If You’ve Heard It Once… Talking about Clichés

We talk in clichés.

We love phrases that once were striking, but over time have lost their impact and power. Their overuse has caused the words to lose meaning for the listener. It’s like a piece of bubble gum that’s full of sugary flavor when you first start chewing it, but over time becomes bland and tasteless. They are the favorite jeans we wear so often they start wearing thin at the knees.

Flip on the local news, and you’ll hear them everywhere. The anchor talks about both sides of a negotiation “playing hardball” or looking for a “win-win.” The weatherman gets in on the act, too, calling a quiet, sunny afternoon “the calm before the storm.”

In a way, these phrases become shortcuts—code words that cut long dialogue down to a few syllables that everyone instantly understands.

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Take sports, for example. The local team gets clobbered by twenty points. The coach stands in front of a microphone and says, “We need to give 110 percent tomorrow night or we’re going home.”

Umm, coach? Let’s check on your math there.

Naturally, the team captain follows up with his own classic: “We need to leave it all out on the field.” The sports clichés are seemingly endless:

• “There is no ‘I’ in ‘team.'”
• “It’s a game of inches.”
• “Defense wins championships.”
• “We’ll take it one game at a time.”
• “They just wanted it more.”

It’s the rest of life, too. School and corporate culture absolutely love their corporate-speak:

• “Let’s meet the clients where they are.”
• “We need to think outside the box.”
• “Failure is not an option.”
• “Let’s grab the low-hanging fruit.”
• “At the end of the day…”
• “Let’s put a pin in this and come back to it tomorrow.”

Even mothers rely on them to cheer up their lovesick children: “Love is blind,” “opposites attract,” or the classic reminder that “there are plenty of fish in the sea.”

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And when a friend tries to encourage you when you hit an obstacle in the road, they reach for the ultimate comforting shortcuts: “Everything happens for a reason,” or “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”

Don’t get me wrong—clichés can be funny, and some are absolute stalwarts for a reason. My favorites tend to be the ones we’ve heard since we were kids:

• “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
• “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
• “If you can’t say something nice about someone or something, don’t say anything at all.”

They survived this long because, at one point, they perfectly captured a human truth. But it doesn’t change the fact that if you’ve heard it once … you’ve heard it a thousand times.

Can you think of some favorite and not so favorite clichés? I’d love to hear them.