Many of us jump quickly into labelling either ourselves or others.
The “difficult client”, the “obstructive team member”, the “fake person”, and “imposter syndrome”.
When we repeat negative statements or labels to ourselves they become our belief. They set ourselves and others up to be limited to that label and to take on all the expectations that we and society place upon the said label.
This month we will explore the things that erode our self-confidence, that leave us feeling less than, creating the need we have to compare ourselves with others.
Remember “Comparison is the thief of joy” as Christine Burns describes in her latest publication Igniting Resilience (published last week).
When we use labels, this grows and leads us to feeling incomplete, confined or weak. When we use labels we limit any possibility of thinking and taking action outside the box.
Labels are not for people! They are for packages!!
We can understand more about ourselves, our teams and each other by understanding theories and approaches relating to human beings and human behaviour.
But, if we then place ourselves or others into a ‘box’ using the stereotype or a specific profile, then we are closing down any possibility of using our innate strengths to apply to everything we do in a day.
And… we diminish the potential to become something new and even greater!
Think about what labels you say to yourself. What do you think and repeat to yourself or others that pull you down into the box of weakness or lower status?
We need to stop doing this to ourselves and turn it around!
Are you ready to take action and turn this around?
One way of stopping the repeat behaviours is to wear a rubber band around your wrist. When you notice yourself thinking or saying the statement or label again, then twang the rubber band. You will feel it – this will bring you back to the present and you will notice what has just happened and with awareness, then you can make the change.
This physiological stimulus assists with recognising the extent of the label(s) you are using and motivates you to change your action.
(NB: this is not about inflicting high levels of pain on self!)
We have two motivators in life… Either we are driven away from pain or towards pleasure.
When we link the self-deprecating words and labels with pain, we will rapidly desire to enlist our agency to change it.
When you turn off the labels, you are free to believe in yourself, participate in life with a higher emotional state, have more confidence in what you CAN achieve, and become the more Authentic and AWESOME YOU, that you already are!
Let’s STOP using the labels, and turn the world of STEM into a supportive encouraging and high-achieving TEAM environment.
We’ve got this!!