We live in a time where making decisions is probably harder than it’s ever been.

The world is full of abundant choice. Need a hotel? no problem – there’s hundreds to pick from nicely organized and cross referenced on a web site. Need a new vacuum cleaner? yup – lots of those, too. Thinking of somewhere to eat? a movie to see? a house to buy? so many choices. Whatever you want, options are a mouse click away or a quick swipe or two on Google maps. And, colleagues, friends and family can quickly weigh in with recommendations on pretty much any decision or topic area.

As humans, we’ve grown so used to choice and having lots of options that it’s made us less decisive and more uncertain about the decisions we make, even after we’ve done exhaustive research. There’s always that niggling concern there’s a BBD – a ‘bigger, better deal’ – out there we don’t want to miss or lose out on.

We like to think we’re decisive and we have the ability to make quick decisions but human nature gets the better of us. Rather than embrace something, we tend to be critical, look for flaws, second guess and keep looking for something else – something better or different.

Over the last several years, I’ve observed this behavior with clients on naming projects, too.

Clients want the ‘eureka’ moment – like some mega industrial magnet, they’ll be drawn to it and all other ideas an be tossed aside.

Our minds are auto-trained to be critical, to evaluate pros/cons, to weigh up options in the hopes that one idea will clearly and rationally rise to the top. But often there isn’t an automatic first choice.

You can try to focus on emotion, use your heart but loving a name typically comes over time once you’ve gotten used to it.

Ultimately, picking a name is about guts – the head thinks it can decide but it can’t.