Who doesn’t have secrets? I suspect they’re something we all have in common.

A secret is a piece of information that we don’t want certain people to know, so we keep it locked up. I wonder if you’ve ever considered the secret that you have hidden away that is so secret that even you don’t know about it.

I suspect that most of us have that secret in common as well.

What is the secret that we have under lock and key that even we can’t see?

The secret is in plain sight, not hidden away. We just have on dirty goggles that makes our vision opaque.

The secret is this: I’m not who I pretend to be.

This secret is so secret that we don’t even know of its existence even though it’s transparently clear.

The minute you accept a label and pretend to be that label, your secret gets buried deeper and deeper, covered over with layers and layers of misinformation.

Any label keeps you one step removed from who you really are. Add on more labels and you dance away even further from your core essence.

Think of labels as secret passwords that you have accumulated – your ATM PIN Number, the password to your financial information online, your Facebook login, your mother’s maiden name, your first pet, etc. You are not those passwords, nor are you the labels you have gathered over the years – Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Kind, Mean, Industrious or Lazy.

Labels are currency that allow us to transact with other labeled individuals. They give us a false sense of being “somebody.” They are useful to a point, but are pointless in getting to know who we really are. Labels keep us above the surface. The question that gets us to go deeper, where the real secret is revealed, is: Who am I without my labels?

I’m not my profession, my station in life, my accumulated possessions, my religion, my political affiliation or my position on any topic. Those are just labels that only stick to my exterior. Compared to what’s on the inside, they are exponentially inferior.

Want to get closer to who you really are? Start subtracting labels from your life. Start with one and then work your way down. Each time you remove a label, you get closer to your core, which, by comparison, makes any label seem poor.

Just stop using one label and notice how much lighter you feel; it starts the process of getting real.

All the best,

John