Change of Pace

As you may already know if you read this blog, I have been working on changing my style a bit, and challenging my own creativity. This is so much easier than it sounds. I can't explain how odd it is to create work that's "different" from what you are used to doing. I stare at it, and try to resolve the piece, and inside my brain is saying "WHAT is THAT? You need to put something over there...you need to do this you need to do THAT!!!" My brain WANTS to go the same route, portray things the way it has already learned to do so. Because of this, the new stuff looks so utterly strange, and I am learning to leave it that way. It's supposed to look different, stupid, that's the idea!
I was approached by someone recently about doing some pieces of artwork on the theme of "predictions" for a book soon to be published. The theme had some specific points that I was to attempt to address in my artwork. This, I felt, was the golden opportunity of change that I had been waiting for. I have a theme I have to address, and I have to use my left brain in order to conjure up symbols and images that can relay the message that my right brain has to carry out. My left brain/right brain switch sometimes get a bit sticky and it's hard to let one half rest so the other half can do it's job properly. But, the point of this post is to try to describe how adversely my brain reacts to the changing look and feel of my artwork. At first, I am almost repulsed, and I immediately start falling into my old collage habits (have you noticed a pattern to your art creating? I have. And now that I have done literally hundreds of collage work, those patterns are starting to go deep!) I can make this look "right" by adding this, or changing that. But at this moment, I am resisting the urge to go where I always go. So I have ignored my brain, and tried to just let it be. I have done 5 pieces so far where I am trying to head in new directions. Out of the first 4, I liked the end result of only 2. And on the 5th I really am just sitting on it, leaving it alone for a few days, rather than finish it or go back to old habits.
I guess its just a matter of training my brain that YES< these are GOING to look funky. That's the idea. There may be another 50 pieces that go by looking weird before my brain starts to think that my new look is "normal".
I wonder. After this exercise, will it still be so easy to sink into my old art habits? OR will my new habits start to take over?