#31: The Power of Thinking for Yourself

"If you don't control your mind, someone else will." Thomas Erikson

Thinking for yourself is one of the most meaningful and profound skills you can develop. So, let me ask you something. It's a rhetorical question for you to reflect on a little bit. Do you think for yourself? I am not assuming that you don't, of course, but the reason I brought this up was because many people, unfortunately, are not thinking for themselves and just haven't realized that yet. And maybe this episode could represent a wake-up call to them. Listen now!

Follow me on Instagram

Link to the Free Masterclass "Attract Your Own Clients and Revenue Online"

Link to the Free Step-by-Step Guide "Attracting Your Own Clients"

Visit The Neat Lifestyle Store

Link to give me a review on Apple Podcasts 🎙️

Learn more about my Workshop "Atrract Your Own Clients and Revenue"

Learn more about one-on-one coaching sessions with me

Follow my Facebook page

Support the show with Bitcoin!

Credits: 

Song: Green Lights
Performed By: DLP
Written by: Daniel Labate (BMI 100%)
Published by: Boss Soundstripe Productions (BMI 100%)

Song (Trailer): Epic Hybrid Trailer Music
Performed by: by 2CoolFire
Licensed by: Envato Market

Cover Photo: Angela Clifton Photography
Hair and Make-up: Casey J. Cheek

Transcript

Welcome to The Neat Lifestyle Podcast. My name is Katia Mesquita. I'm a life coach, an online business entrepreneur, and your host on this weekly variety show. I'm excited to bring you an extra dose of inspiration to reorganize life to find and go after what you really want. My goal in this podcast is to help you achieve a more successful, harmonious, and meaningful life. I can't wait to connect with you today. Thank you so much for tuning in, and now let's begin. "If you don't control your mind, someone else will." Thomas Erickson. Hello and welcome to the Neat Lifestyle Podcast, now in 53 countries worldwide. Thank you so much for listening. I'm your host, Katia Mesquita. This is episode number 31, and in today's episode, let's talk about the power of thinking for yourself.

Thinking for yourself is one of the most meaningful and profound skills you can develop. It places you more in control of your mind. So let me ask you something. It's a rhetorical question just for you to reflect a little bit on it. Do you think for yourself? I'm not assuming that you don't, okay, but the reason I'm bringing this up is because many people, unfortunately, are not thinking for themselves. They just haven't realized that yet, and maybe this episode could bring some insights and represent a wake-up call to them. And why should they care? First, because when people don't think by themselves, it usually shows. Second, because the consequence of showing it signalizes how vulnerable to manipulation and control they can be and how easily they can give their power away to someone else or something external to them. And when they realize, if they realize, of course, they lost precious time in their lives. 

Thinking for yourself is one of the keys to unlocking freedom, prosperity, health, and happiness. But what does thinking for yourself mean? If we look it up online, we can find a lot of definitions. Some websites define it as "To form opinions and make decisions without help from other people." When I saw this definition, I started to question myself if I agree with that. What about you? Do you agree with that definition? I will repeat for you. They define "think for yourself" as "To form opinions and make decisions without help from other people." So what do you think? Do you agree with that? What would be your definition of thinking for yourself? Have you ever thought of it? What would be your definition of thinking for yourself? Or you don't usually formulate your own definitions of certain things and just automatically agree with all definitions out there without questioning or even reflecting on them? 

I'll tell you something. When I saw this definition with all due respect to the person who published it, I disagreed. First, because, to me, it's the opposite. I form my opinions by considering also the help and the expertise of others. I consult experienced people, technical experts, their books, articles, and so on. Second, I would completely exclude the decision part of the definition because we are not talking about deciding for yourself. We are talking about thinking for yourself. So, I wouldn't even mention anything about making decisions inside of a definition of thinking for yourself. My definition of the expression "think for yourself" is to formulate your own opinions after considering your experiences, your expertise, your heart, and other people's expertise, opinions, and experiences. So, thinking for yourself is not only about yourself. It's also about considering others in the equation, including people with different opinions. 

Just to give you an example, when I create a podcast, I am thinking for myself, and before I outline every aspect that I want to talk about in the episode, I first choose a topic, then I define a title for the episode. I start by writing down my considerations about the topic. Then, I research to check on other people's considerations, how they think, or what they have to say about this topic, including people who think differently from me, and after considering all these elements, I draw my final conclusions, I record, I edit, and publish. 

And of course, to make today's episode, I checked on articles of people who think differently from me. I found some articles in which people discourage people from thinking for themselves because they see a problem in it. And I got very curious. I took a look at their arguments, and just to give you an idea, according to them, people with opinions outside the norm cannot help solving problems. They would actually create conflict. I don't agree with that. I believe different opinions are contributions that add value. Thinking differently doesn't mean creating a conflict. Of course, it depends on the approach. I can respectfully disagree, and expose my arguments and let people draw their own conclusions. I don't see any conflict on that. And another argument they have is that people who think for themselves would be "self-centered" and "selfish." And, of course, I also disagree with that. It is actually a little grammar misunderstanding about the role of the preposition "for," as we are talking about people who think for themselves and not people who think only about themselves. 

Anyway, formulating your own thoughts is good. You can explore a deeper level of yourself and find out extraordinary things about yourself that you may have never imagined you were capable of. And here are some characteristics of people who think for themselves. Number one: they seek different opinions and sources of information to consider before formulating their own, and by doing that, they often find themselves making comments like, "Oh, that's interesting. I never thought this way." Number two: they also listen to their hearts and intuition, also known as gut feeling, and it has a lot to do with taking some quiet time to sense their feelings about something or about someone. Number three: people who think for themselves often question things and check on the source of some information instead of automatically taking every suggestion as the absolute truth because they know people can make mistakes when they are saying something, so it's really a good thing to check on the sources of informations. 

Number four: they don't take the "because I said so" as an answer. They need more substantiated answers. Just making some sort of sense is not enough. Number five: they take some time to get to know more about themselves, who they are, their emotions, and have well-defined what their core values are. Number six: people who think for themselves learn how to have power over their fears instead of letting their fears having power over them. Number seven: they don't have a herd mentality and don't fear expressing a different opinion. Number eight: they usually consider experimenting with some things themselves before formulating an opinion. 

Hi there, Katia here to make a quick announcement. One of the biggest mistakes people make when they want to change their lifestyle and start attracting their own clients in revenue is quitting their jobs before preparing what they need. It usually happens because many of us were taught just how to become good employees with no access to marketing information that could actually set us free. Well, I've been there, and after discovering how marketing works and applying it myself, I started experiencing the freedom to work with something I really enjoy. Choose the days and time I'm available to work, travel wherever I want, whenever I want, and I wish the same for those who also want to experience that. I believe that a job can be something transitional, and marketing information should be accessible to everyone. That's why I've created the masterclass, "Attract Your Own Clients and Revenue Online." I wanna show you how to utilize your expertise and marketing strategies to attract your own clients and generate revenue online so you can step into the freedom you were meant to have. And better yet, this masterclass is absolutely free. To register, visit my website at neatlifestyle.com/programs or click on the link in the show notes of this episode, and we can get started right now. 

Number nine: they elaborate their own definitions and versions of things. Number ten: when possible, they listen to all sides of the story before helping to resolve a conflict. For instance, someone in the family blames another family member for something. They don't go ahead and draw any conclusions before listening to both sides of the story. Number eleven: they usually follow their hearts and their passion. And yes, it takes some mental work to do it, but when you think for yourself, you can enhance your capability to make unique creations and valuable contributions to society. You can also enhance the quality of your life. You can prevent yourself from being manipulated. You can get smarter, become more interesting, become more in alignment with your purpose in life, build higher quality relationships, attract more prosperity, create space for better opportunities, be more successful, and so much more. 

And what about you? What do you think? What are other good benefits of thinking for yourself? Let me know. Send me a DM on Instagram. I want to know your thoughts on that. I can't wait to hear from you. That's all for today. And remember, this podcast is meant to give you insights to enhance your life and be more successful in what you really want. So, you are invited to listen to previous episodes. You can listen to them in order or just scroll through them and see which topic inspires you. I'm Katia Mesquita, and I'll see you in the next episode. Bye!

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you liked what you heard today, be sure to share it with those you care about so they can also benefit from it. If you aren't already following me on social media, do so by clicking on the link on the show notes or simply by visiting my website at neatlifestyle.com. I appreciate you so much. I hope you have an amazing day. I'll see you in the next episode of The Neat Lifestyle Podcast.