Your First Impression Is Usually Right
We all form a first impression of people we come across in life, sometimes within seconds of being exposed to them for the first time. It's a very natural thing that people do, either based on past experiences or their gut instinct or "intuition".
A good first impression of someone can bring about feelings of having an "instant connection" - feeling that he or she leads the same kind of life we do and also puts importance into the same core values that we do. There's an immediate bond between the two of you.
A questionable or bad first impression of someone can include feelings that you're just not alike in terms of your core values, your way of life, your handling of relationships or in the way you treat others. Your general personas are different and not aligned.
Of course, there are some times when a person may have just be having a bad day or is not his or her true self that very first time you meet. But in general, when you first meet someone, there are so many clues or signs that scream out at you to notice, and you'll very quickly decide if you want to have that person in your life or not.
For a good amount of years, I often challenged my intuition and didn't always trust my first impressions of people. There were times that I immediately didn't have a good first impression of someone, but I let him or her into my life anyway. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't judging them unfairly or without reason. In the end, however, I wished that I had trusted and followed suit with my first impression from the beginning.
Even as recently as this year, people who I had some reservations about when I first met them have proven that my first impression about them was correct. They've shown that they don't put importance into the same core values that I find to be important. Values that I place a lot of importance into include: honesty, loyalty, respect, trustworthiness and open communication. I had an inner voice telling me that something was "off" and it proved to be correct later on.
The people around us don't have to be exact clones of ourselves but they do need to share many of the core values that we live by in life. Basically, we need to feel comfortable that we are in sync with the things that matter the most to us.
It's funny (well not really funny), but I look back at the people I've let go of from my life and they were the ones where my first impression of them was not really that great and I gave them a second or third chance (or 4th or fifth...) to prove me wrong. Unfortunately, they only ended up proving me right. Hindsight is 20/20 for sure!
First impressions, based on your intuition, do really matter when you meet people. You may see green, yellow or red signals but they are all important clues in how you should interact or not interact with that person moving forward that's best for you. Perhaps, you shouldn't even allow them into your life or not.
If you aren't sure that your first impression of someone is 100% accurate, take some time for reflection. Make sure that you're not judging unfairly based on prejudices or preconceived thoughts. When you think it through, and process all of the signals that came up for you, you you can move forward with a more confident decision.
You may need to be exposed to the person again to form a clearer picture. On thing that is for certain though is that we can't choose everyone in our lives. There are many people that we are exposed to during the course of life- some we choose and some we don't. They can be your neighbors, coworkers or family members. Some must be a part of our lives in some way, but we can choose who we let into our inner circle.
Your first impression will give you some insight of how close you will want to be with them or at the very least, the best way of dealing with them (or not dealing with them).
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