tries to force people to be "happy". That is downright demented. I am angry that this video is featured here.

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

EasyCell — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 19:53:19 GMT

INKY, I think where you might be a little off is, giving denotes a certain spirit. While giving of yourself for the good of your family is the right thing to do, it also can be selfish if that is the extent of your giving. Someone who truely has a giving spirit, helps others in need even when they barely know them or don't know them at all. I challenge you to try it sometime and tell the rest of us that it did nothing for you. I do hope that you do it expecting nothing in return because then and only then is it done with the right spirit.

God Bless!

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

Kreative Keira — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:04:56 GMT

Too many choices causes inaction.--I totally agree.

And also knowing that you can have it better than you have it now causes unhappiness, I believe.

Like the grass is greener on the other side. Just the thought that you could have a spouse who treats you a lot better than the one you have now, causes feelings of unhappiness? Am I wrong? Otherwise, you take what you have and be grateful for it and thankful that it's not worse. This is true for just about everything right? (even for food: be satisfied with a smaller portion and be thankful that you even have that and not less) But this unhappiness also creates motivation for change, and is that necessarily a bad thing?-- lots of good things are created that way. Yet, we are a society of GREED. Wanting, wanting wanting, and never beeing happy with what we have.

Be Thankful, Be Happy. \(^-^)/

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

TiaIsWorried — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:27:07 GMT

One day a few months ago I was faced with a myriad of choices on everything.

Went out to eat for lunch and was torn between three items on the menu

Had to decide a course of treatment medically for myself.

Same time was trying to decide on a vaccination for my daughter

Car needed tires

House needed paint.

By 5 o'clock I was so tired from making choices that I couldn't even decide what to have for dinner.

When I went to the store to buy dinner and the cashier asked, "paper or plastic" I swear I nearly had a mental breakdown right in the checkout aisle.

Right then it clicked, we have too many options and too many possibilities in this world. WAY too many.

So, I have made a conscience effort to NOT make some choices and rely on chance/luck for some things.

When asked paper or plastic, I now say, "surprise me" (or use my reusable canvas bag)

Other choices I either Ben Franklin them or just random guess choice (3 options, number each one and than draw a number out of a cup).

Too many choices causes inaction.

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

JJFiddle — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:12:36 GMT

Life is like a game of chess in some ways - our choices are already limited by every move we make. Time limits activities, morality limits activities, our own history limits them too. When I read something on this website about water quality, for instance, I will probably make a choice to get cleaner purer water for my family.

Frankly I think most of us are just bumping along on choices we have already made. Any chance to clear the slate and make a new choice should be welcomed!

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

Hennypenny — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:32:45 GMT

This film opened my eyes - too many people are saddened because they think everything is possible. We are maybe losing the ability to be content, to work within what is really possible given our income, location, talents and to be able to do the best we can with what we have. This leads us to dissatisfaction and to think there is always something better somewhere else. That doesn't mean we should accept injustice or mediocrity - but that maybe we should challenge the definition of "better". Often "better" is an idea seeded to get us to buy more stuff when the old one worked just as well as we needed. After all, I guess most of us really don't use all the gadgets on our mobile phones and just as the speaker suggested I was happier with my jeans when I didn't have to look for perfection. When they were just jeans we wore 'em anyway. Now if I can't find the perfect fit among 50 pairs then it must be my fault/my big ass etc.................Yep, he does have a point there!

re: Increase Your Happiness ... by Limiting Your Choices

INKY DINKY — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:22:26 GMT

Always rubs me the wrong way when someone says that happiness comes from "giving". Who doesn't "give" (in one way or another), unless, of course, one lives alone in a cave. A chiropractor I was seeing a little while back told me about how his "giving" was reflected back to his life. I remember thinking to myself...yes, and you are getting a pretty hefty pay check to go along with it. As if every (well, most every) mother doesn't "give" endlessly to her family. As if every father doesn't give, to the best of his ability, to provide for his family. I believe that most people give, in one way or another, to others in need. Limiting our choices makes our life easier and that, in itself, helps by eliminating some of the stress in our lives. Reducing stress always helps to bring more peace into ones life and that sure makes me happier... and having good health sure helps.