I posted the following on Facebook on Father’s Day:

“My personal belief is that the second half of life is about dropping the labels we ascribe to ourselves, one-by-one, to discover the unlabeled core of who we are. I’m not confident I’ll be able to voluntarily let go of the label ‘Dad.'”

It got me curious about labels that stick longer than others. I’ve known for a long time that I’ve bought in lock, stock and barrel to the “Dad” label. As much as I like it, it does keep me one more step away from full discovery of the unvarnished me.

This curiosity causes me to ask: “What labels are you holding on to?”

Those labels will give you some insight into your values, preferences, prejudices and judgements.

Just because we hold on to a label doesn’t make it a “good” thing. It’s just a label (illusion) that we’ve bought into that has no comparable value when compared to what I have labeled our “core.”

Labels are like meaning: they eventually all disappear. Let’s pretend that you think having a lot of money means something. It means nothing when you’re moments from death. Not even the world’s richest or poorest person is thinking about money at that time. No dying person is saying, “I should have stayed at the office an extra hour each night so that I could have made more money.” The meaning is all gone at that point and so are the labels.

The good news is we don’t have to wait until we’re breaths from death to peel off our labels. Many of the labels we carry about really get in the way of us enjoying and experiencing life more fully now. When’s the last time you danced when no one was looking? Perhaps you have a rule (label) that proper people don’t dance about in public or private. There’s lots of meaning attached to that rule (label).

What if you decided to just start dancing? Two things would happen:

1. You’d experience the indescribable movement of your life force.

2. The label of “dance avoider” would disappear along with its meaning.

This is an invitation to look at your labels and start noticing how many of them are interfering with your ability to experience life more fully. I think you’ll find life more appealing when you start peeling.

Let’s dance!

All the best,

John