Peel Off Those Labels

Some people call themselves stupid, crazy, bad, failure, or ugly. For example, “I’m bad. I didn’t do the report on time.” That is a negative label. It drills into a person a sense of defeat and condemnation. This kind of label doesn’t help anyone. A positive label works much better. Or the statement could be rewritten to make it constructive and motivating, such as “I did not do the report on time. I have solved problems like this before, and I am taking action to solve this one and to prevent it in the future.” A rule of thumb for negative labels:

Change them to positive labels or change them to a description with encouragement to take purposeful action.