How Many Labels Do You Wear?

"I am old"
"I am a plus size"
"I can't"
"I am a single mom."
"I am uneducated."
"I am unpublished."

As I work on a course for freelance writers I keep coming up against one road block that I cannot help writers overcome - labels.

Whether I am teaching students in my famous (infamous) course at universalclass.com or teaching independently, I find that there are certain intangibles that no mentor, instructor, or guru can ever overcome.

One of them is the labels we wear. Many people try to overcome the limitations of their labels, but only succeed in creating more...

"I don't care about my weight."
"My way is good enough."
"I do it my way."
"I look great for a XX year old."
"My skills are good enough."

The fact is, if you want to succeed, you need to sell your soul. Not sell it to a diety, but set it free. You need to stop fitting into society's definition of who you are.

I once had someone try to tell me what I should be, and let me know what his opinion of me was. I retorted, "You do not define me."

If you can understand that simple statement then you'll find success is easier to find. It is time to shed labels. It is time to stop limiting your success based on what others taught you.

As my good friend Lori recently said, "We create our own reality." In fact, we do.

We are defined by:
our beliefs in a deity,
ourselves,
the treatment we tolerate from others,
our determination to learn how to succeed,
our willingness to be mentored,
our ability to share and give to others,
the knowledge we acquire while traveling
the amount of effort we put into our daily tasks,
our priorities,
our goals,
what we see when we look in the mirror,
what we see when we look in our lover's eyes,
what we nurture in ourselves and our children, and
our passions (defined by our actions)

These things can be wings that set us free, or they can be chains that hold us down.
The problem isn't in the chains, it is in the fact that - once chained - we believe that the rest of the world sympathizes with us, emphatics with us, and are on 'our side.' While this belief helps us feel better about the situation, it also holds us in abusive situations and prevents us from reaching our potential.

There is enough time in a single lifetime to help another person heal, but not to carry their burdens.

There is enough time to become the person we want to be, but not enough to feed and nurture those things that hold us down.

There is enough time to learn to love, but a lifetime is not long enough to nurture and feed self-loathing, bitterness, inner-pain, or fear of success.



My 'teaching blog' for people who want a 'real' freelance writing career.

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