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.

I’ve found kids labeled 'slow' or 'gifted' often travel in the same direction but at different speeds. 'Average' kids move in a predictable direction at a moderate speed… this makes them easier to teach.

Which Label Best Describes You?

Hopefully your answer is, “None of the above.”

Seeing this “Slow Children” sign inspired me to create a couple more. We each attach our own meaning to words and labels—symbols. While symbols often stay the same, the meanings we attach to them are continually changing. When I was a kid, the word “gay” referred to being carefree or happy-go-lucky.

The swastika dates from the Neolithic period and  still appears today as a positive religious symbol in parts of India. In the western world it has become stigmatized and even taboo because of its usage by Nazi Germany.

Without physically changing, symbols carry different meanings based on what we attach to them.

Consider these five points…

1. Symbols (words, labels, etc.) don’t define reality; we use them to try and express it.
2. Symbols don’t provide meaning; observers do.
3. All symbols continually change over time to serve a new purpose.
4. While symbols can be helpful, they can also block us from seeing reality, solving problems, and creating new solutions.
5. When it comes to kids (people), symbols (labels) don’t work so well.

Creating new solutions requires looking past old beliefs and representations of reality.