5 Life Pro Tips of the Week – Part 52

Here are this week’s Life Pro Tips.

01. When you get to choose your seat on a flight…

Try to pick the row just before the wings of the plane begin. Plane stability is based on center of gravity so close to the wing will almost always be the smoothest flight. It will also be quieter.

02. When you start working full time…

Make a real effort to hang out with friends who invite you to hang out with them. The days really start to fly by when you’re working full time and you’re going to have fewer and fewer opportunities to see your buddies from school or college as the number of responsibilities you have increase. Its a real bummer when you clear part of your weekend to see someone and they flake out on you. People remember that.

This also goes for when you are in a relationship. Once you are past the honeymoon period, make an effort to see your friends. You’d be surprised how easy it is just to settle in and feel like that one person can fulfill all your needs (or that the needs just start to seem unimportant). Maintaining your friendships, though, is actually really good for your psyche. It keeps you growing and grounded in a ways that are different than with your partner. Often there is a lot of inertia to socializing outside of a couples context or without your partner, particularly if you have a demanding job, but it’s worth it.

03. Measure your index finger

You’ll have a portable ruler everywhere you go. If you are an American you can use a dollar bill as a ruler, it’s 6 inches long. You just got to have to have cash on you.

04. Under-Promise, Over-Deliver

Daily use of the art of UPOD (under-promising, over-delivering) will help your life. Tell them you will be home at 7pm and arrive at 6:30. You will be a hero. 50% of successful relationships are about managing expectations.

Realize that under-promising and over-delivering is not an attempt to be dishonest, it can actually be more honest, giving you a buffer in case weird stuff comes up (traffic, health issues, the other obligation you hadn’t originally factored in). People often tell if you are just lying to them to impress them. UPOD only works in relationships in the long term if the under-promise is still relatively close to what your gut estimate would have been in the first place. You shouldn’t tell your SO that you will be home at 10 pm every evening, and show up at 6:30pm every day, as 6:30pm will be the new expectation regardless of what you say, and what you say will lose credibility.

05. Always keep a little emergency cash

Keep some cash in your phone case, car, home and wallet. You never know when cash is the only method available. It’s cash that you are supposed to forget about until you need it.