© Elliot Essman 2005. All rights reserved.

These pages contain the complete text of Human Action, public speaking trainer Elliot Essman's philosophy of human achievement.

Elliot Essman Public Speaking Training
Human Action Table of Contents
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The word “matrix” itself is family-oriented. It's original meaning is simply, the womb. It then came to mean a die or mold from which other items are cast. And, of course, it is related to the matri- combining form, signifying mother, a very strong image of security. Material and metropolis are also close relatives.

Molds, dies, boxes, walled units, modules—anyway you slice it, you cannot escape reference matrices. Even the most self-reliant and independent of people are forced to put themselves into boxes, just to communicate with other people. Reference matrices act as lowest common denominators. They tend to grind individuality down into a matter of available slots. Because of this we'll later be looking into the concept of “Shock,” “Positive Matrix Interrupt,” and “Epic States,” all of which are designed to free us from the box.

Let's just take a look at my sister for an examples. She is many things. She is “single.” She is “fifty-something.” She is a “Manhattanite.” She is a “vegetarian.” She is a “dog-owner.” And so on.

Actually, my sister is none of these things. All these classifications are totally arbitrary. Each one leaves out major elements of my sister's individuality. Sometimes classifications are useful. But people, once labeled, frequently transform themselves into those labels. Once the box is constructed, human beings, in their weaker moments, tend to crawl into it. My sister has a friend who (unlike my sister) is “lonely single woman.” Note, I didn't say “a” lonely single woman. She is her image. She remains her image because she projects it whenever she meets a man (which isn't often), or whenever she sees her therapist (which is often). And as that unhappiness festers inside her, the box only gets stronger and stronger, since she's out there adding sheetrock to reinforce the walls!

My sister is the same age and has similar outward demographics. The two of them even look alike. But my sister isn't “lonely single woman.” Her social life is rich. She understands her basic discontent, projects herself into positive solutions for it, and enjoys the process. That, in a small way, is achievement.

The violins should begin to play now, ladies and gentlemen. My sister's friend is also chronically under-employed. How do I know this? She lets everybody know even if they don't want to know. And then she hands you her resume. Your hand burns until you get a chance to “file” it discretely. Should you get her off her constant moaning about career discrimination, do not feel relief; she’ll be on about her health, in detail.

Exercise: Cutting Through Walls and Installing Doors

• Write a one-paragraph biography of yourself. Use a writing style and tone as if the biography were being written by someone else. Use the third person.

• In your short biography use as many limiting categories and adjectives as you can find. Keep the biography direct and matter-of-fact, as if you were writing for a statistician to read. Mention your age, sex, race, ethnic background, marital status, financial condition, professional, education level, each time using the most stereotyped language you can. Revise and perfect the biography to make it as mechanical as possible. For example, if you worked as a schoolteacher, you would simply put in the dates, the school and the grades and subjects you taught.

• Once you've finished the biography, put it aside for 24 hours, some place where you won't run into it. Then take it out and read it with care.

• Now is the time to rewrite your biography. You're still somebody else writing about you in the third person, but now you will carefully reword and expand every item to reflect the richest kind of individuality you can think of. A schoolteacher would write something like, “opened young minds to possibilities in literature and science.” Be expansive, even corny. Your only restriction is that you must stick to actual events in your life.

• Put this biography away for another 24 hours, then take it out and read it. Now you can re-write it again, still in the third person, but this time add in the future. You don't need prompting from me as to what to write. Let out all the stops. And break down all the walls!

• You've got just one more step, and this involves your mind's eye. If you want, you can tear up or burn the first statistical biography. In any case, that limiting biography with all its categories will now be just a pile of rubble, pieces of cracked and broken wall. You're much too civilized to just leave it there. So sweep it up and dispose of it properly. When you're finished, take a walk around the empty space, look up at the sky, look off into the horizon, and then forge off into the unknown.