When I was at college studying Sociology, I came across a theory known as 'the self fulfilling prophecy'. It was used in conjunction with case studies about children who were labelled as 'smart' or academically 'weak'. One such study was performed whereby a new teacher was told that a certain group of children were academic 'achievers' when in fact they were in an 'average' ability stream. These children fulfilled this label by getting higher results.

Recently, I found myself labelling my sister, as having an excellent memory. My mum often calls her 'an elephant' (apparently elephants have good memories). On this occasion, she miraculously remembered someone's name when she had met the person for all of 10 minutes 3 years previously! The same day I copied her in on an email, her response was 'they don't call you a communications expert for nothing'!

This comment reminded me about the 'self fulfilling prophecy'. Only, on this occasion, I had created the label. I remember feeling tentative about introducing myself at networking events a few years ago - was I really an expert in my field? A few years down the line and I feel much more congruent when marketing myself. You see, labels can become like mantras. If you repeat something enough times, with enough certainty, it becomes your reality.

My challenge to you, is to reassess the way you talk about yourself. This doesn't have to mean giving yourself a label or a title, it can be as simple as speaking more positively about yourself. Some of you may remember my blog about the time I so cleverly reminded myself to 'forget my trainers' :) this shows us what happens when we are not careful with our language.