Midlife’s A Trip

The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors

Posted on 01. Mar, 2008 by Karen in Misc

One of the most popular news articles in the last week was The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors by New York Times writer John Tierney. He profiles an interesting theory that people just don’t like to let go of their options in life.

To prove the theory, researchers had students at MIT take a test where they were paid for points accumulated by choosing closed Door #1, Door #2 or Door #3. The doors not selected would shrink and disappear.  What researchers found is even though the shrinking doors had fewer points, students clicked on them anyway because they couldn’t stand to see their options disappear even though they had no idea what they were. 

I think fear has been behind many of the doors in my life.  Fear from the past or apprehensions about the future.  Fear of not having enough, knowing enough, being enough. 

F alse

E vidence

A ppearing

R eal

Having lots of options seemed like the antidote to what I was afraid of.  But the real fix was learning to recognize the feeling that bubbles up inside me when I confront false evidence appearing real–and to let that feeling shrink and disappear like the little doors in the test.  

For me the real advantage of closing a few doors is letting go of the fear that’s behind them.

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