First Impression or durable impression...
Durable - able to resist wear, decay, etc., well; lasting; enduring.
Impression - an image in the mind caused by something external to it.
A lot is made of first impressions, especially in Real Estate; it is a person's first opportunity to assess a newcomer's composition. Whether intended or not, an instinctual pattern is repeated in your brain at each new encounter which hearkens back to the days when food, shelter and defense were of the utmost importance to survivability. Other humans were considered competition vying for survivability or better yet the opportunity to thrive and exceed minimum requirements of survivability and reproduction.
Humans have come a long ways from this primal description, now it is common place to assess the other person's placement in socioeconomic classes. People are far less concerned with this person's ability to out hunt them, build a superior dwelling or successfully woo and reproduce with the most desirable mate available in their grouping. Well, maybe the last one still happens; evolution doesn't always work as quickly as we would like. People are now apt to assess a person's clothing, accessories, type of work, vehicle, well you get the idea. This pattern of gathering information is instinctual, not a fault or weakness. What a person does with this information differentiates us, whether we choose to be curious or we choose to judge. People can choose to be curious about this person and their story by spending the time listening, learning and understanding; or they can promptly judge and assume, decide and categorize.
When people choose the former, the opportunity for developing a far more important impression of others is created, a durable impression. Likewise this is the type of impression one should aim to create when meeting others. Impressions of others fluctuate throughout the lifetime of a relationship. People have god days and bad days; do great things and make mistakes; change, often time for the better, sometimes for the worse. Other times it is a matter of their true character emerging from the perception they were trying to create. How many times have you heard the expression 'That person is not who I thought they were'?
When meeting someone for the first time I value the first impression yet do not limit my perception of them to this impression, it is one of many impressions I will have of this person as we develop a relationship. What I look to do is to take the first impression, assume the best in that person, and add subsequent impressions of this person to the 'file'. This allows the relationship to grow and develop where it may not otherwise have based on my first impression. At the same time it can protect one from potentially damaging relationships by over committing and becoming vulnerable to a person based on a single experience.
I do my best to treat each encounter with a person with equal importance. Relying on the first impression or even the current impression to sustain a relationship through all events during the relationship would be presumptuous at best. We all make mistakes, require support, jeopardize and stress our relationships. Hopefully by attempting to make every encounter the best you can your relationships will not only survive but thrive based on the durable impression others have of you.
Impression - an image in the mind caused by something external to it.
A lot is made of first impressions, especially in Real Estate; it is a person's first opportunity to assess a newcomer's composition. Whether intended or not, an instinctual pattern is repeated in your brain at each new encounter which hearkens back to the days when food, shelter and defense were of the utmost importance to survivability. Other humans were considered competition vying for survivability or better yet the opportunity to thrive and exceed minimum requirements of survivability and reproduction.
Humans have come a long ways from this primal description, now it is common place to assess the other person's placement in socioeconomic classes. People are far less concerned with this person's ability to out hunt them, build a superior dwelling or successfully woo and reproduce with the most desirable mate available in their grouping. Well, maybe the last one still happens; evolution doesn't always work as quickly as we would like. People are now apt to assess a person's clothing, accessories, type of work, vehicle, well you get the idea. This pattern of gathering information is instinctual, not a fault or weakness. What a person does with this information differentiates us, whether we choose to be curious or we choose to judge. People can choose to be curious about this person and their story by spending the time listening, learning and understanding; or they can promptly judge and assume, decide and categorize.
When people choose the former, the opportunity for developing a far more important impression of others is created, a durable impression. Likewise this is the type of impression one should aim to create when meeting others. Impressions of others fluctuate throughout the lifetime of a relationship. People have god days and bad days; do great things and make mistakes; change, often time for the better, sometimes for the worse. Other times it is a matter of their true character emerging from the perception they were trying to create. How many times have you heard the expression 'That person is not who I thought they were'?
When meeting someone for the first time I value the first impression yet do not limit my perception of them to this impression, it is one of many impressions I will have of this person as we develop a relationship. What I look to do is to take the first impression, assume the best in that person, and add subsequent impressions of this person to the 'file'. This allows the relationship to grow and develop where it may not otherwise have based on my first impression. At the same time it can protect one from potentially damaging relationships by over committing and becoming vulnerable to a person based on a single experience.
I do my best to treat each encounter with a person with equal importance. Relying on the first impression or even the current impression to sustain a relationship through all events during the relationship would be presumptuous at best. We all make mistakes, require support, jeopardize and stress our relationships. Hopefully by attempting to make every encounter the best you can your relationships will not only survive but thrive based on the durable impression others have of you.