Hit the Squirrel!

It's cloudy and raining. The windshield wipers swipe back and forth as you squint, trying to distinguish the dull gray horizon from the asphalt. You see movement in the road. It's a squirrel scampering across. Your first instinct is to swerve, to avoid hitting the squirrel.

You may spare the squirrel, but damage your car when you hit the mailbox.

If you had not swerved, you may have missed the squirrel anyway. Maybe you would have hit the squirrel, though you would have spared your car, the defenseless mailbox, and weeks of hassle with your insurance company.

Life has a lot of choices, sometimes the best choice available isn't risk free. Sometimes the choice to spare one thing has hidden risks. Assess risk. If your car is carrying explosives (like The Wages of Fear), hitting a mailbox could set it off. In this instance, hitting the squirrel is easily the safest decision.

When my son hasn't been listening, I'll give him a choice. I will take away one toy, provided he obeys right now, but if he doesn't obey I'll take the toy away for a week.
Either choice has repercussions, but losing the toy right now, allows him to have it for the next week.

It seems like an easy choice, but we make the wrong decision plenty of times. We constantly look at right now instead of next week.

Your gut reaction may be the wrong reaction 

Would you rather damage your car or a squirrel? Assess your options. Your gut reaction may be the wrong reaction