Labels are tricky things.
You can learn a lot about yourself from labels.
Personality styles, for instance – everything from Myers-Briggs to the Enneagram and a host of others – can provide powerful insights into why you do things the way you do, what you might enjoy and excel at, and even into what’s most important for you.
Personal attributes are another kind of label, and they can be sources of satisfaction and pride … or of frustration and shame.
Any label, whether we view it as positive or negative, limits us the moment we decide that it defines us.
The same label that offers “aha!” insights can quickly become a box we feel we have to fit into.
Don’t fixate on your labels. Whether you’ve chosen them, whether you agree with them, or whether someone else has applied them to you, you have options and you have choices.
If there’s something you want to do or be, don’t let a label stop you from going for it.
If there’s something you don’t want to do or be, don’t let a label make you feel pushed into it.
If there’s something you want to change about your experience of life, don’t let a label keep you stuck.
Who you really are can’t be defined by a label, no matter how much you may like or dislike what that label appears to say about you.