Yes, “Introvert” Is a Label—But What Matters Is How You Use It

Don’t think of the term “introvert” as a confining label. Think of it instead as a guiding lighthouse, always helping you steer back to the true you.

People get worked up about what they call “labels”—especially the so-called label introvert.

“By accepting the introvert label as an absolute, you may be creating self-imposed limitations in terms 
of your ability to interact with colleagues and industry leaders, which is vital for career growth,” writes career coach Ashley Stahl, in her Forbes website article entitled “Why Self-Identifying as an Introvert May Hurt Your Career Growth.”

“We are people full of contradictions, and we should not be confined to a label to define us,” adds author and English teacher Jenna Pratt, in her Medium website article entitled “The Introverted Extrovert and Why I Think Labels Are Nonsensical.”

Stahl, Pratt, and the many others who have written about the dangers-of-the-introvert-label issue over the years raise a valid point: You can’t, and shouldn’t, use your introversion as a crutch by saying, in effect, “I’m an introvert—so I cannot/will not/don’t need to __________ .”

But what if you identify as an introvert not as a way to hide yourself in life, but as a way to guide yourself?

And what if you see the label introvert not as “an absolute” or as something that “defines” you, but as something that aligns you?

The way you view the “label” introvert—and the way you apply the resulting mindset in your life—is what matters.

Not the label per se.

As Sophia Dembling, author of the enlightening book The Introvert’s Way, puts it in the subheading of her Psychology Today website article “Be Introverted, Not an Introvert”:

“Labels can hurt or help, depending on how you use them.” [emphasis added]

Think Handedness

Let’s look at another word I use to label myself. You probably use it too, as do about 90 percent of people worldwide, statistically speaking:

Right-handed.

Do I “hide” behind being right-handed?

No.

Being right-handed doesn’t keep me from attempting anything (with the possible exception of trying out to be a left-handed pitcher in the local fastpitch softball league).

Do I see my being right-handed, and treat it, as “an absolute”?

No.

I use my left hand too, all the time—sometimes by choice, more often by necessity. During my daily workouts, for example, I promise you that I’m lifting the weights with both hands. (Ask my sore hands, with an “s.”)

Do I allow my being right-handed to “define” me?

No.

Calling myself right-handed doesn’t prohibit me from using my left hand when I want or need to.

Just recently, for example, when I was trying to get the hood latch unstuck on my kid’s decrepit old Honda Civic, I promise you that both of my hands were getting scraped up as I reached underneath the front of the hood and tried to coax the damn thing to open. (Once again: Ask both of my sore hands.)

All of this being said: Do I label myself right-handed and use my right hand most of the time, often without even consciously thinking about it?

Yes.

And does this generally work to my advantage vs. my disadvantage?

Of course.

And so, when something really matters especially, am I naturally—and understandably—going to turn to my right hand first, not my left?

Why wouldn’t I?

The label introvert plays out the same way in daily life—if, of course, you do indeed apply it the right way.

The “Introvert” Label Is Merely Shorthand

Look closely again at the title of Sophia Dembling’s Psychology Today website article: “Be Introverted, Not an Introvert.”

Isn’t she, too, arguing against using the “label” introvert?

Not exactly—even though she says “I don’t argue with the people who object to labels.”

I don’t either.

But remember: The word introvert is and always will be a form of shorthand and nothing more.

It’s just a quicker and more convenient way of saying “person who tends toward introversion.”

It isn’t meant to function like a confining box or a jail cell, something that paints you into a corner.

It’s more like a lighthouse.

It reminds you where home (or your other destination) is, and it helps you get there whenever you want to without crashing into the rocks and sinking.

But it doesn’t hinder you from taking side trips whenever and wherever you want.

Unless you let it.