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These charts seem to show that the more we (the ESem participants) maximize, the more regret we experience, but that maximization doesn't seem to have to much of an effect on how we perceive our overall happiness. I'm not sure what to make of that second trend, since Schwartz suggests (and it makes sense to me) that regret is a major cause of decreased happiness and satisfaction. The other half of the chart's conclusion seems to fit well with Schwartz's thoughts, however. Allowing for serendipity seems, to me, to mean spending less time planning and expecting perfection, and making oneself more aware of satisfying, happiness-inducing events and opportunities that we stumble upon. By not expecting our lives to be absolutely fantastic all the time, and not worrying about making them that way, Schwartz says we will learn to be satisfied with what we come across.

I'm a little confused about how to balance this kind of openness with the pursuit of one's life goals-- Schwartz says to pursue the experiences and things that actually make us happy, as opposed to always looking for something better and thinking that we would be happier with what others have, but how should we go about defining what career or other life choices make us happy without some degree of planning and shopping around?