First impressions are so important aren’t they? Whether it’s with people we meet, or places we visit, or interview experiences, or the way we are greeted in shops, restaurants and so on.
Those first impressions can make such a difference to how we feel, decisions we make, our actions and our behaviour.
Most of you know
that Keith and I have been on holiday this week, and — unfortunately — the first impression we got when we walked into our accommodation wasn’t good...
When we walked through the door, it was obvious that the apartment hadn’t been cleaned after the previous occupants: the beds hadn’t been changed, towels hadn’t been replaced, the kitchen floor was covered in spills of food, lots of cobwebs and spiders, the toilet hadn’t been flushed. I could go
on.
Keith tried to get in touch with the host — it was an Airbnb — and we didn’t get an immediate reply.
Our first reaction was to get in the car and drive home, but it was 4pm, it had already been a long drive to get here, and we had just done a huge shop of supplies for the week ahead.
When we couldn’t get through to the host, I decided to investigate, I found a hoover, bathroom cleaner, bleach, we had bought some cloths to
clean with and rubber gloves and we set to and started to clean. I did find some spare sheets — but they didn’t fit the bed — and we had taken some beach towels with us so we could use those.
We emptied bins, stripped the bed … Basically we did the clean. Eventually the host got back to us, apologising saying he would get in touch with the cleaner … we waited a bit longer, and a cleaner turned up with clean bedding, towels, and took the other stuff away
— saying that they hadn’t been booked for a clean that day.
So we stayed … the host gave us the first night for free.
It wasn’t the best start to the week … but we stuck it out and the local beach and the scenery and the space has made up for it, but that first impression!!!
On this occasion we decided to give it a chance, would you do that? If you go to a restaurant and you aren’t greeted either quickly, or with a smile, would you
stay and give it a chance OR would you turn around and walk out? If you went into a shop would you still spend your money if you felt the shop assistants weren’t helpful, OR too helpful?
Have you met someone and on first impression didn’t like them, but actually then they turned into a really good friend?
Maybe your first impressions are always right …. And you wouldn’t give any chances, or perhaps things can be turned around and you can look beyond
that first impression to a longer term outcome.
That’s what we decided to do this week, in all honesty I can’t say it hasn’t had an affect on the holiday, but we did look beyond those first impressions to the bigger picture of where we were and how to enjoy that, we decided to give it a chance.
Have a good week folks, keep looking, moving and feeling good.
With love
Jane xx
