FREE YOUR MIND FROM SOCIAL CONDITIONING

“How can your work be original if you think, speak,
and act in clichés? Once your ear is attuned to this
disability, you will mend your ways and your art
will naturally become authentic.”

— Eden Maxwell

From my groundbreaking book, An Artist Empowered: Define and Establish your value as an artist now!

The insidious thing about social conditioning is that you are unaware of it.

There is something required of you before proceeding. If you have already skimmed ahead, consider it a worthwhile detour into the future where nothing has been lost.

THE CHALLENGE

You must make it through an entire day, while conversing with others, without using these three common tick words: ‘just’, ‘hope’, and ‘wish’, or uttering a single cliché. I call them ‘tick’ words because they are merely marking time, nothing more.

Another reason that tick words are annoying and imprecise is that they are indirect, whereas direct is more powerful. Instead of ‘just do it’, say ‘do it’, or even ‘do it, please’. The tick word challenge is equally effective for all artists, regardless of form. And it is the prehistoric invention of painting after all that led to speech and the written word.

You have got to loosen up before you can adjust yourself to a new understanding.

If you feel this assignment is much too easy and you are game, up the ante by not saying ‘I’, the most personal of pronouns on that day of word fasting where less will turn out to be a whole lot more.

WHY?

There is no point in reading what I have written without first establishing a rapport based on a common understanding about our own selves. In addition, I offer you a reward for your effort. Complete the assignment and your perception will be forever and unalterably improved. I guarantee it. I don’t make this claim lightly. Giving advice can be a dicey business. If something doesn’t work out, who are you going to blame? I am confident in my field-tested approach. I don’t suggest anything I haven’t proven to my own self. We are all in this together.

The goal of this challenge is to invigorate your receptivity to the information in this book. There is no more effective way to accomplish this than for you to prove to your own satisfaction how social conditioning hardwires our thought patterns, undermining the limits of our potential. After you consciously confront the rigidity of a mindset firsthand, you will have a significant insight into your own psychology that will serve you well in tackling rejection. I want you to experience instant gratification. This exercise is something you can do right now. You don’t have to believe anything, or even have faith. You need only do it—now—to prove this mental challenge to yourself.

What more can you ask?

Being diligent about these tick words by not using them is mental alertness and discipline. This is a way to focus. You need not agree with me or be concerned about the exact meaning or the ultimate fate of ‘just’, ‘hope’, and ‘wish’ in the lexicon. You need only be alert enough not to use them. You are in control of your mouth.

HONOR SYSTEM

A reliable test to see whether you have summarily discarded a tick word from your vocabulary is this: You are asleep. The phone rings and you answer, not yet fully awake. Someone on the other end says, “Come on, let’s go. We’ll be late.” Even if you did regress by saying, ‘Just a minute,’ don’t despair. The only important thing is that you realize you said the verboten word. You caught yourself in the act of slipping into a mindless preconditioned pattern. This momentary relapse is a heads up for how we can so easily fall back into old and familiar patterns that keep us prisoners of social conditioning. Of course, other tests will come to see whether you have removed these life force sucking ticks from your speech.

Be alert. Tick words usually resurface, and to your own amazement, again when you are tired or under pressure.

An Artist Empowered | book by Eden Maxwell

This assignment is, of course, on the honor system. Although the common words ‘just’, ‘hope’, and ‘wish’ speak for themselves (and you), you will have to be diligent in ferreting out the clichés, trite expressions, and hackneyed phrases on your own. I have confidence that you will ultimately rise above parroting the words of others.

How else then can you be original?

Once you gain an awareness of your habitual use of these common terms in everyday speech, you will soon catch the word before it leaves your lips. You won’t say ‘just’ even if roused from a deep nap. When it involves clichés, one thing I do for motivation is this: The first cliché of the day is on the house—free. For each cliché thereafter, as the master had instructed, I fine myself fifty cents. Of course, I allow myself the occasional cliché with the understanding that I use it only for effect, and on purpose.

CONNECTING ON A DEEPER INTUITIVE LEVEL

My art-making is based on the physical flow of spontaneous intuition, which involves a remarkable journey. Impulses of energy and information surge down my arm and, through improvisation, I compose visual jazz with line and color. If the art-making is magic, then the art is magic.

What does my painting Hidden Reality reveal to you? There is no right or wrong answer. Trust your feelings, not the opinion of others, including art critics and so-called experts. Remember, if you see it, then it’s there. Enjoy. Click on the painting for more details.

To get a better feel for the scope and range of my art, please visit my collection of original Fine Art prints: each signed print features museum-quality materials, permanent pigment inks, plus acid-free matting that I attach to the artwork using conservation best practices.

To further connect with you, I share more of the inner workings and depth of my art and exclusive personal insights in my newsletter. Subscribe below and receive a free valuable gift: Ten Tips for Building Self-Confidence.

The Cliché Challenge | Unleash Your Authentic Voice