Life will always through us curveballs. You can prepare and prepare and prepare to a fault but things will still go awry. It's how you handle yourself in those moments that matter. We must have a mantra, a count to ten mini-break, whatever can get you over the hurdle that the situation you planned meticulously has blown up in your face. But you can be saved.
Redditor u/OvertOperation needed to find some ways to avoid stress by asking... What "you know what, just to be safe..." thing you did ended up saving your ass later?
Damn you San Fran!
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Arrive in San Francisco a week into a trip. As we gather our things during a moment of downtime I go back to check the bus cause, you know, it never hurts. Found my passport, which i had no idea I'd dropped. gy6fswyihgtvhivr
This is why I check my passport religiously when I have it on me. I'm well aware it's in my purse but I gotta check at least fifty time on the way to the airport, at the airport, etc. had that thing stolen once when I was a kid and my mom didn't make sure it was still there so getting back into the country was a little hard. bajur
Hit the Brakes!
I had a car sitting on jack stands because I needed to do some transmission work. Before climbing under it, I thought it'd be a good idea to rock the car around. One of the jack stands was not in the right spot and the car slipped off it, slamming down on the front disk brakes. Would have killed me. Goyteamsix
A Blast from the Past....
This is from 30 years ago, so some details my be different these days.
After enlisting in the Army recruits get a list of everything they must bring to boot camp. On this list was a padlock. During "processing," the five or so days before the real training starts, recruits are given their military equipment including duffel bags and told to put their things (they brought with them) in the duffel bag. After finally getting everything in I was left with just the padlock. I had no idea what to do with it, but I noticed if I closed my duffel bag in a certain way, I could close the lock on the hook.
So when we get to the training unit and off the "cattle trucks" and a few hundred drill sergeants are yelling and screaming and telling us to line up, which we do, with our duffel bags in front of us. The drill sergeants then proceed to check if the bags are locked and if not they grabbed them at the bottom and whirled them around flinging the entire contents on the ground. Everyone in the entire company had their stuff dumped except for me and one other guy. Only because locking my duffel bag was the only thing I thought of doing. Putting it in my pocket was not an option because they were very clear about not having any "civilian" items in our uniform pockets. Berlin_Blues
Thanks Mom....
I've had a handful of these in my life. The one that popped in my head first was from a party when I was 16. It was in a small farm town about 20-25 minutes from my actual town and everyone was out partying in somebody's parent's barn and having a real good time.
I didn't realize that our DD had been drinking all night. When it was time to go, I couldn't even tell she was tipsy. But something wasn't right so I didn't want to drive back with them. For whatever reason I decided to get the verbal tongue-lashing from my mom when she came to pick me up. Well, my friends in the first car were apparently veering across the road. Got picked up by the cops and all of them got to spend the night in jail.
Glad I opted for my mom. Economy_Cactus
Nah... Screw that!
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I was going on a road trip. We packed everything in the trunk. Then I realized that I forgot to check the air in the spare tire. Faced with unpacking the and repacking, I thought "What are the odds? We've had the car for years, never had a flat, we probably won't have a flat now."
Then I thought "screw that" and tossed the floor pump I use for my bicycle into the trunk, "just in case."
Got a flat in the middle of nowhere. Spare was too flat to drive on. Floor pump saved my butt. It gets packed on every trip now. Zorkeldschorken
How dumb ARE you?
My friends and I were always giving stuff to another friend because he was never wearing the seatbelt while driving. One night another friend and him drove me home, it was pretty late and we were all tired, when they dropped me off I told him "use the seatbelt you dumba**."
The next day, around lunch time, I got a call that my two friends got in a car accident, the dumbass fell asleep while driving my other dumba** friend's car. They hit a parked car, which hit the car in front of it and got stuck into a wall. The parked car acted as a ramp for their car, they flipped over and slid like 20meters upside down.
For some reason the dumba** had his seatbelt on for the first time ever and he didn't get injured, both of them crawled outside the car without a single scratch. If I'm not wrong my friend in the passenger seat broke his pinky tho. Dumba** learnt his lesson and his seatbelt is always on now, even when he's in the passenger seat. yellowrubberduck3
Take 10!
Take 10 before you send has saved my butt countless times.
Means take 10 seconds to re-read your email/post/whatever written communication before you send. Emails, especially in the workplace, last forever. Meaningless_Is_Life
Avoid Iceland....
I had originally booked a rental car for a trip to Iceland using my credit card points. Two days before, I canceled and booked it with my credit card which provides rental vehicle coverage because it looked like the weather wasn't going to be great while we were there and I wanted the extra protection. While there, we got into an accident for which we were not at fault. The car was almost a total loss and I had to pay $12k+ out of pocket to the company. It took a few months and a ton of paperwork, but the credit card company refunded all of it. I still think about how so so lucky it was that I changed the booking. I would have been ruined for a very long time otherwise. othercrazycatlady
Warranty Always!
I bought a used Subaru Baja that was 5 years old at the time and had 75k miles for $12k. The salesman offered an extended warranty that covered the engine for $2500, would last 3 years/36k miles. That was kind of a lot, and I usually don't buy those. I don't know what got into me that day, but I said sure.
One month and 750 miles later after an oil change at a mechanic shop, oil started shooting into the.... pistons? I'm not good with cars, oil went where it wasn't supposed to go. Completely ruined the engine and turbo.
The dealer had to keep it for 3 weeks, the warranty company flew someone out to inspect the car, and eventually approved a replacement engine, turbo, and any other affected parts. Total repairs cost almost $11k, and the warranty then applied to all the new parts too.
Car drove like it was brand new! Later discovered the car had 5 previous owners before me, but I couldn't find any accident or serious repair history. This is probably the only time buying an extended warranty on something actually worked out in my favor. Comicspedia
Send it Back!
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I bought a really nice tablet a few years ago, a Wacom Intuos Cintiq (essentially a drawing tablet built into a laptop) for animation and the like. Sometimes when you buy nice things they come in nice boxes and for some reason I don't really want to throw this box away immediately. I put it in the storage area of my basement and forgot about it. After only about a month this $2500 tablet stopped working.
It wasn't dropped or damaged, and I'm still not sure how it broke. It would simply try to boot up and fail, crashing and demanding a restart. I called support and after several calls and many hours, we were unable to resolve the issue. They said I could send it back and get a new one if it wasn't physically damaged. They told me it NEEDED to be sent back in the original box. I now keep boxes for everything I buy until the warranty expires. p