You Are Your Label

Every day, and all day long, you are labeled by the experiences you allow in your life. Think about it. You are represented by how you choose to experience life. Listen! We’ve all made bad choices and have become labeled by these choices. Even the part and parcel of our past. History. But the path we choose to follow today can represent a better experience. You are in charge of how you choose to respond!

What Is Your Label

We’ve grown so used to everything being put before us to consume what we want. From entertainment, Hollywood says “give ’em what they want” and you can guess at what they are providing! Consider the convenience of food sources and the availability of shopping meccas. We consume those things we want, what interests us, and what we are tempted to try. Our plan is to make them convenient for our daily life, and not to have to go far to find them!

Perhaps you’re not happy with your label, and would like another word to describe yourself! As a consumer, you are also known as a client, buyer, or purchaser. To the advertiser, often, you are merely dollar signs for them to transfer from you to them!

Everything costs something! Nothing in life is free! The true value is what you get out of something you spend your resources for. Whether you are buying knowledge, experiences or a product, it requires using your resources! If you think of what you have as a valuable commodity, then you transfer it to the seller. What do they offer? Enticement. Possibly nothing better than a pretty low-hanging bauble, or a show-off item. Or, it could be more valuable than anything you’ve ever owned!

Decide to eat at a restaurant, and you are the buyer of their services and menu. Choose your new ride, for example. You are laying out a huge chunk of future worth on something that quickly loses value. Decide on a new house? Yep. You are the consumer picking what you’re willing to live with, and in!

Looking For Value

I’m often a picky shopper. Generally, I know what I want and research for a long time before I buy. Equally, I wait for a sale! If it’s still in my need and desire bucket, I will spend the necessary resources to acquire. In other words, I’m not willing to pay full price! I want a bargain! But not the kind that requires a great deal of time to stand in line for! No Black Friday shopping for me!

Pick on fuel for my diesel truck. It holds 35 gallons. Yesterday, I could buy fuel at either $2.95 or $3.49 per gallon within 10 miles of my home. So, for a full tank, do I spend $103.25 or $122.15. Notice! That’s nearly $20 difference for a full tank!

Think it through! For every 10 cents difference in price, that’s $3.50! What can I get for that money? Several cups of coffee at a favored drive-through spot (just black coffee, please!). Or, enough food from the grocery store to feed me for a few meals.

The value of your savings goes up when you use a loyalty card or a credit card with points (as long as you can manage the debt properly). Add to that, you plan your purchase for the best deal in town!

Smart Label

To the masses that simply buy on impulse, I choose to be a customer that shops for value. I am not the person a seller is looking for. They want a higher profit margin to keep their doors open. Whereas, I am looking for the best value possible to spend my resources on. Smart consumers will choose where and when they spend their resources. Smart customers reward who they spend their money with!

Equally, I shop for the service value as well as the retail value.

“The way management treats associates is exactly how the associates will treat the customers.” ~Sam Walton

Think about that for a moment! Isn’t this true about everything in life? You get what you give! In relationships, close friendships, and especially in our communication style. Anger often begets anger, and it’s equally the same with shouting. Just watch opposing factions in a protest. Reacting to others brings out the worst in ourselves. Just about all the time!

Here’s my thought today.

I heard this a long time ago, and it constantly challenges me to think things through, and to think myself from where I was, to where I want to be.

It’s all about changing “me“. Habits die hard. New habits are difficult to create. Ask any person changing their lifetime eating habits to focus on healthier choices! You get set in your ways and that comforting choice that you once found necessary, suddenly, it’s destroying your health.

You have the power to change! If you want to. What do you want to become? A more discerning customer, a wiser ol’ soul, and perhaps a better example to those you care about!

I think what we all look for is a leader to show the way, and then to become a similar leader to point the way! We follow a guru to become a guru. Listen to your coach, and you will be better at your game, but you will also learn to coach others.

This applies to everything in life. We follow first, lead second, and stay a follower our entire life! What we do teaches others how to do exactly as we do. Perhaps we need to teach how to be a better customer and consumer. We are labeled by how we consume, and by what we say we are. What’s your label?

Identify Your Labels

Since birth, I have multiple labels attached to me. Birthplace: Texas, Religion: Christianity, Personality: Friendly, IQ: Very High! I will always be the oldest to my siblings, and the firstborn to my parents. A faithful and loving husband. Father and a son. My skills run toward analysis more than doing, and I love to research and write. I’m easily an introvert and seek the silence to recharge my batteries, but I’m an extrovert to reach those I’m responsible for.

There is something to be said about how you live your life when you understand where you are in life and what our labels are! I will always be a follower, even in the role of leadership. Why? My following powers my leadership. My leadership dictates me to be a follower. Whether its a policy or a style, we all follow something…or someone!

What’s Your Label Say About You?

Jesus said it many times. “Follow Me…” (John 1:37-49) and often he identifies the role of leading his followers will have. “I’ll make you fishers of men….” This was not spoken just to fishermen, but also to Tax Collectors, Zealots, and a Thief. Jump ahead to Paul, and you find the concept in his own life. [Source] Being a follower does not pigeon hole me into never being a leader, but it gives me my framework to be a great customer (follower), a consumer (user), and leader.

Notice the middle label and role. A Consumer. You cannot be a customer without telling of your experiences as you consume. What does that say to you? Think it through. You have the power to pick a label that identifies you like a particular kind of consumer that is of your own choosing. You are either for or against! It’s good or bad. How you handle your response is the label you choose to wear.

The Power of Your Choice

What did I say earlier? If you always do… what you’ve always done… you’ll always get… what you’ve always done. But what am I trying to say? You have the power to change, and become what your gifting and personality might be.

It’s in your hands to choose.