What Does Your Voice Leave Behind?

We always hear about first impressions and how important it is to make it the best. Once you’ve gone past the first impression, you often see people in various moods or attitudes. The other night I found myself “hearing” voices in my head. It was the voices of the people around me, radiating long after our last conversation.

It’s all about what message you convey the strongest. In general people try to avoid causing the negative voices to come out, but sometimes it may seem no matter what you do, the voice prevails. This week alone, from blogs, clients, and coworkers, negative voices have prevailed. For example,
I was packing up my boss for a business trip, leaving a note where everything was packed, filling a notebook with directions etc. For the first time, I battled in my head with his voice. He’s a smart man, and takes great offense when others don’t take in consideration his abilities. So I heard him saying; “I can take care of myself you know. I do know how to get from point A to B.” in response to my prepetory information left.

On the other hand, if I didn’t leave a note informing him where the promo material was packed or where the business cards hid, I heard this, “Where the hell is everything? How am I suppose to know where this stuff is?”

It’s a no win situation. Both voices radiated in my head into the evening, leaving me to accept failure no matter what I did. At some point, you just say F&*($ it, and just stop giving a shit.

Sure everyone has their “tweaks” that get under their skin and irritate them. If you interact with a person long enough, you can certainly hear their voice of frustration. Most of the time you can also hear their laughter to counter the negativity. Sometimes, you can’t.

When you leave people, what voice do they hear you in? Do they only hear the constant negativity, discourse, and frustration? Or is there a balance of happiness and kindness? First impressions are great and all, but it’s what you leave behind is what is remembered.