{"id":1727,"date":"2014-05-16T20:13:49","date_gmt":"2014-05-17T01:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/?p=1727"},"modified":"2014-05-16T18:41:51","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T23:41:51","slug":"labeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/2014\/05\/labeling\/","title":{"rendered":"Labeling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Has anyone commented that you are a hoarder? How did that feel to you? What about any other label someone used to describe you?\u00a0 The way we react can be due to any number of factors, yet like so many things \u2013 it\u2019s not a simple black or white question.\u00a0 Were you even thinking about how we label people when you saw the title \u201cLabeling\u201d or were you thinking about labeling things?<\/p>\n

Yet, have you found yourself struggling to find a concise description of a category or a file?\u00a0 I see this most often with people when it comes to their files- ‘what should I call it?’ \u00a0There are so many words in the English language that we can choose from \u2013 the file we have on our car could be labeled \u2013 Car; Auto; VW; Bug\/Beetle; Old Beater; His\/Her Car; and on and on.<\/p>\n

If labeling something that stays the same can present a challenge, it’s fascinating that trying to label people is so common. \u00a0\u00a0To state the obvious, people are more complex than a collection of papers!\u00a0 This is where it\u2019s worth considering how labeling both helps and hinders you.<\/p>\n

I continue to be dismayed overall by the overuse of labeling people as a \u201choarder\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s so popular that it\u2019s easy to use it to describe anyone that has \u201ctoo much stuff.\u201d\u00a0 And \u201ctoo much stuff\u201d is a subjective \u2013 depending on who uses the hoarder label for other people could be someone that has overfull bookshelves in every room.\u00a0 When it\u2019s applied in the subjective way, someone with stuff that is viewed as too much by someone else \u2013 there\u2019s no recognition of the objective criteria that defines hoarding.<\/p>\n

Educating people can be part of what I do \u2013 and I will share the standards for what defines hoarding.\u00a0 When someone has been categorized as a \u201choarder\u201d by family, whether it\u2019s done seriously or by repeatedly \u201cjoking\u201d around, identifying with that can hinder the organizing efforts.\u00a0 It can be important to know that simply because someone else has defined them as a hoarder doesn\u2019t make it accurate.\u00a0 The same thing applies when someone is applying that term to themselves \u2013 and this is also growing in frequency – it\u2019s not limited to other people defining them.\u00a0 And it\u2019s just as inaccurate \u2013 technically.<\/p>\n

The way people react to the label being applied to them \u2013 whether it\u2019s self-applied or comes from others \u2013 can vary too.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve said, I find the term overall to carry negative connotations, and many people feel similarly.\u00a0 Yet, other people (not oblivious to some of the term\u2019s negativity) appreciate that the term gives them a frame of reference \u2013 a place to begin understanding what they have been struggling with.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve even been known to refer some of my own behaviors as \u201choarding tendencies\u201d and can relate to aspects of the hoarding criteria.\u00a0 So is there value to identifying parts of a label that resonates with you?\u00a0 I think so, as it can then offer you some perspective.<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019ve been objectively labeled with some term or not, you can still use the education and knowledge to support you in creating the life you want.\u00a0 For example, in Buried in Treasures<\/a>\"\"by David Tolin et al, they talk about how creative people are and how the ideas of how they can use things can get in their way of getting rid of having so much.\u00a0 I resonated with that \u2013 I have all these creative ideas and now as I look at my own collection of hobbies and crafts, I ask myself to try to be realistic and what are the pieces that really matter.<\/p>\n

A label may or may not apply to us objectively, yet there\u2019s no stopping any of us from using the tools for our own benefit.\u00a0 So, if there is a label that has been applied to you \u2013 externally or internally \u2013 see if the tools and approaches for handling that label can support you and pay no more attention to the specific label than will help you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Labeling is something integral to people \u2013 from the way we categorize and group our stuff to how we apply them to people (ourselves and others). There\u2019s value in having a frame of reference for understanding more, and limiting any devaluing effect that label might have. Most of all see what you can learn about yourself \u2013 as the label might be accurate, you might still gain tools to improve your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10,18,19,5,9,15,14],"class_list":["post-1727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personaldevelopment","tag-behavior","tag-goals","tag-hoarding","tag-household","tag-motivation","tag-resources","tag-reversals"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7p82c-labeling","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1727"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1734,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions\/1734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}