What do you do when you’re stuck trying to decide between 2 bad options?

A dilemma is a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives.

We’re often faced with choices like these.

We see two options and they both have barnacles.

It’s easy to get stuck here – trying to choose the lesser of the two evils.

The way out of a dilemma is to “think outside of the box.”

The answer to the dilemma isn’t to make a choice.

It’s to think of other options.

Feeling stuck in a dilemma is a clue that you need to step back and invent new possibilities.

It calls for creativity.

It’s also something that’s easy to say (“just find new options”) — and hard to do (“I see exactly TWO options and they’re both bad!”)

Here are a few tools that might help.

Start by asking: is this decision as permanent as it feels?

One of the most common traps business owners fall into is treating every decision like a tattoo — something permanent and irreversible.

Most of them aren’t.

I like James Clear’s simple framework: some decisions are hats (trivial, easy to change), some are haircuts (temporary, they grow back), and some are tattoos (permanent, think carefully).

Before you agonize over your two bad options, ask yourself which kind of decision you’re actually making.

Jeff Bezos had a similar idea.

He called decisions either one-way doors or two-way doors.

A two-way door? Walk through it, take a look, come back if you need to.

A one-way door requires more caution.

Most small business decisions are two-way doors dressed up as tattoos.

When you realize you can recalculate your route — that you’re not locked in forever — a lot of the paralysis starts to lift.

Then ask: am I looking at this from the right angle?

When you only see two bad options, it’s often because you’re looking at the problem from too close in.

This is where it pays to work ON your business instead of IN it.

Put on your owner’s hat. Zoom out.

Ask yourself: what would I tell a friend who was stuck in this same situation?

What are they not seeing?

Sometimes the best move is to get a second opinion — a trusted advisor, a coach, a peer.

Not because you can’t figure it out, but because you’re too close to the problem to see all the options.

A good outside perspective doesn’t just validate the options you’ve already considered.

It helps you find the ones you haven’t.

Finally, don’t let the search for a perfect option become its own trap.

Over-thinking is the enemy of progress.

Very few decisions are irreversible.

And as Maimonides put it: “The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.”

Think of it like an internal GPS.

Even when you miss a turn, you can recalculate.

The longer you delay, the longer the detour.

Want some help getting out of a dilemma?

Sometimes we’re too close to our own problems to see alternate solutions.

My clients often comment on my ability to pull out just the right tool or resource to help them work through whatever situation they’re facing.

If you’re stuck between two bad options, I invite you to book a call and challenge me.

Tell me what the problem is — and I’ll suggest a solution.

You could be 15 minutes away from escaping the horns of your dilemma. Book your call here.