Making a Good First Impression on a First Date

The reality is that your date will make an instant judgement about you in the first 10 seconds and it’s likely that they will pretty much make up their mind about the date there and then. If you make a bad impression, then it will be extremely difficult to turn that around during the next hour or two, so bear this in mind.

Boxes to tick in the first few seconds are:

Are you punctual?

Are you clean and presentable, having obviously made an effort?

Do you immediately make friendly gestures?

It’s that simple. If you can get these first things right then you’re a long way to making a good overall impression that you can build on for the rest of the date. A good start will immediately create a favourable atmosphere and give both parties the encouragement to try hard to make the other person like them.

It’s both good and bad news that people you meet generally make up their mind about you in the first few seconds of setting eyes on you. This is potentially great if you’re shy or struggle knowing what to say to new people when you first meet them. This means that a big smile and a warm ‘hello’ is a brilliant opening line and will give you a head start on the rest of the date.

It’s not such good news if you’re the type of person that relies on your repartee and one-liners to impress, as this means that anyone you meet will have made plenty of instinctive assumptions about you before you get further than ‘hello.’