Don't be a label. Be an idea!

If I asked "who are you," what would you say? It's likely you would come up with a list of descriptive labels. I'm an artist. I'm a writer. I'm a parent. I'm in college. I like blue. But is that all you are? Are you limiting yourself with those labels?

We all have favorites. I love art. I love Monet's impressionist work. If you asked me about art I'm probably going to tell you all about impressionism. At some point in that conversation I'm also quite likely to switch to Dali and surrealism. Because, hey, I like those too. That really doesn't mean I like Monet or impressionists any less. It just means there are many great artists and styles out there that don't fit into one neat label for me to say I like.

So I could say I like art. But then that doesn't fit because I like to read. I like to walk and observe nature. I like photography. I love history. If you start talking to me about philosophy and the universe, I will tell you just as much or more about that than I would about Claude Monet and his works. You see I'm not a label. I'm a tangled ball of ideas swirling around and eventually landing on the one that fits the current situation best. That's what existing as a human is all about.

Could you imagine if no new ideas were presented? What if nothing changed? Sure we're comfortable now and we can say "if things stopped changing right now I could live comfortably." But to take that idea and apply it to this single fixed point in time is silly. We don't exist in a single fixed point in time. We're traveling through it. You would just as easily be stuck saying what if humanity had stopped evolving in the 1300s? Could I live in that society forever?

To be honest I can't think of one point in the past, present or even the future where I think we will be "good enough." Every answer we find will open up new questions and that's okay because we as humans are incredibly adaptable. We are the creators of ideas. And unlike the confining boxes of labels, ideas aren't fixed points. They spread and grow and build on top of each other throughout all of time. We couldn't have the ideas and innovation we have now without someone's crazy idea from the past. And the ideas we are presenting now will spur new innovations in the future.

So the next time you have to introduce yourself, ignore all those labels are swirling around your head. Think about all the crazy ideas you have and let them out of their dusty box. You are the illumination of ideas that will innovate the future. Embrace that.