by Linda Joyce

Created on: November 01, 2009

If you are under the impression that people don't size you up just by your appearance, then you are sadly mistaken. After all, if they don't know you, what else could they possibly use to "assess" you?

Judging others only by appearance, though, seems so superficial, doesn't it? But say you are walking down a busy city street on a Monday morning, and you see two men approximately the same age, walking on the other side of the street. One is dressed in dirty, scruffy clothes, and the other looks as though he just stepped out of the pages of GQ. How would you size them up?

You probably would dismiss the first man as a bum or a homeless person and decide that he is pathetic with no ambition and no future ahead of him. You might think the second one, so stunning in his appearance, was surely an executive of some kind, or possibly an attorney.

Wouldn't you be surprised if the first one turned out to be a millionaire who was just slumming for the fun of it? And imagine how shocked you would be to find that the second one is someone down to his last dime after he spent all of his money on fancy duds to wear to an interview for an entry level sales position.

You see how unfair it is to judge someone by looking at them for a matter of a few seconds? You can't possibly know anything about a person without at least speaking to them for a bit and finding out something about them.

The nastiest looking person could turn out to be someone with a heart of gold, or the next Mother Teresa, who spends all her time working with the poor and donating to numerous charities.

If that doesn't convince you, try to think back on the last time you ran out of the house to go to the Starbucks around the corner. You hadn't showered or washed your hair and you threw on baggie jeans that hadn't been washed in ages. What kind of picture do you suppose you presented to others?

Remember, there are many ways that people can and do size you up just by your appearance, as unfair as it may seem. That's why you should always try to make sure you are dressed decently wherever you go. You never know who may be watching you!

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