It’s an art- having a bring-it-on attitude, while also not scrambling to find essentials when life throws adventures at you. 

It’s socially acceptable to bum a smoke from a friend, not a lip balm. The needs and urgencies of each are equally real.

We made a list of things that we recommend you to carry along on your daily adventures:

Toothpicks:

Sometimes you have a piece of corn stuck in your teeth that you just can’t get rid of. You're with company and you’re trying so hard to not take your tongue there, again. Your company doesn’t know what’s wrong, but they know something is off. 

Give your tongue a break for later that night (wink wink) and carry some toothpicks so you can order the spinach and corn sandwich at that lunch meeting.

Handkerchief:

You need it to wipe your sweat or to dry your hands. And when the moment comes, it can be useful to wipe tears and/or to wipe the vomit off her, when she’s had one too many glasses of wine. 

Aaaand, there’s no forgiving a sneeze without a napkin in public anymore. 

Swiss Army knife:

No, it’s not an overkill! You can use it for opening a cold one on the cab ride back home. But it might also come in handy for that one time you get cornered in a sumsaan gully at 3 AM. 

A pen:

It doesn’t matter how digital we get, pens will never lose their might. From official signatures to helping someone understand your grand ideas, to leaving reminder notes for colleagues, to writing a card for your wife, there’s no replacing it. Bonus points if you have good penmanship, it’s attractive as hell. 

Chapstick:

If you have dry lips, jump on it. Unless you want everyone you interact with to direct all their focus to your lips and/or on trying not to look at your chapped and bleeding lips.

Mints:

You probably love to eat raw onions with your lunch, but do you enjoy being reminded of them as much for the next 6 hours? Pop a handy mint, it does wonders for your after-meal breath and your confidence.

Fragrance:

Just a tiny bottle. Maybe Axe exaggerated a little, but it’s natural to want to hang around people who smell good. From personal research, the length of hugs increase by at least 3 seconds too. 

Business card holder:

Doesn’t matter what kind of a holder, it’s just professional when you pull a business card out of a holder, instead of fumbling to find a loose card from your bag. It also, in part, decides the seat your card gets- in the trash or with other distinguished business cards. 

You gotta have the basics right so these things don’t get in the way of you living your life. Essentials make space for you to thrive, let them do it. Their journey wouldn’t be as awesome without it.