Frankly, my dear

An article in the NY Times reported that researchers in behavioral economics at MIT conducted tests with students to see what effect options had on behavior. They found that subjects were willing to pay rather than see options close. Apparently, it was not so much to maintain future flexibility as it was to avoid the loss of seeing options permanently cut off. In other words, according to their experiment, people are willing to pay to avoid the immediate feeling of loss of options. They postulate that it is the feeling or emotion associated with loss that people try to avoid, not the loss itself.

So the next time you procrastinate on making a decision, ask yourself, are you procrastinating because you fear the outcome, or because you fear the feeling of loss you will have when you close one door and choose another? And by "keeping your options open" what are you gaining? Just the feeling of not losing them? Is that sufficient justification for not making a choice?

Sometimes choosing to say no is a way to step forward.

“We may work more hours at our jobs,” Dr. Ariely writes in his book, “without realizing that the childhood of our sons and daughters is slipping away. Sometimes these doors close too slowly for us to see them vanishing."