Previously, the principles of friction and drag were discussed. Each of these has an application in your interpersonal interactions.
People can produce friction. For example, you want to start a business, but your significant other keeps emphasizing the reasons against it. Friction reduces with velocity. The best way to reduce friction with people is to be a better person. The less often you disappoint or offend others because of your faults, the less often you will have to deal with the friction caused by their reactions. In the business example, if you are a highly successful person with a stellar track record and surplus income, your spouse will probably be less worried about you starting a business than if you are none of those things.
People can produce drag. Drag describes resistance against your purpose. An example of drag is when you are progressing through a project at work that is pushing you to the limits of what you are able to think, feel, and do, while also being confronted on a regular basis with someone at home who is unwilling to meet the very minimal expectations upon them, causing an even greater deficit of emotional and mental resources left for work.
There are several ways to reduce interpersonal drag, and they fall into two categories: what you can change about yourself, and what you can change about the other people you spend time with.
The changes you can make to yourself to reduce interpersonal drag consist of who you are and what you do in relationship to others. You can change yourself to reduce interpersonal drag by becoming stronger, for example by being less reactive to others and less needy. You can also fight interpersonal drag by reducing the resistance you produce by avoiding the triggers of other people on situations that are not worth the results that would ensue.
The changes you can make to the people you spend time with consist of focusing your time on better people. You can fight interpersonal drag by changing the medium, which is to say through choosing to spend your time with people who provide much more benefit than cost. Finally, you can reduce interpersonal drag through spending more time with fewer people, choosing to maximize your time with the 20% of people who provide 80% of your meaning.