In day to day life we are all faced with decisions, whether they are approach-approach, approach-avoidance, avoidance-avoidance decisions. Over the past few years I've heard that there was a skating rink in Ottawa called the Rink of Dreams at City Hall, but never had the chance to go and check it out. So this evening I went to check it out, and was not disappointed. The whole atmosphere of the rink is very nice, there is upbeat music playing in the background when you are skating and the edges of the entire rink light up and changes like a rainbow. All that mixed with the christmas lights around the rink and the lights from all the buildings downtown, make this location a magical place to go for a skate. It is ideal for right now while the canal is not yet open. This video gives a little bit of an idea of the atmosphere and pull of this downtown Rink of Dreams.
My first Approach-Approach decision of the night had been to either go all the way downtown to the Rink of Dreams at City Hall, or just go to the public outdoor skating rink in Centrepointe. Both were a good option as I would get to skate no matter which one I went to, but there was an indescribable pull to come to the downtown rink. Downtown is magical, especially in the winter with all the beautiful lights outdoors. I felt like I needed to try out the downtown rink at least once, it was something I had to do. I can go to a public rink in my neighbourhood some other time, I knew that I would enjoy the Rink of Dreams more.
Source: ottawaphotography365.com
Another decision in this situation, is that there was a beaver tails stand right beside the rink, but I'd already planned on using McDonalds coupons and go for dinner after the skate. So this is where I reach another approach-approach decision. On one hand getting a beaver tail would be delicious, but not the best dinner food. And on the other hand getting McDonalds using my coupons would be cheap and be a good dinner food. So both options were appealing, it was very hard to decide which to do, especially since the beaver tail stand was right there and I could smell them the entire time that I was skating.
In the end I decided to stick with the plans that I had made and went to get dinner after skating at McDonalds. By learning about the different motivational conflicts in chapter 4 of Consumer behaviour, I am better able to understand why I make certain decisions. The textbook says that once a person makes a decision between two good or bad things, they can experience post-decision dissonance, and then try to make the decision that they did not choose seems worse. So when I went to the Rink of Dreams rather than the Centrepointe rink I said that the downtown rink was better because of the atmosphere, cool lights, and overall appeal, but to reduce my post-decision dissonance I could also say that the ice quality of the Rink of Dreams is better than that of the Centrepointe rink as well. I realize that when I make decisions that these ideas do go through my head, I back up my decision and make it out to have been a no brainer of a choice.
So next time you want to go out for a skate, check out the Rink of dreams at:
Marion Dewar Plaza,Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue West
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