Break the goddam box!

 

Hey people,

It’s been a while here. My life has been on the fast lane in the last 8 to 10 weeks thereabout: managing projects, penning  a lot of ideas, drawing up a number of proposals, helping friends and associates develop their brands, writing thesis for a postgraduate qualification, coupled with my usual responsibilities as wife, mother, daughter, career woman et al…Really, my life on the ‘fast’ lane. In all of these however, I never forget to keep a tab on the things happening around me. I’m going to be sharing them here more regularly in a couple of weeks and I assure you, it’s will be quite interactive.

Few weeks back, I had quite a challenge sending a 160 character congratulatory SMS to a senior colleague who was retiring from a Company I once worked with. My challenge was not because I didn’t know what to write but that I wanted to use certain words which could be misconstrued or were associated with certain events and situations. This is a sneak preview of what I wanted to send.

Congratulations Sir on your ‘glorious exit’ from …. This will mark another phase of great accomplishments and resounding success for you. Congratulations again Sir, God bless you…

Now, did you notice the words in bold italics? That formed the beginning of a series of thoughts.

Why do we associate certain words with certain situations? Why do we think in a particular manner when we hear or read certain words? Phrases such as ‘glorious exit’, ‘home call’, ‘celebration of life’, ‘someone goes home’ etc are usually associated with death. In addition, we see things like ’50 hearty cheers’ associated with birthdays. There are many of them…

The real issue isn’t even the clichés but the people who use them: Communication specialists, copywriters and the likes.  These are people who should be exposed to better ways of communicating without following the crowd and the trend. When we read such words on posters, invitation cards, event programmes and in newspapers, we just ‘conclude’ what the situation is in our minds.

Is it possible that an octogenarian or nonagenarian who is celebrating God’s faithfulness in good health and wealth with several children, grandchildren and great grandchildren is celebrating life? Yes! It is also possible that a retiree returning to his country home after say 40 years in service in the city is going home. Yes! It is also possible that a monarch who has spent about 50 years on his throne ruling his kingdom could be given 50 hearty cheers even when he isn’t celebrating his birthday. What I am saying is that there needs to be a break from the norm. We need to be more creative, extend our thoughts a little more and make things different. That’s the true meaning of being creative, of thinking outside the box: the imaginary box we all created, the box that does not exist.

Back to the congratulatory SMS to my Oga at the top, I eventually sent it without the phrase ‘glorious exit’. I found an 'uncliched' way to express myself.

We do not really need to think outside the box, all we need to do is think like there’s no box.

We’d be having a lot more posts in the next few weeks.

Kindly share related clichés we see or read in the comment box, let’s all have a good laugh.

A puzzle is also here (the eggs in the basket, or are they in a box? Lol!) … Let’s solve it and test our creativity. Remember to think like there’s no box.

I’m glad to be back here.

Have fun guys, catch you again pretty soon. Ciao.

Tillopps!

P.S:

Congratulations on your retirement, Mr. Julius Araga. The best is yet to come.

Happy birthday to my dearest friend, Caroline Nwogu (June 1^st). You rock!