Be careful of the labels you put on yourself
The extent of my musical education in school was learning basic melodies on the recorder (you know, that highly annoying instrument that, when given to children, makes you want to pull your ears off).
Anyway, I quickly learnt that I wasn’t musical, that playing music wasn’t for me.
“I’m not a music guy, I’m a sports guy!” I told myself.
And so it was until the age of 40 (but more on that in a bit).
The thing is, during those decades, music was actually such an important pillar in my life.
Some of my most formative experiences I had had music at their core: listening to Millencolin as a teenager in the darkness of my bedroom, to Daft Punk on a bus somewhere in Spain on my first trip alone, to Sigur Rós live with my friends while the whole audience sat on festival floor-boards.
And I could name so, so many more.
My point is, throughout that time, I loved music but I didn’t play it, or even attempt to play it, because that simply ‘was not me’.
Now, fast-forward to late last year and a friend asks me if I want to jam with him. In his basement, he has an electric drum set, and a couple of amps and guitars.
With assurances that I’m terrible and it won’t amount to much, I go.
And it turned out to be so… much …fun. I couldn’t believe it.
Making noise with others was fun!
This spurred me to learn as much about music theory as I could (mind-blown, by the way) and to practice almost daily.
And now, I’m still not great by any means and I have absolutely zero aspirations — except to continue having fun.
But one thing has become absolutely clear:
I no longer hold onto my old label that music is not for me.
I see now that that label wasn’t truth, even though it felt like it. I just wasn’t good enough yet and hadn’t studied music in a way that I understood.
I hadn’t put in the effort.
And this is so true for so many parts of our lives.
We impose labels onto ourselves thinking that they are fact. “I’m not good at this,” or “I shouldn’t even try that.”
And so I ask you:
What if your labels are achieving nothing more than limiting your ability to explore something that might hold real significance?
How might we show up if we stopped taking them at face-value?
Till next time,
Ben
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