Cliche

Uncomfortable Is Original

Uncomfortable Is Original

Garth Beyer

Banana Comfort, Weird Is Good

Many blogs, many books, many talks are very, very unoriginal. The reason being is they are safe, they are familiar. Ever heard someone say every business book says the same thing, but in a different way? I’ve read enough of them that I would even push back on the “different way” part of the statement. I think all the writing was rushed.

Taking time

It is amazing how well one can write when one takes the time. Think about it. When rushed to write, you use and accept your clichés. Perfect example: journalism. The tight deadlines encourage the use of clichés, of simplification, of uniformity.

When you take time while writing, you find ways to say things better than a cliché can. If you decide to use a cliché, you at least spin it on its head and make it breakdance.

To craft something original…well, it’s scary, it’s uncomfortable, and it takes time.

When you write something original. It’s weird to leave it as it is. You want to change it for fear no one will understand it or like it. It sounds weird in your head reading it over because you’ve never read anything like it before. Orange frizzled daiquiri wedding cake looked sexier than a toucan during mating season. Wasn’t reading that fun? New? An adventure? I wrote it and it feels so weird keeping it.

Alas.

Weird is original and relatable.

The thing about weird I love so much is it will never go out of style. The world will always contain compartmentalists, always produce naysayers, always attract keepers of the status quo — those who are satisfied with the comfort of everything unoriginal. There will always be those resistant to new things and those who fear anything other than what is routine, common, and banal. Yet! There are and always will be those who love and connect with the weird.

Even in light of it all, I still say do what has never been done before. Word the sentence the way you’ve never read anyone word it. If you question whether anyone will like your writing, if you think it’s too far out there, then it’s complete. Ship it. The people who matter in this world (at least who matter to you, to your art) are out there. Wayyy out there. (Think Long Tail)

Build it and they might not come. Build it weird and more will arrive than you ever expected. The freaks shall inherit the earth.

As a dear PR-wonderwoman-friend-of-mine said, “Weird is in. Weird is good. Weird is awesome. Weird is essential. Weird is where the magic is.”

 

Stay Positive & Go Bananas

Photo credit

p.s. this goes for more than just writing

The Question Of Who To Help

Garth Beyer

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A lot of mentors and even people you pass on the street have a goal to help as many people as possible. Is this right?

We’ve seen what mass production does – it kills the personal touch, the emotional labor, and devalues the process and product. Would it be better to help the smaller pool of people who truly want to be helped than forcing our assistance on people who don’t?

I can’t help but think back to one of George Carlin’s skits. He gets told to “have a nice day” so often that for once he just wants to be miserable, he doesn’t want to have a nice day, he’s had too many in a row, he wants someone else to have a nice day. Think about it.

Not everyone wants to be helped, some are content, some want to help themselves, and then you have those that are trying to help as many other people too and then you bump heads with them.

I can picture it now “help me help you helping me to help you help me, so long as I can help myself help you help you.”

I’d rather just have a miserable day than try to sort that out. That’s why you don’t see a bus driving off its route asking passengers to board who don’t, want, wish, or need to go anywhere.

That’s why I write for those who are searching for a bit of help and I sure as heck don’t go putting people in the position to need my help. No. Here when you need me.

The only responsibility we have is to show others that we’re here.

 

Stay Positive & “Have A Nice Day” Is Too Cliche’

Garth E. Beyer

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You Get More Than One First Impression

Garth Beyer

Cliché’s are phrases that are so commonly used that they have lost their originality. Regardless, cliché’s are created because of the truthfulness of them and their ability to be used negligent of where you are. “You only get one first impression” used to be a cliché’. It used to be a nationwide truth. This cliché’ is now deceased. Whether you are aware of it yet or not,

You get more than one first impression.

It is hard to believe that people thought they could not change others’ original judgements of them. We have all evolved since the days the cliché’ was originated. We know each other on a deeper level and understand that each of us have our own lives that we may be having trouble with at the time. A first impression is appropriately defined as the first consideration or judgement one person has on another. That is how it is truly defined, yet those who still live by the original cliché’ define a first impression as the first time that a person meets.

Following the correct definition, it would be universally correct to say that you have a first impression each time you see someone, whether it is your first time meeting them or 100th.

While I agree that how you look, your behaviors, and actions create the first judgement on you when you first meet someone, your true first impression is how the conversation or meeting with the person will go. You have the ability to make a new first impression with each meeting by going in with a positive attitude, an open conscious, and the willingness to help the other person.

Stay Positive and Impressionable

Garth E. Beyer

The photo is of me participating in a Live Radio Talk Show about the Running Start Program in Belvidere, Illinois. Though I have met the other people I talked with previously, I had the opportunity to make a first impression that I was prepared to do the talk show. I was optimistic and energized to take part in the talk show and socialize.