F.O.B.O., or the Fear of A Better Option, comes when we struggle to choose just one from a variety of perfectly acceptable options.
Working hand-in-hand with F.O.M.O., or the Fear of Missing Out, fear will take over our lives if we are not determined to take conscious actions daily.
You might be wondering how this F.O.B.O. starts. Here’s the answer. Before the advancement of technology, we are offered with fewer options. However, as technology becomes more and more advanced, so does our options.
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Buying one simple item such as a stainless steel pan will take you a whole morning.
Why? The online shopping applications or websites can offer you up to hundred and thousand options! You will end up looking into the specifications and reviews of each model, fearing that you might make a wrong decision.
You are fearful that you spend a fortune on functionless and worthless products.
Now, can you see that we are living in a world of endless choice? Even for decisions which are used to be simple, such as deciding on what to eat and which brand for our daily necessities.
While you might feel tired of making daily decisions, this fear of better options is harming you in a far more dangerous way.
Read on to find out how F.O.B.O. is destroying our mental health and personal relationship with others.
The Impact Of F.O.B.O. On You And Your Children
One of the most obvious impacts of F.O.B.O. is that we will become indecisive. We are afraid that there might be other better options after we have made up our mind.
We are also afraid and anxious about the possibility of making the wrong decision. Therefore, we will keep on analysing through the options available until we experience analysis paralysis. We are too overwhelmed with the available options that we end up with no guaranteed outcomes.
Our ability of decision making will then backfire and we decide not to decide. We delay making the final decisions as we hope for better options to show up. In fact, we are just wasting our precious time and energy.
Besides, we are also less committed to our profession and relationship too. We would likely to hold back on commitment or people around us. We are putting our own interests before anyone else.
We are unlikely to give others a confirmed answer as we refuse to settle for options that we are currently having. What makes the situation worse is that we might even turn down somebody at the last minute for other better options!
So, does collecting and preserving as many options as possible an advantage? It might not be one unless we have enough willpower to stay away from F.O.B.O.
If you realise that you are experiencing F.O.B.O. as you read this article, worry not.
We are here to offer you 3 effective yet simple ways to overcome F.O.B.O. in our daily lives.
How to stay away from F.O.B.O.?
#1: Map out your options and decisions on paper
We understand that as parents, you will have a lot of decisions to make daily. But, we need to understand that not every decision needs our full attention and a long period of time. This is because some of them do not bring any consequences or only mild consequences in our daily lives.
Decisions that do not bring any consequences in our daily lives are no-stake decisions. These involve only minor details in our lives where there is less likely to have wrong decisions.
Decisions such as choosing which TV show to watch should not waste your energy and time. Just pick one quickly and watch it! Or else, make your decisions by flipping a coin.
How about decisions that have mild consequences? They are low-stakes decisions where you can have several acceptable outcomes.
Issues such as purchasing a fridge and choosing the location for your family vacations are low-stakes decisions you need to make. You can get a person to discuss and decide with you using a set of basic criteria.
On the other hand, decisions that have long-term consequences are high-stakes decisions. This is where you should invest more energy and time to make your decisions such as the jobs that you need to accept.
First, you need to list down the things that matter to you. Then, you should collect the necessary information about the available options.
You can then proceed with comparing the options one-by-one. Compare and eliminate the options until you reach the one final choice.
#2: Set higher standards with no disappointment
It is our biological part of wanting the best, but this does not imply that we need to be disappointed whenever a seemingly better options show up after we have made our decisions. Thus, we can set high standards for our goals without any sense of disappointment if we fail to reach them.
Instead of being unhappy with our choice, we should be satisfied with what we have attained. Only then, we will be able to move on for better options instead of lingering around what we have lost.
Keep in mind that there will always be better options as the time goes, so why not settle down on one option and enjoy it to the fullest?
This leads us to the next tips of overcoming F.O.B.O..
#3: Be open-minded to any of your bad choices
Most likely in our lives, we have made several wrong decisions or bad choices. So what?
What matters more is that we have learnt from our mistakes and we are determined to make better decisions next time. Bear in mind that our past decisions do not represent our current identity.
If you are fearful of letting go of other options, you would most probably avoid making the essential decisions to keep all options available.
With this, you will not be able to move forward and this sounds more fearful to me. To stay stagnant and be envious of others’ achievement is your own F.O.B.O. to overcome.
Choose and Stay Away from F.O.B.O.
Although all of us will never truly know whether we have made a perfect decision, the fact that we have the power to decide is precious.
Here’s what you need to know: some of our friends around the world do not even have the opportunity to make choices in their daily lives due to factors such as war, poverty and illness.
So, let’s appreciate our power to make a decision and live decisively!