If both choices are bad, look for a third one. Often it’s hiding because nobody asked.

Two options feel like the whole set when they are only the two that happened to be offered. Most situations have more, and the extra ones stay invisible because nobody said them out loud. Being handed a choice between two bad things is usually a sign that you are inside somebody else’s framing rather than at the real limits of what is possible.

When you are stuck between two options you dislike, write both down and then force yourself to write a third, even a silly one. Then ask the person in charge whether anything else is possible. The question alone sometimes produces an option that was always available.