30 Awkward Realizations That Turned Lifelong Mistakes Into Breakthroughs

I used to squirt the shampoo directly onto my scalp. I did this until the first time I took a shower with another person and saw them just squirt it into their hands. It blew my mind.

Opening jars. I used to try everything - running it under hot water, using a dry cloth, using a rubber band around the lid... literally every method I could find on google. After five years in food service and thousands of jars, I finally figured out what I needed to do.

Just hit the s**t out of the lid.

Take the lid of whatever jar you have to a hard surface, and forcefully tap around the lid in a small semicircle. The lid will practically fall off and still be able form a sanitary/protective seal when you put it back on. Never opened a jar another way since.

This sounds so f*****g stupid, but I was never told how to "flash" my lights whilst driving. For the first ~3-4 years of driving, I'd turn my full beams on and then off again really quickly. Then one time, I accidentally pulled it towards me, made it flash, and my life changed.

I noticed one of my friends doing my same old trick a few months ago, and when I pointed out the actual, correct way to do it, one of the girls in the back was like "NO F*****G WAY!" and the other one was like "Yeah that took me a while to figure out but was too embarrassed to say anything"

I'm not saying this is a widespread thing that people didn't know, but I guess driving instructors in my town just don't tell you that s**t.

I am two handed. Been using the scissor in my left hand for 20 years.. Always struggled in shcool projects.. Then, my gf made me put it in my right hand. Turns out I am a god-tier scissor user.

Mixing natural peanut butter. Took me years to realize that if you store the jar in the pantry upside down, the the oil rises to the bottom of the jar, making it a breeze to stir.

Let's be honest guys, eating with a spoon is way more efficient than eating with a fork or chopsticks.

Washing my hair and drying my hair. Not necessarily doing it wrong but my hair used to be constantly greasy even after showering despite scrubbing my hair as much as possible to remove grease. One day I was hungover and had a shower, shampooed my hair but forgot I did it and did it again before conditioning. My hair has never been cleaner. I even use half he normal amount so I’m not using too much shampoo and it works.

And I used to just put my hair up in a towel without actually trying to get water out of it (this was mostly when I was younger though).

Opening bananas. Not the stem end, the other end. Push the end between your fingers. Opens right up, never have an issue and no more mashed ends at the stem.
Monkeys and apes do it this way or some s**t.

I always right clicked, then opened a new tab. I just realized I can middle click on the mouse wheel and it does that for me.

Doing sit ups for better abs. I used to do over 500 sit ups a day every day because I thought more was better. In reality I was just destroying my lower back.

I was told that doing a "proper plank" for 5 minutes is just as good. I don't believe it though. I can hold a plank for 20 minutes no problem, but I used to be able to do 500 sit ups no problem before I destroyed my back... there has to be a 'better' way to work those muscles...