Here are this week’s Life Pro Tips.
1. 50% of a job is just being friendly to the right people.
A ‘C+’ worker becomes an ‘A-‘ with the right attitude. Honestly, in many jobs, you could practically skate by just being a delight to your co-workers.
2. When locked inside a burning vehicle pull out the headrest and use the metal pins to help break a window to escape from.
3. When someone suffers a personal tragedy, don’t ask if they need anything.
They’ll almost always say they don’t. Instead, just pick something, and do it.
4. Learning the word ‘Sonder’ and thinking about it’s meaning once a day can help you become a more giving, thoughtful person.
SONDER: The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.
5. Keep a bar of soap (the ones that come in boxes) inside your drawers to keep your clothes smelling fresh for extended periods of time.
#3 really depends on the person and on your relationship with them. Other than my absolute closest friends I would not appreciate people doing things ‘for’ me without asking me while i’m already coping with something like a bereavement.
Rather than picking something and ‘just doing it’ pick something and ask. Instead of asking is there anything I can do, ask can I pick up some groceries for you while I’m at the shop? or Would you like me to bring over some food when I cook? People will be far more likely to say yes to something if it is specific and if you make it sound like they’re not putting you out rather than just offering in general and expecting them to ask for something, which makes you feel like you’re imposing.