Don't box yourself in

Our culture exists, in large part, by putting people in boxes.

People—parents, recruiters, psychologists—put people in boxes all the time. It helps them categorize the world and make sense of people.

And so we have personality scales and assessments, taxonomies and continuums, IQ scores, and all kinds of titles. But either way, what we’re doing is finding ways to distinguish people—to sort them out—by putting a label on a lifestyle, a career, or a quirk.

And it’s not just other people. We put ourselves in boxes, too.

Consider that if you’re a writer, you tend to think of yourself as a writer (and not much else). Or, perhaps you’re a musician or a dancer or a zoology professor who thinks you could never do anything new.

This is just fine if you want to just be a writer or a musician or a dancer…but it can be a disservice to you and your capacity to learn if you’d prefer to do something else.

People—parents, recruiters, psychologists—need these systems of categorization. (Just as teachers presumably need to grade their students on their tests.) Otherwise there’d be no way to sort and sift through the clutter. To rank people. Or to grasp—in short time—who a person is.

So, while all the classifying and ordering and grading and grouping might help some people do their jobs better, it can be beneficial to at least acknowledge when and if it’s helping you.

Because, it really is all invented. One big scheme.

If a story or a label or a title doesn’t resonate with you—with who you think you are, or who you'd like be—you certainly have the the right to change it (or add to it).

It’s your life, after all. No sense defining it by any other label than one made and defined by you.

…

Aside: Something I’ve noticed is that if you give yourself permission to write or code or dance (or whatever it is you would like to do), and you do it often, you’ll generally have a much easier time thinking like one, acting like one, and being like one. (Which, if you think about it, is the only way anyone has ever become much of anything, anyway.)