In the course of your life you will find nothing more eye opening then when you begin to understand more about yourself.  Everyone has a self-concept, or an image of who they are which leads them in the decisions they make and paths they take daily.  In the search for higher education my path led me to an ally were I had to confront myself, and evaluate my self-concept.  The person I saw myself as and the person I wanted to be were not in sync.  This was not a new revelation for me, however, what was a revelation was the need to make a change.  I have spent many years practicing impression management to avoid exposing my low self-esteem.

In DeVito’s (2009) book, The Interpersonal Communication Book, it defines impression management as, the process that we go through to communicate the impression we want others to have of us (p.71).  The textbook also describes seven strategies used to achieve a desired impression; I, however, find that I use four of these strategies on a regular bases.  (1) To Be Liked: Immediacy and Affinity-Seeking Strategies, (2) To Be Believed: Credibility Strategies, (3) To Hide Faults: Self-Monitoring Strategies, and (4) To Be Followed: Influencing Strategies (p.72-74).