I believe that Breaking Your Mold happens several times in one's lifetime, depending on what you have going on in your life and the changes that occur. I had to Break My Mold when I got married and became a mother. I think once you become a mother and your kids go off to school, you have to Break Your Mold again. Breaking Your Mold is always about breaking patterns and ruts in your life and always moving forward.
Lesson #1: Don't Be Afraid to Break Your Own Mold
Who do you think you are right now? What categories do you put yourself under? Do you ever say to yourself, "I am just a messy person and always will be...." or "I am a mother I could never be anything else..." Those types of thoughts are fears of being someone other than who you are. I think (as women especially) we have a tendency to think of ourselves a certain way and never think that way can change.
It absolutely can.
During my 20's, I thought of myself in a very specific way. A party animal, single, destined for a big career but always someone who would be in dysfuntional relationships. That was my mold and I stayed in that mold for many years. It wasn't until I dared to think of myself in a new way that my life began to change. First, I thought of being in a healthy relationship. I stopped being afraid of being treated nicely. Sure, maybe it wouldn't be passionate ups and downs that I had become accustomed to. It would be stabile and right, not crazy and wrong. I found a guy unlike any other I'd been with before and I began to see my life headed in a different direction.
When I found someone I wanted to stay home with every night, my desire to go out all the time became less and less. I always thought I needed to go out all the time for my life to be exciting and fun. I was surprised when going out became less frequent and I started to like coming home and having a normal evening with my partner that didn't include coming home late and feeling terrible the next day.
I started to think differently about working. I realized how much stress I had in the job I had and started thinking I could do something new with my life. In a way, I am still thinking of new ways for my life to go, careerwise, but I stopped worrying about what I thought I could do and the limits I had and started thinking other things were possible.
I guess in short, if you really want to Break Your Mold, you have to imagine a life different, maybe not completely different but tweaked, to what you are living now. You can't be scared about it, either. You just have to go for it!
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