Telling People Who You Are

I know a person that is not a reader. I know he is not a reader because he has told me, countless times. And usually he tells me this with a book in his hand.

I’ve tried to argue with him that he is in fact a reader, and an avid one at that. He’s always reading something new. He’s always got a book within arms reach.

The strange thing is, overtime, I’ve started to agree with him. He’s convinced me that he in fact isn’t a reader. It’s so odd to me how he’s won me over to his side of the argument. But when I think of him, I don’t think to ask what are you reading, because I just figure he isn’t reading. The book at his side must just be decoration, a prop that he carries through life.

I read in a book once about a teacher that always talked about his short stature. He talked about it so much that he convinced everyone that he was an oddity. In fact one girl in his class was convinced he was so short, that she had always thought of herself as taller than him. She was surprised to find out one day that he was actually the same size if not a bit taller than her. How could that be?

I believe there is great power in our words. If we tell people again and again and again that we are something or we are not something, then whether it’s true or not, we will eventually convince them. We can convince people that we are ugly, that we are fat, that we are short, that we are a clutz, that we aren’t creative. But the opposite is true, we can also convince people that we are beautiful, healthy, tall, poised and artistic.

Someone recently asked me how cloth diapering was going. I told him great, that I had gotten used to it pretty quickly with Luther, our youngest. He said, “Wait, haven’t you always done it?” Even though he had known me at a time where I wouldn’t have been caught dead attempting to use a cloth diaper, I had painted a new picture of myself that circumvented my past. He thought I had always been this way.

With our words and our actions we paint a picture of ourselves for people. Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I hear someone else call me an artist. I love it! But I can remember a day where I longed to be called that and no one would do it. To be recognized as the person we want to be recognized as we need to be the ones embracing that vision and living it out before others. If we tell people who we are long enough, they will come around to believing it. Use that to your advantage instead of your disadvantage! If you don’t want to be seen a certain way, stop telling people that’s who you are. Artists are capable of convincing something IS even if it ISN’T quite yet. Who do you hope to be? Start convincing others it’s who you are. Invent your preferred reality and step into it.

Tagged as: Inspirational, self-help