40 Ways to Make a Good First Impression
You’re already an impressive person. By definition, you “impress” yourself into the memory of anyone you meet. But in this article I’ll show you how to make a good first impression on a guy, girl, parent – whoever. The imprint you’ll learn to leave on people will have them fossilize the memory.
Whether you’re the girl at the bar yelling to her friends “Oh my I have to pee SO BAD!” or the guy whose voice cracks over his first words, it’s hard to erase a first impression from someone’s brain. As said in my Big Talk course, however, where there’s a whole chapter on making a great first impression, “A first impression isn’t a last impression; it’s an influential impression.”
A good impression at first sight is what I call “the lazy man’s way to make people like you”. Princeton University research shows our snap judgments remain consistent over time. If someone judges you as “attractive”, “friendly”, and “open” within 100 milliseconds, they’re likely to think you’re all that by the end of the conversation. The study did find one thing changes as the conversation continues: a person’s confidence in the accuracy of their first impression.
Call it bias or unfairness. I call it human psychology. Work with it if you want to be seen as awesome. Here are 40 tips that will help you make a great first impression. … Click to continue reading →
Update: What Christmas present did you get for yourself? You can tell me ;-) None for me this year.