Original photo by Wai Siew on Unsplash
Excuse my bad editing skills ;X
It's very common in today's society to mistake choices for options. So what's the difference you may ask? It's quite simple actually, a set of options would be things that you presented with and you take these things as the only "choices" available. A choice however is something that you come up with when you run out of options.
People say that there is always a choice that you can make in any situation, no matter how hard the circumstances are.
“I may be running out of options, but running out isn't an option.”
― Mark Lawrence, Prince of Thorns
Let's dive a bit more into the meaning of these two.
I'm gonna give examples for both cases so you can understand them easier.
Options
An option can be presented as "having the power of choosing". Although this "choosing" is only between a certain set of things.
Let's say we were at a cafeteria and I asked you:
"Do you want coffee or hot chocolate?"
This is an options based question.
I presented you with two things that I can buy for you and you can select only one of these. These are the only options.
Choices
Having the base difference between the two set, I'm gonna start with a similar example here.
We're at that same cafeteria and I ask you:
"What would you like?"
You can say whatever you'd like to get. (Cola, water, etc.)
Now you have a choice.
Choices are things we can turn into options, but not the other way around.
“You have as many options as you give yourself.”
― Kasie West, The Distance Between Us
When we talk about options this doesn't mean that options are a bad thing. It's just that sometimes we don't make a choice ourselves and when things get urgent we have to make a choice anyways and there isn't time to come up with an outcome that is necessarily the best for us.
“Do not wait until regrets are your only option, make the changes and act before it’s too late.”
― RJ Intindola – (Gandolfo) – 2000