How to Maximize Your Satisfaction
March 19, 2015How do you make decisions? According to this article, there are two basic approaches. Some people are “satisfiers,” which means that when they see a choice that satisfies them, they take it. Other people are “maximizers,” meaning they want to see and study all the choices to pick the best possible option. Maximizers do tend to make “better” choices (for example, they make more money on average) but they also aren’t as happy with those choices (including with those higher-paying jobs). That’s because maximizers are always wondering if there’s a better choice they could have made.
I have to admit that I’m a maximizer. I tend to research and agonize about every major decision I make and then I sometimes waste a lot of time second guessing myself. But when it comes to spending decisions, I’ve found a happy medium.
First, I start with the cheapest option and then I move up in price until I find the first thing that satisfies me. Then, I see the options that cost slightly more in price and see if any of them offer a lot more for the money. If so, I might go with the better value. If not, I purchase the cheapest thing that satisfies my needs.
For me, this combines the best of both worlds. Like a satisfier, I don’t have to spend a lot of time looking at all of my options. I also get the benefit of maximizing my savings, which satisfies my maximizer personality. I might wonder if I should have gotten a better option, but I also know it would have cost me more and probably wouldn’t have been worth it if I’m already satisfied.
Now, you may think I’m missing out by settling for something that’s just satisfying but I find that when I spend more, I also expect more so it’s easier to be disappointed. Before you dismiss that, I should point out that studies have shown that having low expectations is actually the key to happiness. If that’s the case, spending less is truly the best way to buy happiness.
If I did spend more for greater enjoyment, studies also show that I would likely get acclimated to it eventually and be no more happy than I was before anyway. To make matters worse, it might even make it harder to “buy happiness” in the future. As an example, when I currently indulge in a really fancy restaurant from time to time, I get more enjoyment from it because it’s so special. But if I always ate out at the nicest, most expensive restaurants, I’d eventually get used to the experience and enjoy them less than someone not so accustomed to it. It would then take something more extravagant to get the same level of pleasure. In other words, the higher your living standard is, the harder it is to appreciate those finer things in life.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should purchase something that stresses you out or makes you miserable just because it’s cheap. That’s where the “satisfying” part comes in. It just means that you might want to pick the cheapest thing that does satisfy you because that could actually maximize your long term satisfaction.