5 tips on how and when to label yourself
Labels are tricky things. The world might well be a better place without them, however conversations would drag on forever. If you’ve ever watched someone converse in sign language you may have seen them spell a person’s name letter by letter and then create a spacial reference point so that they can refer to that instead of painstakingly spelling the name each and every time – that’s what labels do, create a common reference point so that we can get on with what we are trying to say. The downside is that they tend to stick and there’s no language on earth that has enough words to be completely accurate.
1. Do spend some time thinking about what labels you apply to yourself and whether they describe the person you want to be. Get rid of as many as you can and rewrite the labels that are useful but don’t fit perfectly.There’s a lot of advice out there on never labeling yourself however there are some that are a good idea – are you single or not? are you an adult?
2. Be confident in any labels you do use – be ‘independent’, not ‘trying to be independent’. There’s a wealth of power in claiming it.
3. Don’t label yourself unnecessarily. Your Facebook page probably doesn’t need any labels whereas your LinkedIn page probably does.
4. Take the time to find the right words and be open to relearning words you already know. Words change over time and our early understanding isn’t always complete. For whatever reason I grew up defining the word ‘artist’ to mean a painter or a sculptor. I have no idea why, but that was my internal definition. So when I went hunting for a career label that would describe jewelry design,writing, photography and other creative pursuits I was stumped. Until it occurred to me to look up the term again – the first definition on Dictionary.com is: a person who produces works in any of the arts that are primarily subject to aesthetic criteria.
Look at that, I’m an artist! One word to describe all those things. Even though it’s a broad term it will do for filling in the blank on websites and forms.
5. Don’t exclude essential parts of yourself, just to conform to what’s normal or expected. Watch this
Gap ad with Eisa Davis, who juggles more than one passion simply because it’s essential and doesn’t pick just one. She definitely fits the definition of what Barbara Sher calls scanners although that’s another label I don’t particularly like because scanning implies a lack of action.
Words have power, choose wisely!
