What's with all the labels?

Do we let our labels constrain us? Do we feel pigeonholed by them, as if to deviate from the stereotype of a particular label, we are somehow lying about who we are?

From my camera roll

When I’m wearing my ‘accountant’ label, I feel odd talking about my illustration work.

When I’m wearing my ‘illustrator’ label, I feel odd sharing that I am an accountant.

Martina Navratilova said;

“Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people”.

But I think it’s to simplistic.

Labels are important

Labels are part of the building blocks of language and communication. After all, to describe anything without using any nouns would be a tough ask.

The commonalities within a particular label can help us to understand ourselves and each other. They can provide an easy shortcut to explaining why we feel a certain way, or act a certain way.

Labels can help us to feel less alone. They can help us find others who we can relate to and who relate to us.

I designed this tattoo for a friend and it’s no exaggeration to say that one day, it could save her life.

But perhaps, we can allow them to define us too strictly. Or we can be afraid to lay claim to a label, because of the external expectation that we perceive comes from claiming it.

And sometimes, we can get hung up trying to work out which labels fit us, finding that sometimes the label works for us, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Introvert or extrovert?

In my childhood and throughout my career as an accountant, I thought I was an extrovert. I was outgoing, talkative, confident and tenacious. I was ambitious and fearless.

I did numerous psychometric tests and personality tests that confirmed it. I was an Extrovert.

But working from home during the pandemic, being forced to slow down, getting to walk my children to school and take the dogs out at lunchtime, I started to identify more with introverted qualities. I wanted to spend time on my own, in the quiet of peaceful solitude. I longed to escape from the hustle and stress of my senior corporate role.

Working as an illustrator, I didn’t have the same confidence, I wasn’t ambitious. I was more reserved and reflective.

I began to question who I really was.

And I worried what people who knew ‘Extrovert Accountant Emily’, would think of ‘Introvert Illustrator Emily’…..

Does it even matter?

Who I am at any given time is contingent so many things. Who I’m with, what I’m doing, how I’m feeling. I have a whole host of labels; daughter, wife, mother, friend, employee, manager, accountant, illustrator, entrepreneur, business owner, dog owner…. the list goes on.

They’re all true. They’re all me. And often they are capricious and contradictory. And that’s ok.

Labels are important. They help us to understand the world, to understand each other, to understand ourselves.

But they don’t define us. And they shouldn’t constrain us.

if you’re feeling constrained by labels, the ones you have but don’t want, the ones you want but don’t have, the ones that you think means you should be a certain way; how about this instead…

Embrace the glorious mess of contradictions that make you, you. Cheesy, perhaps. But true.

Bye for now,

P.S. If you’re a paid subscriber, you can download high resolution image files of the illustrations in this article as well as a surprise gift from me as a thank you for supporting my work. Just click the link below.