WORDLOAD EXPLAINED: Words, Labels and Outcomes

My job took me to a home in western Kansas.
Fifteen minutes away from the nearest town.
A farmhouse surrounded by wheat.

Bleak.
Forgotten.
Lonely.

And from the disrepair, ignored.

I checked my phone before opening the car door.
No signal.

My stomach tightened.

There was no cavalry if this meeting went sideways.

The owner met me on the porch.
Friendly,
Warm.
Firm handshake.

Normal.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS:

·       Wordload is built, not born, accumulating over time through exposure, labeling, and lived experience.

·       Wordload is the weight of unchecked words, stories, and digital noise.

·       Labels evolve into identity frameworks.

·       Wordload leads to “freezing.”

·       The problem cant be solved with the same words that built it.

___________________________________

Then he opened the door.

The smell hit first.

Not the smell of the beef packing plant in town.
Something heavier.
Older.

Like it had been sitting there…a long time.

My brain searched for adjectives.
And failed.

I took one step inside and saw the stacks.

Newspapers.
Books.
Magazines.

I began questioning my safety,
I was a lab rat navigating a maze.

The owner?

Normal. 
Relaxed.
Unaware of the danger of a stack falling.
Unaware the same stacks were built in his mind.

Any stack of words?
Potentially dangerous.
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From Labels to Identity

We start building when we’re young.
By eight, we can recognize nearly 10,000 words.
By sixty, nearly 50,000.
But we only use a fraction.

And words don’t stay ”neutral.”

We attach labels.
As toddlers, things were “good” or “bad.”

As we grow, labels become more complex.
We begin to define and idealize.

Mom or dad isn’t just a role
They become people.

And we label them based on who we think they “should” be. 

We become more complex.
Even ambivalent.
Able to hold multiple labels for the same word.

Labels are shaped by  experience .

·       Life events.

·       Peer and cultural pressure.

·       Trauma or abuse.

·       Environment.

The words stop just describing the world.
They define it.

The older we get?
Our labels freeze. 

Labels stacked atop words.

Hoarded.

Embedded as our stories.

Instead of stacks filling a room…
they fill our identity.
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Wordload and Why It Matters

They become Wordload.

Wordload is the accumulated weight of our unchecked words, stories, and digital noise. Wordload shapes our decisions, behavior, performance, relationships, and outcomes.

Our cheerleader. And our worst critic.

“Why do I always…”
“I never…”
“Did I really…”

“What was I thinking?”

Labels freeze.
But our identity?

Even in days or seasons of brokenness,
Our identity isn’t frozen.

Only our words and stories are.

Stress or lack of sleep creates “the loop.”
Negativity on repeat.

“I am…”

Wordload fills in the label.

When we multi-task, our brain uses “shortcuts.”
To save energy and evaluation time,

“I can’t…”
Wordload took the pen. The truth rarely catches up.

For protection, we trade our voice for safety.
The “Ariel Effect.”

Silence stifling solutions.
Wordload robbing potential. 

And sometimes, solutions add to the friction.
Some add words on top of our words.
Others add habits, routines, and systems.

The difficulty isn’t in starting.
The fight is against Wordload and continuing.

And in difficult moments?
Pressure writes fast.

Wordload even faster.
_________________________
INTRODUCING RE|  HANDING THE PEN BACK

The problem isn’t that we don’t have tools.

It’s that we try to solve Wordload
with the same words that built it.

When all we need are two letters.

An  R and E.

Two letters when put together offer both a start and finish.
RE| is the prefix giving permission to RE|author.

It’s the pause to “clean-up” our stacks and revive.
The ability to restore, one room at a time.

The choice to become more.

RE| is built on words we already use everyday.
It’s not a diagnosis or replacement for counseling.

Unlike the owner of the home who couldn’t “see” the stacks and danger.

RE| gives us space to recognize and retire words and scripts that are no longer helpful.
While some things can’t be re-done.

They can be rewritten and turned into strength for ourselves and others.

|ER lets us choose the identity we want.
Not the one Wordload built.

We can re-learn, to become a leader.
We can re-train to become better.

We can rejoice and begin to encourage others again.

RE| wasn’t built in classrooms or theory.
It was built in wreckage leftover by

·       Anxiety / Depression

·       Trauma / Abuse

·       Impostor syndrome

·       Decision fatigue.

Wordload is heavy.

RE| gives the pen back.

My name is G. Scott, and I write about the power…and burden of the words shaping people, organizations, and outcomes. I’ve served over thirty years in the corporate environment scaling operations and sales initiatives and teams regionally and nationally.

I have been blessed with my wonderful wife Alyson, three great kids and my first granddaughter.

The most important part of my work? You.
 I hope you share your story!
If this has been tough, please reach out to a trusted friend, pastor, or counselor.
If I brought up anything that caused a struggle—please reach out to 988 the National Crisis Hotline immediately. They are there to listen and help.