Taking charge of your labels
Reframe your labels and take charge of your life.
Throughout our lives, people attach labels to us, and those labels reflect and affect how others think about our identities as well as how we think about ourselves. The limiting beliefs surrounding labels mean that they have received a negative connotation in recent years. People don’t want to be defined by their labels and have vehemently rejected them.
We are more than letters put together to make up a comprehensible label.
Some people see labels as restricting your potential by keeping you confined to your label. This makes them self-prophetic: if you believe you’re useless, your actions and thoughts will be that of a useless person. Often, the labels that we use to describe each other are the result of unfounded assumptions and stereotypes. We regularly apply labels to people whom we barely know or have never even met, and the same is done to us. Thus, for good or for bad, labels represent an influence on our identity that is often beyond our control.
Labels are not always negative; they can reflect positive characteristics, set useful expectations, and provide meaningful goals in our lives. If you think you are hard-working, inspiring, promising, etc., you will be encouraged to achieve more since these positive words make you feel good about yourself. You live up to the labels you attach to yourself. If you think you’re a winner, even if you’re not, you will act and think like a winner — until you eventually become one.
I have recently sat down and thought about the labels I want to be defined by.
Do I want to be a property investor?
Do I want to be known as wealthy, generous, kind, and ambitious?
What label do I want for my career?
What labels would make me feel happy and successful?
I would recommend this exercise to anyone. Define yourself before you let others define you.
