Labels can be a pain in our daily lives.
They really hold us back.
Not the labels we get on clothes or cans. I’m talking about these labels:
The ones we use on ourselves.
Like this one for example.
I’ve never seen myself as “a good cook”.
Yes, I make tarts, salads, soups. The occasional curry.
I’ve also burned beef, grilled some very tough chicket and made some extremely lumpy custard!
In short, I’m a cook who does what she has to do to put something that could be said to resemble food on the table of her family each night.
At least that’s what I USED to think until recently.
It came to me that when I thought like that, attached to myself a label of “mediocre cook”, I didn’t even want to start cooking. Or experiment. Or innovate.
It felt so much easier to not try and create but to simply avoid the event totally by buying ready-made.
But that’s never a sustainable solution.
Because, when you think about it, to create is to be human.
So I decided to remove the label.
In fact, I decided to NOT even give myself a label.
And you know what? It was completely freeing.
I was free to be who I wanted to be in the moment.
Someone who was simply creating something with a mix of ingredients. And even enjoying it.
No past focus. Just present moment.
Each recipe was a new start (like the meatball, veg & tomato pasta bake in the photo!).
Since then, I’ve been savouring my family’s compliments.
And it CAN be the same for you with your English communication.
If you want to start filling the kitchen of your mind with the sweet smell of progress you need to:
- peel off the labels like “I’m a lower level than x, y or z”, “my presentation skills are poor” or the classic “I’m not good enough”,
- rip them up into tiny pieces
- throw them in the trash.
Forget the past. Today is a fresh new page.
Tell your brain: “no labels allowed in my English communication”.
Because it’s truly liberating when you finally get a glimpse of what you’re REALLY capable of.
And you see how it IS possible to have your audience savouring your words in English.
What label do you need to remove today to become the boss of your brain?
Photo courtesy of: Kelly