When you’re meeting someone for the first time, you want to impress them. You might be tempted to focus on the areas where you’re the best, but it’s important to be comfortable being average, too.
Photo by Harold Navarro.
It might sound contradictory, but when you’re comfortable being average, you can increase your chances of impressing someone. As business site Inc. explains, it’s very rare that you’ll be the best in the room at something. If you’re only willing to do something when you’re the best, you won’t do things very often at all. Doing something enthusiastically, even if you’re not the best, gives you more chances to be memorable than if you sit everything out unless you’re the best.
So you run, but you won’t enter a race because you don’t want to finish at the back of the pack. You sing, but you won’t share a mic in a friend’s band because you’re no Adele. You’ll sponsor the employee softball team, but you won’t play because you’re not very good.
Personally and professionally, you feel compelled to maintain your all-knowing, all-achieving, all-conquering image. And you’re not a person. You’re a resume. Stop trying to seem perfect. Accept your faults. Make mistakes. Hang yourself out there. Try and fail. Then be gracious when you fail.
Think of it like going to karaoke. You probably won’t be the best singer in the room at a karaoke bar, but no one’s there to hear the best singer. If you get on stage, you can at least have fun and leave a good impression. However, you won’t leave any impression at all if you never get on stage.
How to Be Unforgettable: 6 Ways to Make an Amazing First Impression [Inc.]
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