An incredibly useful concept that I first heard about from Gretchen Rubin is the distinction between being a maximizer or a satisficer. One type tends to be happier than the other, so figuring out which one you are can lead to some easy happiness boosting in your life. Read on to figure out whether you’re a maximizer or a satisficer.
Maximizers
A maximizer is someone who loves to squeeze all the potential out of something. Why settle for a good enough shirt when you could have the best possible shirt for your budget? Gretchen Rubin defines maximizers as those who want to make the optimal decision.
Satisficers
A satisficer is someone who has a few small criteria and is satisfied once those are met. When they’re shopping for new clothes, they buy a shirt once they find one that they like and that fits well. They don’t have to look through the whole store (plus maybe another two) like a maximizer would.
Why Knowing about Maximizers and Satisficers Matters
In a world that is increasingly full of choices, knowing how you make them can make your life a lot easier. We make about a million little choices every day (that’s a scientific estimate 😉 ), from what to eat for breakfast to which neighborhood to live in, to what size of family you want to have.
It can make you happier
Unfortunately for me, satisficers are usually happier than maximizers. Psychologist Barry Schwarts argues in The Paradox of Choice that an increased range of options doesn’t necessarily lead to higher satisfiaction with the outcome of a decision. It seems backwards, but having more choices often makes you less happy. If maximizers can learn to quickly narrow down their choices like satisficers, they’ll have a much greater chance of being happy with their decision.
In addition to this, maximizers are often more prone to buyer’s remorse. When you’re considering more criteria, inevitably not all criteria are met. This leaves people wondering and worrying whether or not they made the right choice.
It can help you understand those around you
My husband is a satisficer through and through. I’m a maximizer. As you can imagine, there’s sometimes tension when I’m wanting to investigate allll the options. But now that I know that people who are satisficers tend to be happier anyways, it makes me more willing to compromise and call it a day once we find something that meets our criteria. Plus it makes it easier for me to resist the temptation to agonize about the decision we ended up making, both before, during, and after.
On the other hand, if there’s a decision we need to make that I know is more important to me than to my husband, I know that I need to be the one who does the research. That’s because I’m the one who cares more about meeting the most criteria. Chances are, he’ll be happy with whatever I find. But if I ask him to do the research, it’s hard for me not to worry that he’s done enough research to make the best choice. Me doing the research yields the happiest results for both of us 🙂
Tips for Maximizers
Sometimes being a maximizer can be a superpower, but not if you use said superpower for everything. It’s totally unnecessary to find the very best $1 pen in the whole world. The first one you come across will surely do. Instead, try using your maximizing superpower for things that are either really important to you or really expensive. And remember that you’re never going to find something that meets every possible criteria you can think of, so try to focus on the ones that are most important to you.
Are you a maximizer or a satisficer? Leave a comment and give me your best advice!
Here are some of my other personality posts you may like:
How to Get More Enjoyment out of Life
6 Major Reasons to Get to Know Yourself
Are you an Opener or a Finisher?
When we built out house my wife investigated all the possible choices for everything and narrowed it down to a few for me to participate in the final decision. That worked out great (from my perspective at least). Good way for maximizer and satisficer to work together.