Why do we label ourselves (and others)?
Wed Jan 21 2026
In this last podcast in our series on common thinking errors, Richard and Graham look at how we assign labels to ourselves and to others and then act as if these made-up labels are true.
While labels can help us to understand the world by generalising things into simple to understand categories, often we assign labels about our abilities, experiences, identity and personality that are more of a reflection of a situation than they are of us.
Richard walks Graham through how we can explore these labels we create and reframe them to focus on behaviours that we can change if we wish, and not our identity. Seeing something as an area we are learning is always more constructive than something you are not good enough to do.
More
In this last podcast in our series on common thinking errors, Richard and Graham look at how we assign labels to ourselves and to others and then act as if these made-up labels are true. While labels can help us to understand the world by generalising things into simple to understand categories, often we assign labels about our abilities, experiences, identity and personality that are more of a reflection of a situation than they are of us. Richard walks Graham through how we can explore these labels we create and reframe them to focus on behaviours that we can change if we wish, and not our identity. Seeing something as an area we are learning is always more constructive than something you are not good enough to do.