Spilt Milk

More than two options

The milk has been spilt, and you have a choice. Do you clean it up or leave the mess where it is? Two options are what seem most obvious.

When making a decision, the options can feel like a dichotomy. Do I want x or should I do y? This or that (black or white).

It is tempting to boil down options to only two. But, there are never rarely ever just two options. There is a spectrum of gray—choices beyond the two we initially limited ourselves to.

I could buy a cat to drink my spilt milk. The dog I already have actually does a pretty good job of cleaning up my food messes. Perhaps, I could leave the milk as some sort of science experiment to return to in a week.

When my options feel constrained, I try to think of a third option, and then a fourth. They may not be better, but they give me agency to look beyond what I think are the only options.