Like most kids, when mine were little, they would sometimes have stomach troubles. Also like most other kids, this usually happened at the worst time. It could be in church or on the way to school or just about anywhere else. My son had a knack for getting sick in the most artful of places. He once lost lunch at the entrance to the teachers' lounge in grade school. Another time, he threw up down my back while I was carrying him on an escalator at a busy shopping mall. I am not sure either of us can go back there even to this day.
I am not sure how other parents deal with the stomach problems of their children but we very quickly determined that a pretzel or two would generally calm things down until we could deal with it more comprehensively. We used this technique so often that we eventually started carrying a small bag of pretzels wherever we went. It was effective to a point.
The real lesson for success in this rule is the need to be prepared. College students will probably not appreciate the need to be prepared immediately. Business people either realize the need for preparation or they will find it hard to stay employed. I have several co-workers who are frightened to death by the prospect of meeting with the CEO. I was confused because I always viewed a meeting with the CEO as an opportunity to demonstrate my talents to someone who might be able to reward me appropriately. One of those workers told me that he did not like to meet with the CEO because he can be very mean and intimidating of you are not prepared. How dull is that? I suggested to the co-worker that he might look forward to meetings with the CEO if he took the time to prepare fully in advance. He looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. There simply is no substitute for preparation.
There is a danger in using this rule. I refer to it as the Dumbo Syndrome. Some people might view the pretzels as similar to Dumbo's magic feather. With pretzels, one has super human powers but if the pretzels are not there we are all mere mortals. The true wisdom in the rule comes with the understanding that the pretzel you need has to be something that actually makes you prepared rather than just a placebo that has no real impact.
Rule Seven: Always have a bag of pretzels available.
Rule for Life Number 7
Always have a bag of pretzels available.
