Great. A 5-hour flight back to Miami from San Francisco, and it happened again.

The (much shorter) person in front of me decided to recline her seat.

My first thought was, why does a small person need to recline her seat? I mean, I'm 6'4" and I never recline my seat. The 3 inches of reclining doesn't allow me to stretch out any more than I was before. What is the comfort benefit of reclining a seat?

I'm right at the edge of the height border where a reclined seat by the passenger in front of me would physically hurt. So the reclining seat doesn't touch me. But, I have my laptop with me that I'm going to be using - the reclined seat renders this nearly impossible.

So I ask the girl, who is visibly shocked to have me tapping her shoulder, to un-recline her seat. Just as the man on the incoming San Francisco flight had, she obliged without as much as a word. Though I'd gotten what I wanted, the situation itself did not satisfy me. I knew my tap-and-ask method was not infinitely duplicatable.

What if the person said, No. I don't want to recline my seat. I have every right to recline if I want to!

What could I do then? Could I call the fight attendant for assistance? Start a fight? Ask agin nicely?

I went and googled the question and found a consensus. The general answer is, purchasing a seat on a flight comes with everything said seat does. A seat which can recline is part of the purchase. So, no one has to un-recline her seat to appease another passenger.

This seemed to be a problem. Until I stopped thinking like a victim of circumstance and got mentally proactive. Specifically, I asked myself a better question.

How can I arrange so this inconvenience is never even a possibility? [shareable cite="@DreAllDay "]How can I arrange so this inconvenience is never even a possibility? [/shareable]

Easy answer: Invest in exit row or first class seats. No possible issue with recliners then.

Problem solved.

***

When we have a problem, we can try solving it. And maybe we will. But you and I both know, there will be another problem soon. What then?

What if you could fly over the top (pun intended) of problems, instead of having to solve them in the first place? Here's how.

The real problem is that you have a problem. Ask yourself what I asked myself. Are there other people on this plane who don't have this problem and could never have this problem? Answer: Yes. The people in first class and the exit rows.Ask yourself, are there people who are in your situation, but don't have your problem? Then ask, why they don't have the problem? The answers will enlighten you.
Attack the root of issues, not the symptoms. The symptoms of my conundrum were the people reclining their seats. That was not the real issue, however. The real issue was I was sitting in a coach-class seat. If I wasn't in coach, this couldn't possibly happen! [shareable cite="@DreAllDay "]Attack the root of issues, not the symptoms.[/shareable]Often we spin in circles, solving issues which aren't worth solving. If we would look deeper and solve the actual cause of the issue, the issues would cease to exist. We get so caught up handling every little thing that we never even notice we're chasing our tails.
Going over the top of problems puts you in power. Anything less is Tactical Hell. Read how Robert Greene describes tactical hell.


You are dealing with one battle after another, and none of them end with any resolution. It is very hard for you to see the hell for what it is; you are too close to it, too mired in it to think of any other way. Because there are so many people now vying for power in this world, and our attentions are so distracted in many different directions, this dynamic only gets worse and worse.

You need to see the forrest from the tress, as we say. Anything less is tactical hell. And hell is hot.


Stop solving all these petty problems now, and challenge yourself to think on a higher level. Going over the top of problems is where the power players in life live. You're free to join anytime.