A Dilemma

Measuring undesirability of available options to choose something less undesirable — still undesirable, is called a situation of dilemma. We all face such situations in our lives, be it professional or social or personal. The biggest issue with a dilemma is first knowing that you are facing a dilemma, which not always is very evident and need some attentive evaluation of the situation. Most of the time, you will pick a worse option not knowing that a less bad option was also available that could have led into an overall lesser loss or discomfort or sadness for you. Or maybe at times, when you realize that all options you got are not desirable, you just chose without giving it a proper thought somehow considering it to be fate accompli but in reality, it is not so; you could have minimized intensity of the disadvantage by picking the least undesirable option.

You must have heard a lot of talk about informed decision making, but we mostly keep it under consideration only for the matters that are either professional or business related with a focus on output or profitability; or, having a large number of stakeholders involved such as concerning public policies or laws or rules governing lives of people. Whereas, a similar approach is required when it comes to a social or personal decision as the basic rules of decision making remain the same irrespective of the impact audience.

A dilemma, as a situation, should not always bring you discomfort or unhappiness as it is a part of life, and everyone has to face such situations which, most of the time, are not very easy to avoid and trying to avoid the situation could add to its negative impact primarily in the form of loss of time — most likely, worsening the options. Therefore, it is a better approach to learn managing such a situation in the most efficient and effective manner without wasting time, that could add further to the disadvantage that is going to be there anyways; and, reducing the level of undesirability to the minimum possible.

We cannot avoid dilemmas, most of the time.

So, what to do then and how?

As a layman, remember the following to handle dilemmas in a less damaging way:

1. Be mindful that you are facing a dilemma;
2. Do not panic or feel distressed (or curse your luck or badluck);
3. Evaluate available options carefully for their value of undesirability and scale of impact;
4. Do not take much time in making a choice (wasting time will make choices worse);
5. Make a decision; and,
6. Move on!