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How You Present Yourself Is Entirely Your Choice

Impressions are made in a matter of seconds.  It doesn’t mean we’re judgmental.  Quite simply, our brains are wired to quickly judge everything we encounter on our daily journey.  It comes from early history when existence relied on constant and careful scanning of the environment – it was a matter of survival.

An interesting twist, however, is the fact that we don’t encounter ourselves during our day.  It was never necessary for survival.  Today, we might glance in a mirror or see ourselves reflected in a window.  What do we see?  We see ourselves and that feels safe so we may not consider what others see.

Sometimes, it’s important to see ourselves in the light of our surroundings.  It can make a difference when we wonder about our impression on others.  Our attire and demeanor for our job is likely different from our attire and demeanor when meeting a friend for a workout.  Sometimes, we need to see ourselves a little differently. 

Consider the story of Yvette.  Yvette asked to be considered for the product management job available at her company.  The immediate response?  Everyone agreed that Yvette was super smart, a hardworking administrative assistant.  But, product management? 

Yvette had masked her intelligence and hard working habits with her ongoing dialog about late night partying, by the fact that her hair color changed weekly, that she wore pink satin tennis shoes.  She’d not allowed anyone to experience her in a professional light. 

After a few words of advice, she began to include work-related subjects in her conversations and she modified her look.  At the same time, she took on a few product management-like projects.  In no time, she was gaining acceptance as a strong employee with a future.      

How did Yvette’s story play out?  She was promoted in small increments but she didn’t stay at the company.  Instead, Yvette realized that she could use her good work habits and her intelligence in a field right up her own alley – she opened her own day spa.

The way we present ourselves is a personal choice over which we have direct control.  However, we only have influential control over how others see us.  We can decide on a smile over a frown, we can choose a strong handshake over a limp-wristed handshake.  We can decide how we present ourselves but we can only influence how we are received by others.  We cannot get in that other person’s head.  We don’t know if their seeming distraction is a family problem or their cheeriness is a rare moment in time.  

We can prepare ourselves for the occasions of our lives.  We individually decide what our personal success looks like.  We then create our unique path to success controlling our personal presentation while allowing for the fact that we can only influence others’ impressions.