Beech Tree News Network

How many choices or decisions do you make each day? Do you believe that people generally makes a few hundred or a few thousand choices each day? The number may depend on how we define decision.

‘Decision’ has been explained as “something that somebody chooses or makes up his or her mind about, after considering it and other possible choices” (http://www.bing.com/search?q=define+decision&form=MSNH14&pc=U147G&refig=...). A few perspectives regarding decision making are reflected in the following comments:
•    When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice. ~William James
•    Indecision becomes decision with time. ~Author Unknown
•    Life is the sum of all your choices. ~Albert Camus
•    Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions. ~Author Unknown
•    It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. ~Roy Disney

Most people probably make thousands of decisions each day. Adults make decisions at work, while traveling, at home, and within their personal life. I believe many of our decisions are about little things such as what to eat. Recently on The Chew, an ABC talk show about food, one of the hosts talked about the food choices we make daily. As a result, I asked friends and family about the choices they make regarding six foods:
1.    Coffee: decaffeinated or regular?  81% preferred regular coffee, and 19% were not coffee drinkers. However, tea and other caffeinated drinks were mentioned by the non-coffee drinkers. 
2.    Chocolate: dark chocolate or milk chocolate?  90% preferred milk chocolate, 5% preferred dark chocolate, and 5% had no preference.
3.    Peanut butter: crunchy or smooth?  76% chose smooth or creamy peanut butter, 19% chose crunchy peanut butter, and 5% do not eat peanut butter.
4.    Pizza: deep dish or thin crust?  48% like deep dish pizza, 33% like thin crust pizza, and 19% like hand-tossed pizza. One person said that he eats thin crust pizza because no one around here makes it like the good Chicago deep dish.
5.    Tea: sweetened or unsweetened?  71% like sweetened tea (One sweetens with Splenda; another orders a mixture of ½ sweetened and ½ unsweetened.), 19% like unsweetened tea, and 10% had no preference.
6.    Snacks: salty or sweet?  38% like sweet snacks, 24% like salty snacks, and 38% like both sweet and salty snacks. (Answering this particular question would be a very hard choice for me, but sweet snacks would likely win.)
These questions showed me just how many decisions we make regarding food in a day.

How many choices do we make each day? Wiki reported that we make 61,257 choices per day (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_choices_does_the_average_person_make_...?). I have no idea how many choices I make in a normal day – probably not 61,257. But, regarding the six food preferences, I believe our regional culture influences our choices. And, if “we are our choices” as Jean-Paul Sartre said, I hope I’m making healthy ones.