Recently I was faced with a personal dilemma which has led me to review how I make some choices. Maybe this story will speak to you, too.

I was at my local pharmacy early one evening, picking up a prescription of Gaviscon (other antacids are available!) and they had completely run out of peppermint flavour.

The options they gave me were to take some original aniseed flavour or come back another day to see what they’d got in stock. But what were the chances of that at the height of the recent petrol shortages?

You might be wondering what the fuss was about or maybe you're feeling my pain already! But I’ve LOATHED aniseed flavour for as long as I can remember.

In the end, though, I didn’t really have a choice, so I reluctantly took the large bottle of aniseed flavour home.

And as I poured the first spoonful, I held my nose and gulped it down – YUK!

To be honest, the next time it tasted just as awful. But now, 100 spoonfuls later, I’ve slowly got used to this alien flavour, and my absolute preference for peppermint has changed to something more balanced.

What I’ve realised is that my longstanding hatred of aniseed was reinforced by my anticipation of it tasting horrible. It was in effect a self-fulfilling circle of belief and experience.

But when I was put into a situation where I had to challenge that belief, I was able to rationalise my dislike and change my behaviour.

You may be facing a dilemma of a different kind where you are choosing one preferred approach over another perfectly good one. It could be because of a previous bad experience or “I’ve always done it this way!” or some other equally valid reason.

But I encourage you to push the boundaries of your thinking and try something new which suits the current challenge you're facing.

It may feel cumbersome or difficult at first, but you may find it works just as well… or maybe even better! 

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