Exploration vs. Commitment

There's a common problem that we face in many different areas of life: when do we branch out and explore more options, versus when do we make a choice and commit to something for a period of time?

Any time we need to make a decision, we face this problem.

What career should we choose? Who should we date or marry? What hobbies should we pick up? What type of animal advocacy should we participate in? What should we have for dinner tonight?

Our habits may drive much of this behavior without us consciously considering options—which is why it's important to assess our habits and change those that aren't in line with how we want our life to go. (See the book Atomic Habits for more.)

But when we're consciously deciding, we face the problem of which choice to make—or whether to go seek out more options.

In their book Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, the authors say that an important part of decision making is just making sure that you have a few options to choose from in the first place. This is step 1 of the process: widen your options. Then, you can narrow down and decide. Many people make decisions without first properly exploring what options even exist, which leads to a very narrow focus, which often leads to subpar choices.

I think it's probably worth it for each of us to spend a little time learning about how to make better decisions. After all, don't our decisions guide much of our lives? And if that's true, then how we make those decisions would seem to be quite important.