In this episode, we discuss how can’t be comfortable with going with the group because it can lead us to a place that we don’t want to be at.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons that you can reflect on in your journal so you can grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and have a better career, better relationships, and better personal finances while you enjoy your morning cup of coffee.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
In today’s episode, we are going to talk about how we need to avoid the snares of groupthink. Group thinking has bought down a lot of people and societies. It’s real easy to just go with the group but the group is not always right. I don’t consider myself a democrat or republican, because in my world everything depends.
There are some things that I like about Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and Libertarians. There are things I like about capitalism and socialism. And there are things I don’t like from these ideologies. I try to live my life where I’m considering all the facts and then trying to get as close enough to the truth as I can.
It can be so hard to go against the group because it’s going to require a lot of courage, energy, and strength to change the mindset of the group. And ideas can’t be marginally better, they have to be ten times better. People don’t leave their ideology for something that is a little better.
I also try to avoid groupthink because that will just place me in a box and when I’m placed in a box then I can’t reach the outer limits of my human potential. And to me, there is nothing worse than untapped human potential because there are a lot of problems in this world that require people to use their full potential.
It is so much easier to go with the crowd because if you go with the crowd, then there is safety in number and if you end up wrong, you can just say that you were doing what everyone else was doing. Complacency is a real thing that I saw in many organizations that I worked in and I feel into the trap as well. Eventually, I found out that I was falling into this group thinking trap and I knew I had to leave.
I guess this is why I like working for myself because I don’t have to hear this group message on what is important to the group instead of what I actually think is important. And how I know what is important is that I read things from a bunch of different groups and I also try to experience different things as well. I know that always and never are dangerous words to use and if I say that this group is always right and this group is never right, then I’m falling into the snares of groupthink.
Then I’m just following something blindly and I probably won’t like where I end up. Then it might be too late to change things and then what did I actually did with my life. We only have one life to live so might as well live as close to the truth as possible. And when you do this, you’re going to make mistakes and be wrong. I use to think in certain ways but then I learned about different things and then I just changed my way of thinking.
By doing this, I was able to start my own financial planning business, live in Latin America as a digital nomad, have stronger relationships with my family, and live my best life. When I was in the Marines, a federal employee, and at my last firm, I didn’t like where the group thinking was taking me so I changed things up and now I’m so much happier. Hopefully, this path can do the same for you.
And that’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, avoid the snares of groupthink. When you follow group thinking, you’re probably not going to reach your full potential as a person and you’re not going to be as compassionate as you need to be. The world is too complex just to think one group is always right and all the other groups are always wrong. A lot of things about life just depend on what’s going on. What was right in this situation will probably need to be tinkered with in another situation. It’s also good to question things so that things don’t grow out of control because of group thinking. I say one of the keys to life is to live as close to the truth as possible because when we lie to ourselves, then that is when problems get bigger or begin to grow. So let’s try to eliminate those problems by thinking of all solutions by not falling into the trap of group thinking.
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
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