Recover from a Bad First Impression with These Handy Tips

There’s always a time when you meet new people and immediately notice that you’ve made a bad first impression. You might not be dressed as cleanly as you usually do or maybe you’ve cracked too many jokes without noticing. Even so, you really shouldn’t worry about the messed up first impression you just had. Remember, first impressions and last impressions can be very different. So, here are some things you should take note of to recover from a bad first impression.

Should you still do it?

Before anything else, try to decide if you actually want to take action or not. Sometimes it won’t really be worth your time and energy to fix your impression with people who you won’t really meet often. If the person is a potential business partner or maybe a potential girlfriend, then of course, you’ll have to take action immediately. But if it’s just a friend of a friend who you’re sure you won’t really interact with in the future, you can just let it go.

Admit your mistakes

You may have said some ignorant things or maybe cracked an insensitive joke which resulted in a bad first impression. For one, you have to remember that we’re human and that we make mistakes all the time. Owning up to your mistakes is the simplest and most logical thing to do first. Then again, you have to leave it at that and not dwell on it too much. Admitting your mistake once is usually enough and you don’t need to message or interact with the other person again and again. You’ll only sound desperate!

Apologize

Of course, apologizing always comes with admitting your mistakes. Apologize immediately if you think that what you said or did really causes a grave misunderstanding about you. Most of the time, people will change their bad first impression if you take immediate action and apologize appropriately. You should also consider apologizing even if it’s been hours or days. It shows that reflecting on your mistake and that you’re actually willing to interact with the other person.

Show your positives

If you do the things stated above accordingly with your situation, you’ll always have a second opportunity. For example, if a girl mistakenly thinks that you’re cocky at first, it might stay that way for a long time unless you do something. So, in your second interaction, you can put the highlight on your sense of humor or chivalry instead! By showing a different side, or your actual demeanor, you might just get over that bad first impression!

Stay consistent

The most important thing to remember here is to stay consistent. If you say that you’re not cocky but your actions prove otherwise, then other’s impression of you will only get worse and worse. Simply put, you have to be consistent over time to actually prove that you’re not as bad a person after a disastrous first impression.