GREENSBORO, N.C. — It’s time for ‘My 2 Cents.’
I was thinking the other day about how we try to fit everything in a figurative box. Think about it – everything gets labeled somehow. Something is good. Something is bad. This person is happy. This person is sad. That food is healthy. That food is junk.
We even put ourselves into boxes. Everywhere I turn there’s another personality quiz or way to label yourself. Enneagram. Myers-Briggs. Love languages.
We want there to be order, so we box ourselves up. I think it’s fine to understand the overall way you work – your big personality traits. But I think boxing ourselves up can also be very limiting.
Things that conflict can be equally true. You can be resilient and also need a break. You can be kind and have boundaries. You can be independent and still need others.
There’s power in “and” thinking and danger in “either/or thinking.” And that’s a hard thing to realize.
Personally I love to set goals and achieve them. My favorite thing to do in the morning is to make a checklist and mark off tasks. But I also love lazy days where I take a break and don’t accomplish much of anything. That doesn’t mean I’m not goal-oriented, it just means I am that and I recognize when I need time off.
Just because you are something most of the time doesn’t mean you have to be that all of the time. Don’t put yourself in a box and limit who you are.