Being judged by others and put into boxes

The simple fact is that we do fit into a certain category of how we approach our business, and whether we like it or not we are being judged by others and put into these categories and boxes.

Now, whether that is your personality, the way you communicate or the way you are motivated. At a high level, there are patterns to how we do this.

Unfortunately, some business people, the first reaction is the negative aspect of that category and attaching that to you personally.

I have started to approach this very differently after one of my teachers and mentors, Wyatt Woodsmall – NLP Guru related some very wise words to me some years ago, he said in reference to personality categories.

We seem to get caught out here, if we admit that this is who we are, then we are stuck with it for life and there is no way out.

The opposite is actually true, once we can understand what this means, that opens up a whole new world. What are the advantages to being like this? And what do we need to watch out for that we may get stuck and do automatically without realising.

I have been working on a program and eBook about Motivational Strategies and yes, there are 12 different categories or types of Motivations. When I explain these categories I have had 2 completely different reactions to the explanations.

1st reaction is “No, that’s Not me, I don’t do that” for example, one of the Motivational Strategies is the Power which the person feels a need to control things around them, the people and their environment. Now they perceive this as a bad thing. So they react this way immediately without another thought.

2nd reaction is “Wow, I didn’t realise that I needed to control things that much, but now I understand and I get it how I can use this to my advantage” They are viewing it for what it is, I now understand why I do that so I can work with it more.

These are very different reactions, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the 1st reaction will cause a businessperson to become stuck focusing on the negative side effect. The second reaction will lead them to be more open to change and really develop themselves within their business.

Using my example of Motivational Strategies, is one  of a category to show you how we can get stuck, looking at the negative effect on our business or ourselves.

This becomes a habit; the same habit can be to automatically look at the positive effect or how you can use information to your advantage personally or in your business. Now don’t get me wrong that you should dismiss the potential downsides and only focus on the positive.

It’s having an open and objective way of taking in new information.

Self knowledge comes first with understanding who we are better first, making this a priority will lead you to take advantage of new information and idea’s.

How are you going to approach categories in the future?