Wearing Labels

I have a thing about labels. 

Not the type stitched onto the inside shirt collar or the one embroidered on the poorly place butt pocket on jeans.

 I’m talking about the label I give myself based on circumstances.   I have a tendency to first make them up, try then on for size and then wear them while perfecting the part.

For instance when my ex-husband and I divorced, I gave myself the label “single mother” to my eight-year-old twin boys.  When I then decided to reopen Penny’s Pastries in Austin after our move from Washington DC, “single mother” + “struggling small business owner” seemed fitting.    

Just recently when we decided to put my mother in a nursing home, I became “daughter who puts her mother in a nursing home.”   I’m sure you can image what that looked like.. .oodles of guilt and shame.  

Sometimes it’s a different type of label. 

When I closed for the business at Southwest Airlines I became, “fearless woman who knows how to close big accounts.”  And when I decided to open my consultancy I morphed into, “wise woman who’s ready to share her experience.” 

What labels have you given yourself?  Are you aware of them. . .and how are they working for you??