A template is anything that serves as a pattern, mold, or model. Templates are used as guides to accurately create new things. But, what if you have a broken template? Well, anything you create from that mold will be flawed.
If you have an incomplete or inaccurate blueprint for a building, the end product will be defective. Let’s say that some of the measurements were incorrect in the original plan for your house and now there is a large crack in your floor. You could cover it with a rug and put a sofa on top so that nobody walks over the cracked spot. You could paint the walls a bright color so that all eyes are drawn to the walls and not to the floor. Or you could admit that the problem is deep and will require some deconstruction, followed by reconstruction.
Broken templates are common in our daily lives. Whenever something doesn’t work, we try to fix the immediate problem, instead of going back and taking a closer look at the initial template. I’ll give you a personal example: I have a bad habit of eating snacks late at night. I know this is unhealthy, and I have tried to change this habit for years. In order to resist the temptation, I have attempted to go to sleep earlier, not have my favorite snacks in the house at all, and even to replace my unhealthy snacks with healthier versions. Yet, I know the problem is much deeper. There is a broken template in my relationship with food. During the day, I recognize that food is fuel for my body. But at night, I resort to food like a baby uses a pacifier—not as a source for nourishment, but to soothe, comfort, and tranquilize myself.
Sometimes it is easier to notice the broken templates in other people’s lives than in our own. When I see others doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different outcomes, I immediately recognize that they have broken templates. However, it is much more difficult to admit that in order to change my behavior, I might have to go back to the original blueprints of my thought patterns.
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