Breaking the Template: Why You Need to Un-Follow Your Own Script

In publishing, we use “Templates.” They are useful for formatting a boring technical manual, but they are the death of a great novel. If every chapter follows the exact same structure, the reader eventually falls asleep.

Your life has templates, too. You have a “Morning Template,” a “Work Template,” and a “Weekend Template.” These routines are efficient, but they are also a form of mental sleepwalking. To feel alive, you have to occasionally break the formatting.

1. The “Small Pivot” Theory
You don’t need to quit your job and move to a goat farm in Tuscany to change your narrative. In editing, a single word change can shift the entire tone of a paragraph. In life, a small pivot can shift the entire tone of a day.

Change your commute: Take the long way home through a neighborhood you’ve never seen.

Change your sensory input: If you always listen to podcasts, try an hour of silence. If you always work in silence, try loud, aggressive jazz.

Change your order: Go to your regular café and order the thing on the menu you are most certain you will dislike.

These small disruptions act like a “Reset” button for your consciousness. They force your brain out of its “Auto-Fill” setting and back into the present moment.

2. The “Assume the Opposite” Exercise
When faced with a decision—even a small one—we usually default to our “Character Type.” “I’m the kind of person who stays in on Fridays,” or “I’m not the type to speak up in meetings.”

For one day, I want you to edit your character. When a situation arises, ask yourself: “What would the ‘opposite version’ of me do?” Then, do that. If you’re shy, ask a stranger a question. If you’re a perfectionist, leave a task “70% done” and walk away. By acting out of character, you discover that your “character” was just a draft you’ve been too afraid to revise.

3. The Power of the “Pattern Interrupt”
In the newsroom, we used “Bells” or “Flashes” to signal that a story was breaking. It was a sensory shock that told everyone to stop what they were doing and pay attention.

You need a “Pattern Interrupt” in your life. Once a month, do something that is completely “Off-Brand.” Wear a color you hate. Go to a movie alone at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday. Eat breakfast for dinner. These moments of “mismatch” create vivid memories. We don’t remember the 300 days we spent following the script; we remember the one day we went off-script.