Why do we label people

Find ethical companies when you are browsing. See more here. What label have you attached to yourself lately? The Effect of Positive Labeling Praise and Encouragement If you think you are hard-working, inspiring, promising, etc. If you believe in yourself, you unconsciously take more risks which leads to self-development and growth. You are more capable. You live up to the labels you attach to yourself. People who like themselves are generally kinder and have a positive outlook.

Those who think of themselves kindly are happier. It is self-prophetic. It can cause physical symptoms such as migraines, nausea, anxiety attacks, and stomach aches. It is a major contributor to Depression and Anxiety. Before you label yourself, challenge the label with the following questions: Is that a fact that cannot be disputed or is that just your interpretation? Does your friends and family think of you that way too?

Have you always been that way, or did something just happen? What have you achieved in the past that proves otherwise?

Do I want to be this person? Before you stick a label in your forehead, remember: One word cannot define you as a person. Give yourself a break. Life is an adventure. Just be better than you were yesterday. What you think of yourself affects how you live your life. Labels are self-prophetic. You become what you think you are. You are a being with potential. Words are powerful. Use them wisely.

If you want to change the world, start with yourself. And above all, we should be the ones who understand that context, nuance and a complex hive of emotions and past experiences are behind every label. Labels end up conveying something absolute. Why do this to yourself and prevent growth in other areas? Labels take on an "all-or-nothing" meaning.

Think back to your high school days. Imagine if everyone had kept those labels … jeez. Try to list the "labels" that you might have. What have other people labeled you over the years, and what do you label yourself? Can you find similarities or compromises between the two? As you create more awareness around the labels that are associated with you, turn them on their head, and try to look at themes instead.

Challenge the labels: What do they mean? How did the circumstances around you lead to that label? You can have themes of behavior, characteristics and skills at certain points in your personal and professional life. Avoid turning these periods of time and growth into adjectives. After all, once you have labelled a group in a negative light, it instantly taints your view of each individual in that group regardless.

You may hold yourself to the highest possible standard when it comes to cleanliness. Your home and your body are immaculately kept. When you then encounter people who do not meet these same exacting standards, you risk feeling superior to them.

Perhaps you think you have everything together, whereas they must be struggling. Or perhaps you live off-grid and eat a home-grown vegan diet because you want to minimize your ecological footprint.

As laudable as this is, if you look down on others who are not so environmentally conscious, you miss the point that everyone leads different lives and that one life is not inherently better than another. The moment you label someone in a negative light, you give yourself permission to treat them poorly. This can, of course, lead to horrible acts of violence, but it is more commonly seen in micro-aggressions.

You may give a backhanded compliment, for example, to disguise your dislike of a person whilst still making them feel bad. As already discussed, labels are far too simple to be able to describe a person.

But they do help to turn a person into an object — or certainly to remove some of the humanity of that person. Whilst it is sad in many ways, we tend to judge people upon first meeting them. What they look like, how they sound, what their job is — we factor these and other things in as we begin to assign labels to them. With these initial labels assigned, we may hone in on anything that confirms our expectations, whilst ignoring things that contradict them.

The entrepreneur might be overseeing a failing business and be on the verge of bankruptcy. The homemaker might have given up a successful career to raise their children. Yet, it can be hard to look past our initial judgements and the expectations we have of someone based upon them. Try it now. Create an imaginary person in your mind. Duplicate them.