Choosing when you have a bunch of bad options

In life we all have choices. The most obvious choices are the major life choices we make as we age. But there are many subtle choices that we make that we may not notice.

Often, we avoid making a deliberate choice and accept the default option. Because we find it difficult to choose, we take whatever is left.

When I was younger, I did this often. I would procrastinate. I would avoid participating in the decision-making process. I did this because I didn’t like any of the options that were presented.

While it may seem as though I wasn’t deciding and therefore should be exempt from any responsibility in the choice, the opposite was true. I still held accountability.

This caused a lot of stress and unhappiness because I didn’t like the results. I felt that life was unfair. I felt that I was being punished or victimized.

But that wasn’t the case for me. It was simply that I wasn’t being deliberate. When we avoid making the tough decisions in life, we are given the default option.

The default option is whatever is left. It is the easy one. But it also means that we get whatever is left over. Those willing to strive for something get the first choice. Those of us unwilling to stake our claim were left moving in whatever direction remained.

The way to get around this is to realize that we always have options in life. But those options are not between the perfect path and the flawed path. In reality, it is between a bunch of different flawed paths.

We need to see it for what it is and realize that there will be challenge. There will be difficulty. If we expect perfect paths, we will be disappointed when we see several options that all seem flawed.

When I was working in an operations role with a growing business, we often faced challenges. There were many meetings when we would spend hours going over the options on the table.

We would go back and forth on them while we kept pointing out the flaws. Nothing seemed to be the right option because they all had negative consequences. Nothing was a perfect step forward.

We would continue to hunt for the perfect option. Finally, we would realize that we explored all options. I would usually say, “Well I guess it is time that we pick between a bunch of bad options.”

This was our way of realizing that continuing to brainstorm solutions would result in diminishing returns. We knew what the choices were. We knew they weren’t great.

But we also knew that we had to decide. We couldn’t just go forward with the default because of the consequences it contained.

It made us focus in on the solution, flaws and all. We had to realize we had control in the situation to make a choice even if the choices weren’t ideal.

But through this process, we started to take control of the direction we went as a company. We started to see problems early so we can address them. We started to take responsibility and hold each other accountable.

It was as if we saw through the rose-colored view of leadership to the reality before us. This allowed us to understand and put reasonable expectations around our choices.

If we take that same approach in our life, we will gain control. We will hold ourselves accountable while knowing that the choice wasn’t made in a vacuum but with the full scope in mind.

The control we gain is much more valuable than any value we get by choosing the default option all the time. The default option seems easy but is often laced with future challenge and struggle.

Stop searching for perfect options. Stop dreaming about the flawless path and start to live in the reality before you. Start to take control in your life by learning how to choose between a bunch of bad options.