leaning on your opening of choice.

hello,

after getting back into the chess game (1700ish rating) after some time off I realize how much a certain opening can kill your growth in chess at every stage.

let me explain, my favorite opening is the bird.(1.f4) I like to play wrekless tactical games, at it helps with just that. against GMs the bird is very dead. they cant get away with any agressive line so black usually just fiachettos and castles kingside and whoops them. but at a lower level many players just "assume" its weak, and do natural devolpment (or get overly cocky and go straight for a win) I see these moves that many times just transpose all the time, and do the same thing over and over.In many games I try to wait a long time to castle (heres where the risk comes in) before castling queen side and doing a pawn roller..

I might start out with roughly moves like 1.f4 2.Nf3 3.e3 4.b3(when allowed) 5.Bb2 etc etc

the bad habbits with my white play-

1. late castling/risk castling

2.horrid pawn structure

3.slower development/less dynamic development

4.looking to force blunders (to some degree) instead of looking for good moves.

I can win a lot at my level, but at some point the opening as a whole just hurts me as I get set up in the wrong mindset

I realize I dont care about winning now, I just want to GROW as a player. this is more important to me. so Im thinking about just doing tons of different openings and looking for the best possible move, and not worrying where I stand but just to think orignially for a while.

has anyone else had problems such as this? comments/ideas for improvement?

true, I have to not get so relaxed in a spot Ive been and keep pushing myself in that sense too.

thanks