Beyond Labels

An author, enigma, husband, lazy, philosopher, stupid, intelligent, uncle, dreamer, kind, father, sincere, creative genius, son, public speaker, radical, friend, loving, designer, liberal, conservative, insightful, extremist, smart ass, brilliant, idiot, businessman, brother, left-wing, right-wing… these are some of the words and labels people have used to describe me over the past year. Some have been shared directly, others behind my back. While some labels are more objective and useful to communicate, others are subjective and open to interpretation. Notice the contradictions in my labels? That’s because they are projections. Labels reflect as much about the labeler as they do the person being labeled. Since I put little merit in subjective labels, I try not to let them influence my thinking. As people we are more than labels… and reality always trumps words.

While labels simplify the world, provide context and help us organize our thoughts, they don’t define reality. In business, people are given titles to describe a role or position. These labels don’t describe who they are, or what they’re capable of doing. The same holds true with children. Have you ever heard a conversation along these lines?

“My daughter is gifted… she’s in all the advanced classes!”

“That’s wonderful, my son is LD… actually, he’s ADD… and in special classes.

“My oldest son is ADHD and he went on to college. My daughter is average… she’s getting by in regular classes… if she worked harder she could be in AP courses.”

On and on it goes, label after label, never recognizing that these limiting labels don’t define their children. These labels help institutions and adults organize, categorize and contextualize their thoughts and objectives. Furthermore, adhering to these labels is not only limiting, it can skew a person’s real potential. Embracing labels keeps the “experts” responsible for coining them in business. And this promotes more label making. Most “experts” have special titles themselves. These special labels are valuable to those who wear them. They say, “I’m qualified and smart”… regardless of whether it’s true or not.

It’s easy to be fooled by labels. We see it regularly in politics. Someone is labeled a liberal, moderate, conservative… and so on. But when you study their actions (not their words), you realize that many labels don’t align with reality. Regardless of the subject matter, once you start looking beyond labels and focusing on reality, the world appears very differently… and the door to new possibilities swings open.

In my book, “Pink Bat: Turning Problems Into Solutions” I discuss a psychological phenomenon we all suffer from called perceptual blindness. In essence, our mind filters the world around us… and what we let in becomes our reality. This is what makes labels dangerous… they can prevent us from seeing the big picture… the “real” world.

For the next few weeks, take note of all the words and labels people use to describe you. Think about the words and labels you use to describe yourself. Do the same with your children, family members and peers. Once you become conscious of labels, you will begin to see how limiting and often skewed they can be. Labels don’t define reality… and they certainly don’t define us… unless we let them.

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