To Protect Against Existential Anxiety, Give Yourself Some Limits

There’s real power in minimizing your choices

The more choices we have the better, or so we think. But that’s not always the case. Constraints, that is, artificially minimizing choices, are becoming increasingly important to our mental health. We should embrace them in more areas of our lives.

Here’s why: In a world where technology is accelerating, you have access to what, for all intents and purposes, is infinity in more areas of your life. A few examples include dating apps (endless potential matches); flexible work schedules (endless time — until you die, that is — to do your work); streaming music or television (endless options for listening or watching); and, of course, health and fitness (endless approaches and programs for movement, diet, sleep, and everything in between).

The problem is a simple yet, I think, profound one: when you are up against infinity it is very easy to convince yourself that there is something better out there, because there almost certainly is something better out there. But this ensures you never stick with anything for long enough to derive full benefit and meaning. You are constantly in seeking mode instead of practicing or doing mode.