From early on we are judged by preconceived standards and pushed into predefined labels. By subconscious interpretation of events and other people’s reactions, we find ourselves defining who we are.
It becomes our comfort zone – the comfort of knowing one’s identity. It starts with ‘I am a funny guy’, ‘I am a smart boy’, ‘I am pretty but I lack brains’, ‘I am good at sports’, ‘I am a rebel’, ‘I am an outcast’, ‘I am shy’, ‘I am unattractive’. As we grow up, it becomes ‘I am a banker’, ‘I am an average worker’, ‘I am a yoga teacher’, ‘I am single’, ‘I am fat’, or ‘I am a smoker’.
Marketers sell products by categorizing and labeling groups of people by demographics. They call them things like “early adopters” and “baby boomers” and “millennials”. All these labels serve us as something. They serve as a justification for our actions. However, at the end of the day they become a limit to our true potential.
Imagine you dropped all the labels you have subconsciously acquired, to continuously explore who you really are and express yourself, follow what truly draws you in rather than close yourself in the label of one profession or social role.
We are all chasing something. Most of us crave these things because we’ve lacked one or all at some point in our lives. For many of us, years and years pass as we yearn for what we lack.
Until that one day arrives. The day we make up our minds to change things. And so, we attempt to take matters into our own hands. Every waking moment, from our first breath to our last, we strive to own ourselves. We strive to find a way to move through this life unfettered, freely, and without restraint.
“You should have a greater fear of what will happen to you if you remain dependent on others for power. Your goal in every maneuver in life must be ownership.” – Robert Greene.
Obsessing over your own labels stops you from being an authentic version of you. You’re living up to a label someone who doesn’t know you as much as you do has given you, which is pretty weird when you think about it.
Be flexible with your perceptions about others, and try not to beat yourself up with rigid binaries and ideas of success. Life is much more stressful with a complex web of labels, and you’ll end up holding yourself and your potential back.
