When we need cliches and trite sayings

As a writer and trainer, I advise my clients to avoid clich?s (like the plague!) and to come up with more succinct and concrete wording for their communication pieces. My focus, after all, is on helping business people avoid miscommunication and clich?s can definitely be misinterpreted. Surprisingly, there are actually people in the world today who do not understand clich?s like ?you sound like a broken record.?

However, there are times when those clich?s and trite sayings seem appropriate, maybe even necessary, especially this time of year.

There is something psychologically encouraging about a new year. Phrases like ?new year, new you? give us hope and encouragement, even when we?ve seen them about a gazillion times by now. We feel there is a chance that things could get better with that clean break from one year to the next. No matter that 12:45am on January 1 is not much different than 11:15pm on December 31; the point is we feel better about the opportunity to do ?new things in the new year.?

So let those clich?s and trite sayings fly, at least for the next few days.

Oh, and Happy New Year to you and yours! 2016 is ?right around the corner.? It will be ?here in a flash.? Make it a great new year!

Are your words working for you?