Not too long ago, someone commented that I hem and haw about doing things, right up to doing them, and then I commit fully. It’s true. I hadn’t noticed this about myself, but I had to agree with the validity of it. I was hesitant to do the A-Z Challenge this year. I didn’t sign up until April first.
I hate commitment.
Commitment removes options, and I love options. Up until I signed up, I could fancy myself with the freedom to not write a blog post every day, and to read the blogs of other A-Z’ers. Then maybe I could focus on finishing the back hallway.
Haha.
Or something.
I just wanted to keep my options open.
Options are the best!
Until you have too many of them.
I’m instinctual, so I generally choose the right people. I’m moody, so I don’t struggle with menus. I’ve done my share of cookie-momming and carpooling, and I don’t have trouble saying no, so I never over-commit. My mother taught me the hard thing to do is the right thing to do, so I don’t hesitate to make important decisions.
But mercy me, when it comes time to make a purchase! Oh could you please hold my hand?
I need to think about it. The length of time I think about it is in direct relationship to the amount of the purchase, and how long I expect to have the item. For instance, I can choose a nail polish on my own within two to three minutes, but it will take me two to three weeks to choose a wall color, and I would like the input of MIL, Beauty Queen, as well as several random strangers in the paint department.
Places that are bad for me: book stores, the paint chip area, shoe stores, the scrapbooking aisle, the handbag department, the fabric store, garden centers — I will have it all! I cannot afford it all? I do not have room for it all? Oh Woe Is Me! Let me look at everything for another hour and then I can maybe winnow it down a bit. Oh The Agony!
Do you resist commitment? Do you struggle with too many options, or are all your choices easily made?
joeyfullystated 
Paint colors are mind-numbing. The variations in my experience are my wife and I who mull these around for years without painting anything and my daughter who paints something every year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s gotten to the point where even buying toothpaste or shampoo is a lengthy process. There are far too many choices available. But when it comes to important purchases, I can be pretty decisive. For example, if I’m searching for a piece of furniture, I know what I like, and when I spot it, I get it. Mostly because I just want to get out of the store… 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Choices now mess my head. Maybe, just maybe at times I want something already decided or someone else doing it for me!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh I am too impetuous and like to do things on a whim! That is not a good way to be either! I have regretted many an impulse buy, and due to my not being able to say ‘no’ committed myself to things I really do not want to do! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think I was a lot more spontaneous when I was young. Now, everything looks like potential regret, lol!
LikeLike
Well you are more sensible that I am! 🙂
LikeLike
Paint colors as Dan says are mind numbing. I have NO idea how to choose just ONE color. Shopping forget it. I detest shopping. There are just TOO many choices. I don’t usually like commitments either because I like to be free, able to change my mind, go with the flow. Yet, a lot of my life is full of commitments. My photography is one area where I fly. And darn it, that is not about to change. Great post!! Love, Amy ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for sharing your own feelings on options! Seems like no one likes to be confronted with those paint chips! lol
Your photography is lovely — fly on!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You, my friend, have put tears in my eyes. If it were not for the support here at WP, I would not have any. Bless you, and I mean it!!! (((HUGS))) Amy ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve been deciding on what to do with my house (walls, deck etc.) for 5 years. Before that it was my first house — I finally painted it just before moved out, 15 years from the time I moved in. The same colour it was before. White. 🙄
LikeLiked by 1 person
AHAHAHA!
I understand. I always think it will be so nice to get X project done, until faced with the incredible amount of options in material and color! Then I’m overwhelmed!
LikeLike
Yep. 😛 I don’t know about you, but what I need is enough money to hire a professional to make my house look fabulous while I’m sitting under a palm tree with a book and a pina colada.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, I like to take all the credit too much 😉
LikeLike
…wanna paint my house while I sit under a palm tree with a book and a pina colada? You can have ALLLL the credit you want. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nah, I’m good.
LikeLike
hehe
LikeLike
Important decisions don’t bug me as much as smaller ones and I’m fairly quick to act. I didn’t use to agonize with clothes and shoes shopping, but I tend to take much more time now to decide what to buy. I think it comes with the reality that more is rarely better, so in a way being more selective implies being more picky and then the whole process takes more time. Good choice for letter O!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I so get it, especially about paint colors! They are so tricky!! But best to spend time on the important decisions and not so much on the smaller ones. That said, paint color is definitely an important one. I can’t imagine living in a room with a paint that is just wrong.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I only love the paint in my bedroom when it’s sunny outside.
That’s why you shouldn’t choose paint in August. lol — at least, that’s my theory!
I will be repainting it. Some day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am not very good at choosing paint. Other furnishings, yes, but not paint.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I sort of let my dear wife Karen choose the paint colors for the walls, but definitely hold a veto right, Joey. But when we did the kitchen reno with the countertops and cabinets and backsplash tiles and flooring tiles to all match … many hours, days for both of us. Mostly, though, I’d say I make my pick and purchase. Then I second-guess myself to death!
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you’re India, you will often come across people that commit and forget. This is quite normal here. On the other hand, I make sure that I fulfill all my commitments, at least try my best to do so. My father used to tell me – If you’re not a man of your words, you’re no man at all. Well, back then when he said that I was a ten year old boy, but the words stuck with me forever.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you ask me there are too many options to choose from these days, may it be merchandise in a store or a partner to spend one’s life with. Dating or clothing.
🙂
I don’t know what to buy when presented with all those choices.
I am good with commitments once I make them though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh absolutely No Commitments!!! There’s nothing I like better than a calendar with few squares filled in!! It’s not so much that I want options; i just want no commitments!!
Yeah – all those stores. Best if I don’t grab a cart – especially in the garden shop.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your paint samples made me hyperventilate. That is just too much choice. I hate shopping so I want what I want to magically appear down the first aisle I venture, at the price I can tolerate. Anything else is bound to make me stressed and grumpy. I still haven’t learned to say NO to over-committing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I see we have much in common here!
You will either decide to stop over-committing, or you will decide you like it 🙂
LikeLike
No, I hate it and I flake out of things. Or go the easy route and feel like less than Supermum.
LikeLike
Oh. Then you really must start saying no somewhere. Save the best of you for your best people 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like that! “I’m saving the best of me for my best people”…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I hate commitment and decision making. This challenge wasn’t a good idea for me. Glad it’s almost done.
LikeLiked by 1 person