Why breaking rules is so important?
They say if you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun. But, I say breaking rules plays a more significant role in a person’s life than just being a means of having fun.
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Thoughts may vary. But, I think some rules are nothing more than old habits, which people are hesitant to change. If you confide by those rules, you cannot expect to progress. This is the reason I say that breaking rules is important. Not just me but all the people who have managed to do something big, have supported the fact that breaking rules is important.
In words of Mark Zuckerberg,” Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking things, you are not moving fast enough.” I’d like to add here that if you are not moving fast enough, then you cannot change the world.
To elaborate a bit more on why breaking rules is important, here are some of my personal thoughts -
Breaking the status quo
Life is all about the decisions we make. If you want to leave a mark in whichever field you are in, you must break the status quo. If you are doing what thousands of others are doing, and perhaps hundreds of others have done in the past, then how can you expect to stand out?
You cannot innovate unless you do something, which hasn’t been already done. And, to do that you need to break the status quo — the so called rules that others have laid out for you.
Don’t forget, even in sports they say sometimes you have to bend the rules to win. Life is no different — sometimes you have to risk the ordinary to become extraordinary. But, it entirely depends upon who you want to be at the end of the day. Whether you want to be part of the crowd or want to stand out in it?
Breaking monotony
If you continue to do the same thing, over and over again, work can become monotonous. That’s when things start to become boring and you stop having fun. To keep the excitement alive and continue to enjoy what you are doing, you must go beyond the boundaries.
For instance, if you think you have a better process in mind, than the one that is currently being employed, then don’t be afraid to try it out. Who knows, your idea might transform the processes for the better of coming generations.
From Mark Zuckerberg to Elon Musk and Steve Jobs, they all have been guilty of breaking the rules. But, we also know the examples of success they have set forward for the world to follow. And, how did they achieve it? By not limiting their potential, because of some rules laid out by others!
Raise the bar
Breaking rules can be tough, especially when you are working as part of team. But, if you know you have it in you to raise the bar and set an example, then you must be smart enough to play with those rules.
As they say, you must learn the rules so you know how to break them properly. So, you must remember that sometimes you have to play by the rules. Get to know them. And, then bend them whenever possible to work in your favor.
Once you’ve raised the bar, by using the rules to your advantage, you can make amendments in them as well. And, no one will question. Because you have already set an example for others to follow. By breaking (or should I say using them to your advantage) those rules, you’ve done what no one dared to.
To let go off the feeling of being trapped
History is a proof that people who brought revolutionary changes were always the ones who went out of the ordinary. I read this amazing post on Inc.com. The story of Kobe Bryant — one of the all time greats of basketball, who broke the rules and won the hearts of people.
In this post, there was an interesting story about how Jack Nicholson broke the status quo at the U.S. Open. You can read the post here http://www.inc.com/joshua-spodek/kobe-bryant-how-to-break-rules-to-succeed.html.
What I am trying to say here is that sometimes you have to let go off the rules to do something which you think is right. You have be true to your and let go off that feeling of being trapped in something that you don’t believe in.
Or else, it is going to deteriorate your mental well-being in the future!
Learn the lesson
If you always stick to the rules, then you cannot innovate. Because to innovate, you need to make mistakes. And, when you play by the rules you cannot expect yourself to make the mistakes.
This is the reason that I am always amongst those managers who are in favor of not putting up any hard and fast rule. Flexibility is the key when it comes to achieving greatness. You cannot achieve greatness by keeping your team in a mould. You have to set them free to make mistakes, and learn from them.
As they say — it is what we think we know that keeps us from learning. So, if you want to learn new things and become better than you are, you must break the rules and learn from them.
But, yes at the same time you must know where to draw the line! Breaking rules, as long as they are not doing any personal harm to anyone in the team is acceptable. But, going beyond that is something you must avoid.
To sum it up, I’d like to say that everyone is fighting his/her own battle. And, it is upto them to decide the rules of the game and when/where to break them!
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Vartika Kashyap is a seasoned marketing professional who is an expert in digital marketing and entrepreneurship. She currently runs the marketing team at ProofHub — a project management software for teams of all sizes. Connect with Vartika on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter.
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