Or embrace. Or confront.

There isn't really a fourth option.

A few weeks ago, I started classifying my reactions to new changes and stimuli around me into one of these three categories. And I was surprised that I was choosing to avoid a majority of the time.

That's often the easiest option. We procrastinate until we can no longer. We focus on other things and avoid solving hard problems. Since it is the easiest, it is almost never the right option.

The costs of mitigating a problem increases exponentially with time since the inception of the problem. The cost may be the time that will have to be spent in setting something right, or the money spent pursuing the wrong option, or even the missed opportunities due to our engagement elsewhere.

Avoiding is easy. But it is the other two options that are worthwhile.

Confront and you will nip the problem at the bud. Embrace and we will no longer have a problem.

At the end of the day, we need to pick our battles. That will define what we choose to embrace and what we must confront.