First impressions. We can’t avoid them or avoid making them when we meet people for the first time. These can be positive: “Oh, she’s a nice person” or not so positive: “He’s a little pushy”. Sometimes the first impressions we have of people are spot on but sometimes they aren’t. Have you ever reconsidered an acquaintance and how you felt about them because they became your friend? “Once I got to know ‘X’, they weren’t what I originally thought they were and I like them now.”
It’s very easy to judge a book by its cover. Unfortunately, it's too easy. It can be difficult for us to acknowledge that we do this most all of the time, but we do. The cover we see on another person is the first impression they make on us, and we on them.
Should we feel “bad” that we do this? Well, it’s a thing our minds do that we can’t control. How we grew up, and how we think will always inform our perceptions of individuals or even groups of people. It’s almost like all is lost. We are destined to forever be judgemental and that’s the end of it.
Maybe not.
What we can control is how we behave toward others. Alright, make that snap judgment about someone, but treat them with good manners. That much we can do. We don’t always know what they could be going through right at that moment and they could be less than their best when they meet us that first time. The best part about being this way? We, in turn, make a good first impression on everyone else.
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