The Are You Too Picky Test

While you believe there is a perfect lover for you out there, you are more realistic. You have moments of doubt but you tend to enjoy what you got.

Maximizers need to be assured that every decision was the best that could be made.

Satisficers settle for something that is good enough and not worry about the possibility that there might be something better.

Our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse. We assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.

The good news is that maximizing and satisficing orientations tend to be "domain specific". As a result most of us have the capacity to be satisficers. No one is an absolute maximizer -- truly checking out all the sweaters in all the stores would mean that buying a single sweater could take a lifetime. Is this what you want when you are looking for a life partner?

Schwartz offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.

1. Choose when to choose
2. Be a chooser, not a picker
3. Satisfice more and maximize less
4. Think about the opportunity costs of opportunity costs
5. Make your decisions non-reversible
6. Practice an "attitude of gratitude"
7. Regret less
8. Anticipate adaptation
9. Control expectations
10. Curtail social comparison
11. Learn to love constraints

Best of luck in your search!