Removing unwanted choices

The human brain is unique amongst animals as it is indisputably the most powerful thinking engine, but what of the human mind, the content of the human brain? The human mind tends to be in a highly volatile and unstable condition most of the times as it sees choices where no other animal sees them. Battling with the choices becomes a problem bigger than survival even. Animals on the other hand don't bother about how many ways they can do something as long as they can find any way in which to do it. Only survival matters and nothing else. Luxury is not a concept that animals spend much thought on, but it is certainly not the case with us humans. We have a lot to think about. We have multiple ways of going about any given task, and so often end up spending hours upon hours thinking which way to proceed.

The human mind is also notoriously fickle and can think about a hundred different things at the same time. There is only so much that the container of the mind, the brain can compute, before running out of steam, so often, we see people getting stressed out trying to decide what color trousers to wear, what food to eat and simple things like that. The more the choices, more the overheads for the brain. Eliminating choices is seen as a regressive step, but suffering the aftermaths of too many choices where hardly any are required, is considered acceptable. Hell, we can't give up the luxury of choices. So what if it causes some confusion? In the end, aren't we all happy? But are we really happy?

I want to work on my project which is coming up for submission, work on an upcoming examination, write a poem, meditate to get some peace of mind, smoke a cigarette in the hope of getting the relaxation that the meditation failed to give (well, the relaxation lasted the duration of the meditation, but after that what? I can't possibly meditate all day!) and so on and so forth.
So, what do you think happens? Many of the things on the 'To-do' list go undone and one is filled with a sense of failure. The 'To-do' list promptly goes into the bin and no attempt to schedule jobs that need to get done is ever done again, as the results are already known. Who wants to keep failing? Quitting seems better than trying and losing out to many people and one just cannot convince them otherwise.

So, what's the solution? Put a premium on your mind. If you don't value your own mind, who will? Do only the things that you feel deserve your mind's and subsequently your brain's efforts and trash the rest of the things. Try to cut out the choices as far as possible. Wherever you have a fork ie a spitting of ways, try to eliminate some of the options to leave you with a single or at the most two ways so that you can go and make your move. Choices are seductive, but they are the devil's agents. The more of them you have, the more the confusion. Now, by choices, I mean the frivolous ones, not the important ones. Frivolous choices are those that come disguised as convenience and luxury. Mahatma Gandhi used to fuss a lot about the kind of clothes he chose to wear in his youth, but later, he realized that clothes did not really make the man, as popularly thought. It was just a frivolous choice. He roamed about semi naked till his death, but did it matter in any way? It only increased his popularity!! Cut the clutter out and allow the mind to breathe! And then watch it bloom!