Language Creates Reality

#stage/budding #epistemic_status/likely

I think it's fun to create notes on myself and to – in part – kind of map out my personality in writing. But I'm careful how I talk about myself. My hunch is often to frame something that I'm not great at in a negative way, like: I don't write enough. But language creates reality, and I might end up reproducing and reinforcing what I want to change about myself with these framings. So initially I called the note I should write more, before realizing it still doesn't sit right. I don't want this note to feel like some obligation, but a reminder about something I actually want, so it's now called I want to write more.

When describing personal behaviour, I try to avoid generalisations like "I always procrastinate on difficult tasks" or "I'm someone who procrastinates on difficult tasks". I will instead describe how I have behaved in the past, as observations. This is (a) closer to the truth and (b) allows me to mitigate the risk of reinforcing the undesired pattern through language.

I'll make an exception for desired behaviours, where I'll allow myself to make statements about myself that are Useful, not true. Those are much likely to appear in my private notes though; it's pretty awkward to make bold public statements about myself that aren't (yet?) true.