I recently bought a new car. It is the same model as my old car, just newer and with less miles on it.
I’m not sure why, but I’m having trouble getting used to it. I think I may have paid too much, but the other cars I looked at were even more expensive. Everything feels expensive right now. I don’t know how people do it. Some of the cars I see on the road cost as much as a small house. (Or as much as a small house used to cost. I haven’t priced houses lately.)
I’m also no longer sure I need such a large car. Should I drive something that is better for the environment? I’ve been doing some looking online, but I haven’t found anything that jumps out at me saying “This is the one!”
This isn’t the first time I’ve had second thoughts about something. I asked a pretty girl named Penny to my eighth grade dance, and she was so popular she ended up dancing with everyone else but me. I should have asked the girl who sat behind me in science class. We really liked each other, she was easy to talk to, and I think she was hurt when I didn’t ask her. I guess I learned something from that.
Everything can always be different. — Alfred Adler
I’ve had second thoughts about a whole raft of decisions I’ve made. I decided to go to business school instead of law school. I could have been a physician. I quit playing football to compete in oratory. I stopped taking piano lessons in order to play baseball. I didn’t take job offers from Microsoft, IBM, or Hewlett-Packard. I traded finance for ministry, with a side of psychology. Who knows how any choice will turn out? We can’t predict the future. How well will something hold up? How will I like it? Is there a better option? I don’t think any of us can be sure.
It seems to me that the best we can do is to pull together whatever data we have available, and make a decision. There will always be another choice to make. One of my favorite quotes is from Alfred Adler: “Everything can always be different.” If a decision is too onerous, we can move in a new direction.
Annie Duke says, "What makes a decision great is not that it has a great outcome. A great decision is the result of a good process, and that process must include an attempt to accurately represent our own state of knowledge. That state of knowledge, in turn, is some variation of "I'm not sure." (Thinking in Bets, Annie Duke) I think at some point we have to recognize that what we know will always be limited, and we have to choose anyway.
But if I become pleased with my decision over time, I feel an obligation to give thanks, because I can’t take all the credit. Things might have gone another way. Call it luck, or the hand of God, or random occurrences. Or maybe I just got used to my choice. In any event, if it feels good, I’m thankful.
I’m still looking at car ads. I’ve even driven a couple. We’ll see how things go.
